Referendum April 2010
Should LUU adopt the proposed new democratic system?
Hannah Greenslade
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Seconder name:
Jak Codd
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Motion Name:
Should LUU adopt the proposed new democratic system?
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Motion Category:
Activities, Strong & Active Union
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Motion Wording:
Notes
LUU has conducted two years of research into how students want to make democratic decisions at LUU. This has included surveys totalling over 6000 respondents, numerous open workshops, focus groups, direct consultations and investigation into other student union and public models of democracy.
This research revealed that:
• That the current democratic system is often perceived to be cliquey, inaccessible and dealing with frivolous issues.
- The most popular ways of students making decisions at LUU are referendum followed by market research.
• Students want to be consulted on issues that are relevant to them in an appropriate and accessible, deliberative forum.
• Students most commonly define themselves as “belonging to” a particular school in the University, Union activity or place of residence.
That the full findings of this research are publicly available on the LUU website here:
Believes
That democracy lies at the heart of LUU and therefore the democratic system must help students to love their time at Leeds by enabling them to create real change that affects their lives. Every student at Leeds must have confidence in the Union’s democratic system to deliver these changes if it is to be effective. This means we must reach out to students who experience barriers to participating in this process.
Resolves
To replace Union Council with three more specific forums: Better Union, Better University and Better Leeds.
For the relevant and appropriate student representatives to attend each forum to stimulate, inform and support debate.
To ensure that all student viewpoints are heard at these forums so that they create relevant policy.
To make it easy for any student to submit a proposal to one of these forums outlining what they want and why.
To recruit and train a student to act as a facilitator for each of these forums.
To involve more general students in the democratic process by recruiting and supporting a demographically representative student panel to attend each forum and approve the decisions made.
To ensure the issues that go to referendum are appropriate by referring proposals which are highly contentious from these forums to referendum and enable all students to decide the outcome.
To amend the Union’s by-laws and articles in line with this motion.
To work with minority and liberation groups to ensure that their voices are heard within this democratic structure in a 2 month time frame.
Notes