Stirling Student Union held it’s first general meeting of the year this week.
Here are the highlights of the meeting with everything you need to know.
Union Elections
This year’s union elections are fast approaching with nominations closing on February 12th before a week of campaigning kicks off on the 20th.
Voting shall run for three days from Tuesday 27th until to Thursday 29th while final results being announced on Friday 1st March.
To assist in the election process, Kelly Parker has been elected to the elections committee.
Motions
Four motions were put up to a vote, including the union’s policy submissions to the National Union of Students.
All motions proposed at the meeting were passed.
‘Covid-19 Justice and Equality’
This motion focuses and tackling the lasting impacts of Covid-19 and the effects of long Covid, through the free provision of masks and the creation of clean air zones.
Although this motion did pass, there was resistance against it due to the costs of air-filters for a union already struggling financially.
‘Fossil-Free Careers’
Put forward by Global-Justice Stirling, this motion calls on the careers service to cut ties with “Unethical companies” in the fossil fuel sector and to push relationships with new ethical companies in the sector.
This motion is designed to allow the union to hold the careers service to account with the companies they choose to promote.
The last two motions put forward were Stirling’s policy submissions to both the UK and Scotland wings of the NUS.
‘Palestine Solidarity and Protect Students’
This policy submission is designed to stop universities from suppressing pro-Palestinian voices from being suppressed and to get an official statement of support for Palestinian activism.
This policy would protect the freedom of speech of the student body and defend the rights to protest.
‘Support International Students’
This policy is designed to provide additional support to international students especially regarding housing and accommodation.
All motions were passed in this session.
Reports
The student Sabbatical Officers all delivered reports on their activities since the last meeting:
Union President, Leen Ali, has been working to raise awareness of multiculturalism as well as working with the equalities zone and attempting to get student voices onto the campus’ digital screens.
Sports Union President, Murray Bushell, has been reworking the club mark system as well as working with Beyond Equality to promote positive club culture. He has also be working to promote varsity in March.
VP of Communities, Zoë Crosher,organised a mental health first aid course and is working on a Sexual Violence and Gender Based Violence award for societies.
Zoë has also been working on the societies ball and has begun developing a transport guide for new students.
Finally, VP of Education Katie Gethings has been working to improve academic rep training, as well as putting together development and networking events for the reps.
On top of this, Katie has been working on interview and financial literacy training for students and is looking to promote the RATE awards.
Image credit: Stirling Students Union/Instagram
The Union will reconvene after the elections on March 14th for it’s Annual General Meeting.
Featured Image credit: Stirling Students Union
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