I thought I would start off this blog by talking about my experience of The Open Policy Forum.
Open Policy Forum is a new thing this year that aims to let students decide on policy within HUU and replaces the previous system of motions being put to Union Council and just being voted on by its 32 strong membership. Many of you may have heard of the referendums that come out of the decisions at the forum. Referendum questions are submitted at the forum, speeches are made for and against and then we all get two stickers to put by which referendums we like the most. The three with the highest vote go to referendum. So far OPF has had a peek turnout of maybe 50 perhaps more. So 50 people get together there could be anywhere between about 4 or up to 20 ideas (I think one week there were around 16) submitted and up for discussion.
Depending on how many people are interested in the issue it can go to several rounds of speeches, this has happened on such diverse issues as bus trips to Hull for Scarborough Students, the Mens Officer and the Russian Revolution. So this year there have been a number of referendums that have gone forward and then every student had the chance to vote online. You may have seen the rather limited advertising around the union for each referendum or perhaps you are like me someone who reads hullstudent emails every once in a while, and may have seen it through that. Or there is the rather high chance you have never heard of them.
Some of these referendums have passed some have not, I am hoping at the last council meeting this Tuesday, we shall be informed of what policy has changed/remained the same as a result of the referendums.
The referendum idea, engaging students etc is positive, however the format of the OPF and then the subsequent apparent down playing of the referendums certainly is not. As I have said very few students come to the OPF and when particular groups or societies have put something forward they come purely to vote for that one proposal, get it on the ballot and then they disappear. To get students involved these referendums as is done in other Universities should be discussed in a big general meeting. This meeting should be well advertised with a clear agenda, and then the Union Executive Committee, Councillors etc would have every opportunity to discuss it and promote it to people. You may have been at the AGM last year if so you know how woeful the attendance was and how we could not hold any kind of vote, but did get to… watch a power point!
Unfortunately the results of the last referendum do not appear to have the amount of students voting on it listed on hullstudent. I shall be a pessimist and say this is partly because very few people did. So a small number of students have say passed something on:
The
Personally I am in favour of getting rid of Turnitin so this result is good, students and lecturers should unite to get rid of this insulting and illegitimate system, but it is a hollow victory when it is proposed from those above and will then be instigated again by those above.
The results of the referendum then go to the Trustees of which two sabbatical officer sit. They then have the final decision over whether these things go through. Now if they agree fine we can get on with the policy, rallying students to it and hopefully getting a victory. However if say a policy was proposed and passed such as:
HUU believes we should abolish the Trustees
I am doubtful that they will vote for this and get rid of their own body. I use the example to show that if we are to have democracy, which is democracy from below decided by the students, we are heavily constrained by the bureaucracy and structures within HUU. So while they may clearly oppose that, who is to say what else they may oppose, on grounds of cost or the action it would undertake. If our two sabbs are also against the policy there influence may also stop a good policy that had huge majority support going through.
There are several policies, that have gone through and we have heard nothing about them since. We as the student body need to assert ourselves firmly within HUU. We are the ones who can bring about change and while these structures are crap and we continue to fight for change, we want more of us involved and more of us asking, “Why is this is all crap?” If we keep the Union, Sabbs, Council (which includes me and one other member of Hull Left) constantly having to be held to account for why we only get around 100 votes in a referendum, why a lot of students did not see there was an election for council or NUS Conference etc. What were
If we can do this then we can make our union accessible, and work with students, not let a minority of people decide everything with little opportunity for you to even ask the simple question of:
Why did we not have a say?
7 comments:
You did have a say, that's what open policy forum is for- proposing policy! If you want to send a motion to NUS then propose it as policy...wait for it...at open policy forum? Might have been an idea. Maybe if you'd proposed anti-governance as a referendum then you wouldn't have looked so bad voting against... that is if the anti-governance motion had passed...which it wouldn't have!!!
My point seems to have been missed, the OPFs are not attracting the attention of students and I think we need wider reform then just saying, well if you do not like it just put it to OPF. This is not getting students engaged.
My point about NUS motions was that, I could have put them to OPF but as they are about the governing of the HUU that would seem the wrong way to do it. Importantly i think students should have been made aware we submitted motions in the first place.
I found out by going on nusofficeronline, and scrolling through all the motions. How many students do that?
I was merely responding to the question at the end of your post, which insinuated that the mechanisms for influence were not there, as opposed to what you seem to be suggesting, which is that the OPFs are poorly promoted...well the fault for that lies squarely at the foot of the Union Officers- including councillors- for not going out and behaving like activists, encouraging students and pulling them along.
I think somebody is an armchair activist!
When I portray the OPFs honestly then getting people involved in them is a challenge.
"You can put whatever you like, but if the trustees don't like it then it will not go through"
"You may also see very little publicity if you do get something through the forum"
Those are not the two most inspiring messages to give to students.
"Armchair activist." Useful to throw around things like that when I have no idea of your record. Personally I think talking to students about NUS during the elections, giving a detailed report on what I did during conference, promoting the fact we do hold referendums but being perfectly honest about what they are and what they can achieve, going to picket lines, going to meet the fireman who face their jobs being axed and listening to those who wish to sack them and cut back services that directly affect students.
This required a bit more then sitting around.
you would know all about sitting around....
how many candidates for chair of LGBT? come to think of it how many meetings???
you are as active an activist as jim royal!!!
Where were you during open policy forums? Proposing motions calling for the remembrance of the 1917 revolution maybe?
thanks for the free advertising!
Lenin
Your comment about Sabbs is completely inaccurate, There are in fact four Sabbaticals on the board of trustees, President, UST, VP AR and VP WE. Perhaps you should read the constitution before offer criticism! The system was designed so that the financial expertise of the trustees would mean that there would always be a HUU to fulfil our charitable objectives, which are sport, welfare community and education. However there would always be more students than non-students on the board, and since students elect the four representatives with the info stating they will sit on the board they have a mandate to make decisions.
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