 Less than 50 students turned up to this semester’s Student Union meeting, raising concerns about the Union’s genuine representation, and its ability to carry out policies.
The Student Union termly meeting, held on Wednesday last week, attracted less than 50 students from a total of 21,300. Most people attending were current Student Union officers or candidates for Student Union posts in this week’s election. Lack of proper representation of all sectors of the university’s students could mean that unrepresentative decisions are made against the prevailing view point of the majority of the student body. One question highlighted the possible disconnection between union policy and wider student opinion. Following a motion carried at the last meeting banning armed services recruitment at the University, it was announced by the KUSU President that although the Student Union could prevent recruiting on SU premises, it had been unsuccessful in lobbying the university to prevent recruiting staff coming on campus, as many Engineering students were specifically interested in speaking to armed forces recruiters. During the election hustings, many candidates highlighted the problem of the disengagement of the Student Union to the rest of the student population. Some part-time positions on the Student Union attracted no candidates at all and following the closing of elections, these positions will have to be re opened up for nominations. Under ‘Any Other Business’ a student raised concerns that lack of attendance at Student Union meetings could mean motions being rolled over so that by the time they are debated, the original proposer could no longer be a student at the university. The Student Union constitution requires a minimum of 100 people to attend in order for motions to be voted on and accepted or rejected as Student Union policy. Less than 100 students means that any motion that is carried has to go to the Executive to be re-examined and either passed or rolled over to the next Student Union general meeting for a further vote. Two of the three motions, proposing more wholesome food in the Union stores and proposing the creation of a Trustee board for the Student Union, were put to a procedural motion. It was voted to roll these forward to the next general meeting in May. A third motion to propose to improve the toilets around the campuses was carried by a unanimous vote. A total of four candidates stood for the Presidential position, four candidates stood for VP Support, three candidates for the VP Activities and three candidates for the VP Communications and Campaigns.
The elections will take place across all four campuses between Monday 9th March – Wednesday 11th March and students will need their student card in order to vote.
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