The Exec Get Grilled The HSU Sabbatical Officers are held to account
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#Demo 2012
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Was it worth it, or did it come to nothing?
The Volume 3 Issue 3 11th December 2012 theheythroplion.co.uk
Tour De Farce
Dan Tripp argues against the use of drugs in sport
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Lion
Union Shaken By Three Motions Of No Confidence Heythrop Students vote to remove an Executive Officer (and to adopt a rabbit) Faye West Comment Editor On Friday the 30th of November, the Heythrop Students’ Union held an Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) in which three vote of No Confidence motions were raised against officers of the union Executive, one resulting in an officer being removed from their post. Miles Smith, the Web Development officer, Peter Mackay, the Student Activities Officer and Charlie Yarwood, Publicity Officer all had motions put against them by an anonymous student. Miles Smith was accused of unavailability and failure to fulfil his role, having been unavailable over the summer and that other members of the union developed the website. However, after making an apology, Smith was not voted to leave. Peter
Mackay was accused of not engaging in his work and preferential treatment of societies. However, after making a speech refuting these accusations, the motion of No Confidence against him failed. An accusation was made that he was biased against the LGBT society, but this was denied by the Head of the LGBT society. Charlie Yarwood was accused of irresponsibility and not engaging in publicity. The examples given were her taking a student to hospital without informing the welfare team and the argument that societies make their own posters and advertising is done via The Student Union Website and The Lion. Yarwood was voted by a majority to step down from her position. Several other motions also passed, including proposals to extend the opening hours of the library beyond 5pm on Fridays and to include Sundays, to review the procedure for the short-loan book list, and to
write into the contracts of the RA’s and the society heads to attend all general meetings. The motion of a prospective Heythrop bar was raised and passed, although this motion was to anticipate interest in
the concept, and at time of writing no concrete plans have been made. Another set of charities have been chosen to be supported by Heythrop, mental health charities MIND and REthink, Beat, an eating disor-
der charity and The Terrence Higgins Trust, FPA, London friend, sexual health charities, in aid of the upcoming RAG week. Continued on Page 1 >>
ULU President voted “illegitimate” Faye West Comment Editor At the OGM held on Friday the 30th of November, a motion was proposed by Alex Hackett, the Vice President of Heythrop Students’ Union, to not recognise the presidency of the recently-elected President of The University of London Union, Michael Chessum. The motion passed unanimously. Although Heythrop as a college has elected not to recognise the Presidency of Mr Chessum, it is still a member of ULU and still has access to its facilities. Allegations of misconduct
have plagued the recent ULU elections. The Vice President of ULU, Daniel Cooper, was ruled by the Elections Committee to have been using his official email address of the Vice Presidential office to circulate support of the then presidential candidate Michael Chessum. In a recent interview with The Lion, Alex Hackett, who proposed the motion, told us why he had raised the issue. He stated, “As member of ULU, I put forward the motion because I wasn’t happy with the way the elections had been conducted”, and continued, “The way in which the Vice President conducted his role in the election, I didn’t like the
idea that Heythrop students were putting their name to it”. Ashley Doolan, the President of the Heythrop Students’ Union, stated that, “Until such time we see a real investigational tribunal into it or a re-election, we will not recognise the president”. Mr Doolan resigned from his position on the Elections Committee of the ULU Presidential election on the grounds that, “I wasn’t happy with the stance the Vice President of ULU took during the election, as his role specifically states he is responsible for promoting a free and fair democracy”. Both Mr Hackett and Mr Doolan were
keen to dismiss rumours that this motion was as a reaction to the candidate that they both backed not winning. Mr Hackett was adamant that he was not, as he put it, a “sore loser”. Mr Doolan stated, in reference to being a former member of the Elections Committee, “I faced criticism along the lines of ‘The only reason you resigned it was because you thought it would benefit Gala’s campaign’, that was not a fair criticism, I stayed painfully neutral throughout the entire process”. The Lion asked enquired as to why Mr Doolan was on the board if he had such a conflict of interests, but Mr
Doolan conveyed that the reason he was on the committee was to ensure that the small, specialist colleges were fairly represented, saying that in the previous election, “A lot [of the small, specialist colleges] had not received their ballot papers”. He concludes, “I didn’t see a fair election happen, and I resigned because I didn’t see a fair election happen”. Mr Hackett assures Heythrop students that we are still a part of the union and it does not affect Heythrop students working for ULU nor using the facilities. The full interview is available on The Lion website and Youtube account.