INSIDE...
Your guide to the new sabbatical team
SU OFFICER ELECTIONS
2020
THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER
ISSUE 143 | FRIDAY 13TH MARCH 2020 | FREE
“Cowardly” Uni avoiding students during strike action
Your new Students’ Union Officer team Image: Chelsea Burrell
Ben Warner Editor-in-Chief
Record turnout sees new SU Officer team elected Georgie Marple News Editor
The new Students’ Union Officer team has been declared, following the annual Results Night event in Foundry. This year’s Officer Elections saw a record turnout in the history of Students’ Union Officer elections with 9,383 votes in total, eclipsing last year’s turnout of 8,270. Two student trustees were also elected, while grime artist Stormzy took the title of Honorary President
of the SU ahead of Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate. The SU will also remain affiliated to the NUS for another year, after the annual referendum. New SU President Beth Eyre described the entire process as “super emotional to put myself out there so much. It goes against everything I thought I could do, thank you so much for voting.” She added that she has “stuck it to people who wanted to make this campaign about clicks on their website or people who want to make
this something it shouldn’t be”. Eyre wants to introduce free ‘Life Lesson Lectures’ and also stressed the need for having sustainability at the forefront of the SU. Holly Ellis won Welfare Officer by over 1,000 votes ahead of any other candidate. She is the current chair of the Welfare Committee (amongst many other roles within the SU), and wants to fight for compensation for students for missed teaching hours during the strikes. Iuri Montenegro, the new International... (cont. on p5)
Leaked minutes of meetings between senior University of Sheffield management and Sheffield Students’ Union representatives appear to show Uni bosses avoiding meeting students due to unspecified ‘risks’. Forge Press has been shown minutes of two separate meetings in February between members of the University Executive Board, including Vice-Chancellor Professor Koen Lamberts, three Sheffield Students’ Union Officers and representatives of the local University and College Union branch. On both occasions, the Students’ Union proposed an ‘Ask Your University’ event where students would be able to voice concerns about the ongoing industrial action directly to University management. However, the University’s representatives in the meeting said there were “significant risks” to such an event, due to fears of how students could behave. This is despite the representatives of Sheffield UCU agreeing to attend such an event, should it happen, when it was first mentioned. In the first meeting, on Friday 14 February, the SU Officers proposed a joint event between the three organisations, where students could ask questions to each of the bodies about the ongoing UCU strike action. The Vice-Chancellor, the minutes say, said there were “potential
risks”, and asked the Students’ Union to reflect on the running of the event, and to put forward a fuller proposal as to how these would be managed, to which the SU agreed. The University then said they would consider this proposal before making a decision. Following this, and according to a timeline which has also been shown to this newspaper, a meeting between the SU Officers and the Vice-Chancellor took place in his office on Monday 17 February. He allegedly ruled out wanting to attend such an event, after which the Officers decided not to formulate a proposal. However, in a meeting between UEB, the SU and Sheffield UCU eight days later, at Halifax Hall on Tuesday 25 February, the potential joint event was discussed again, with representatives from the SU pushing for students to have the chance to talk to the Vice-Chancellor directly. According to the minutes, said event “poses significant risks which at present [the University] is uncomfortable with”. The Students’ Union once again agreed to work on a proposal for an ‘Ask Your University’ event, including mitigation for the risks outlined by the University. The proposal was eventually sent to the University on Monday 2 March, including a detailed risk assessment and the full capability of the Students’ Union to deal with the risks mentioned in the previous meeting. The following day, Sheffield UCU agreed to... (cont. on p7)