Union U-turn on NUS

In its first meeting of term Union Council decided to overturn its previous policy opposing NUS reforms.

A day before the NUS Extraordinary Conference, the Students’ Union changed its position to support the NUS reforms. However, Council also passed a policy allowing delegates who felt strongly about an issue at NUS to abstain in some circumstances.

Proponents of the motion added that if the reforms failed this could be the end of NUS which would not be beneficial to Warwick, even if the reforms are not as far-reaching as was hoped.

Opponents of the motion argued that no equality impact assessment had been done and that this might lead to a reduced representation for ethnic minorities and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) students. They added that it was better to vote down these reforms and hope for a better package.

The Council also gave NUS delegates the right to abstain in a vote at the NUS conference even if this would be against Union Policy. This was limited to special circumstances like this when there was a change in Union Policy immediately before an NUS conference. This motion passed only due to the chairman’s deciding vote.