Student Council Agenda and Papers 22-11-11

8/3/2019 Student Council Agenda and Papers 22-11-11

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Student Council Agenda

Agenda for the Meeting of the 128th Student Council

Tuesday 22nd November 2011 at 6.30pm

Teviot Row House, Debating Hall

Democracy and Accountability

1. Questions to Executive Officers, Council Officers and Action Group

Conveners (Reports detailed in Paper A)

Break and Buffet

Substantive Business

2) How to make Council Policy (Craig Stewart)

3) Safe Space Policy: for Approval Paper B

4) Demo

5) AGM

6) Motions (1):

a. Empowering Student Council (Proposer: James McAsh) Paper C

7) Nigel Brown, University VP Planning, Resources and Research Policy

6) Motions (2):

a. Unity with the International Student Population (Proposer: Peter

Thibault) Paper Db. The Niqab, Hijab and Jibab (Proposer: EJ Beloten) Paper E

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c. Solidarity with Students at Birzeit (Proposer: Hugh Murdoch)

Paper F

7) General Question Time

End of Meeting:9.30pm

Note: No societies are pending Student Councils approval

The following are attached for the information of Student Council:

Matters Arising Paper G

Budget Status Paper H

Zone Conference Reports Paper I

Registers of Interest Paper J

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Paper A

Presidents Report

Hello!

I hope you are all well. Please scan my report, and get in touch if you have any questions.My email address is [email protected] , and my numbers 0131 650 9405.

***ALSO if you want to get more involved in anything that I do, please let me know! Itd begreat to have you along.

Enjoy!

Our Continuing Fight Against Fees

As you can imagine, the demo in London, and the one next week in Edinburgh have taken upa huge amount of our time and resources over the last few weeks.

On November 9th, around 8 000 students marched in London to campaign against the UKGovernments attempt to transform our higher education system.

Im really proud that Edinburgh sent the biggest delegation to the march out-with the M25,with 3 buses making the journey down. Edinburgh University accounted for one in every sixtyof the students there what a success!

I also appeared on Forth and Clyde radio along with many other media bits and pieces, whichis really good news for us, as Scotlands eyes were very much on us.

The organisation for Wednesdays demo is well underway. Were expecting a few hundredfrom across Scotland to meet outside the Scottish Parliament at 12.30, and march to theScotland Office from there.

PLEASE COME!

Communicating Across Campus

Weve been communicating a lot better across campus. The Student newspaper is workingon delivering to different campuses, and every week, each Sabb goes to a different campusfor a morning or afternoon, and chats to students there to see what theyre up to. I recentlywent to Easter Bush to chat to the Vet students, and it went well.

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I was conscious that when speaking to ECA students, they didnt feel like they knew enoughabout what EUSA did, and so I gave a presentation to the ECA Forum. Only a few peoplecame (there were 60 at the last one I was at) so Im going to do another one with the ECAPresident Abi, sometime soon.

**My Holiday to Munich was wonderful, thank you**

Community Work

On 1st November, EUSA held aSouth NeighbourhoodPartnership funding event, whichsaw dozens of members fromacross our community come intoour Union, including localCouncillors, residents from otherareas of Edinburgh, and thePolice. Tables got together and

agreed projects they would liketo run, and everyone voted forwhich one would be funded atthe end. It was a great success,and thousands of pounds ofCouncil funding was given awayto our winning projects.

I have also been attending joint neighbourhood bicycle safety meetings with Spokes, theCouncil and the Police, amongst others. They have been very fruitful KB has beenpromised more bike racks, dozens of students have had their bikes security marked for free,and a high profile campaign including motorway road signs and traffic police will begin earlynext year with funding secured from the Council.

*If anyone wants to get more involved in this please let me know.

Edinburgh Students Forum

We met two weeks ago, and our conversation floated mainly around housing. The ESF is allonboard with EUSAs housing campaign, and will hopefully follow suit banning anylandlords or letting agencies from advertising with them, that fall below the standards weexpect in our charter.

University Governance

The minutes of Court Meetings are available on the Universitys website, at the rather catchy

url of - http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/governance-strategic-planning/governance/university-court

We secured 340 000 extra to go straight into bursaries. The pressure we put on theUniversity secured a 10 mill draw down fund for bursary and accommodation support. Werefairly pleased with this, and dozens more students will hopefully benefit from these.

Cash Collection G4S

I was pleased to support Liams G4S motion to the last Student Council. As a result, wecalled a meeting to look at what other options we would have to get our cash servicescompleted safely and efficiently.

The result of this process has been mixed.

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1) We will be signing a contract with G4S, as there was an operational need to movefrom our current provider (they no longer offer the services we need).

2) However, rather than the 3 year contract which was expected, we will only sign acontract with them until the end of our financial year, which is the end of July 2012.We will then look for another provider. Regrettably it was not possible to sourceanother provider, as our current services were coming to an end in a matter of weeks.

I can understand that this may be disappointing to some people it certainly is to me.However, I believe the team here at EUSA have made the right decision, and we will workhard to source another provider in the summer. I appreciate your understanding in this.

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VPAA Report

Exams: As noted in my last report, the University had tried to squeeze honours-level examsinto the first 2 weeks of the exam diet in the summer. I am pleased to say that after EUSAtook this up, the University has agreed to spread those exams over 3 and a half weeks, ratherthan 2. This will be a squeeze on last year, but hopefully a manageable one. Council shouldnote a related motion at the AGM tomorrow night.

Email Provision: In Septembers report I outlined my plans to get the University to switchtaught students email provision to Microsoft Office 365, a cloud-based service which alsoincludes free versions of Microsoft Office and extra storage space, by September. Theconsultation has now been launched, and there will be student trials of the software onthe 1st December. I would be grateful if anyone who is interested in taking part in thesetrials, or who knows someone who may be interested, could get in touch with me assoon as possible. There may also be an opportunity to look at Google email, but this hasntyet been confirmed.

Teaching Awards: The new-look Teaching Awards have now launched thanks to everyonewho came to the launch event. You can now nominate your teachers, departments, supportstaff, course etc for awards at www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/teachingawards .

Please do spread the word about this as much as possible. We got 5,168 nominations lastyear and this year were hoping to break 6,000. So do please put it on your facebook, twitteretc, and consider doing lecture shoutouts to get people to nominate.

DoS System: One of my main manifesto commitments was to reform the DoS system, andIm very pleased to announce that, after years of lobbying by EUSA, the University has finallyagreed to make some huge changes. The precise nature of those changes are still to bedecided (and inevitably it will be different on a school by school basis), but the new personaltutor system will enable tutors to look along the length of the degree, and they will also beable to go over feedback with students. Peer support mechanisms like academic families and

buddy systems will also be incorporated into the broader way in which the University will belooking at academic and pastoral support. EUSA has a very good opportunity to feed into thisprocess, so if you have any thoughts about it please do send them my way.

Study Space: Im sure Hugh will write more about this, but at my request a subcommitteehas been set up to look specifically at study space and the strategy around its provision. Thefirst meeting was on Tuesday 15th, and we discussed quite broadly the development of astrategy around study space, trying to understand the issue in more depth and starting todevelop solutions in the medium and long term. For this coming exam season, tutorial roomsin DHT have been opened up for study space, and we will be working with schools to makesure theyre publicising the space available to their students. Some of the meeting rooms inthe library will be opened for use by students.

Demonstration: As hopefully you all know, EUSA managed to send 3 buses down to thedemonstration against fees and privatisation on the 9th November. The demonstration was agreat success, and EUSA should be proud that it was one of the biggest contingents fromoutside London. Tomorrow (23rd) we will be marching against Rest of UK Fees, meeting at theScottish Parliament at Holyrood at 12.30pm.

Quality Assurance and ELIR: As noted in last months report, the University is going throughthe Enhancement-Led Institutional Review, basically an Ofsted inspection for Universities.The first visit went well, and the sabbs were able to highlight EUSAs main concerns withprovision at the University. The review team will be coming back on Monday 28th to meetdifferent groups of people, including a group of undergraduates and a group of postgraduates.I will be attending both of these meetings.

Last month I was selected to be on the Quality Assurance Agencys Student Sounding Board,and the first meeting took place in London on Friday 11th Nov. It was a valuable experience,giving me the opportunity to discuss issues around Quality Assurance/Enhancement with

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other interested students, and to input into national discourse on student engagement inquality.

Conferences: Council will have my report from NUS Higher Education Zone Conference lastmonth. Whilst the conference was enjoyable and a good opportunity to discuss various issueswith other student officers, I do not think it was a very useful event and I have already

complained to NUS. Hopefully changes will be made to this before next year.

NUS Scotland Zone Conference was on Saturday 19 th November. At the time of writing wehavent been yet but I hope it is a good opportunity to discuss in depth the Plan of Work andother NUS Scotland policy.

Remembrance Day: I represented EUSA at the Remembrance Day ceremony at Old Collegeon the 13th. The service was well attended by students and staff.

Bursaries: University Court recently approved a new set of bursaries for Scottish domiciledstudents. The University will be drawing down from a 10m investment, spendingapproximately an extra 340,000, which creates 72 new access bursaries and 62 newaccommodation bursaries, coming in 2012/13.

I think thats all the important stuff. As always, please do get in touch if you have anyquestions or comments or ideas on [email protected].

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VPS Report

Hello peeps,The last few weeks have been very busy what with marches and NUSzone conference. I also took some days holiday which means myreport is not as full as the last one.

Some things that have happened in the last few weeks:

I went to the NUS Society and Citizenship zone conference which wasgreat. There was a session on the possible criminalisation of squattingin England which I found particularly interesting because of theimplications it could have on protesting, and it was also good to be able to feed into the zonepolicy that will then be brought to the NUS conference in the spring.

I held the first entertainments focus group: Although there were only a small number of peoplethere we had a great discussion and I think the feedback was very useful.

I sorted out a couple of issues with societies specifically about banking and storage space: If

you are in a society please change to society banking with..it saves me quite a lot of time.

Some things that are happening currently

Water campaign: The excuse I got from the uni about why they dont serve tap water in thelibrary caf etc was terrible. Im hoping to meet with the head of catering to talk about theissue and convince them to change their policy. If nothing comes of that meeting I will bedoing a petition and handing out free water outside the library to put on the pressure. Anyonewho wants to get involved (especially anyone who can do paper mache-I want to make agiant paper mache tap as a publicity stunt), give me a bell.

Swap shop website: Several member of council including myself, ran on manifestos thatincluded book swaps etc. Several years ago eusa were asked to pilot an Edinburgh University

version of freecycle. However, nothing was ever done about it despite the site being great. Iam very keen to get loads of students swapping and although there are still a couple of issuesto iron out to do with payment I am hoping we will be able to launch the site in the new year.

Housing campaign: this is progressing well. The landlord charter is being finalised and I willbe approaching landlords/agents to sign up to it in the next few weeks. We will then be havinga launch event and making packs of information about tenants rights to give to 1st yearstudents in early next semester. Landlords who sign up to the Charter will be listed on ourwebsite.

Accommodation finder: we are costing how much it would be for us to build a new, improvedonline accommodation finder. Watch this space

RUKidding campaign: All the sabbs have been mobilising students for the march next week.Today is Thursday and so far we have about 300 letters signed. Thank you so much for allyour help if you have been collecting signatures or flyering. I know its cheesy but you arewhat makes this union so great.

Things in the future:

NUS Womens training: 4 of us will be going to the NUS I will lead training. We will then bedelivering it at eusa

AGM: I will be presenting the accounts so come along :D (P.S. I will not be wearing aChristmas hat)

Thats all for nowP x

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VPSA Report

National Demo

Nearly 150 Edinburgh studentsheaded down to the national demo

last Wednesday. We were one of thelargest delegations outside of London,so a huge well done to everyone whohelped publicise and mobilise for it.

But theres no time to rest! NextWednesday 23rd November, EUSAhave organised a demo against 9kfees. Well assemble at ScottishParliament at 12.30 and march onthe Scotland Office. We still needmore stewards, so please let StuartTooley or one of the sabbs know if

you can help out!

Welfare Zone Conference

At the end of October I attended NUS Welfare Zone conference in Liverpool, along withCallum, our Welfare Convenor. It was a good opportunity to focus on student welfare andsome of the workshops were helpful, especially one on supporting g international students,but it was definitely not the most useful NUS event I have attended. A new NUS welfare zonecommittee was also elected. I stood in this election but sadly did not get elected! See mywelfare zone report for more information about what I learnt.

Im also heading to Scotland Zone conference on Saturday 19th, so I can tell you about this atStudent Council.

Block Booking Day

Ive been working with the Societies Team to ensure that block booking(22nd-23rd November) runs as smoothly as possible. Bookings will betaken in the Connect Office from 12 midday, so if youre in a societywho needs EUSA rooms for next semester, make sure one of youroffice bearers is there!

Accessible Learning Morning Seminar

One of the things that has come out of the Accessible Learning Implementation Group that Isit on is the formulation of a morning-long workshop, aimed at academic and administrative

colleagues with managerial and strategic development responsibilities in learning andteaching. This will be really productive as it will target college level staff who can change thisknowledge into policy, ensuring that accessible learning is embedded into the curriculum.Students are welcome to attend, so please contact me if you want to. The workshop will takeplace early in semester 2.

Wellbeing Week

Wellbeing week will be happening from the 28th November, with all things relaxing anddistressing. Weve got everyone from the Counselling Service to SocieTEA getting involvedand hosting events, so look out for the publicity that will be out very soon. Big thanks to JudithDrake for all her hard work on this.

C:card

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C:card outreach will be starting up next week. I went along to get re-trained with a number ofvolunteers, so look out for volunteers at Pollock and Big Cheese who will be signing peopleup for free contraception for life!

Mental Health On Campus

With the change in the DoS system (see Mikes report), there will be resource implications formany student support services, as personal tutors will focus on academic support. There maybe well be a need to increase investment in uni support services. One thing that I think isreally lacking is staff dedicated to working on mental health, especially for students withongoing mental health issues. In fact we are one of the only universities in the Russell Groupthat do not have this provision. Along with heads of various support services, I will be workingon proposals to ensure that support services are getting the funding and staff that they needto be able to run effectively.

Neighbourhood Partnership

At the beginning of November we held our neighbourhood partnership event, bringing

together members of the community and students to pitch ideas for joint community projects.It was a fantastic and really successful event, with up to 4 projects chosen for funding,ranging from break dancing lessons for kids in Dumbiedykes, to a community garden project.It was really great to see students having a positive influence on the community, and wehopefully got rid of a few student stereotypes too!

Alcohol and the Community

I went along to a morning-long event about Alcohol and the south central area of Edinburgh. Itwas a really interesting morning, with a variety of workshops and seminars to discuss theeffects that alcohol has on the local community. I think lots of people were pleasantlysurprised to learn about EUSAs commitment to responsible drinking, and are keen to takesome of the things we do to promote this into different areas of the community.

I Will Lead

One thing I really want to do is ensure thatEUSA is representing students effectively,and it needs some work. Last year forexample, only 1 woman stood forPresident, out of 7 candidates. I think thisneeds to change. On Tuesday 22nd,Philippa, Abi, Hazel and myself areattending the I Will Lead training in

Glasgow, a day long training session run by the NUS Womens campaign, which offersskills and tips on being women in leadershippositions,offers guidance and best practiceon running elections & campaigning, and gives practical tips to empower women to getinvolved in student unions. After weve received this training, we will be able to deliver itto EUSA members-not just reps, but any woman who is thinking of getting involved inEUSA, or who wants skills training.

Thats all for now, but get in touch any time!

Emma x

[email protected] @eusavps

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Postgraduate Conveners Report

Hi all,

One of the key things were trying to do this year is create a sense of Postgrad communityand increase the number of PG events. We had a hugely successful showing of PhD: TheMovie in conjunction with the Business and Informatics Schools and the demand for ticketsmeans we can have a large scale showing in semester 2, in both Kings Buildings and theCentral Area. We have also organised another over-21s ceilidh for the end of this semester!Ive also been working closely with the PG Society to try and deliver some more eventsthroughout the year.

The PG Festival is getting ever closer, the programme for this is now finalised and is in theprocess of being made pretty. Also the call for papers should have been distributed amongstschools, so Id encourage you to look out for this and get involved.

It was fantastic to see a continued high turnout at the second PG Forum of the year. We werelucky enough to have the Careers Service along to ask questions on how the service can beimproved for PG students so hopefully we can see some exciting changes taking place. Wealso addressed other issues centred on employment as a postgrad.

Im excited to say we have a couple of PG reps going along to the NUS Scotland Zoneconference which should be very valuable to both EUSA and NUS Scotland.

As ever, any questions come find me for a chat or drop me an email([email protected] )

Sophie McCallum, Postgraduate Convener

Teaching and Learning Conveners Report

Hi all,

Fees March I was unable to attend the fees march in London on the 9 th Nov due to workcommitments. (The joys of being a working student).

HE Zone I only attended the first day to HE Zone due to unforeseen circumstances.However I found the event really productive and a great opportunity to share experiences withother SUs. In addition to this I had a chance to speak to NUS HE staff members aboutEdinburgh issues and was given some great advice.

Academic Forum Apologies for the original meeting being cancelled I was sadly on ordersfrom the doctor to stay in bed. However the rearranged forum meeting was very interesting,with an update from Mike Williamson on his meetings with the University in relation to DoS.

Interesting issues being raised of which I was not aware in relation to ECA. As well as anupdate from Hugh Murdoch on the progress of the Study space issue some really good ideasgoing forward.

DoS System The University want to put money into reforming the DoS system, and eusahave a good opportunity to influence this. When at HE Zone the staff there informed me thatSheffield have a good system of personal tutors, so I wanted to contact Sheffield SU to findout what they do and to compare out NSS results to see if they scored higher than us. MikeWilliamson has emailed his equivalent at Sheffield and Sophie McCallum has checked NSSand they are consistently above us. With the information we will get from Sheffield we shalltake the parts we like to the University to show good practice within other institutions.

School Reps I have had a few meetings with the Law School Reps and the process of

having school specific class rep training is moving forward. Also very promisingly SophieMcCallum has informed me quite a few other schools have come forward as wanting to do the

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same thing. I think it is important that a plan is put in place so that any training undertaking bySchools for Class Reps is extended and continued in the future.

Any questions, please let me know.Claire Rackley, Teaching and Learning Convener

External Conveners Report

No matter where you study, no matter where you're from, NO to 9,000 feesMarch TOMORROW 12.30pm, Assemble outside the Scottish ParliamentFor more details, see publicity or this facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=180813522005674Much time has been spent organising for two big demos. First the one in London, and I amindebted to all the activists who helped get people there and those who went for helping tomake it such a success. The other demo is tomorrow, as advertised above. If you haven'talready, please post it to your facebook tonight to spread the word, even if you are unable tomake it.

Other projects currently being worked on include the Alternative Prospectus and the one-stopwebsite for Accommodation, amongst others!Any questions, or if you would like to help out in continuing campaigns, get in touch:[email protected]

Stuart Tooley, External Convener

Accommodation Officers Report

Hi everyone,

Here is an update on accommodation matters:

1) Ebony (Environment and Ethics Officer) and I have initially started planning a campaign toincrease the number of bike racks available across university accommodation, particularly atPollock Halls where this is a problem. This is a problem, for two reasons, firstly students areprevented from locking up their bikes, and secondly, they are discouraged from bringing orbuying bikes due to the anticipated difficulties in locking them up.

2) There is an ongoing plan to effectively engage with letting agents as well as encouragethem to ensure ethical practice with student tenants. We are all pushing to get support fromagents to adhere to certain guiding standards (which they would sign up to); this agreementwould exceed legal minimum requirements. This campaign aims to significantly improve theservice students receive when they rent private accommodation. We hope we will have moreto report back to you soon. Furthermore, this campaign will seek to communicate with our

student body more effectively re accommodation.

3) The fact Edinburgh University students are living in accommodation (I assume organisedby Accommodation Services) all the way out at QMU remains a big problem and somethingthat needs to be addressed. I hope to meet with any reps that would like to offer their supportin tackling this issue. Students in their first year at Edinburgh are guaranteed universityarranged accommodation and they have been placed too far away from the university. Theyare quite arguably cut off from the university in many ways. They require buses to get intotown.

If you have any ideas and queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch.Alex Munyard, Accomodation Officer

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Equal Opportunities Officers Report

What Ive done:Given a workshop on accessible learning and mainstreaming at one of the learning lunchesfor class reps with Judith Drake (disability and mental wellbeing convenor). This was reallygreat and I have had some good communication subsequently about with a few of the class

reps about how to approach their staff-student liaison committees about accessible learning.

Theres a bit push at the moment to get as many equal marriage consultation responses tothe government by the 9th December (or to the Equality Network by the 6th). So last weekend Iwent to the consultation at Victoria Quays with the civil servants who are in charge of thecollection of these responses and the Equality Network. The Equality Network has kindlygiven us lots of paper consultation responses, so if anyone is part of a society and thinks thatthey would help out or a big lecture that someone could come along to, let me or Kate (Harris)know please!

I also went down to Edinburgh College of Art two weeks ago to the art and culture fair to talkabout LGBT+ action group, and went there again this week to talk about Wellbeing Week andaction groups and how they can also engage with student at ECA.

Hazel Louise Marzetti, Equal Opportunities Officer

Community and Volunteering Officers Report

Following the success of our Neighbourhood Partnership event, I've been working to follow upon lots of the links made on the night between EUSA and community organisations. On the1st December we'll be inviting a lot of these groups along to our Volunteering Forum, to beheld in Teviot (details will follow). This is the second forum we have held and we hope it willbecome a useful place for all organisations interested in volunteering, inside and outside theuniversity. The next thing I'm hoping to focus on is getting students along to communitycouncils around the city. This has always been a difficult thing to motivate students to do butwe often find ourselves fighting on issues that we could have confronted earlier were studentsmore active in local democracy.

All the best,Finbar Bowie, Community and Volunteering Officer

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Paper B

Draft Student Council Safe Space Policy

1. Members of Student Council are expected to respect the right of all Council members

or students attending Council and staff to enjoy EUSA as a safe space environment,

defined as a space which is welcoming and safe and includes the prohibition of

discriminatory language and actions.

2. EUSA operates a Zero Tolerance policy towards discrimination based on:

a. Age

b. Race

c. Disability

d. Sexual Orientation

e. Gender Reassignmentf. Marriage and Civil Partnership

g. Pregnancy and Maternity

h. Religion and Belief

i. Sex

3. All Council meetings shall be conducted with an assumption that the meeting shall

constitute a safe space for the conduct of debate, discussion and decision making.

4. A meeting shall be deemed to be a safe space where no-one is disadvantaged ordiscouraged from contributing, so long as they respect others ability to contribute;and where the principle of equal opportunities are respected.

5. All members are expected to conduct themselves in a manner which is respectful and

considerate of the contributions of others. This is defined as:

a. Allowing Council members to speak when called upon by the chair.

b. Refraining from speaking over, interrupting, heckling, laughing at or otherwise

distracting from the speaker who holds the floor.

c. Refraining from hand gestures which denote disagreement or in any other

way indicating disagreement with a point or points being made.

Disagreements should only be evident through the normal course of debate.

d. Avoiding using gestures which are not generally known or accepted byCouncil.

e. Gestures indicating agreement are permissible, if these gestures are

generally understood and not used in an intimidating manner.

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Paper C

Empowering Student Council

Proposer: James McAsh

Seconder: Mike Williamson (0792336)Supported by: Mike Shaw (1010132), Liam Maguire(0700386), Susannah Compton

(0700369), Alva Traebert(0970126), Ebony Ruggero (1030881), Aurora Adams (1004725),

Kate Harris (0700449), Matthew Hepburn (1020995)

Student Council Notes:

1. That according to the EUSA Constitution Student Council (or SRC) must have at least nine

Ordinary meetings (not emergency meetings) per academic year.

2. That last academic year EUSA broke its constitutional obligation in this respect.

3. That previously Student Council has met every three weeks

4. That in the last year Student Council has met only once every four weeks.

5. That in the last 7 months we have had two Emergency Meetings.

6. That some recent meetings of student council have lasted for longer than three and a half

hours.

Student Council Believes:

1. That EUSA, and student unions in general, should be first and foremost campaigning

organisations.

2. That Student Council has greater democratic legitimacy than smaller bodies like Student

Council Executive or the sabbatical officers alone.

3. That members of Council should ideally be able to plan for their meetings in advance.

4. That having meetings only every four weeks prevents us from being able to react quickly to

changing events.

5. That Student Council is the most effective body for holding the sabbatical officers toaccount.

6. That debate is a crucial part of democracy and that it should not be stifled.

7. That longer meetings:

a) are unaccessible

b) lower the quality of debate

c) result in declining participation as the meeting goes on

8. That more frequent meetings:

a) would allow Student Council to hold the sabbatical officers to account more

effectively

b) would allow Student Council to react faster to relevant events and developments

c) would greatly reduce the use of Emergency Meetings

d) would allow societies to be approved and get started more quickly.

Student Council Resolves:

1. That whenever possible Student Council should meet at least every three weeks.

2. That a strict time limit should be imposed on meetings of no more than two and a half

hours.

3. That when business cannot be completed in this time that it should be immediately added

to the agenda of the following meeting.

4. That more time-sensitive business should be given priority in the agenda.

5. To mandate the Sabbatical Officers to carry out Resolves 1 through 4 as a priority.

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Paper D

Unity with the International Student Population

Proposer: Peter Thibault (s0818669)Seconder: Aurora Adams (s1004725)


1. From the start of Academic Session 2011/12 the University is introducing census

points within the session in order to confirm the attendance of students holding a Tier

4 Student Visa. This is to ensure the University meets the UKBA statutory

requirements as a sponsor of Tier 4 students and its responsibilities in accordance

with its Highly Trusted Sponsor status.

2. Students must ensure that they are fully matriculated for the session as this is taken

as the first point to confirm their attendance at the University. Having attendance

confirmed by the relevant School/College is part of the University's usual

matriculation process.

3. In addition, International Undergraduates MUST report in person to one of the

designated venues during week 6 of Semester 1 (24-28 October 2011) and week 5 of

Semester 2 (20-24 February 2012) to have their attendance confirmed again.

4. International Postgraduates MUST report in person to one of the designated venues

during week 6 of Semester 1 (24-28 October 2011) and week 5 of Semester 2 (20-24

February 2012) and during the summer (23-27 July 2012) to have their attendance

confirmed again.

5. International Students not attending at the above times will be deemed to be "not in

attendance".

6. Those students identified as "not in attendance" will be formally withdrawn from their

studies. The University will report to the UKBA that the student has discontinued their

studies and that the University ceases to sponsor the student's Tier 4 visa. As such

the Tier 4 visa is invalidated and the student will be told that they are no longer

entitled to remain in the UK and if they have more than 6 months left on their visa

they must leave the UK within 60 days

7. All students with an INEEA (International Non European Economic Area) nationality

recorded on their student record (MyED) will be emailed (UoE email and personal

email, if recorded) and written to at their semester address by Registry in advance of

the first census. Only those with a Tier 4 visa are required to attend a census point.

(Source:www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/studying/adult-

students/changes/#)

8. According to the UK Border Agency Securing our Border Controlling Migration Guide

to Sponsoring Students Under Tier 4 of the Points-Based System (henceforth

referred to as The Guide) (Section 464) it is not* compulsory for students under pre

22 February 2010 [Visa letter] system to abide by the reporting duties.

9. The University of Edinburgh is considered a Highly Trusted Sponsor for Tier 4 Visas

as specified under in the Guide (Section 32) as any institution who has a sponsor

license for more than 12 months must successfully apply for Highly Trusted Sponsorstatus.

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10.Section 466 of the Guide reads: If you are a highly trusted sponsor you can* make

two checkpoints (re-registrations) during any rolling 12 month period and report any

students who have missed 10 consecutive expected contacts without you reasonably

giving them permission. You must report these students within 10 working days you

completing your checkpoint process.

11.Section 468 of the Guide articulates what these 10 expected contact points may be:

Examples of expected interactions include, but are not limited to: attending any

lesson, lecture, tutorial or seminar (as relevant to the level of study); attending any

test, examination or assessment board; submitting assessed or unassessed

coursework; submitting an interim dissertation, coursework or report; attending any

meeting with a supervisor or personal tutor; attending any research-method or

research-panel meetings, writing-up seminars or doctoral workshops; attending an

oral examination (viva); registration (matriculation or enrolment); attending an

appointment with a welfare advisor or international student adviser.

(Source:www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/employersandsponsors/pbsguid

ance/guidancefrom31mar09/sponsor-guidance-t4-050911.pdf?view=Binary )*Emphasis added


1. That the recent changes in the governments policy regarding student visas from

students outside of the European Union represent a shift towards even more

xenophobic visa regulations.

2. International students make up a large portion of not only the student body but also

this council and that such diversity is beneficial to the overall student experience.

3. Students should not be made to feel like they are being vetted or closely monitoredby any government when they have already had to prove the authenticity of their

enrolment in courses.

4. Edinburgh University is publishing incorrect information in telling students who are on

the visa letter system that they must attend the scheduled censuses.

5. We are living in a post-modern globalized era where the mixing of cultures and

people is something that should be encouraged and pursued.

6. Edinburgh University is choosing to exercise an optional policy which is detrimental to

the social standing of International students.


1. To reaffirm to students EUSAs opposition to the recent changes in the Tier 4 Visa

Scheme due to their xenophobic nature.

2. Issue a statement articulating EUSAs opposition to the recent changes.

3. Actively pressure the University to state why it is choosing to be one of the few

universities to implement optional governmental policies which negatively affect

students.

4. Lobby the University to remove the implementation of the UK Border Agency

Securing Our Border Controlling Migration Guide to Sponsoring Students Under Tier4 of the Points-Based System Section 466.

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5. If the University refuses to reverse its current policy, push the University to articulate

that it is choosing to implement an optional governmental policy in the letter

describing the census process. A reminder letter should also be sent out the weekend

prior to the census dates.

6. Mandate the President to write to the Home Office Minister, and local MPs expressing

our stance on this issue.

7. Mandate all appropriate officers to represent these views in any dealings with the

University and UK government.

8. Mandate the President to investigate how this motion might be brought to the NUS

Conference and to update Council when appropriate.

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Paper E

The Niqab, Hijab, and Jibaab

Proposer: EJ Aaron-Beloten (s0841218)

Student Council Notes:1. That over the past decade Islamic dress known as the Niqab and the Hijab and the

Jilbaab have come under sustained criticism.2. Many politicians have made disparaging comments about the Niqab, Hijab or Jibaab.


1. That racism against any group is deplorable and should not be tolerated.2. That any attack on Islamic dress, is an attack equal to any other form of discrimination.3. That all people are allowed freedom of expression and belief and it is the duty of all citizensto stand up for those under duress.4. The Niqab does not stop interpersonal communication, merely offers the wearer the abilityto interact with others in a manner that is both comfortable and within their cultural beliefs.


1. To defend the freedom of expression and belief, and stand by those who would be unableto voice their discomfort.2. To mandate the President & VPSA to defend students rights to wear the Niqab, Hijab orJibaab, at this University and voice their support for it throughout the United Kingdom andEurope.

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Paper F

Solidarity with Students at Birzeit University

Proposer: Hugh Murdoch (s0936237)


1. That EUSA is twinned with Birzeit University Student Council in the West Bank.2. That there is ongoing work between the university and the University of Birzeit withscholarships available for Birzeit graduates to continue their study at Edinburgh.3. That previous EUSA sabbatical officers have visited Birzeit to show solidarity with studentsand student unionists there.4. That students and student unionists face persecution in Palestine:

(i) Birzeit University has been closed by the Israeli military 15 times, the longestlasting over 4 years (1988-1992)

(ii) Since November 2003, 480 Birzeit University students have been incarcerated(iii) Currently 80 students are in incarceration in Israeli prisons, more than half ofwhom haven't been found guilty of any charge.


1. That education is a universal right to which every person in the world is entitled.2. That international academic co-operation increases the quality of education and universityexperience for the students, universities, unions and communities involved.


1. To mandate the sabbatical officers to communicate with students' union officers at BirzeitUniversity with an aim to increasing co-operation between our institutions and unions.2. To mandate the VPAA to investigate the possibility of academic exchanges betweenstudents at Edinburgh and students at Birzeit and to work with the university towards thisgoal.3. To condemn the persecution of students and student unionists in Palestine and raiseawareness among our membership of this issue both generally and in individual instances.

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Paper G

Student Council Action Points Log

Date Action By Whom Update Any other Info

25/10/11 Find out howmuch is spenton the buffetat Councilmeetings.

Craig Stewart


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Paper I

Report from Events attended as an SRC Representative

SRC on the 16th March 2010 passed policy that any rep attending an event as

a representative of SRC should submit a report to SRC on their return. The

purpose of these reports are:

To ensure that SRC receives value for resources expended on such

event attendance

To inform decisions on future attendance at similar events by SRC reps

To spread useful information/practice/lessons attained by individual

members to other SRC members, in recognition that members are sent

to events to benefit the SRC as a whole.

A report does not have to be completed for events attended in a purely

personal capacity, but for those attended as a representative of SRC (whether

or not SRC has expended resources on attendance). The policy passed by

SRC notes the value of event attendance and that members of theAssociation should rarely have to justify going to events, but should be eager

to share their experiences of such events with the Students Representative

Council (SRC) and wider Association.

Reports submitted will be seen by SRC Executive and there will be an

opportunity for these to be reviewed and discussed by SRC. They will also be

made publicly available to Association members on the EUSA website.

To facilitate the process of reporting to SRC following events, the following

pro forma should be completed and submitted to

[email protected]. Reports should be submitted before the next

meeting of SRC after the event being reported on has taken place.

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Name Emma Meehan

Position VPSA

Title, location and date of event attended Welfare Zone Conference, 23rd

-24th

October

Cost to SRC if known and relevant

(including fee for event and travel)

Purpose of event/reason for going -Input into, and amending the Welfare

Zones plan of work for the year.

-attend workshops and bring back ideas

to implement in EUSA.-vote in the NUS welfare Zone elections.

Main outcomes of the event

You may wish to include here things you

think would be good practice for SRC

adoption, ideas for SRC action, benefits

to SRC through rep training, key

information transmitted etc.

-I will investigate our support for

international students in crisis. One

workshop I went to focused on this, and I

want to ensure that UoE has provisions in

place if crises occurs in any particular

place, allowing students to access money

to travel home quickly. If this is lacking, it

is something that should be worked upon.

-I attended 2 housing workshops, one

with Shelter and one with Unipol, drawing

good practise from other unions in terms

of charters and cracking down on dodgy

landlords. This will be helpful in EUSAs

own housing campaign and charter that is

being produced.-Input into Welfare Zones plan of work,

holding the NUS VP Welfare to account

and ensuring that NUS is working on

relevant welfare issues.

Would you recommend sending reps to a

similar future event?

Yes,

But with significant improvements made,

which NUS have been contacted about.

I also dont think we should necessarily

send 2 people to each zone. For some 1

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may be enough.

I would have liked to have seen this event

as more of a democratic one-although we

had the chance to input into the plan of

work, there was no formal method

through which to amend it, which was

frustrating.

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Name Callum Leslie

Position Welfare Convener

Title, location and date of event attended NUS Welfare Zone Conference,

Liverpool, 23rd & 24th October



Approx 270

Purpose of event/reason for going Representing EUSA in the decision

making functions of NUS Zone, as well as

training and development.







Learned a lot of best practice from more

experienced officers.

Established framework for a potential

campaign on accessible learning.

Attended good training sessions on

student carers and the equality act.



I think in future we should send just one

rep to each, and that experienced officers

should not attend. I found this useful as a

new rep, however I am aware that others

who have been to previous NUS events

found it less useful, and sending them is

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a waste of time and money. I also think

that the cost should be carefully

considered, as these conferences

become more and more expensive. The

second day was a bit of waste of time

apart from the policy sessions, which

were very short. The policy sessions,

which in my view were one of the most

important parts of the conference, were

poorly attended.

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Name Claire Rackley

Position Teaching and Learning Convenor

Title, location and date of event attended HE Zone Committee



Purpose of event/reason for going To attend workshops and plenaries so as

to gain training and to engage with other

unions in the formulation of best practice.







I attended two workshops; the first was

on widening participation and the other

on student engagement. As well as the

plenaries scheduled.

The widening participation workshops I

found very interesting, we were split into

groups and asked how we couldformulate better WP. It was very

interesting to share the good practices

that Edinburgh does and to hear of what

other SUs are doing. The WP shadowing

scheme created by last years VPAA

Stevie Wise was highly thought of and

other unions were eager to follow our

lead. But it became clear that the

deficiencies within Edinburgh WP are we

do not take enough students from non-

traditional backgrounds.

The Student Engagement workshop, I

was interested to see what the definition

of SE was. This workshop was about

engaging students within the quality of

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their education. In Scotland we have a

fantastic organisation called SPARQs that

does class rep training and specialises in

quality of education. The rest of the UK

does not have this. We were given

various statements from the absurd

(students should be consumers) to the

obvious (students should be engaged on

matters to do with their course). And

asked to place them as if true or false.

This gave a good opportunity to debate

issues and find out what other SUs

thought on issues.

In the plenaries, of which there were two

the first was a Q&A session however I

was disappointed by this as I thought that

we as a student movement have become

too singularly focussed on the issue of

fees and was extremely disappointed that

no one brought up the issue of student

support. The second plenary was very

moving and an account of being a mature

student in HE. Fantastic plenary and

really highlighted to me the ways in which

as a University we let down non-

traditional students.



Yes

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Name Hugh Murdoch

Position Academic Services Convener

Title, location and date of event attended Society and Citizenship Zone conference,

Liverpool Adelphi



Purpose of event/reason for going Training, election of a zone committee

and policy discussion.







Three great workshops:

LSE and Gaddaffi:

Showed how LSESU got LSE to give

money back to the Libyan people and

caused their director to resign. Some

really innovative campaigning: getting

people's mobile numbers and texting

them allowed them to organise actions

instantly.

Palestine:

Talked about how we can support and

show solidarity with the Palestinian

campaign by talking about it not in terms

of the conflict, but in terms of the human

rights abuses that are happening.

CitizensUK training:

My FAVOURITE. This was truly inspiring.

Talked about personalising issues by

using individual examples of the people

you're campaigning for to make the

campaign more powerful. Also not being

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afraid of confrontation: the people we're

campaigning against are professional and

can shift quite happily between issues so

confronting them on one shouldn't be an

issue. Confrontation is about saying what

we ideally want. We can negotiate after

that point.

On the next day we talked about policy

and elected zone committee. The only

problem I had with the policy breakouts

was that it often didn't seem like a great

way of making policy: we would talk about

what the chair wanted to talk about,

basically.



Yes

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Paper J

Register of Interests for SRC Executive Officers

Purpose

This Register of Interests is intended to provide a summary of the interests of members ofSRC Executive, as required by the Register of Interests Motion, passed unanimously bySRC on the 16th March 2010.Registerable interests are interests which:

may be relevant to Officers actions as Officer holders of the SRC, or

may have been attained due to their position as SRC Officers (for example gifts orbenefits given because one is an officer of SRC).

The Register has as its goals the information and education of individuals and groups withwhom officers work on the SRC, and the Students they represent, regarding the ethicalstandards expected of SRC Officers in carrying out their duties.It is important to note that this Register relates to the conduct of Officers in relation to dutiesconnected to being an Officer of the SRC. It does notcover the activities of Officers in other

circumstances, for example: Officers private and family life;

Officers political views (in their capacity as a member of a political party ororganisation)

Principles of Disclosure

The register has been established on the basis of the following principles:

Student Interests: SRC Officers are expected to act in the interests of the SRC andUniversity of Edinburgh Students. They should not act in order to gain financial orother material benefit for themselves, their family or friends.

Integrity: Officers have an implied duty not to place themselves under financial orother obligations to individuals/organisation that might reasonably be thought toinfluence them in the performance of their duties.

Honesty: Officers should act honestly and declare any private interests relating totheir SRC officer duties and take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way thatprotects students interests.

Accountability and Transparency: Officers are accountable for their decisions andactions to the SRC. They should consider issues on their merits, taking account of theviews of others. Officers should be as open as possible about their decisions andactions.

Interests Which Require Declaration

Interests which require declaration meet the prejudice test. An interest meets the prejudicetest if, after taking into account all the circumstances, that interest may be reasonablyconsidered to prejudice, or to give the appearance of prejudicing, the ability of the Officer toparticipate in a disinterested manner in any proceedings of the SRC. Interests which meet theprejudice test may include:

FINANCIAL OR RELATED INTERESTSAn officer may have a registerable financial or related interests where an officer receives, orhas received, remuneration by virtue of:

being employed or self-employed;

being the holder of an office (other than their post on SRC)

being a director or partner in an undertaking or firm

Or where the Officer received non financial benefits from such situations.GIFTS AND BENEFITS RECIEVED

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Any benefits or gifts which may be reasonably perceived as prejudicial to the performance ofmembers of the SRC Executive are declarable. Officers are expected to register these asdeclarable interests.

VISITS/TRAVELAny accepted invitations or travel benefits received which could be perceived as proffered or

received due to an Officers position should be declared. These do not need to include visitsundertaken as part of the post-holders normal exercise of their duties, unless the Officer feelsthat such visits/travel gives rise to a declarable interest under the prejudice test.

OTHER/VOLUNTARY INTERESTSA member may also register on a voluntary basis any interest which does not require to beregistered.

Timetable for Registration of Interests

SRC Executive will be asked to complete the Register of Interests before the first meeting ofthe SRC each Academic Year, in October (the Secondmeeting of each SRC). The register will be made available online on the EUSA website prior

to that meeting of SRC, so that SRC members can note any interests and hold the Executiveto account.

At any point in the year, members of the Executive can update their declaration of interests.They are expected to add any new relevant interests should they arise. Should any of theircurrent declared interests expire, Officers should also have this noted on their Declaration.

Officers initial Declarations of Interest, and any subsequent requests for additions orchanges, should be lodged with [email protected].

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Declaration of Interests

Name Mike Williamson

Position VPAA

Date of Initial Declaration 18/11/11

Financial or Related Interests

Gifts and Benefits Received

Visits/Travel

Other Interests/Voluntary

Declarations

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Name Callum Leslie

Position Welfare Convener


Financial or Related Interests Employed by the University of

Edinburgh as an alumni fundraising

caller.

Gifts and Benefits Received None

Visits/Travel None


Declarations

Member of the Scottish Liberal

Democrats.

Employed on a voluntary basis byKirkcaldy and Dunfermline Liberal

Democrats as Press Officer.

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Name Claire Rackley

Position Teaching and Learning Convenor


Financial or Related Interests N/A

Gifts and Benefits Received N/A

Visits/Travel N/A


Declarations

Member of:

Labour Party

Unite the Union

Student Council Agenda and Papers 22-11-11

Documents

Transcript of Student Council Agenda and Papers 22-11-11