The second emergency General Meeting in two weeks resulted in the passing of the Gaza Crisis motion on Wednesday. The debate saw passionate speeches from those proposing and those opposed to the motion, with sixteen amendments lined up by members of the Jewish Society in an attempt to delay the vote. The Main Debating Hall and Bikos Cafe were both full, with over 500 students attending the meeting. The atmosphere at the meeting was tense, with students jeering speakers and heated arguments breaking out outside the Union building after the vote. After the vote, pro-motion members of the audience began chanting: “Viva viva Palestina” and “we are all Palestinians.”
The motion was proposed by Katan Alder and seconded by Sara Mahmoud. The amendments criticised the motion’s lack of reference to the actions of Hamas, the political party in control of Gaza. A motion to proceed direct to a vote was approved by the meeting after two amendments had been rejected. The proposal was made by Philosophy student Gabriel Hassan.
In an extraordinary move, another motion was proposed asking for the removal of Chair Jonty Pryor. However this was revealed to be a further attempt by anti-motion members of the audience to criticise the motion. After Hassan’s proposal had been accepted by over two-thirds of the students present, large numbers of pro-Israel members of the audience walked out of the meeting in protest, although quorum was maintained allowing the main vote to proceed.
Continue reading ‘Gaza Crisis Motion Passes 2nd Emergency GM’
The emergency General Meeting on the Gaza Crisis last Wednesday saw hundreds of students gather to discuss the recent Israeli occupation of the territory. The meeting, held in the Academy One building, failed to reach quorum and instead comprised of a informal speeches on the motion that pledged solidarity with Gazans and the Palestinians in general. The meeting finished with Sara Mahmoud, one of the motions advocates, calling for a march on the BBC to protest against the corporations refusal to broadcast a humanitarian aid appeal in the wake of the Israeli actions.
Hecklers disrupted the meeting when it became apparent that quorum had not been reached. Union Chair Jonty Prior was faced with chants of “We need to vote” from the audience. There were accusations that members of the Jewish Society had blocked entry to the meeting. Protestors congregated around the building holding Palestinian flags and shouting chants.
The motion called for “fundraising for humanitarian relief for Gaza” along with pressure on the university “to send surplus academic supplies to the students of Gaza” and “send a message of support to occupations around the country that have shown solidarity with the people of Gaza.” Mohamed Ghalaieny, speaking in support of the motion, criticised the actions of the Israeli government, claiming it had caused “the loss of innocent Palestinian lives” in its recent offensive. Seconder Sara Mahmoud strongly criticised the BBC’s stance on the Gaza aid appeal and invited audience members to “march in solidarity with the people of Gaza.” Her call was met with shouts of “Viva Palestine!” from the audience.
The motion was criticised in a speech by Oliver Worth, who argued that the motion had failed to address the role of Hamas in the Gaza crisis. He accused the organisation of “using civilians as human shields” and claimed it was the barrier to peace in the region, rather than Israel.
The Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Manchester Alan Gilbert had many student activists silenced at the Education Questions and Answers debate organised by the Students’ Union. In the 90 minute event, Gilbert largely and perhaps unexpectedly agreed with the criticisms of the students and admitted that the university, at times, has been providing poor quality of service to students. He said that through reviews and student feedback the university’s low satisfaction rating will be addressed.
Many students have been airing their negative opinions of the highly paid President with some accusing him of attempting to run the University like a business. However, throughout the session many key critics were found to be agreeing with some of Gilbert’s points, with key union Socialist Party spokesman Dave Sewell stating that he showed admiration for several thoughts presented regarding unfair class discrimination in higher education although the two did not agree on issues relating to tuition fees.
Gilbert also announced that there are heavily progressed plans to build a £45M ‘Learning Commons’ on the site of the old Refectory, which will provide a 1500 capacity study area which is not for teaching. He stated that such buildings have been proven popular among students in America.
Gilbert also admitted that the research driven funding and emphasis in the years since the unification of Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST “may not have been a good decision” and has indicated an active incentive to address the satisfaction of student education.
The problem with students is that the proof is in the pudding. There is skepticism whether the reforms to solve student problems will actually carry ahead. It therefore remains necessary to keep up the pressure on the university to implement the proposed reforms. Continue reading ‘Vice-Chancellor Alan Gilbert Talks to Students’
In the first General Meeting on the year to reach quorum, University of Manchester students voted to reform the Students’ Union Council and ban members of the British National Party (and others deemed to be “fascists”) from speaking at the Union.
The first motion to pass, entitled “The Change We Need”, replaces school representatives on Council with General Members. Instead of having a single representative on Council for each school, each school will be allocated a set number of General Members proportional to the number of students in that school. Many Secretaries on Council will also be removed in favour of the new General Members.
This was opposed by many who disagree with the loss of positions such as the Anti-Racism Secretary, although Chris Jenkinson (Proposer of the Motion) and Rob Pinfold (Seconder of the Motion) pointed out that any Council member who states in their manifesto that they would like to campaign on specific issues will be allowed to do so. The motion gained its required two-thirds majority to pass.
Continue reading ‘UMSU GM Reforms Council and Bans the BNP’
On Wednesday the NUS held an Extradordinary Conference (called by 36 students unions back in October) to discuss reform and the new proposed NUS constitution. At the conference, the proposed new constitution was passed by 614 votes to 142. There is however a condition that the constitution must be ratified by a further conference - either another Extraordinary Conference or the Annual Conference next April. UMSU held its election for delegates before reading week. A list of our delegates is available online on the UMSU website.
Union hacks will have probably been suffering from deja vu - the proposed reforms are very similar to those proposed and defeated at this year’s Annual Conference in Blackpool. Those in favour of the reforms claim that they will modernise the NUS for the 21st century (its constitution has barely changed since the organisation was founded in the 1920s) whilst those against argue that it is an attack on the democratic elements of NUS.
More information is available over at Officer Online. We’ll bring you more updates nearer the Annual Conference next year or when another Extradordinary Conference takes place (if called).
Yesterday’s Union General Meeting was cancelled as a result of dismal turnout. Following last year’s trend of low turnouts which has consistently dogged UMSU, the first meeting of the new academic year did not reach quorum and the motions were not voted on. Those who came to vote on the proposed student policies were trying to make last-minute calls to friends or course mates to get the venue filled. However, despite persistent demands for a time extension to wait for more people to turn up, the meeting was cancelled at 2pm as fewer than 300 students attended. (According to GM rules, meetings start at 1.30pm and need a minimum number of 300 students to conduct business.)
Continue reading ‘First GM of the year fails to meet quorum’
The Students’ Union launched its new Education Assembly in an event in the Council Chambers today. The Assembly, created by Academic Affairs Officer Chris Jenkinson, aims to get students involved in improving the quality of education delivered at the University of Manchester.
Continue reading ‘Launch of the Education Assembly’
The views expressed in this article are the views of the author and not the views of the Politics Society.
Hi all, and thanks for taking the time to read my article! My name’s Rob Pinfold and I’m (as of about three weeks ago) The General Secretary of the University of Manchester Students’ Union. I’ve been invited by the Politics Society to lay out my positions on some issues as well as some of the (many!) things I want to achieve in my year of office.
Continue reading ‘GenSec’s Plans for 2008/2009′
