Union Controversy

On Monday, Union Council debated Warwick’s stance on the new NUS reforms, following their faliure last year to get a new NUS constitution, missing narrowly the two thirds majority it required to pass at the National Conference.

Following the reform failure, Imperial College London withdrew from the NUS, and several other big Unions (including Warwick) reconsidered their adherence to the organisation.

The main concerns with the way the NUS is run are the bureaucracy and the power of the political factions. This year new reforms have been proposed, but most of Council stressed they do not go far enough.

Union Council argued that few limitations have been imposed on the powers of the factions and that the system of one Union, one vote” in the new zone committees will disadvantage big unions like Warwick.

The majority of the sabbatical officers felt that the reforms were adequate and should therefore be supported, whilst the majority of Council opposed the current reforms, hoping the NUS will develop a better reform plan in the future.

On Wednesday, the reforms passed at a NUS extraordinary conference, which is an extra conference called specifically to pass legislation.

Despite all Warwick delegates voting against the reforms, they were passed with an overwhelming majority at the NUS conference.

However, to come into force, the proposed constitution needs to get a two-thirds majority at another national conference. The reforms are ultimately in the same position as last year where they passed in the extraordinary conference but failed marginally at the national.

Another item which caused some controversy in Council was the RAG (Raising and Giving) cloakroom. Run by volunteers, all the money made by the cloakroom goes to charity.

In previous years the agreement between RAG and the Students’ Union was that the revenue from the Cholo cloakroom would be split 65:35 in RAG’s favour.

However the Students’ Union decided that the revenue of the cloakroom in the TES (Temporary Event Structure, the big “tent” near Tocil) would be split 50:50.

Mike Pidgeon, Communications officer and former Rag exec, said that the finances with TES were hard. He stressed that they “were literally on the knife edge,” which is why, he argued, the 50:50 split is necessary.

Pidgeon also commented that the policy was obsolete and that a 50:50 split of profit seemed fair. He reassured the Boar that this ratio will return to 65:35 eventually. He added that the capacity of the TES had reduced because of the cloakroom.

Andy Glyde, Governance and Finance officer, said he “could not stress how tight the finances are” and that the TES needed to break even.

The Union also renewed one of it’s longest standing policy which says that Warwick delegates at NUS conferences should follow the policies of the SU unless they explicitly said that they would not in their manifesto.

Union Council is effectively the parliament of the Students’ Union. It meets approximately three times a term and is the main policy making body of the Union.