Monday 23-06-2025 - 00:00

Our Assembly Media Observer, Ellen Hodges, reports from Assembly.

Assembly on 5 June 2025 consisted of routine business items, such as receiving the board update report, Officer Committee update and Durham SU policy review.

Assembly voted that the boycott of Durham Union Society (DUS) will continue until the DUS has demonstrably showed improvement to their culture. Furthermore, the motion to improve student voice in the Coimbra Group climate campaign was passed, as well as amendments to standing orders related to the Durham SU part-time Officer structure.

Routine business items

Chairs election

Andrew Hamilton is running as a candidate for chair. Voting has now closed.

Co-option of new members

Joe Henley was nominated and co-opted as a new member.

Board update report

The Board of Trustees met on 28 May 2025, and received a presentation from the Durham Union Society. The board also discussed the 2025 student survey, approved in principle the creation of a subsidiary organisation, and approved a call for a referendum to amend the articles of association.

Election Returning Officer report

The report was received with no further comments or questions at Assembly. This report confirmed that the Durham SU winter elections were a fair election.

Officer Committee update

SU President, Dan Lonsdale, summarised that the Officer Committee is focused on understanding and adapting to the recent University restructuring. The Officers are looking at ways to help students through these changes. Further updates include the approval of the University’s drugs policy and the staff-student relationship policy, as well as intentions to begin taking some actions around  the recent UK Supreme Court ruling.

Durham SU Policy Review

Voting was passed to ratify the recommendation to expire four policies. These include:

• The Erasmus Scheme Policy- now outdated as the transition from the Erasmus Scheme has taken place
• Treatment of Generative AI at Durham University- achieved as the new AI policy has been passed
• Review of the Durham SU Officer Structure- achieved as the standing orders have been updated

Durham Union Society Presentation
Context for this discussion:

The outcome of the discussion at Assembly will inform the Board of Trustees’ decision on its working relationship with DUS, but will not confine their decision.

Students have been concerned about the culture of DUS for many years, specifically surrounding racism, misogyny and classism. In 2020, students asked Durham SU to stop working with DUS until their concerns were taken seriously and DUS had shown significant progress in changing the culture. In 2023, the current SU President  negotiated terms:  if DUS showed a serious commitment to change, Durham SU would incentivise this work by welcoming them to Freshers’ Fair 2023. By summer 2024, DUS had not followed through on its commitment to a sufficient degree and, therefore, Durham SU Trustees did not agree to further incentives.

In order for Assembly members to review the current boycott, the DUS President presented their account of culture improvements within DUS  to Durham SU Assembly, this presentation lasted ten minutes. He stated that DUS has acknowledged issues of the past and is committed to improving the welfare of its members. The following points are organised by themes taken from the DUS EDI report available at: https://dus.org.uk/edi/

The President stated that DUS has taken the following actions relating to the main issues:

Respect and inclusion

• Established an equality committee in 2022 - consisting of LGBT+, people of colour, disability, international members and women’s representative
• Elected a Welfare Officer in 2022. Milly, the Welfare Officer, shared the ways complaints can be made, including in-person office hours, by email and via an anonymous complaint form.
• Designed a member’s code of conduct, with a final draft being worked on
• Identified the need for mandatory inclusion training for several Officers
• Introduced a whistleblower policy to provide protections against people reporting wrongdoings

Accountability and trust

• Released an online reporting function in 2021
• Now publicising minutes of committee meetings for transparency

Access and culture

• Provided access membership, including a £25 reduction of membership fees (£50 compared to £75) and a £20 reduction in ball tickets for Durham Grant recipients
• Worked on charitable fundraising, with this going towards a mixture of local charities and funding access memberships and tickets
• Committed to outreach to student groups and associations when a topic or speaker may be particularly relevant

Representation

• Increased female representation, with the core officer committee now being 40% female

Following this presentation, questions were opened to the room.

Discussion in response to DUS presentation:

Accessibility: Concerns were raised about the inaccessibility of the Pemberton Building. DUS acknowledged the issue and will explore options with the University, particularly in light of recent renovations.

Engagement with Student Groups: Attendees emphasised the importance of enhanced outreach to relevant student associations, particularly when debate topics align with their interests. DUS committed to improving this, with a focus on clearer responsibilities for designated Officers.

Welfare Support: Questions were raised about the training of Welfare Officers and how welfare concerns are escalated. DUS confirmed Nightline training will be provided and acknowledged the need for clearer reporting mechanisms.

Measuring Change: The importance of evaluating DUS’s progress and impact was discussed. DUS pledged to be transparent about what is working and what isn’t, noting early signs of improvement such as increased representation among core Officers and upcoming initiatives like a members’ code of conduct.

After the  Q&A and a short break, a general discussion took place.

Key points discussed were:

• DUS are reviewing the complaints process and is taking language from the code of conduct of Durham SU
• There are challenges related to quantitatively measuring culture change
• DUS argued that, if the boycott was lifted, they could more easily work with Durham SU to create the culture change collaboratively. They argued that by agreeing to collaborate would symbolise trust between the two bodies and convey a clear message of working together openly as two societies to improve the culture of DUS. Dan Lonsdale, SU President, replied by saying that Durham SU has not withheld any support to help them improve. Still, there is a difference between that and endorsing the society to students. DUS hopes for a cooperative future with Durham SU.

Vote

After the presentation from DUS on their current account of improvements, and the subsequent discussion with Assembly members, a vote was held to decide whether to lift the boycott of DUS. Assembly voted to continue the boycott until DUS provide greater evidence of a significant culture change.
 

Effective student voice in the Coimbra Group climate process

The Coimbra Climate Symposium was held in Durham in March 2025. Following this, Durham University and the Coimbra Group announced the launch of the Durham collaboration, which reflects the shared commitment of 39 prestigious universities across Europe to tackle climate change and embed sustainability in academic life.  [1]

Thomas Harrington, proposer of the motion, recognises this as a welcome step but believes it does not go far enough and will require considerable work in the future. Specifically, the proposed motion calls for the university and the Coimbra Group to include student voice in future meetings and working groups. The motion also urges the university to reevaluate its interactions with grassroots student campaigns and commit to engaging with them in a meaningful, respectful and open manner.

The motion was passed.

Review of the Durham SU part-time Officer restructure

Following a year of trialling the new part-time Officer structure in the SU, this review resolves to amend standing orders F and C. This means that the MCR and JCR presidents’ part-time Officer will be replaced with a common rooms part-time officer. The Sustainability Officer will be removed, and a Part-time Postgraduate Taught Students’ Officer will be introduced.

Dan Lonsdale stressed that these changes aren’t indicative of any failings from the current part-time Officers and instead reflect the changing priorities of the university and limited resources.

The review found that it would be more beneficial to support the existing network of sustainability activists as opposed to having a formal Officer post. It was also found that the significant demand on the PGR role made it clear that PGT representation was missing and required going forward.

[1]- Coimbra Group unites to launch the Durham Declaration on Climate Change and Sustainability | Coimbra