• Accessibility

BME students are under-represented and the Students' Union is not inclusive.

The Students' Union is run by white people and the majority of elected officers are white.

This idea is to mandate and authorise the Students' Union President to work on bringing justice and equality to all BME students and to get more BME students and staff involved in the Students' Union.

The Students' Union President is mandated to do the following:

 

1- Amending the definition of BME to include and be limited to African, Asian, Arab, East European and Caribbean heritages.

2- Getting more BME representation in the Students' Union including full-time elected officers, student staff and staff members (according to the suggested definition and not the current one)

3- Allocating a certain budget to be agreed upon by the trustees to hire a consultancy to re-structure the Students' Union to be more inclusive and  diverse

4- Forming a BME committee made of BME students and BME staff members to work on BME-related issues and be consulted on everything that concerns BME students such as Black History Month

5- Allocating a certain budget for Black History Month to cover a variety of events to represent properly the Black History in Britain

6- Hiring a full-time staff member who is self-defined as a BME (according to the suggested definition) to handle all the BME-related issues and coordinate with the BME committee to make sure that BME representation is on the right track

7- To embed this idea within the strategy of the Students' Union and to be flagged as a high priority for the Students' Union

8- The Democratic Procedures Committee should be formed of at least 50% BME students according to the suggested definition

9- To amend the constitution and include the BME Committee in the constitution

 

This idea should be enforced within a month after being successfully voted and the Students' Union President should be held accountable before the BME Committee and DPC should be overseeing the democratic procedures of its enforcement

Actions Taken

  • This idea opened on 17 Oct 2016 and closes for voting on 07 Nov 2016.
  • This Idea has conditionally passed. Work will start on this Idea unless it is vetoed by two-thirds of the Student Council Meeting on 24 Nov 2016. Click here for more info
  • November 2016: Student Council sent this Idea back to its proposer with a request to clarify what action the Idea is calling for as the additioanl information does not consitute policy. The Idea has been returned to the original proposer who is in discussion with the SU and DPC as to how best to continue.
  • May 2017: there has been no ocntact from the original Idea proposer to date.

Discuss

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