We arrived in Brighton and were faced with something we don’t have in Winchester-a relatively level walk to the conference centre. There was occasional sunshine, hail, student solidarity and disagreements as well as a lot of chocolate biscuits. We didn’t know what to expect when we got on the train at half six in the morning. By the time we arrived back to little idyll Winchester, we’d realised that the NUS is something unique: a student movement that was fuelled by passionate delegates who care about their institutions, education and representing the views of their fellow students.
Conference itself wasn’t always smooth running and unfortunately a lot of the motions that we were keen to debate were never reached. However, student passions never wavered. Voices repeatedly called for an NUS that was ready to reform. Through her speeches, the NUS President Elect Shakira Martin, addressed this desire and expressed her plans for how the NUS will move forward and be increasingly inclusive. It is statements such as this which will pave the way for the NUS and the student body as a whole.
Student engagement within the election and overall conference was fantastic. It was greatly encouraging to have students expressing their views and wanting to be involved and get their opinions heard. Winchester may be relatively small, but our Student Union is progressive and doesn’t hold back. The NUS and our own Student Union can and will only progress with Student input. The more input the student body has with our SU the more chance we have of building a strong and successful student body. The NUS is not just a discount card or cheaper BOP entry. The NUS is a reforming student movement and one we hope you will get involved with.
Shakira Martin emerged as the new President. May they lead us all to an inclusive and successful future. May they fight hard for international students post-Brexit, push student concerns in the General Election and protect our rights.
An opportunity we’d like to take is to appreciate the high level (est.160) of student engagement from Winchester during the conference. It was hard for us to keep track on social media while we were voting, but we were very happy to see students interested in their NUS.
What we did not appreciate, however, was the online harassment and intimidation of students, or the mad rush to spam every page possible, and even much less some of the openly untrue accusations. Its time to debunk some of those now.
Both of the Winchester delegates are ‘unbound’. This means they may vote completely on their own consciences. We are interested in changing this. At the moment, however, they are required to vote on what they believe is best for the student body. Elected by cross-campus ballot, they are the two representatives of many thousands of students. They have been elected, sometimes by over 1500 students, to represent Winchester.
They don’t have to achieve the full backing of any committee, twitter troll or petition. It is advisable to listen, but this requires reasoned debate.
The Open Letters (one considering some motions and a slate of candidates, and another one choice of President) were welcome in an advisory capacity. Those motions were already on our ‘yes list’ (pending certain amendments and parts), so we were quite pleased to see them. We remain happy that so many students wanted to register their interest. What was not welcome, as alluded to earlier, was some of the abusive comments that were received by different people.
Where appropriate, these comments are being dealt with under the Bullying & Harassment Policy.
We were all tested in our capacity to be grown-ups. Some of us failed.
As we were so impressed by the number of students registering their support for particular candidates, we split our two votes. Our votes reflected support from both letters. There would be no use choosing one over the other – instead, a compromise was needed. Rule one of being a delegate is that you are not going to be able to please everybody. 7000 students and only two of us.
The opportunity for students to engage in reasoned and mature debate was and is essential. We went to the NUS Conference to vote for inclusion.
Respect your fellow students, even when they disagree with you. Don’t seek to bully, intimidate or force your way. Work together for the betterment of the Union and the Winchester student body as a whole.
Only by working together can we succeed in becoming successful leaders of tomorrow.
Harry Sampson & Claire Skinner, Delegates.
For more information on our feelings during the conference, please check out the two vlogs we had time to upload. goo.gl/JcK37G and goo.gl/QwpO3A.
VOTING RECORD
Motion 001: New Members. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
PRIORITY ZONE
Motion 101: Liberate Education. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
EMERGENCY MOTIONS
Motion 1: General Election. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 2: Sexual Harrasment, Sexual Assault and Rape. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
EDUCATION ZONE
Motion 201: Putting Learners at the heart of post-16 skills plan. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 202: JoJo doesn’t know much about quality, what a wonderful world HE could be. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 203: Save Our Support Services. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 204: Partnership is (almost) Dead. Long Live Student Power. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 205: An Agenda on Tertiary Education. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 206: Free Education. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
TIME RAN OUT, NO MORE MOTIONS DISCUSSED
UNION DEVELOPMENT ZONE
Motion 301: Civic Engagement Through Political Action. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 302: If we don’t #LOVESUs No One Will. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 303: Free Periods. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 304: NUS Extra Card. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 305: Make the NUS Impartial and Inclusive of all Students Regardless of any Established Political Stance. H-YES. C-YES. Fell
TIME RAN OUT, NO MORE MOTIONS DISCUSSED
WELFARE ZONE
Motion 401: We do not comply; Preventing Prevent. H-ABSTAIN. C-ABSTAIN. Passed
Motion 402: Mental Health & Hardship. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 403: Hate Crime. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 404: Online Harassment. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 405: Student Mental Health. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 406: Mental Health: A Culturally Competent Framework. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 407: Mental Health First Aid. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 408: Ticket to Ride. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 409: It Stops Here/Sexual Violence. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 410: NHS Bursaries. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 411: Housing. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 412: It’s Time to Combat Anti-Semitism. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 413: Dual GP Registration for Students. H-NO. C-NO. Passed
[Voted no because speaker informed us care was already available for 14 days as an emergency doctor. After this, you are entitled three months without having to register.]
OUT OF TIME, NO MORE MOTIONS DISCUSSED
SOCIETY & CITIZENSHIP ZONE
Motion 501: Brexit Means Brexit, or so we’re told. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 502: Placements, Apprenticeships and Education for Good. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 503: Defend Migrants and Support Free Movement. H-ABSTAIN. C-ABSTAIN. Passed
Motion 504: Commu (x5) Community. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 505: Strengthening the Student Voice. H-ABSTAIN. C-ABSTAIN. Passed
Motion 506: NUS Supporting the Abortion Rights Campaign for Free, Safe and Legal Abortion in Ireland and Northern Ireland. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 507: Right to Protest Safely. H-YES. C-YES. Fell
Motion 508: Pay Inequality in HE and Employment Rights of University Staff. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
Motion 509: Fight Climate Change. H-NO. C-ABSTAIN. Passed
[C- Our Uni does very well with environmental policy, and this motion did not have much to do with Universities. H- CR2 would have included tacit support for violent protest.]
OUT OF TIME, NO MORE MOTIONS DISCUSSED
AGM: DEMOCRACY REFORM
This was a tricky one. Up until this point, conference had behaved and factions hadn’t been very obvious. However, when this came to the floor we saw incredible levels of debate and shady tactics. There were procedural motions to remove the chair, cancel votes, demand long counts and – most disgustingly of all – nasty comments against NUS staff. Thankfully, a first time delegate took to the stage and rallied against some of the disrespectful tactics being used.
601: Strengthening NUS Democracy. H-YES. C-YES. Passed
DPC introduced a procedural motion to go straight to the vote as we were out of time. This is when we voted for the overall motion.
OUT OF TIME, NO MORE MOTIONS DISCUSSED
CANDIDATE ELECTIONS
VP Society & Citizenship: 908 votes.
VP Union Development: 705 votes.
VP Further Education:
VP Higher Education: 554 votes
VP Welfare: 729 votes
NUS President: 717 votes
If there are any questions you want answered, please feel free to get in touch with us through email (SU_President@winchester.ac.uk) and we can clarify our decisions.