In the movie version of
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy there is a point-of-view gun. According to the film, the gun was created by
Deep Thought prior to its long pondering of the
Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. When used on someone, it will cause them to see things from the point of view of the person firing the gun. According to the Guide, the gun was commissioned by the
Intergalactic Consortium of Angry Housewives, who were tired of ending every argument with their husbands with the phrase: "You just don't get it, do you?"
This is very much the case when you talk to the hard left about my union's governance review.
Lets take each aspect of the review in turn;
Sovereign Body
General Meetings were never the union's sovereign body, and all motions passed at a GM had to be passed by Student Council (which was the sovereign body).
Student Council served a purpose within the union. It did hold some of the officers to account, some of the time. It did take a look at the union's accounts and approve them every year. It did rubber stamp what the executive did at every single meeting.
However, Student Council didn't lead the union's policy, nor has it been something you needed to fight to get normal policy through (although every time members of the left brought policy to ban the military from campus and so on, it fell comfortably).
The new structures now give all non-political decisions to the trustee board. The board will have some external trustees that have knowledge of financial matters (unlike the members of student council) and generally how to run a business.
The Executive
Day to day political decisions will be made by members of the executive just as they have always been. This has not changed, and will not change.
As for the liberation officers, most of the problem was that if an officer resigned half way through the year (which happened regularly) or nobody stood for the position (equally as regular), then there was nobody to do the work for that period.
Under the new structures, the campaign work will be undertaken by sub groups for each respective campaign, and politically overseen and convened by one of the sabbatical officers. This has already started with the LGBT running a campaign against the discrimination of gay men that are banned from giving blood. It was supported by the union but run as an independent campaign.
University Board of Governors
In a recent interview with
PULP magazine, representatives of Viva MMU (the hard left grouping that ran in the recent MMUnion elections) said;
first of all the VC has the final say on everything, and the board of governors, which is not separating the Union from the University
This is simply not true. The Board of Governors have to approve any changes made to the union's core constitution, but this is required by law. Specificity in the
Education Act 1994 ...
the provisions of the [student union's] constitution should be subject to the approval of the [university's] governing body and to review by that body at intervals of not more than five years
Also, the Vice Chancellor doesn't sit on the board of governors!
If you want to read the rest of the interview with Viva MMU then you can pick up a copy of this month's PULP from the union or most university buildings, and it'll be online in the very near future.
Undemocratic?This surely has to be the most outrageous claim that the hard left had to throw at the new structures. The review process took eighteen months and consulted key groups such as; student council, past and present members of the executive and other unions. The core constitution could only be debated and voted on in student council. I had the honour and privillage to chair the meetings where the proposals were debated. They were passed unanimosly, twice!
I had blogged about the governance review before it was put to student council and if the left had been involved or were interested in the union then they could've voiced their opinion. They didn't stand for student council at the start of the year, nor did they turn up at the meetings where the proposals were passed even though any member of the union could attend.
Basically, I wish there was a point-of-view gun in reality as it would be very useful when talking to the hard left about governance.
JR
UPDATE (5 April): The full interview with Viva MMU is now on the Pulp Magazine website. Have a good chuckle to some of the responses.
Yes it's here. Students from all around the country descend on Blackpool for the three day solid 
