A guide to elections & voting 2013/4

A guide to elections and voting 2013/14

Elections who and when?

Autumn term

Union Councillors Union Council has undergraduate representatives from each School and 3 postgraduate representatives that make up the majority of the voting members of Union Council. Anyone can attend and debate the issues at hand, but only elected Councillors are allowed to vote. Union Council meets around twice a term.

Being elected as Union Councillor means you will be representing the views & interests of students within your School of study, and making sure that these views are reflected in the activities of the Union. You will be the main point of contact between the Student Reps and the Union, as well as being responsible for holding the Full-time and Part-time Officers to account.

Student Trustees The Trustee Board is made up of three students, the six Full-time Elected Officers and three appointed Trustees. Trustees take an overview of how the Union is performing. There will be twelve Trustees: the six Full-time Elected Officers; three elected students; and three Trustees appointed for their specialist knowledge in areas such as law and finance to provide independent expertise for the Board.

A Trustee is responsible for making sure the decisions that the Union makes are in the best interest of the Union and its members, setting the long term plans and direction of the Union, making sure the Union uses its financial resources properly and that it is financially viable and ensuring the Union works within the law and constitution

Student Reps

Student Reps are Undergraduate and Postgraduate students elected by Sussex students to represent the views and interests of students in their subject, department or school year. This is the section of the Students’ Union website where you can find out who your Student Rep is and what is happening with the Rep scheme.

Representatives There are eight Representatives, each representing one of the following groups: •

Black Students’ Representative

•

Disabled Students’ Representative

•

International Students’ Representative

•

Part-Time Students’ Representative

•

LGBTQ Students’ Representative

•

Mature Students’ Representative

•

Student Parents’ Representative

•

Women Students’ Representative

They actively work to ensure that the views and needs of the relevant group are considered within the Union and University community.

They will sit on the Union Council and relevant committees.

Ethical and Environmental Reps Ethical and Environmental Reps are members of the Ethical and Environmental Steering Group and will work closely with the Ethical and Environmental Officer and Union’s Operations Officer to make ethical and environmental improvements within the Students’ Union and University. The four reps are responsible for supporting the Ethical and Environmental Officer in developing policy, projects and ensuring good practice in relation to all Union activities.

Postgraduate Association Chair Any postgraduate student can put themself forward and vote for the Postgraduate Association (PGA) Chair. They will be responsible for leading and developing the PGA. They are likely to be involved in a number of Union and University committees and projects representing the views of postgraduate students. They will work with the rest of the PGA Committee and receive staff support.

Elections who and when?

Summer term

Full-time Officers

Full-time Elected Officers are elected during the spring and take office from June until the following June.

Students often run for Full-time Officer positions in their final year of study, but students from any year of study can ‘intermit’ (suspend their degree course) to become a Full-time Elected Officer. There are six positions up for election every year, with each one having responsibility for different areas of Union activity. Full-time elected officers get paid a basic wage.

Part-time Officers Part-time Officers hold unpaid elected positions, which take a far smaller time commitment than Full-time positions. Each position has a specific portfolio (area of responsibility), and it is the responsibility of each officer to promote that portfolio in the activities of the Students’ Union. Part-time Officers continue with their studies during their time in office. All Part-time Officers have a vote on the Union’s Executive Committee and Union Council.

The time commitment for these roles is flexible but generally it is between one to five hours a week. All the roles have great opportunities to learn and develop skills, work with enthusiastic peers and change life at the University for the better.

NUS Conference Delegates As members of the National Union of Students (NUS) we are entitled to send delegates to their conferences to vote on behalf of our Students’ Union. NUS Conference delegate elections usually take place during the Spring term

Decision Time!

All students are able to cast their vote on a number of topics through online referenda. A referendum is a single yes or no question asked to all Union members via an online vote

Who should nominate themselves?

You are eligible to nominate yourself to become an elected officer or representative as long as you are currently registered at the University of Sussex or Brighton & Sussex Medical School.

Full-time Officer positions There are some groups of students (see the following pages) for whom becoming a Full-time Elected Officer may appear more complicated.

Pease see additional information about being a Full-time Officer specific to the following groups of students.

Students part-way through a course If you’re not going to complete your course at Sussex this year (i.e. you’re not in your final year), you can still put yourself forward to be Full-Time Officer - as long as you are an eligible student.

If you are successfully elected, you will need to apply to suspend your course - known within the University as intermission. In order to “intermit” you will need to complete and pass this academic year and put in a request to intermit by the end of July to your Director of Student Support. For further advice about the intermission process speak to a Student Life Adviser and/or look at Students’ Union Advice www.sussexstudent.com/advice.

If you win the Full-Time Officer election and you intermit it means your course will be put on hold for one academic year. In practice this means you could be a Full-Time Officer from July to the end of June the following year then return to complete your course in October.

Students about to complete a course If you’re currently in your final year, you can put yourself forward to be a Full-Time Officer for for the next academic year - as long as you are currently an eligible student. If you are successfully elected, you will be able to complete your degree on schedule - Full-Time Officers don’t take up office until July.

During your year in office you will have access to most University facilities such as the library. Although you will be a member of the Students’ Union, for many purposes you will be regarded as an employee, for example you will no longer get student exemption from council tax, and banks etc may not regard you as a student.

Postgraduate Students (taught or research)

There are around 3,500 postgraduate students at Sussex, that’s nearly a third of the student population who need you!

Why not stand to make sure their voice is heard?

As long as you’re an eligible student you could be instrumental in keeping the issues specific to postgraduate students firmly on the Students’ Union and University’s agendas.

Taught postgraduate students - if you are elected as a Full-Time Officer it is most likely you’ll need to intermit (i.e. temporarily withdraw) from your studies. We strongly recommend you talk to a Student Life Advisor from the Student Life Centre for further information about this before deciding to nominate yourself as a candidate.

Student Life Centre: 01273 87 6767, text ‘slcentre’ to 88020 or studentlifecentre@sussex.ac.uk Student Life Centre, Chichester 1, University of Sussex, BN1 9QJ Research students - it is also highly likely that if elected as a full-time officer you would need to intermit from your studies. We strongly recommend that you discuss this with your supervisor before standing for election as approval for intermission is granted at the discretion of your school’s Director of Doctoral Studies.

BSMS Students

Part-time students

Of course you can stand! You’re a full member of the Students’ Union like any other student. We understand that you have long contact hours and therefore may be concerned about how you’ll get round to campaigning. If you want to discuss any concerns, get in touch with Steve Eage, Deputy Returning Officer on: s.d.eagle@sussex.ac.uk

There are around 1,300 part-time students at Sussex (out of over 12,000 students). As long as you’re studying the equivalent of at least 50% of a full time course why not stand as a Full-Time Officer? By doing so you could help ensure that issues specific to part-time students are kept firmly on the Students’ Union and University’s agendas.

Overseas Students (international & EEA)

Overseas students make up almost 2,000 students at Sussex (out of nearly 12,000 in total). That means almost 20% of students needing their voices heard.

Why not stand as a Full-Time Officer to ensure that issues specific to overseas students are kept firmly on the Students’ Union and University’s agendas?

If you are an international student and need to have permission from immigration to study in the UK, you can still be a Full-time Officer The following information is taken from the UKBA website If you have immigration permission to be in the UK as a Tier 4 (General) Student then you can be a Full-Time Officer (also known as a students’ union sabbatical officer) either during your studies or in the academic year immediately after you graduate.

If you want to take the job at the end of your course, and your permission to stay as a student is about to expire, you must apply to extend your stay as a Tier 4 student. You will need to meet the Tier 4 requirements again.

A sabbatical job normally lasts for one academic year, and you may be given permission to stay to cover this time. If you are re-elected after one year, you will need to apply under Tier 4 again. You can have the job for a maximum of two years.

If you take the job while you still have time left in your permission to stay as an adult student, your Tier 4 sponsor (i.e. the University) must let the Home Office know. This is because the University is responsible for you until your permission to stay in the UK expires.

You can do additional work, but it is restricted to part-time work (no more than 20 hours per week) during term time and full-time work during vacations, if you are not working full-time for the Students’ Union during vacations.

We strongly advise that you contact the University’s International & Study Abroad Office for further information. They can also help you extend your stay as a Tier 4 student if you need to do this. www.sussex.ac.uk/international international@sussex.ac.uk +44 (0)1273 678422 Jan 2013

Voting We use the Alternative Vote (AV) system for Students’ Union elections which allows you to rank the candidates in order of preference. You make your favourite person number 1, your second favourite number 2 and so on. This system is widely used by Students’ Unions as it minimises wasted votes and aims to elect a broadly popular candidate.

Where there is more than one identical post, e.g. the four Ethical & Environmental Rep positions we use the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system.

You have the choice of voting for ‘RON - Re-Open Nominations’. You can vote for RON if you would like the election to be restarted by reopening nominations and allowing other people to put themselves forward as candidates.

Putting a campaign together Our best campaign tip for you is to remember that there are no guarantees when it comes to elections. You should plan your campaign in a way that feels manageable and best suited to you.

Don’t feel you have to do the same things as other candidates, just whatever you think will best help you persuade people to vote for you.

We’ve got lots of information online about topics you could include in your manifesto and campaign. Using current issues relevant to students is a good way to make your campaign resonate with voters.

Think about who you’re targeting.

The student body is incredibly diverse, e.g. mature students, sports club members, student parents, BSMS students, science students, students who work for the Students’ Union, students who live on campus...

You could think about how different issues and/or messages might be of interest to different students.

Campaign rules We issue rules for each set of elections. They are based around these principles; Only do what others can do & respect students and other candidates, i.e. play fair and play nice The Returning Officer sets and implements the rules for the elections. They will make decisions about other situations that arise during the elections which aren’t otherwise covered by the rules.

Make sure you stick within the limits for publicity materials. You can use our election points calculator to help you add up the number of points you’re using.

Your manifesto

You can use up to 100 words to summarise your manifesto. This will appear in the Badger during the voting period, on our website and in the voting system.

100 words isn’t a lot so try to focus on your key points. Bullet points and key phrases tend to work well here.

You can use as many words as you want for other things you do, e.g. printed materials, Facebook or videos.

You can also provide additional information such as text, photos, videos and images to be added to our website. This information is linked to from the summary of candidates and from within the voting system.

Publicity options You could go along to lectures and ask the lecturer if you can talk briefly before they start their lecture.

You can see the timetable of lectures via the University’s website. This doesn’t include BSMS lectures so don’t forget to go to the BSMS building on campus and consider visiting the Audrey Emerton building in Brighton by the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

You could go along to society meetings and introduce yourself. You can see which groups are booked into Falmer House rooms via: www.sussexstudent.com/roombookings

Managing your campaign Planning ahead and asking friends to help you out (with your campaign, studies or just keeping you motivated) will help make your campaign manageable.

Balancing your campaign and your studies While it does depend on how much energy and effort you decide to put into your campaign, you may find that you end up missing some of your course. Therefore it is best to prepare in advance, so that you don’t get too far behind.

If you are going to miss any lectures or seminars it is polite to let your tutors/lecturers know in advance that you aren’t going to attend.

Ask a friend on your course if they can pick up extra handouts for you and lend you their notes to copy, especially if you are relying on the topic for your assessments (essays/dissertations/exams).

If people are helping you to campaign, you can make sure they are there to cover you while you nip off for a lecture or seminar.

Don’t neglect your studies when you’re campaigning. Do try to find time to spend on your classes and reading.

Staying healthy Make a big batch of food (stew/pasta sauce/soup) before the start of the campaigning period and freeze it so that you have easy food to come home to after a busy day (generous helpful housemates are useful here!)

• • • • • • • • •

Make sure you make time to eat during the day and to relax, the Meeting House is good for this.It is important not to burn out Wear suitable clothes to keep you warm/cool/dry Get a good amount of sleep Try to maintain a healthy diet Balancing your campaign and other commitments Consider giving your other commitments, e.g. societies, sport or job, a miss for a week if you can and are worried about having too much to do Equally, some people like having something different to take their mind off their campaign Do something nice in the evenings and at the weekend!

Finally, candidates often find themselves making friends with other nominees - they’re in the same position as you so you can motivate each other.

Campaign tips Be clear – no one wants to read pages and pages of words – use bullet points and bold to highlight key points Stand out – don’t say ‘get more people involved’ (who wouldn’t want that?), instead talk about how and why you would want to do that

sussexstudent.com/elections