Why We Stand for Free Education

In the past few years there has been an ongoing debate about free education in the student movement. In 2012 NUS adopted policy in favour of it, in 2013 a similar policy was voted down. This year in particular lots of old and tired arguments, which I had assumed were dead in the water, came back to haunt us. So I’ve written up my thoughts on the subject: why I’m in favour of free education, why I think it matters so much, and how I defend my position to the arguments against.

 

 

But what have Max Crema and James McAsh ever done for us?!

This was originally a Facebook note 

Does it even matter is Max and James are sacked? What have they even done for Edinburgh students?

 

Quite a lot actually.

 

This year, working in EUSA alongside great volunteers and fantastic staff, Max Crema and James McAsh have done the following:

 

- The University has committed to a massive increase in student accommodation: 2000 additional beds over the next few years.

 

- Rent increases next year will be below inflation, despite skyrocketing rent elsewhere in the city.

 

- They ran a UK-leading campaign to fix fees for international students which has been recognised nationally and commended in the Scottish Parliament.

 

- They pressured the University into extending the lease on the Bongo Club, giving the club enough time to find a new space – which they did.

 

- They quadrupled funding for liberation campaigns, representing those who are historically oppressed and under-represented.

 

- They lobbied for and secured a sector wide procurement code of conduct, which is world-leading in its commitment to improving workers’ lives.

 

- They won a commitment to ethical investment in the University’s strategic plan which led the Uni to sign up to the UN Principles of Responsibile Investment

 

- They doubled funding allocated to campaigning

 

- They fought for, and won, a massive increase in bursary provision for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

 

- They removed the rule that allowed students to spend up to £100 on their election campaigns, making a leveller playing field for all.

 

- They appointed three highly experienced external trustees to provide a layer of stability to the organisation

 

- They created the first ever opportunity for all students to directly meet the University Principal and ask him questions.

 

- They organised a high profile Defend Education campaign which took more students down to the National Demo than any other union in Scotland, and more than most in England too!

 

- They negotiated with the university to include EUSA in its long term estates plan which will make it significantly easier for us to get building development funding

 

- They set up a Teviot Art Committee to showcase the fantastic work of the student body

 

- They developed our commercial governance structures to give students more control over what their union is doing

 

- They switched our retail wholesaler to the cheaper and more ethical Co-operative

 

- They got Nightline a new home

 

- Created a pool and games room in Teviot

 

- Secured funding from the university to allow eusa to compost all its food waste

 

- Made Teviot more physically accessible

 

- Got water fountains in ECA

 

- Ensured the continuation of the ECA Sculpture Party and the Revel

 

- Secured a permanent space for the food coop

 

 

 

In the time between now and the end of their terms  Max Crema and James McAsh are going to focus on:

 

- Strengthening the University’s commitment to ethical investment – prioritising ending their shameful investment in the arms trade.

 

- Rolling out a democracy review to look at where our democratic structures fall down, and implement a package of reforms to get them up and running smoothly by next academic year.

 

- Campaign on the abhorrent pay and working conditions of many postgraduates who teach.

 

- Recruit a new Chief Executive for the organisation.

 

- Work to sucessfully conclude ongoing negotiations with the university which would see a significant amount of money being put towards improving EUSA’s society space

 

- Re-open Pleasance during the day

 

 

If either Max Crema or James McAsh are sacked these things will either not happen, or other people will have to neglect parts of their job to do these things instead.

 

Max and James have worked tirelessly all year for the benefit of Edinburgh students. Don’t allow a vocal minority who disagree with them politically to kick them out for standing up for what they believe in.

Response to general meeting motions

This is a response to the general meeting motions which have recently been submitted. You can view them here: http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/egm/

Last summer a student member of EUSA staff raised some serious issues of sexual misconduct in EUSA venues. On three separate occasions Max Crema, Hazel Marzetti and I raised our concerns with former EUSA senior managers. Max felt further frustrated by the issue so he lashed out and published a blog about sexual harassment in workplaces in general, not mentioning EUSA once. It was an anonymous post which raised the issue of sexual harassment and raised concerns that it was not taken seriously by venues in Edinburgh. Many interpreted it as being about EUSA venues. I thought then, and think now, that posting this on his blog was not the best strategy so I asked him to take it down. By the time he had taken it down though it had already been seen by many members of EUSA staff who felt it was offensive and unrepresentative of their experiences working for EUSA.

EUSA, the Board of Trustees, the sabbatical officers and the current managers and staff do not, of course, condone sexual harassment.

A meeting was called where staff members were invited to share their concerns. Max asked to come to the meeting so that he could explain himself but was told he should not. It later turned out that dealing with this issue in this way went against our formal procedures, which stated that there should be an opportunity for Max to speak to the staff members and apologise if he chose to. I suspect that if he had been given this opportunity the situation would not have escalated as far as it did, so I am very frustrated that this did not happen.

The motion coming in to censure me criticises me for not removing Max as a sabbatical officer or trustee. I have three  issues with this:

1)                  Max made a mistake and he lashed out. But he did so because of frustration about things he was right to be frustrated at. Frankly, I think allegations of sexual harassment and dealing with them appropriately are more serious issues than the appropriate use of blog posts.

2)                  I am willing to accept that I haven’t managed this perfectly. It is true that I could have dealt with this better. But, frankly, every year, some controversy or another happens in EUSA. As president, I could focus my time on making sure there is never any internal scandal. But that would take up almost all of my time. Instead, I choose to spend my time focusing on winning things that will change students’ lives. Most recently this was our victory for fixed fees for international students which will make a huge difference to thousands of students struggling to budget for their time at Edinburgh. I want to continue making more positive changes for students’ lives, not responding to personal attacks about events which took place five months ago.

3)                  Likewise, whilst Max mas clearly made mistakes, it is important to remember the good things he has done for students: he saved the Bongo Club, the Hugh Robson Building will now be refurbished, and he has secured free rehearsal and performance space in the Reid Concert Hall for all music societies. This is just a small sample.

It is important that sabbatical officers are held to account but I am really upset by these personal attacks. Max should not have posted the blog post up, but he did so with the best of intentions – to raise the very serious issue of sexual harassment in the places where many students work – and he has already apologised. I think it’s important that we let this issue rest and move on with doing the work that we were elected to do.

 

EUSA does great work every day for students at Edinburgh and we have some great staff, great volunteers and great facilities. We strive for our spaces to be safe and open to all students. If any student or member of staff ever feels threatened in our buildings we urge them to come forward so that it can be dealt with promptly and in confidence. We are proud to be a Zero Tolerance accredited union.

Challenging the accepted truths of the student movement

This was originally published on Vicki Baar’s VP Union Development blog on NUS Connect on 19th December.

http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/blogs/blog/vickibaars/2012/12/19/Guest-blog-challenging-the-accepted-truths-of-the-student-movement/

At Union Development Zone Conference I ran a session with Alex Peters-Day on student union democracy. We compared different kinds of structures – councils, referenda, general meetings – on the basis of how power is distributed in them. I was surprised to discover the widespread problems with student union democracy. Far too many unions have under-attended general meetings, inquorate councils, or irrelevant referenda.

Round-up for the first semester

This was originally published in The Student on 4th December. 

 

We feel that this semester has been incredibly successful for EUSA and Edinburgh students. The four sabbatical officers have been working hard on our manifesto promises but the most exciting thing has been seeing our new democratic structures flourish. We have already seen a dozen or so successful campaigns co-ordinated through our structures but entirely student-led. This is fantastic.

President’s Report – External Council 19/11/2012

This was originally a report to External Council on 19th November.

 Campaigns

This semester has seen an impressive array of External Affairs campaigns, involving huge number of students and touching upon a wide variety of issues. I feel that this semester’s achievements for this Council alone has already exceeded the campaigning from the whole of Student Council this time last year (which included academic and welfare campaigns) so I am delighted. I have been involved in all of these campaigns but they have been genuinely led by the student members of this Council, so the great successes that we have had are down to their hard work. I am very impressed!

Treatment of International Students

This was originally published in The Student on 2nd October.

Gandhi apparently said “You can judge a society by the way it treats its animals”. I’m not convinced that animal welfare is quite so important in gauging human progress. A better measure might be how well a society treats its guests and newest members – those who are from elsewhere. And in this respect the treatment of international students does the UK no favours.

President’s Report 2012-10-08

President’s Report – 8^th October 2012

Open Forums

Plan: To initiate a series of open town hall style meetings at both subject area level and for the University as a whole, where students are updated with developments and are able to directly input into decision making at these levels.

Progress: The Principal has agreed to hold a University wide forum in January. There will also be subject-area specific ones for the subjects undergoing internal reviews this academic year.

 

What is EUSA?

This was originally published in The Student on 25th September.

During Freshers Week I overheard someone ask what EUSA is. The answer given back was that they’re the people who run Teviot and Potterrow. This is of course true; EUSA does run Teviot and Potterrow, along with KB House, Pleasance and various other outlets. However, it’s a very narrow understanding of a students’ association to define it by its buildings alone – there’s something far more important and exciting going on.

Why Elections Matter

This was originally published in The Student on 18th September

 

Election season is upon us. It feels like no time at all since I was putting up posters, making lecture announcements and knocking on doors – but already we’re here again. By this point I know some people will already be screaming at the page: “our beautiful campus will be sullied by these ugly posters”, “our lectures are going to be interrupted by aspiring politicians talking about their half-baked ideas” and “for two weeks I won’t be able to get away from it all!”.

 

But I’m dead excited. For the first time in three years I won’t be running but I’m still really looking forward to it. This is because elections are the one time when absolutely everyone is reminded of the beating democratic heart that fills the campus with visions of progress and fairness.