Thursday 14-11-2019 - 11:03

Reported by Anna Marshall, Assembly Media Observer

Last week the Students’ Union Assembly met for their first session of the academic year, starting off proceedings with elections of open positions, before moving on to vote on specific policy motions. Assembly voted to declare a climate emergency, committing Durham SU to overhaul their operations and place the environment as a core priority. An election rules revision was denied, but a request for the Associations to be allowed more autonomy over their elections was approved. A motion for the SU to lobby landlords and the University to make guarantors more accessible to international students was unanimously approved.

Durham SU declares climate emergency
Assembly declared a climate emergency by a unanimous vote. The Students’ Union committed to working with the Environmental Community of Durham University (ECO DU) to lobby the University for environmentally-sustainable change.

Trevelyan College SU Representative, Thomas Pymer, brought two motions to Assembly, and after an amendment from Sam Johnson-Audini, both were passed without opposition. The Students’ Union endorsed Pymer’s resolution to encourage students to “think globally, but act locally”.

Pymer’s first motion was to “declare a climate emergency and transform the University’s environmental identity”. His second, after Johnson-Audini’s amendment, read: “The Environment: SU Core Position," which now acknowledges the colonial dynamics present in climate crisis”.

“I’m absolutely overjoyed. It’s fantastic that we have now got the SU completely onside and completely committed. It’s been a ten-month process, so it’s a completely amazing feeling”, said Pymer after the result.

This motion commits the Students’ Union to consider the environmental impact of all its future activities. This includes commitments to hold consultations with the University, source sustainable resources for the Union, effective waste management, and campaign for the Greenspace Group to be fully reinstated.

International students face discriminatory landlord guarantor policy
Assembly voted to lobby landlords to accept international guarantors, in a unanimous vote after a motion was proposed by Matteo Lai.

Lai explained that students in Durham looking to sign a tenancy agreement are asked to name a resident of the UK who can “guarantee” they will meet rent payments – for UK residents, this is typically a financially stable family member. Those who are unable to provide a UK guarantor are asked by most agencies to either use a guarantor agency or pay up to half the value of the entire year’s rent before their tenancy begins. According to this motion, guarantor agencies can cost approximately £200. The University also provides a guarantor scheme, but this has only got 50 places, and still costs £50. 

There are some exceptions who do accept international guarantors, but this is not widespread throughout Durham.

With this mandate, the SU will now begin lobbying other agencies to also follow this practice. Assembly also resolved to lobby for the University’s guarantor scheme to be expanded and made freely available, which will also benefit estranged students. 

New positions elected
Voting took place for several new Assembly positions, including Open Places and positions on the Governance and Grants Committee. Jonny McCausland was elected as SU Assembly Chair, and hosted the rest of the meeting.

Election policy changes
SU President, Kate McIntosh, acting upon recommendations from the SU Board of Trustees, proposed to remove some items that were part of an SU motion passed in summer. The items stipulated that SU Officers must remain neutral during elections for their successors. The issue was raised due to the previous motion’s inconsistency with other legislation the SU must abide to. Speakers argued that the crucial meaning behind these items needed to remain, especially with the NUS delegate elections upcoming, so it was ultimately denied, and the policy remained.

In a similar vein, a motion was passed to allow Associations greater control of their elections procedure. Jess Madden claimed some Associations were struggling due to electoral restrictions which made it difficult to host elections for positions that had been left vacant. Kate McIntosh opposed the motion, as these restrictions had been introduced to make elections more accessible, by stipulating members not able to vote in person could do so electronically. Madden expressed frustration that the restrictions made elections too difficult to run and Assembly voted in favour of Madden’s proposal.