LSE Students' Union
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The London School of Economics Students' Union (LSESU) is the representative and campaigning body for students at LSE to the London School of Economics and to other bodies, covering areas such as quality of education, hall of residence provision, fees, equalities and accessibility for students with disabilities and other related areas. It also provides welfare support, through an Advice and Counselling Centre and various support funds. Moreover, it has around 150 societies and 30 sports clubs, three bars, a cafe, a Media Group (consisting of a newspaper (The Beaver), journal (The Script), radio station (PuLSEfm) and TV network (LooSEtv), gymnasium and photocopying shop. All students at LSE are automatically co-opted as members of the Union.
The LSESU became famous during 1969 for its student activism when radical students closed the school for three weeks. See BBC archive news article.
Historically, the LSESU is politically left-leaning with many strong socialist, and more recently green political societies. Currently, its largest party political society is the LSESU Green Party.
The LSESU voted in March 2005 to stay affiliated to the National Union of Students (NUS) and is also part of the University of London Union (ULU) and the National Postgraduate Committee (NPC). The current Honorary President of the LSESU is the Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal and the Honorary Vice President is the Burmese student activist Thet Wing Aung.
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[edit] Recent Achievements
The LSESU has recently campaigned successfully to secure a Living Wage for the cleaners on campus and within the LSE's residences. The campaign was led by students, cleaners, academics and The East London Citizens Organisation (TELCO) and has involved several high profile protests, petitions, UGM motions and consistent lobbying of the School's administration in an effort to lift cleaners out of poverty pay.
In 2006, the LSESU voted to divest from 14 listed arms companies and are currently lobbying the School to do the same.
[edit] Union General Meeting
The LSESU is the only students' union in the UK to retain a weekly General Meeting which all members can attend. The UGM is the sovereign body of the Union - a place in which the politically determined cut their teeth and union representatives face scrutiny. A taste of the UGM can be found at LooSE TV's website. There are reports and questions to all the various officers and committees of the LSESU before motions.
The UGM can remove any elected union official from office and sets union policy to which all elected officials must adhere.
Any two people can move a motion on any subject, which is then debated at the UGM. These motions can be serious, setting policy and making major financial decisions, or can be much more light-hearted, concerning the popular soap Neighbours, for instance.
[edit] Executive Committee
The LSESU Executive Committee is made up of sixteen officers. Four of these positions (General Secretary, Treasurer, Education & Welfare Officer and Communications Officer) are full-time positions, known as Sabbaticals or 'Sabbs'. Students, usually at the end of their period of study, but sometimes in between years, take a 'year out' and are paid to help run the LSESU. They are paid circa £22,500 - a recent UGM motion reduced their salaries after criticism that their pay was the highest in the country compared to other students' unions. The remaining twelve officers are part-time and include two non-voting members - the General Course Students' Representative and Athletics Union President (non-voting because they are not elected in a cross-campus ballot). The 'Exec', particularly the four Sabbs, carry on the day-to-day running of the Union. Positions are elected annually by use of the Single Transferable Vote system.
The Exec positions are:
| Position | 2006 - 2007 | 2007 - 2008 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sabbatical Officers | |||
| General Secretary | Jimmy Tam | Fadhil Bakeer Marker | |
| Treasurer | Joel Kenrick | Libby Meyer | |
| Education & Welfare Officer | Alexandra Vincenti | Ruhana Ali | |
| Communications Officer | Ali Dewji | Kayt Berry | |
| Part-Time Officers | |||
| Anti-Racism Officer | Shanela Haque | Amina Adewusi | |
| Environment & Ethics Officer | Aled Dilwyn Fisher | Aled Dilwyn Fisher | |
| International Students' Officer | Fadhil Bakeer Markar | Firoz Noordeen | |
| Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) Students' Officer | Alex Finnegan | Dominic Rampat | |
| Mature & Part-Time Students' Officer | Michail Retsinas | Ziyaad Lunat | |
| Postgraduate Students' Officer | James "JJ" Caspell | Elected in November | |
| Residences Officer | Louise Robinson | Louise Robinson | |
| Societies Officer | Arthur Krebbers | Carys Morgan | |
| Students with Disabilities (SWD) Officer | Emma Hallgren | Lizzie Fison | |
| Women's Officer | Zoe Sullivan | Daisy Mitchell Forster | |
| Non-Voting Members | |||
| General Course Students' Representative | Anushka Shenoy | Elected in November | |
| Athletics Union (AU) President | Kav Patel | ??? | |
| Returning Officer | Adrian Beciri | James Bacon | |
[edit] Committees
There are two principal committees to which students are elected that help in the running of the LSESU; Constitution & Steering, which ensures the actions of the LSESU are legal and in accordance with the Constitution and Codes of Practice of the LSESU, and Finance & Services, which assists the Treasurer in the preparation of the annual budget and acts as a check on the financial actions of the LSESU. There are then myriad other committees and sub-committees that administer the LSESU.
[edit] Staff
As well as the full time 'Sabbs', there are assorted full- and part- time staff. These include a General Manager (Gethin Roberts), Finance Manager (Sam Kung), Societies Manager (Alice Kington), Sports Administrator (Jarlath o'Hara) and various people, including students employed on a part-time basis, involved in the provision of services such as the shop, copy shop, bars, cafe and advice centre.
[edit] Constitution
The Constitution and Codes of Practice are the documents that regulate the actions of the LSESU. The Constitution requires the approval of the London School of Economics Court of Governors to amend, while the Codes of Practice can be amended by the SU alone. The documents provide for a weekly, sovereign meeting (the UGM) which all members can attend, question the Executive and other committees and officers of the Union and propose and debate policy.
The Constitution and Codes of Practice were amended in 2003 by a Constitutional Review Taskforce constituted under Tuuli Kousa. The amendments included:
- Scrapping the position of Entertainments Sabbatical, replacing it with a full-time member of staff
- Moving the Communications Officer from a part-time to a Sabbatical position
- Scrapping the 'Executive Slate' whereby the Communications, Residences, Societies and Environment & Services (replaced by Environment & Ethics) Officers were elected as a mini-committee
- Replacing the Environment & Services Officer with an Environment & Ethics Officer
- Introducing the positions of Anti-Racism, Women's and LGBT Officers
- Creating the Media Group
- Re-writing the Equal Opportunities statement
- Various changes to election procedure, including scrapping the procedure of moving the ballot box around halls of residence
- Various changes to the procedure of the Union General Meeting
- Various changes to Committee structures & taskforces
The previous major changes to the Constitution and Codes of Practice were carried out under Jonathan Black's tenure. There have since been other, less substantial changes.
[edit] History
The LSE SU has often been in national focus for its activities. In 1967, David Adelstein, president of the Students' Union, and Marshall Bloom, president of the Graduate Students' Association, were suspended from the School for taking part in a protest against the appointment of Walter Adams as Director of the School in which a porter died of a heart attack. Adams had previously been in Rhodesia and was accused of complicity in the regime's white minority rule. The suspensions were reversed five days after students began a hunger strike in opposition to the move. [1]. An American citizen, Bloom committed suicide in 1969 when he was called up to fight in Vietnam.
There were further protests in 1969 when Adams was appointed and ordered the installation of security gates at the LSE. These gates were later removed. [2]
The LSE SU elected Winston Silcott, one of the Tottenham Three who were originally convicted of the murder of Pc Keith Blakelock during the Broadwater Farm riot and then released when the evidence used to convict him was found to be unsage, as Honorary President as a protest against miscarraiges of justice. This led to a large amount of hate mail, much of it racist in nature, including death threats being sent to the LSE SU. There was media outrage, particularly amongst the tabloid press, at the action.
[edit] List of Previous Sabbatical Officers
- 1978-1979
- General Secretary - Ed Jacobs
- 1979-1980
- General Secretary - John Munford/Steve Pound
- 1982-1983
- General Secretary - Tony Donaldson
- Treasurer - Rick Young
- Entertainments -
- 1983-1984
- General Secretary - Deborah Hindson
- Treasurer - John Donkersley
- Entertainments -
- 1991-1992
- General Secretary - Michiel Van Hulten
- Treasurer - Toby Johnson
- Entertainments - Fiona MacDonald
- 1992-1993
- General Secretary - Fazile Zahir
- Finance and Services Secretary - Jon Spurling
- Entertainments and Societies - Jonny Bradburn
- Equal Opportunities and Welfare - Peter Harris
- 1993-1994
- General Secretary - Tesher Fitzpatrick
- Finance and Services Secretary - Lola Elerian
- Entertainments and Societies - Justin Deaville
- Equal Opportunities and Welfare - Leandro Murrah
- 1994-1995
- General Secretary - Martin Lewis
- Finance and Services Secretary - Ola Budjinska
- Entertainments and Societies - Gary Delaney
- Equal Opportunities and Welfare - Vini Ghatate
- 1995-1996
- General Secretary - Kate Hampton
- Finance and Services Secretary - Claire Lawrie
- Entertainments and Societies - Nick Fletcher
- Education and Welfare - Omar Soomera
- 1996-1997
- General Secretary - Daniel Crowe
- Treasurer - Darrell Hare
- Entertainments Officer - Chris Cooper
- Education and Welfare - Sam Parham
- 1997-1998
- General Secretary - Narius Aga
- Treasurer - Imogen Bathurst
- Education and Welfare - Yuan Potts
- Entertainments - Jasper Ward
- 1998-1999
- General Secretary - Narius Aga
- Treasurer - Yuan Potts
- Education and Welfare - Maria Neophytou
- Entertainments - Jasper Ward
- 1999-2000
- General Secretary - Jonathan Black
- Treasurer - Jonathan Frewin
- Education and Welfare - Rebecca Little
- Entertainments - Alan Hatton
- 2000-2001
- General Secretary - Lee Federman
- Treasurer - Charlotte Knowles
- Education and Welfare - Louise Proudlove
- Entertainments - Amardeep Vidyarthi
- 2001-2002
- General Secretary - Clare Taylor
- Treasurer - Jarlath O'Hara
- Education and Welfare - David Clay
- Entertainments - George Ionnaou
- 2002-2003
- General Secretary - Tuuli Kousa
- Treasurer - Peter Bellini
- Education and Welfare - Priya Parkash
- Entertainments - Jimmy Baker
- 2003-2004
- General Secretary - Elliot Simmons
- Treasurer - Jo Kibble
- Education and Welfare - Rowan Harvey
- Entertainments - Jimmy Baker
- 2004-2005
- General Secretary - Will Macfarlane
- Treasurer - Gareth Carter
- Education and Welfare - Sian Errington
- Communications - Khurshid "K" Faizullaev
- 2005-2006
- General Secretary - Rishi Madlani
- Treasurer - Natalie Black
- Education and Welfare - Sian Errington
- Communications - Chris Heathcote
- 2006-2007
- General Secretary - Jimmy Tam
- Treasurer - Joel Kenrick
- Education and Welfare - Alexandra Vincenti
- Communications - Ali Dewji
