Wentworth Chair: We won’t scrap our Common Room Committee

The Chair of the Wentworth Graduate Common Room Committee (GCRC) has vowed to abandon plans to turn the college into a College Student Association (CSA) in a letter to YUSU President Kallum Taylor.

Joshua Henning wrote to Taylor following the outcome of a vote by the Wentworth GCRC in which proposals to ratify the formation of a CSA were rejected.

“As a Graduate Common Room Committee we have met and discussed the issue at large and have decided not to ratify any proposal to form a College Student Association at this time,” he said.

“We feel that it would be beneficial to remain with the system currently employed within Wentworth for the time being, as its flexibility better suits our needs as a college.”

The GCRC voted on the proposals following a referendum by YUSU, which is not binding, last month where 749 students backed turning colleges into CSAs.

The Chair of Wentworth College is the first to announce opposition to the plans but Vision has learned that further colleges may also dump the idea.

In the letter, Henning condemns the lack of liasing, insisting the interests of postgraduates have not been “taken into account.”

“Despite your constant assertions that “All parties with a stake/interest should be in involved in the formation of these [CSA’s]”, there has been no mention of liaising with college GCRCs and consequently we do not believe that postgraduates, who make up a large number of the University’s student population, have been adequately consulted or our collective interests taken into account,” he adds.

In addition, the Wentworth Chair expressed concern at the “democratic transparency” of the referendum, and issued a warning to postgraduate communities who are thinking of moving to a CSA system.

He wrote: “Finally we as a GCRC are concerned with the way in which the referenda and associated campaigns were organised and operated in terms of democratic transparency. Therefore, we do not believe that taking our college forward in this proposal, without significant further consultation and addressing of the many concerns that have raised by multiple sources over the last few weeks, is within the interests of our college and those who we represent.”

“We also strongly advise that all colleges with vibrant GCRCs and postgraduate communities seriously consider the implications of a move to College Student Associations (for all those who they represent) at the present time.”

“We feel that it would be beneficial to remain with the system currently employed within Wentworth for the time being, as its flexibility better suits our needs as a college.”

In response, President Kallum Taylor has insisted there has been no encouragement for student college committees to “change any aspect of their representation.”

“Currently, we’re not encouraging any student college committees to change any aspect of their representation, as a working group has been constituted by the University to explore how something consistent can be provided for all colleges,” he wrote.

“We don’t want to interrupt or distract from that work, so following the Referendum, which provides students in colleges with a new way to represent themselves should they wish, we are not encouraging colleges to take up the opportunity until it has concluded.”

Taylor also apologised for a lack of direct consultation with regards to the “democratic review.”

He said: “I’m very sorry that there was no direct consultation with your GCRC as regards our democratic review, the outcomes from it and how YUSU can better recognise collegiate representation.”

“Not all colleges have such a strong and active GCRC and few are easily contactable, so we spoke to representatives from the GSA a number of times throughout and invited them to contribute substantially.”

But Taylor did dismiss claims that the new system is not as flexible, insisting CSAs provide “greater flexibility for student representation in colleges.”

“The new system actually provides greater flexibility for student representation in colleges, which we could have made clearer if we had done a better job communicating with you about the changes,” he wrote.

“The aim is, in fact, to make our policy more representative of students’ views and to consult the membership more broadly on what issues we should stand for.”

It has also emerged that a complaint about the way the referendum was run was investigated, with conclusions finding “no unfairness.”

“Having investigated a complaint, he [staff member for democracy] found no unfairness, and the main issue was really a lack of a strong no campaign from those who objected to proposals despite the offer of funding and support to run one. This really harmed the entire process,” Taylor said.

The options open to each of the colleges include the Junior Common Room Committee (JCRC) opting into the CSAs on behalf of their college, the JCRC allowing the members of their college to vote directly on the issue in a college referendum, and the JCRC choosing not to opt in at all.

The outcome from votes held in other colleges are yet to be known.