Date: Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Time: 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Location: Mandela Hall
The union has received a written request for an EGM signed by over 150 students.
The meeting will be open to all University of Sussex students to discuss and vote on the following motion:
“This union has no confidence in the Vice-Chancellor.”
Emergency motions and amendments may be submitted in writing to the Chair at the start of the meeting.
This meeting needs 600 students to be quorate and to make a representative decision.
The motion itself is posted below.
Motion of No Confidence in the Vice Chancellors Executive Group (VCEG)
This Union notes:
- The proposals by management to make 115 redundancies, close Unisex, privatise the crèche, dismantle the student advice services and cut the student union block grant.
- University management’s unwillingness to consider the alternative proposals presented by the lecturers union (UCU) as well as various Schools.
- The Equality Impact Assessments required by law were insufficient and contained no data
- The creation of a fictitious hostage situation during the Sussex House occupation (03.03.10) in order to justify the use of riot police on campus
- The suspension of 6 students on political grounds following the protest
- With the largest turnout in a UCU ballot, the campus lecturers’ union voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action (76% in favour with an 80% turnout)
This Union believes:
- If allowed to go through, the proposals will have hugely detrimental effects on education and student experience at Sussex
- The injunction issued against all staff and students for the purposes of preventing peaceful protest is a human rights violation.
- The six suspended students have been scapegoated for the actions of the wider student community, and more specifically, the Stop the Cuts campaign.
- Cuts to USSU’s block grant will not allow the union to provide adequate services and representation for the student body
- The VCEG have been the architects and administrators of the above actions, and should resign with immediate effect
This Union resolves:
- That it has no confidence in the Vice Chancellor’s Executive Group at Sussex University
Proposer – Richa Kaul Padte
Seconder – Claire Laker-Mansfield
[...] put forward by some departments and rejected out of hand by management, while Wednesday will see an Extrordinary General Meeting of the Students’ Union to debate a motion of no confidence in the Vice Chancellor’s Exectutive Group which runs the [...]
[...] Read the motion here [...]