Controversial Union Council: Oil companies and ID cards

There was much controversy in last week’s meeting of Union Council. A motion banning Oil companies from sponsoring or advertising in the Student’s Union, societies, sports clubs or events, was passed by only one vote.

Council also rejected a resolution to condemn the actions of the Warwick delegates at NUS who voted against an amendment to remove the NUS’s No Platform Policy.

Chris Rossdale, the proposer of the resolution, argued that delegates failed in representing Warwick students. Rossdale stressed that he was not on a witch hunt and that he was proposing this resolution so that the same incident does not happen in the future. Several councillors felt that a condemnation was too harsh on the delegates and unnecessary.

Andy Glyde, Governance and Finance officer, said that the delegates did not go against Warwick policy and that there were differences between No Platform at Warwick and No Platform at the NUS. Council rejected the resolution by a large majority.

The Union then passed a motion opposing ID cards and the use of students as “guinea pigs” for the scheme. Students are proposed to be amongst the first groups targeted by the scheme as it will become necessary to have an ID card for a student loan application.

Union Council is the “Parliament of the Union”. It meets about three times a term.