Last night, I was tasked with drafting a letter, to be signed by Officers (in Birmingham and nationally) as well as Guild Councillors, calling on the Trustee Board to implement the changes Guild Council passed. Some people have had a look and made some edits and this is what weve come up with. Does anyone have any major problems/edits to make? Im giving a deadline of 6pm, because it would be good to start collecting signatures asap. Dear University Of Birmingham Guild of Students’ Trustee Board, We write to you as student representatives, from Birmingham and across the country, and firm believers that student unions should be democratic and student-led, in response to the actions taken at your meeting on 2nd April 2014. That evening you overturned 8 decisions which had been made by the largest democratic body in your union. You have decided to remove all part-time officers, including those representing oppressed and underrepresented groups, refused to put to referendum the implementation of full time liberation officers, prevented changes to the democratic structures aimed at greater inclusion for oppressed groups, reduced how often officers can be held to account, and numerous other changes designed by students to improve the democratic structures of the Guild of Students. We believe that you have abused your power as trustees and acted undemocratically and possibly even unlawfully. The Guild of Students’ Trustee Board is unusual in that there is not a student majority, most trustees are unelected and it includes a university representative, currently the Director of Finance. The unaccountable power that you hold to overturn the democratic decisions of students should only be used in the most pressing of circumstances and, according to your own Bye-Laws, for legal, financial and reputational issues. We believe that almost all of the proposed changes do not fit the criteria upon which they could have been overturned and as such, a small group of unaccountable, unelected people have decided they know better than students and their representatives. We do not accept this paternalistic attitude and feel it goes against the very principles upon which student unions are founded: as student-led, democratic institutions. This sets a worrying and dangerous precedent for student unions across the country. If a trustee board is allowed to get away with illegitimately overturning democratic decisions with complete impunity, then trustee boards elsewhere can do the same. We will not have our movement ignored, denied and prevented by tiny unaccountable groups which include unelected, non-students. We find it particularly concerning that many of the changes you overturned related to the most oppressed and marginalised groups of students, and your decision to do so was not done with their consent. We feel this will only worsen the rights and powers of these students within your university and further increase inequality. It is for these reasons that we, the undersigned student representatives, call on you, the University of Birmingham Guild of Students’ Trustee Board, to reverse these decisions with immediate effect and implement all the changes that students decided upon democratically. Signed,
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 15:35:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015