Wednesday 13-05-2020 - 09:35

The phrase ‘democracy review’ is something that has been discussed in a number of different forums and within several student communities this year. We know there are many students who are unhappy with their SU’s democratic structures, from Assembly to elections, and we have stated a commitment to changing that.

We’re excited that our Opportunities Officer-Elect, Anna Marshall, will soon be leading a democracy review. As Anna doesn't take up her post until August, during the initial stages of the project she is able to provide insight both as a candidate in the recent election and as a student looking from the outside in. She’ll then be able to dive into the project more fully, once she’s in post for the 2020-21 academic year.

Below Anna outlines the plan for the review and shares some of our initial work to improve democracy at Durham SU. Got your own thoughts and ideas about democracy in Durham? Anna also explains how you can get involved. 

 

“Recent events have exposed critical weaknesses in the democratic structures of Durham Students’ Union. There have been various calls for reform to the SU’s democratic processes from many voices and we need a solution. Although there is no universal agreement over which steps should be taken next, it is clear that the process doesn’t work for many students and that something needs to change. 

This cannot be completely solved overnight. But it can be reasonably addressed within a year. The SU’s democratic processes have been voted on and edited by students year upon year, for many years, and have resulted in a complicated governance structure that many students recognise as problematic. In order to create real, long-lasting change, we need to overhaul the existing system, rather than continuing to make edits to a structure that we’ve established is not working.

I was glad to find that the SU had taken initial steps to begin addressing this earlier this year, in commissioning an audit from an external agency which you can see here. It highlighted a few strengths of the current system, for instance the wide representative nature including all colleges, associations, student groups and academic representatives and the logical nature of the debate that is had. But overwhelmingly it identified weaknesses and recommended the need for a full-scale democracy review. This would need to consider how best to balance the five democratic goods: Popular control; Considered judgement; Transparency; Inclusiveness; and Efficiency. Wide-scale student input will be needed, in order to make sure a bespoke system can be designed. This review would be led by an independent investigator, to identify what would most suit the student body. While the need for reform has been known for a while, what is new is the pressing relevance of democratic reform following the 2020 Officer and Trustee Elections, and motions expressing dissatisfaction from some JCRs. I campaigned with a manifesto for democratic reform, and this cannot wait, so we must start to address these issues now.

I am grateful for the commitment which many students have shown towards this, and believe it is now time to work together to create a solution. I have seen how passionate Durham students feel about this and I do believe that we can work together to overhaul the existing system and create something new and better. Something that actually works for the students in Durham now, rather than being a 20-year patchwork of amended legislation. Therefore I will be working with student leaders in the coming weeks to shape the scope and focus of a democracy review. Designing a legitimate democratic structure requires all perspectives to be represented, so I’m also asking for some initial volunteers to help me during June. If you’re interested in feeding into the process, or have thoughts on how democracy at the SU should look, please register your interest with Charlotte (Campaigns Coordinator at Durham SU), by sending an email to dsu.governance@durham.ac.uk.”

 

19.05.2020

Please note: requests for clarity on participants’ involvement in the democracy health-check were received and the report has been updated to reflect this.