A motion to increase the number of gender neutral toilets on campus was resoundingly passed tonight at the Union general meeting, with 128 votes for the motion versus 12 votes against the motion.
Currently, the university has one gender neutral bathroom on campus while the rest are gendered.
The vote followed an update on the university’s plans for campus development over the coming years.
Gendered toilets will still exist on campus, however, the new motion intends to work with Estates and Campus services to identify those existing toilets on campus which can be converted to gender neutral by changing signage to reflect facilities as either “toilet”, “toilets with stalls” or “toilets with urinals”.
The end goal of the motion is to have at least one gender neutral bathroom on each floor of the major buildings on campus, and at least one gender neutral bathroom in each minor building on campus. Any new buildings constructed on campus would have a gender neutral bathroom included in the planning from the beginning.
Another motion which passed at the general meeting was regarding the NUS and their delegate’s accountability policy. The motion passed with 82 votes for the motion versus six against. The motion comes after a turbulent year for the NUS, with the revelation that it could be facing bankruptcy with a projected £3m deficit.
The motion would require an increase in accountability for NUS delegates and encourage them to take on feedback from the student body in order to avoid delegates basing their decisions on NUS motions entirely on their personal politics. It would use Union resources, such as the website and mStir app, to inform students of important NUS motions.
Stuart McLuckie the NUS delegate who put forward the motion said: “Your feedback matters, not our political opinions.”
The final motion of the meeting was an amendment to the previously passed Save our Students’ Union motion, which hoped to reduce liability from attaching the Union to specific political agendas through a new procedure in which motions would be withdrawn if they are determined not to be in ‘direct student interests’. However, the amendment did not pass with only 27 votes for the motion versus 63 votes against. 35 voters abstained.
Votes in the meeting were counted using an online ballot, a change from the usual method of a show of hands.
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[…] more news from the Union GMs. (you can see why the news teams go) At the final General Meeting of the semester, a motion was passed approving Gender Neutral Bathrooms in the union building. The […]