Every other Thursday, a select group of students indulge in debate, discussion and free tea in the grandeur of Firth Court’s Tapestry Room.
Surrounded by pictures of old University Chancellors, these selfless individuals are our collective voice, our method of scrutinising those mischievous Officers, and the means through which our grievances and proposals are guaranteed a hearing.
But Union Council (for which other body could deserve such praise?) decided not to bother with their most recent meeting.
Council, which consists of the Union Officers, an elected student from each department and a student from certain ‘representative’ groups, exists to ‘represent the views of students from their department or group, make decisions on behalf of all students and oversee the work of Student Officers.’
Every Councillor – that is, all 48 of them – have the chance to bring any item to the meeting. So if you email them – be it about a new departmental timetable, changing prices in the bars, leafleting on the concourse – they can bring it up, irrespective of whether it is academic or not.
In addition, we expect our elected representatives to be on the ball in their joint realms of their department and the Union. They must surely come across a range of important issues that deserve airing at the highest body of the Union.
Any member can bring an item forward as ‘Councillors’ business’ onto the agenda.From stickers on the concourse to printers in The Source, no issue is too small.
Sadly, the agenda appears to be getting thinner every fortnight. Over the seven meetings scheduled so far this year, only three have seen Councillors bring items to the agenda.
Even more extraordinarily, Councillors have only brought items to Council 11 times in all.
To add to this, those Councillors bringing items forward tend to be the same ones.
Subsequently only seven members, or 14.5 per cent of those we elected to Council, have ever bothered bringing an item to the meeting as ‘Councillors’ business’.
The most recent meeting was cancelled due to there being so few items on the agenda. It wasn’t even worth holding.
So, 14.5 per cent. Well, it’s greater than the turnout most of them were elected by to a role which, it appears, they’ve decided isn’t worth actively fulfilling.
Considering their record, it’s not even enough of a shock to make them spit out their complementary beverage.
Oddly, Council meetings still go on for hours. But the lengthy debates tend to be led by Officers, not wider members.
In fairness, the situation is a little more complex. Councillors are still students with full-time lives to lead and the Union is a hard body to fully understand in a short period of time.
Members of Council also can, and do, bring items up with Officers privately and some Councillors, especially those representing specific groups like disabled students, do work particularly hard.
One of the reasons for this is their requirement to report back to the relevant committee. Departmental Councillors have no group of students to report back to unless they make an effort to do so. It would seem obvious to use the Staff-Student committees for this purpose.
But amidst the meaningful debates and unengaged members of Council, the spotlight returns to the wider student populace – us lowly unelected types. How often do we bother contacting our Councillor? Are we even that aware who they are and how we can use them?
They asked for a line on their CV and for a springboard into Union politics. In turn we should expect them to be a little more active than they are – but recognise that we have a significant part to play in filling up their inbox.