Concrete 332

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>> Merry Christmas from Concrete

>> >> >> >> >> >>

6th December 2016 Issue 332

P.10 P.11 P.16 P.18 P.19 P.21

12 7 >> Concrete spent the night with UEA security

>> Anarchy in the UEA

Swo what now? The official student newspaper of the University of East Anglia | concrete-online.co.uk

>> Campus divided: 33 percent of students believe Swo should step down >> 49 percent believe Swo should stay

>> Conflicting motions brought forward for discussion at council >> Consequences of a censure unclear EXCLUSIVE Megan Baynes, Jessica FrankKeyes & Caitlin Doherty Senior Editorial Team Campus is divided following the behaviour of union officer, Jo Swo, at an A-List LCR night on Saturday 26th November. Following the incident, conflicting motions regarding her position have been proposed for discussion at at the final union council meeting of the semester on 8th December. Last week Concrete exclusively broke the news that while on a night out with other union officers Miss Swo had engaged in “minor theft from the bar”, “minor assault of a member of security” and “attempted to use the cloakroom without paying.” Her behaviour was reported to the union by a number of students.

Describing the process the SU has gone through so far, an SU spokesperson said: “The judgment made about the incident involving Jo was that the offences were minor in nature- it is clear that the theft (of crisps) and the assault (a non invasive bite to the arm) were not intended and no harm was caused.” Following this incident, Samuel Cross, union representative for Postgraduate History, proposed a motion of no confidence in Swo, asserting that, “the actions of the Welfare, Community and Diversity Officer on the weekend of 26th - 27th November 2016 whilst at the LCR cast doubt on their ability to continue in the role.” The motion continues: “as such, Union Council must now consider a vote of no confidence in the Welfare, Community and Diversity Officer”. This motion was posted to the pri-

vate UEA union council Facebook page on Thursday 1st December. Union bylaws state that “a member of the Student Officer Committee shall cease to hold office if they are subject to a motion of no confidence, submitted by ten or more members of Union Council, passed by a 75 percent majority of those members of the Union Council present and voting at a quorate meeting.” However, a conflicting motion to censure Miss Swo has also been brought forward to council, which would effectively block the motion of no confidence. Union bylaws are unclear on the consequences of a censure, however. They state that union council shall have the power “to pass a motion of Censure or Commendation on any member of the Student Officer Committee.” Yet, they do not clarify any specific out-

comes associated with receiving a censure, and it is unclear what the ramifications of this motion would be. The motion of censure has been proposed by Nicholl Hardwick, Equalities Champion of UEA Migrant Solidarity Campaign, the same society where Miss Swo is Secretary. It has been seconded by Madeleine Colledge, Postgraduate Education Officer who was present at the LCR, with Miss Swo, on the night in question. Commenting on the censure motion, SU Chair of Management Committee Madeleine Colledge said: “As someone who worked in the LCR as a student for four years I know that Jo’s drunken antics crossed a line, so as the Chair of the SU Management Committee it is clear to me and many other students that we need to publicly condemn

Jo’s actions last weekend. “Jo received the standard four week ban in this situation, but we should expect higher standards from our Officers which is why I was happy to join others in signing a motion to Censure- which is the only form of political punishment we can use other than Jo losing her job altogether. The motion also includes a review for how the SU responds to inappropriate Officer behaviour so this doesn’t happen again” Nicholl Hardwick did not respond to Concrete’s request for comment. If council chooses to censure Miss Swo, then she will continue in her job until election season. In order for the motion of no confidence to be passed, council must first decide whether or not to even debate Continued on page 4


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