Tuesday 20-04-2021 - 16:10

On March 25th and April 15th, the Student Union held their fourth annual Senate meeting. Senate is the highest decision-making body of the SU. This year the Senate meetings have been attended online by the Senate members (you can see a detailed description of the Senate here). 

For voting to go ahead in the Senate meetings, more than half of the members must be present within the first twenty minutes. As less than half of the members were present on the 25th, the Senate rescheduled voting for April 15th. The meeting on the 25th heard the State of the Union Report and reports from Officers and the Scrutiny Panel Report. 

The General Secretary, Kwame Asamoah Kwarteng, presented the State of the Union Report. The report highlighted that the SU is forecasting its finances and planning to apply to the Cultural Recovery Fund. It also highlighted the success of the elections and congratulated the new officers, who will start officially on August 1st. Additionally, the General Secretary announced that the new SUMS website is launching on May 5th and that the ground floor of the SU is currently open for use as a study space. Lastly, he mentioned some ongoing discussions, such as the sanitary bathrooms in the SU. Kwame congratulated the advice service for helping over 300 students online. Following the report, officers gave an update on their progress since February’s Senate. Their reports were included in the agenda.  

Women’s Officer- Chenze Ma: update about period poverty-related issues (second revision of the campaign proposal has gone to the University Board) and actions related with the Sexual Harassment Campaign (pushing for more streetlamps in dangerous areas on Fallowfield). Chenze Ma highlighted Reclaim the Night’s success, with high turnout in the online rally, including the discussions with Manchester Rape Crisis and the Reporting team at the University. Lastly, Chenze emphasised a need for more engagement in the Stop Asian Hate campaign.  

Welfare & Community Officer- Junior Usina: the officer focused the attention of his speech on the vandalism of student halls common rooms and the increased patrols of fire marshals in the halls. He explained that his focus is on tackling student behaviour. 

General Secretary- Kwame Asamoah Kwarteng: highlighted that he has met with the Russell Group CEO to discuss tuition fee rebates for home students. Furthermore, he emphasised the negotiations with the University to mitigate extra costs incurred by international students due to the pandemic. 

Activities and Development Officer- Carol Chepkech Tiriongo: A proposal has been made to the University to provide outside social spaces around the SU building in April in the form of marquees. She announced that there would be a pilot programme for Societies Enterprise Competition in June and July. Regarding the society Supermarkets, the SU is providing an online platform for societies to sell their merchandise; this will also be in the pilot scheme in April. The Make A Difference awards in May will feature performances from dance societies from different cultures. Lastly, she announced that Global Week has moved from March to April 26th-May 2nd.   

Postgraduate Officer-Nana Fredua Agyeman: Nana and Laetitia took student feedback to the University TLG, which has been well received. Furthermore, the ‘Grades Don’t Define Me’ Nana recently launched me’ campaign. The latest Manchester Doctoral College survey reached over 600 responses, a significant improvement from the 100 responses previously this year. Lastly, an open meeting for the PGR Association will be in April.  

Following the subsequent questions for the officers, Senate heard from the Scrutiny Panel. A committee member explained the role of the Scrutiny Committee and suggested some general commendations that the scrutiny panel has made. These include proactive targets that could be more detailed and planned out, using SMART objectives, and the management of logging hours to recognise the standard working weeks of SU staff. They drew attention to the success of the officer team in such a challenging year and their ability to balance proactive and reactive work and formed good connections with the student community through online platforms. Some questions were raised about using certain words in one of the reports and was followed by a balanced interchanged of opinion between the panel and the officers. The session came to an end with the expectation of reaching quorum the week after the Easter break on April 15th. 

The session on April 15th reached the necessary quorum for an adjourned meeting 15 minutes past the hour. I welcomed everyone, and after explaining the senate rules, the meeting started. We approved the minutes of the 3rd December Senate as well as the Steering Committee minutes. I presented the vacant position, but no one was elected or co-opted. 

Shortly after was the crux of what students come to Senate for - the policy debates. In this Senate, there was a resolution about a new Black Part-time Officer because of the broad concept of BME, to be able in this way to accurately represent black students on campus. After some questions and comments, the Senate went to a vote on the policy. 74% majority votes were in favour. In this way, we will consider this change in the democracy review.  

Senate then debated four lapsing policies that the steering committee wanted to discuss. The first policy proposed a reduction in the SU’s carbon footprint. The Senate went voted on the policy with a 72% majority in favour. The second policy addressed a plastic pledge. After debating opinions in favour and against, Senate voted for this policy to lapse as the votes in favour were not met. The third policy was about Trans Inclusion in Sport, and after some comments, Senate went quickly to a vote. Senate voted to renew this policy with a majority of 81%. The last lapsing policy was about contributing to bridging the information gap in university support and wellbeing services. After some comments about the issue, Senate voted to renew this policy with a majority of 88%. 

The Senate came to a close after the session divided into two sessions. Members heard notices about the Senate survey, the Democracy Review Survey, and a reminder about Global Week. Lastly, submissions of the question for the Husting of Greater Manchester Mayoral election and voting in that elections and the PGR Association President elections. I thanked everyone for attending and participating in both sessions.  

The next Senate will take place on May 6th; I hope to see most of you there. 

Lucia Chocarro Martinez 

Senate Chair 2020/2021