Democracy & Participation
Having arrived and settled down at the University of Winchester, you are going to hear the words ‘Student’ and ‘Union’ in the same sentence quite a lot. Therefore, it’s a good idea to discover what these commonplace words mean when they are combined together to create a truly unique organisation.
Your Student Union is committed to its mission of “supporting the welfare of students, through providing representation, educational development and social & extracurricular opportunities”. Since we desire to have a positive impact on all members, hearing your opinion is a vital part of undertaking this duty.
My name is Harry Sampson, your friendly neighbourhood Communications Officer, and it is the providing of feedback we’ll be focusing on today.
The Purpose of Our Democracy
Feedback and brilliant student proposals need to be heard. However, there are over 7000 students and only 12 officers, so how best to communicate all those ideas? Instead of an intricate system of smoke signals or clever use of carrier pigeons, forums and committees are used. Their function is to collect, refine and send feedback to Student Senate in order to represent the opinions of students.
Forums feed ideas into committees, which themselves report to a larger body called ‘Student Senate’. This has the responsibility for setting the policy of the Union throughout the year.
Forums
The first stage of the process is a ‘forum’. Taken from Latin meaning ‘public place outdoors’, a forum is an open gathering space for meetings. There will be roughly fourteen forums available throughout the year. They are informal, available to all students and chaired by the Executive Officer whose remit is most related to the purpose of the forum. For example, the Entertainments forum will be chaired by the Entertainments Officer, just as the Volunteering Council will be by the Volunteering and Community Officer.
All forums will be advertised on the intranet and Student Union social media, so make sure you come along and take advantage of the opportunity to get your voice heard!
Committees
Committees are the next stage in representing the ideas and grievances of students. There are five as mandated by the Student Union constitution. They have the authority to discuss and recommend actions on issues related to the forums that pass on their findings to it. For example, the Activities Committee will discuss the findings of its forums; the Sports Council and Societies Council. Additionally, they consist of the Officer related to its discussions, as well as a student representative from each of it related forums.
As these are more formal, they are chaired by a sabbatical (full-time) Officer, either one of the Vice-Presidents or the President herself.
Student Senate
As BOP night is the cheesy crowning jewel of the week’s activities, Student Senate is the ultimate body representing the student voice. Held a minimum of three times a year, it has the responsibility of setting the policy of the Union. It has 28 members, including Executive Officers, Student Trustees, academic reps and two representatives from each committee.
Student Senate has a wide array of decision-making powers, including:
- Receiving and approve the minutes from all committees
- Repeal and amend bye-laws
- Refer a policy to referenda
- Receive reports from the Trustees and Executive Officers
Lastly... Get Involved!
Hopefully this short blog entry has shown how simple and important it is to provide feedback to the Student Union, as well as how your opinions are represented even at the highest level. This year provisional dates have been set, and will be widely advertised when they are approaching.
Overall, forums and committees give you, the student, the chance to bring ideas forward, air grievances and provide an important level of accountability to ensure you are represented and have a fantastic time here at Winchester. Make sure you attend as many as possible!
