Myself and other Officers and staff at the Union have been working hard to develop improvements to the democratic system of your Union.

We’ve put together a consultation paper (below) that outlines the system we recommend. The key features of the new system are as follows:

• All Union policy will be determined by popular vote.
• The Union’s Officers and Committees will be more accountable and accessible.
• Students submitting policy will be given more support.

The proposed new system will go to referendum in Week 7 of this summer term, so all students will be able to have their say on whether the new model should go ahead. In the meantime, the system is open to consultation to all students, so take a look and let us know your thoughts. For more information, please check out the consultation paper, here:

Democratic Reform at the University of Sussex Students’ Union

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Hope you had a good Easter. Myself and other staff & Officers at the Union have been busy reviewing the way in which the Union’s democratic structure operates. We’re only at the draft stage at the moment but I wanted to share with you our ideas so far.

So far, we’ve made a clear commitment to develop a new democratic structure for the Union where all policy is decided upon by popular vote. This means Council won’t be making Union policy, and it could mean a  move away from reliance upon AGMs to a mixture of debates and cross-campus voting. Meanwhile, I’ve been very keen to ensure that Council is given more power to hold Officers and Committees to account.

Well, if this interests you as much as it does me, you’ll want to read on. You might also want to leave some comments if you’ve got any, or drop me an email at education@ussu.sussex.ac.uk . Whatever you do have a good day and enjoy the sunshine.

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Myself and the other current Officers will still be working for the Union until the end of June, but we’ve been asked to put in a few words for the University 2010 Yearbook. Here’s what I wrote:

When we look back at 2009/10, we will remember it as a year that was many things –

-    a year of strikes and occupations
-    a year of letter writing, political lobbying, of musical and artistic protest
-    a year of the best-attended meeting in the Student Union’s history, with over 850 students
-    a year when the USSU Student Advice Centre met and helped more students than ever before
-    a year when the Students’ Union became more self-critical, and began to challenge itself and the way it operates
-    a year when students and staff across campus took hold of the University they love.

Hopefully, we as graduates will not look back on this year and feel nostalgic. Hopefully, we will not remember it for the rest of our lives. Hopefully, years later, 2009/10 won’t seem remarkable in any way, because we will still be active, critical individuals who stand up for what we believe in!

Wishing you all the best – sleep well, work hard, and take care of the planet. -Josh

We call upon all staff at the University of Sussex who are earning more than £70,000 to take a voluntary 10% pay cut, in order to help protect the welfare of all staff and students at the University.

We are concerned that managements’ recent Proposals involve cut-backs to front-line staff and services, including tutors, lecturers, security personnel, cleaners, porters, catering, Student Advisors, sexual health advisors, IT personnel, technicians, and workers in the Crèche and Nursery.

We are further concerned that, in management’s recent Proposals, some of the lowest paid staff at the University are expected to take significant pay cuts and accept poor working terms.

We care about the quality and future of education at Sussex, and call upon our highest-paid colleagues to accept this pay cut in the spirit of good will for the University community.

____

To sign this letter, email education@ussu.sussex.ac.uk with your name and status. Staff names will only be published when they have reached a high number.

Alternately, please leave a comment below with your name and status.

Now the dust has settled on the elections period, people are asking questions. Is the campaign period too long? Do most students get pissed off with the incessant badgering? Are the candidates being put under unreasonable stress? Perhaps the period should be reduced from its current 8 days to something more manageable.

Personally, I’m glad to have done so well, and I’m sure Cameron will make a good Pres next year. The vote itself came as no surprise to me, though it shocked many. It showed that students at Sussex mostly want a liberal, left-wing Union that challenges the University, but also cares about students’ daily needs. Quelle surprise. What is really surprising is the number of candidates, and the calibre of the 30-odd people who put themselves forward. This bodes well for the future of the Union and Sussex Uni as a whole.

It has been brought to the attention of USSU that the University management is yet to offer any meaningful form of consultation to those threatened with compulsory redundancy as a result of the recent proposals for the Student Advisors and the new ‘Student Life Centre’.

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It’s been a crazy few weeks with management’s recent Proposals taking up everyone’s time, but I’m gonna take this opportunity give an update on the Structure of the Academic Year discussions. It’s quite a long explanation but you can skip to the words in bold to get the general idea!

Senate on Wednesday approved the final proposals for the Structure of the Academic year. [Read more →]

This is a first draft compiling many ideas for improving the accessibility and openness of Students’ Union democracy.

If it seems surprisingly long, that’s because not all these ideas are my own, and many of them have been in the pipeline for a long time.

This paper is only as productive as the level of feedback it receives, so please, leave your comments and criticism here.

Proposals for Democratic Reform in the University of Sussex Students’ Union [Read more →]

Should students be submitting their work online, or on paper? This is a question that students across the university should be considering now. The University management has planned to facilitate e-submission by 2010 and it’s already working towards this goal. It’s time we engaged.

E-submission is already in place in many other Unis. I’ve got a mate at Royal Holloway who was shocked when, in his first year, he had to send in his first essay over the ‘net rather than hand it in. Come third year, this seemed perfectly normal. Would you feel comfortable sending in your work online? [Read more →]

Facebook. You either love hating it or you hate loving it.

In my free time, I have loving it. That is, I use it all the time, and I hate that. It’s addictive and it sucks.

But it has its uses. [Read more →]