York University Students' Union
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This article is on the University of York Students' Union in England. For the Canadian version, see York Federation of Students. University of York Students' Union (or YUSU) is the students' union for students of the University of York, England.
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[edit] Student Centre
YUSU is currently housed in the Student Centre, (formerly the Daw Suu Student Centre) in Goodricke College. It is often remarked that the title 'Student Centre', rather than the more usual 'Student Union', was created in order to preserve the abbreviation SC on signing, as the building in question first pulled duty as a squash court. In reality, however, it was to reduce tensions between the various groups housed within the building - the Students' Union, the Athletic Union, the Graduate Students Association when the building was first used. Currently it now only houses the Students' Union (YUSU).
[edit] Services
YUSU provides a variety of services, such as the minibus which transports students from campus to their homes, the union shops YOUR:SHOP and YOUR:BOOKS and the union magazine YOR:MAG (sic), and centrally funds the union societies, such as student newspapers Vision and nouse, student television station YSTV, student radio station URY, and debating society the York union. The students' union also supports an Athletic Union, RAG campaign and a Student Community Action (latterly known as Student Action) organisation which co-ordinates an active voluntary sector.
The Union has no control over any bars which is relatively rare amongst British universities.
[edit] Constitution
The union is a centralised body, though augmented by autonomous bodies known as JCRCs or Students' Associations which represent the various colleges which make up the University. The main legislative body of the union is the Union General Meeting, known as the UGM, which takes the form of a series of motions concerning union affairs voted on in sequence. Motions passed in this way are then executed by the executive committee, which consists of six sabbatical officers (President, Services and Finance, Academic and Welfare, Student Development and Charities, Societies and Communications, and Athletic Union President), and 8 non-sabbatical officers (Policy and Campaigns, LGBT (changed in constitution, Jan 2005), Disability, Women's, Racial Equality, Ents, Environment, and Training). The college chairs and AU secretary also sit on the executive committee as ex officio officers.
YUSU formerly has expressly forbidden slate campaigning in committee elections, although this was not always the case - until comparatively recently it was not only acceptable but expected that elections would be fought under a political party banner similar to factions under NUS - examples including the Socialist Workers' Student Society and the Federation of Conservative Students.
In 2005 political observers inside the union generally considered Labour to have an influence on the YUSU executive, with the Campaigns, Societies, Women's, and Educational Campaigns Officers being members of the university Labour Club and the Education and Welfare officer being an ex-member, despite this being the second smallest of the three main political clubs on campus in terms of membership numbers, with the Conservatives being the largest party on campus. The current President is known to have more centre-right views.
- See also: Students' Union Offices
[edit] Criticism of YUSU
YUSU has something of a reputation for ineffectuality. This is perhaps due to the lack of a students' union bar meaning that it relies on the University for any funding. Also its UGM (Union General Meeting) system requires the presence of 206 students to form policy, a figure which is rarely attained, and so the union has few opportunities to originate new policy. The executive committee cannot constitutionally carry out any policy not sanctioned by a quorate general meeting.
YUSU also implements a media charter, like many other Students' Unions, in relation to the media organisations ratified and funded by itself - mainly in relation to the two campus newspapers, which often leads to disagreements. The need for YUSU's editorial control followed on from situations in which campus newspapers published potentially libellous articles about students. Due to the fact that YUSU largely funds the campus newspapers, in the event of anyone suing the paper, it would be YUSU not the student journalists who were deemed responsible, and the Union has a responsibility to protect the funds it administrates for all student organisations.
[edit] YUSU History
Founded in 1964 as the York Students Representative Committee, YUSU has evolved considerably over the years.
The first sabbatical President was Dave Mahony, elected in 1965 to replace the first (largely ceremonial) President and Chairman, Pip Nayak. Since then the office of President has remained, barring a brief period in 1986 in which the role was termed General Secretary.
The current form of executive is comparatively recent, essentially being created by the abolition of the Internal Vice-President and External Vice-President posts in 2000, and their roles being divided amongst the modern-day Welfare, Societies, Services and Campaigns team. More recent changes involve the institution of Halifax College and thus the addition of its chair (then James Byron) to the executive, the change of the Press and Publicity Officer to Communications Officer in 2003, and the change of the York Student Community Action or YSCA officer to Student Action officer in 2004. The then current constitution was reviewed and re-written by the undertaking of James Alexander in full consultation in 2005 and was passed the first time it was submitted.
A new constitution, drawn-up by Micky Armstrong and Nat Thwaites-McGowan, failed its first attempt to pass at 2/3rds majority due to opposition to the removal of liberation posts from the executive. It was later revised and resubmitted by two ordinary members of the union, voted on but failed due to falling short of a 2/3rds majority of votes. The second vote however was so close an ordinary member of the union proposed that abstentions should be excluded from the calculation. The President and Services Officer called two Emergency Student Union meetings to resolve the issue by a democratic vote of the union. However these meetings did not have the required number of students so the issue was forced to an executive meeting to decide. Consultation with various constitutional lawyers resulted in the decision that abstentions did not count towards the 2/3rds needed, and therefore the constitution was passed. The current constitution that YUSU works with is therefore held by some to be illegitimate.
[edit] List of Presidents
- Anne-Marie Canning (President elect) James
- Rich Croker (2006-2007) Derwent
- Micky Armstrong (2005-2006) Langwith
- James Alexander (2004-2005) Langwith
- Chris Jones (2003-2004) Derwent
- Tom Connor (2002-2003) Goodricke
- Ffion Evans (2001-2002) Vanbrugh
- Ben Youdan (2000-2001) Derwent
- Helen Woolnough (1999-2000) Derwent
- Claire Ainsley (1998-1999)
- Jenny Wood (1997-1998)
- Fergus Drake (1996-1997)
- Jago Parker (1995-1996)
- Lee Flindell (1994-1995)
- Fleur Anderson (1993-1994)
- Benjamin Drake (1992-1993)
- David Wheeldon (1991-1992)
- James Minton (1990-1991)
- Amanda Kleeman (1989-1990)
- Andy Wood (1988-1990)
- Ben Rich (1987-1988)
- Felicity Huxley-Williams (1986-1987)
- Russell George (1985-1986)
- Jonathan Slater (1984-1985)
- Tim Edmondson (1983-1984)
- Gethin Jones (1982-1983)
- Richard Lerner (1981-1982)
- Simon Bryceson (1980-1981)
- Mike Barnes (1979-1980)
- Andy Lovelady (1978-1979)
- Phil Harris (1977-1978)
- Richard Burden (1976-1977)
- In this year there were two candidates for the SU president, the other being Paul Holmes. Both candidates were later members of the House of Commons.
- John Roberts (1975-1976)
- Paul Hodges (1974-1975)
- Mike Mosley (1973-1974)
- Steve Sheppard (1972-1973)
- Kevin Heymann (1971-1972)
- Nigel Strange (1970-1971)
- John Randall (1969-1970)
- Jon Taylor (1968-1969)
- Julian Friedman (1967-1968)
- David Willis (1966-1967)
- Tony Banks (1965-1966)
- Dave Mahony (1964-1965)
- Pip Nayak (1964)
