Warwick students vote for SU to lobby for strike compensation

Warwick students voted in favour of all four motions proposed at the All Student Meeting in the Student’s Union (SU) Atrium that took place at 5pm on the 21 May.

Polling for the SU Referenda opened online at 9am on Tuesday 22 May and closed at 12pm on Friday 25 May.

The SU put four motions to the student body: Warwick SU for returning tuition fees from strike days; a motion for a better piazza and changes to the big screen; a motion for Warwick SU to ‘Remember Remembrance Sunday’ and a motion for Warwick SU to support transgender students in accessing healthcare.

A total of 2293 votes were cast by 652 students across the four motions. This number of students voting was down by just over 50% from the previous SU Referenda in term two where 1,386 students placed votes.

The motion “Warwick SU for returning Tuition fees from strike days” attracted 606 voters, the most out of any of the motions proposed, and passed overwhelmingly with 75% voting in favour. 100 voted against the motion and 49 abstained from voting.

Strikes by lecturers over a change to their pension schemes took place on 14 days beginning on Thursday 22 February and ending on Friday 16 March. During the strike, The University of Warwick stated that “it is not anticipated that refunds would need to be made”.

The motion “Warwick SU for returning Tuition fees from strike days” passed overwhelmingly with 75% voting in favour

Within the SU motion document, the fact that students could lose 12% of their entire University year due to strike action and that the government has confirmed students rights to demand tuition fees if students believe they are not receiving what they are paying for were among the reasons cited for the passing of the motion.

In passing the motion the SU resolves “to mandate the Sabbatical Officers and Student Union to campaign and lobby for direct compensation from the University of Warwick for students directly affected by the UCU strike”.

The call for Warwick SU to support trans students in accessing healthcare also passed with a high majority. Out of 570 votes, 396 voted for the motion (just under 70%), while 97 voted against and 77 abstained.

This follows Warwick SU recently being awarded HE Union of the Year in the NUS Trans Awards 2018.

The SU resolves, with regards to this motion, that the Education Officer and Trans Students’ Officer should lobby the university to make alternative arrangements for students if they have to miss an exam or deadline to go to a Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) Appointment.

It also resolves that the Welfare Officer and Trans Students’ Officer should lobby the University to set up a travel fund for trans students accessing medical care that involves long distance travel and that the Trans Students’ Officer should support the creation of more GICs in the UK.

The motion for “A Better Piazza- changes to the Big Screen” was also carried, passing with 63% voting in favour. 135 voted against the motion while 72 abstained.

The motion for ‘A Better Piazza- changes to the Big Screen’ was also carried, passing with 63% voting in favour

As a result of the motion passing, the Union resolved that adjustments would be made to the screen including suggestions of levelling the audio of different clips and lowering the overall volume of the screen, reevaluating the content broadcasted on the screen to exclude content not relevant to current students and changing the operating hours of the screen, turning it on later and off earlier.

Warwick also voted to “Remember Remembrance Sunday”. However, with 316 out of 552 voting in favour, this motion passed with a smaller majority of 57% in support than the other three motions proposed. 123 chose to abstain and 113 voted against the motion.

In the document for the motion the SU stated that they believed “that Warwick Student Union should be directly marking this significant date in the calendar” and “Warwick Students’ Union represents a diverse student body of over 25,000 from many different countries across the world. As such, the SU should retain an inclusive and global perspective on Remembrance Day”.

With the motion being carried, the SU resolves to mandate a number of actions. Among these include publicising the Service leading up to Remembrance Sunday with (but not limited to) posters, on-screen advertisements in SU buildings and social media.