Council
Agenda
Lent I
29/01/2003
7.15pm
The Theatre,
Peterhouse
Ordinary Motions
1) Corrections to Minutes of
Last Council
2) Matters Arising from
Minutes of Last Council
3) Date and Venue of Next
Meeting: Wednesday 12th
February, Boulind Room, Homerton
4) Announcements by the
Executive
5) Questions to the Executive
6) Objections to the Order
Paper
7) Ordinary Motions
a. Anti-Racism Committee
b. CUSU Council Reasonable
Adjustments
c. Development Planning Cttee –
Election Process Review Cttee
d. Gender Agenda
8) Emergency Motions
9) Elections
a. Secretary to the CUSU
Executive
b. NUS Regional Conference
(Essex University: 04/02/03 10.15am
till 4.30pm) (14)
c. CUSU Higher Education
Funding Officer
d. CUSU Communications
Officer
e. Elections Committee (2)
10) Any Other Business
a. Anti-Racism Committee
CUSU Notes:
1. The Ethnic Minority Student
Survey conducted in Easter
2002 showed that 29% of ethnic
minorities have suffered from
racism in the University.
2. The Ethnic Minority Student
Survey showed that 76% of
ethnic minorities believed that
the University did not pay
sufficient attention to ethnic
minority issues.
3. In Cambridge there have been
serious racist incidents in the
last year, including a racially
motivated assault in New
Square in April 2002 and antiSemitic vandalism attacks in
November 2002.
CUSU Believes:
1. That all students should be able
to live and study in a racism free
environment,
without
any
threats to their safety and wellbeing.
2. Racism is a serious issue in the
University, which must be
addressed.
CUSU Council Lent I: Page 1
3. Greater resources are required
to tackle the issue of racism and
its consequences on welfare
and access.
4. There is a need to promote antiracism in the University, and
bring ethnic minority issues to
the foreground.
CUSU Resolves:
1. To set up an Anti-Racism
Committee, which should be
committed to promoting antiracism, cultural diversity and
any other ethnic minority issues.
2. That this committee shall be
called CUSAR, which stands for
Cambridge University Students
against Racism.
Proposed by Kimberly Chong, CUSU
Anti-Racism Officer
Seconded by Akima Paul, Black
Students Officer
b. CUSU Council Reasonable
Adjustments
CUSU Notes:
1. The requirement under the DDA
(1995) for all service providers
to
make
“reasonable
adjustments” in their activities
and service provision to ensure
that disabled people are not
placed at a disadvantage.
CUSU Believes:
1. That CUSU should make all
reasonable adjustments to their
service provision to ensure
equality of access.
2. That there is currently much
“good practise” in the running of
meetings of the CUSU, but that
to ensure this continues, it
should be detailed as policy.
3. That it would be of benefit to
provide voting members of
Council with more information
about accessibility and the
requirements
of
Students’
Unions,
Colleges
and
University’s under the DDA.
CUSU Resolves:
1. To hold all meetings of the
CUSU
(CUSU
Council,
Executive, Open Meetings) in
accessible venues. To advertise
the accessibility of venues and
the provision for providing other
reasonable adjustments on
request.
2. To publish the Agenda and
Order paper on the CUSU
website one week prior to
meetings of the CUSU Council
and Open Meetings.
3. To mandate the Council Chair
to endeavour that all meetings
are run in an accessible
manner.
A.
All
council
mailings/agendas/voting
records are produced in an
accessible format.
B. All speakers indicate their
desire to speak by putting
up their hand.
C. All speakers stand up
when speaking.
4. To advertise the provision for,
and provide all publications
(annual
publications,
training/information guides and
Agendas and Minutes to
meetings) in alternative formats
on request.
5. To mandate the CUSU Welfare
and Graduates Officer to
CUSU Council Lent I: Page 2
produce, in association with the
University Disability Resource
Centre and the CUSU Students’
with Disabilities Officer an
information booklet for all voting
members of Council, Welfare
Officers and Academic Affairs
Officers, on supporting disabled
students.
6. To mandate CUSU Services to
work with the webmasters to get
the CUSU Website Bobby
approved
http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobb
y/
Proposed by Alice Pennington,
CUSU Welfare and Graduates Officer
Seconded by Katie Childs, CUSU
Academic Affairs Officer
c. DPC-EPRC motion
CUSU notes:
1. The DPC-EPRC Report into
CUSU Elections procedure (see
appendix one)
CUSU resolves:
1. To pass the DPC-EPRC Report
into CUSU Elections procedure.
2. To mandate the Elections
Committee 2003 to follow the
procedure set out in the Report.
3. To have a referendum at the
same time as the CUSU
Elections 2003 to make the
following changes to the CUSU
Constitution
and
Standing
Orders.
CONSTITUTION
Ammend
J.21 A decision of the Elections
Committee shall only be amended or
overturned by a subsequent decision
of that Committee, a resolution of the
Council, a resolution of a Referendum
or decision of the Junior Proctor in
accordance with the University
ordinances.
To
J.21 A decision of the Elections
Committee shall only be amended or
overturned by a subsequent decision
of that Committee, a resolution of the
complaints panel of Council (as set
out in the Standing Orders), or
decision of the Junior Proctor in
accordance with the University
ordinances. The decision of the Junior
Proctor shall overrule that of the
complaints panel of CUSU Council,
which shall overrule that of the
Elections Committee, although one
may appeal to the bodies in any
order.
STANDING ORDERS
Change
C4. Nominations and the ballot form.
(i) Nominations have to be submitted
on an official nomination form. No
member of CUSU can propose or
second more than one candidate in
any one election. A copy of the CUSU
Election Standing Orders has to be
distributed with all official nomination
forms.
(ii) The order of the ballot paper is
decided by lottery. Political groups
may submit an order in which they
wish their candidates names to
appear.
CUSU Council Lent I: Page 3
To
C4. Nominations and the ballot form.
(i) Nominations have to be submitted
on an official nomination form. No
member of CUSU can propose or
second more than one candidate in
any one election.
(ii) A copy of the CUSU Election
Standing Orders has to be distributed
with all official nomination forms. All
candidates will sign to say that they
have read, understood and agree to
abide by the rules and regulations of
the Elections.
(iii) The order of the ballot paper is
decided by lottery. Political groups
may submit an order in which they
wish their candidates names to
appear.
Add
C2.
(iv) Guidelines for the Elections
Committee shall be determined by a
resolution of Council prior to the
opening of nominations for positions
on the Committee.
C9. Complaints
(i) The Elections Committee shall
acknowledge all complaints within 24
hours of receiving them. The
Elections Committee shall record all
discussions, decisions and votes,
whether in person, by phone or email.
(ii) The Elections Committee shall
decide on the merits of the objection
by collecting information from all
interested parties in order to ascertain
whether they support or not the
upholding of the complaint.
(iii) The Elections Committee shall
look to resolve all complaints
thoroughly and as quickly as possible.
The Elections Committee shall
endeavour to keep all involved with
the complaint informed about the
progress of the complaint and resolve
it within three working days.
(iv) Any party may appeal to overturn
the decision of the Elections
Committee in writing, within 72 hours
of
the
Elections
Committee
announcing their decision whether or
not to uphold the complaint, in
accordance with the Constitution J.21
(v) The complaints panel of CUSU
Council shall comprise of three voting
members of CUSU Council, selected
at random (allowing for gender
balance). No person directly involved
with the complaint shall be a member
of the Panel.
(vi) A Trustee of CUSU shall be
Secretary to the Panel. The Secretary
to the Panel is responsible for
ensuring that the complaint is dealt
with
in
accordance
with
the
procedures set out here.
(vii) The complaints panel shall
decide on the merits of the appeal by
collecting
information
from
all
interested parties in order to ascertain
whether they support or not the
upholding of the appeal. The
complaints panel shall look to resolve
all complaints thoroughly and as
quickly as possible.
Proposed by Alice Pennington,
CUSU Welfare and Graduates Officer
Seconded by Katie Childs, CUSU
Academic Affairs Officer
d. Gender Agenda
CUSU Council notes:
1. Gender Agenda is a universitywide magazine produced by the
Women's
Union
featuring
CUSU Council Lent I: Page 4
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
articles on gender & women's
rights, issues which tend
otherwise to be neglected in
student
publications
in
Cambridge
At the beginning of the
academic
year
2002/2003
Gender Agenda started being
produced as a paper magazine,
a format which has proven
extremely popular (it is also
published online).
When this year's budget for
Gender Agenda from CUSU
was set the magazine was
solely an online magazine and
thus had very low costs
associated with it
The massive popularity of the
paper magazine has meant the
budget from CUSU was used up
on printing costs for the first two
issues, leaving no funding for
the final three issues.
The Gender Agenda team are
investigating a variety of
fundraising
possibilities
to
ensure reliable funding for the
future, but these are unlikely to
produce funds in time for issue
4 (due out mid-Lent), and
possibly issue 5 (due out
beginning Easter).
Gender Agenda currently has
roughly 500 subscribers, and a
print run of 500 would cost
£250. This figure does not take
into
account
any
new
subscribers (thus far after each
issue between 20 & 40 people
have asked to subscribe).
2. Gender Agenda provides a
unique forum for these issues to
be discussed, by both women
and men, as well as raising the
profile of how gender affects our
society.
3. Online magazines, although a
useful reference, are not as
easy to read as paper
magazines.
4. If Gender Agenda was limited to
being published online it would
suffer a significant loss of
readership
CUSU Resolves:
1. To allocate up to £600 from
Campaigns to Allocate to CUSU
Gender Agenda to ensure the
final two issues get published if
the other fundraising initiatives
fall short of the amount needed
for printing the magazine.
2. That any money left over in the
women's budget at the end of
the year will be put into the
Campaigns to Allocate fund.
Proposed by Tigger MacGregor,
Editor, Gender Agenda
Seconded by Miranda Semple, SubEditor, Gender Agenda
CUSU Believes:
1. Gender issues affect us all and
yet
are
pitifully
underrepresented around Cambridge.
CUSU Council Lent I: Page 5