YUSU fail to consult students before NUS National Conference

YUSU delegates have attended the NUS National Conference this week without any prior consultation with students following the cancellation of meetings.

The delegates vote for NUS matters on the behalf of students and attended this conference with no idea of the students’ preferences. There were two meetings scheduled, however both were subsequently cancelled.

These meetings were supposed to inform the delegates on who to vote for on issues such as NUS president and the 701 gender balancing movement which would institute reserving 50 per cent of the places for female candidates.

The event was originally set for the 14^th March and was “looking for students'” advice and opinions on which candidate should receive official YUSU backing.” Nick Hall, outgoing Union Chair, described it as a “fantastic opportunity”

This was a change from previous years where the decisions were discussed in formal assemblies, but Hall explained this way would be more efficient: “in previous years, we held formal discussions at Assemblies about NUS candidates, but it took nearly eight hours of students’ lives, and this week’s event will be quicker and more effective.”

However, the original consultation was called off because the conference documents had not been released in time. YUSU promised that instead there would be a remote conference over the Easter break. Nick Hall stated: “Please rest assured that over Easter we will do some online consultation when the details of the motions are released.” However, this also failed to take place.

The current Union Chair Lloyd Wallis explained to Vision that the “democracy committee and the Union Chair at the time were assured that some form of online feedback would be collected once the motions were published by the NUS. Clearly this hasn’t happened and sending our delegation to conference with no clear direction or opinion from our members about the motions or the elections is worrying.”

Wallis continued: “I definitely think that some initiative could have been taken by the delegation leader to make sure that delegates at the very least had a decent consultation with students on issues that were known to be particularly contentious among the student body such as motion 701 and the candidates for the NUS elections.

“If there was sufficient time last term for the idea regarding the Inanimate Carbon Rod to be fully dealt with, there may well have been an extra-ordinary referendum on the issue.

“I look forward to discussions with the delegates when they return and seeing how the processes can be improved for next year.”

The lack of communication between the student body and the delegates is reinforced by one of the delegates, Megan Ollerhead who tweeted on the 5^th April saying: “Right then. Let’s talk motions. Woohoo. ‪#noideawhattosayabout701.”

Nick Hall responded to this by saying: “fantastic to see one of the delegates taking on some student views off their own back as no one at YUSU seems to be doin owt.”

Students claimed to feel cheated after the response was not taken into account. A third-year English student told Vision: “It’s crazy that none of York’s students have been able to have any say in something that will affect all of their lives for the near future. It’s bad enough that not everyone gets to vote for the NUS President, let alone not have any input at all.”

YUSU President Kallum Taylor commented on the matter: “I can say that more input would’ve been great, and a bonus, given that no NUS delegates in the country have to do this, and it isn’t against NUS or YUSU constitutionally. Not receiving the document of the policy proposals until the very end of Week 10 from NUS really wasn’t helpful either.”

The NUS conference continues for the rest of this week.