{"id":397,"date":"2018-03-01T22:24:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T22:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=397"},"modified":"2018-03-01T22:24:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T22:24:00","slug":"special-report-scrutiny-mutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/03\/01\/special-report-scrutiny-mutiny\/","title":{"rendered":"SPECIAL REPORT: SCRUTINY MUTINY"},"content":{"rendered":"

subtext spent a large amount of the 15\/16 academic year remonstrating with the Students’ Union and advising it not to implement its ‘democratic review’, an initiative which involved LUSU reviewing democracy and deciding it wasn’t very good. LUSU subsequently abolished its council, and handed all of its power to two bodies. First, its executive committee, whose membership is unknown and whose minutes have not been published in two years. Second, a ‘student jury’, which had its deliberations published once about eighteen months ago and may well have met every day since then for all we know. The new model has been effective – the SU seems not to have taken a discernible stance on any politically charged issue since the new system came into being (if it has, it certainly hasn’t been rushing to tell us). A stark contrast to the old system, in which the SU had a large representative council consisting of officers representing a diverse range of students which met every two weeks, voted on policy, and routinely uploaded its minutes, agendas, and copies of policies it had both passed and rejected.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was not hard to predict (and we did) that the new democratic system would be the unmitigated failure it has proven to be, and would drastically reduce transparency, but we were somewhat heartened by the creation of a ‘Scrutiny Panel’ (see subtext 155) – a truly independent body which would hold LUSU to account. Its members were to be appointed by LUSU officers rather than elected by the student body. Yes – LUSU officers hand picked who would scrutinise them, and no we aren’t making this up! So, surely the robustly critical Scrutiny Panel has by now taken LUSU to task over its complete lack of transparency, right?<\/span><\/p>\n

You’d think so, but according to SCAN, the Scrutiny Panel has yet to meet this academic year! One former member of the panel, who resigned in disgust, fumed to SCAN that they had been ‘appointed to, rather than elected to’ the body. ‘Nobody has heard of it and it produces a report that nobody reads. It is a scandal that the Full Time Officers are allowed to do nothing at our expense with no scrutiny,’ they went on to say.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the same report, LUSU defended itself: ‘getting a group of students in the room at the same time can prove difficult.’ It can? Seminar tutors may sympathise, but if LUSU hasn’t been able to get eight people into a room in five months, then no wonder it’s having such difficulty taking a stance on anything. LUSU goes on: ‘at the Annual General Meeting […] students will have the opportunity to hold all officers accountable.’ This is the same AGM that the 15\/16 LUSU officers denounced as unfit for purpose, and that subtext pointed out was never going to reach quoracy if its agenda was focused on tedious bureaucracy. No doubt a robust discussion on a Scrutiny Panel that ‘nobody has heard of’ producing ‘a report that nobody reads’ is sure to have LUSU’s next AGM bursting at the seams.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even when the Scrutiny Panel was actually meeting, the \u2018scrutiny\u2019 was somewhat less than comprehensive. subtext has learned that a typical meeting involved LUSU officers submitting a questionnaire (written by LUSU staff) to the Scrutiny Panel, who would rate their answers on a scale of ‘Needs Improvement’ to ‘Outstanding’, along with supporting comments which were largely positive due to the majority of the panel being friends with and appointed by the LUSU Officers. No wonder a meeting hasn\u2019t been held all year, if this is the sort of ruthless pillorying that officers have to live in fear of.<\/span><\/p>\n

Readers may agree that LUSU should be held to a high standard. That it failed to meet such a standard only affirms our belief that its democratic review has proven to be a disaster not only for the SU, but for the interests of students at this University as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

subtext spent a large amount of the 15\/16 academic year remonstrating with the Students’ Union and advising it not to implement its ‘democratic review’, an initiative which involved LUSU reviewing democracy and deciding it wasn’t very good. LUSU subsequently abolished … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[208,233,20],"class_list":["post-397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-special-feature","tag-democracy","tag-issue-174","tag-lusu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-6p","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":709,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/09\/13\/the-students-union\/","url_meta":{"origin":397,"position":0},"title":"THE STUDENTS’ UNION","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"September 13 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"It all started so well for the Students' Union. In subtext 169 we reported on their campaign against an unnecessary rent increase of up to \u00a3249. To make their displeasure known, LUSU set up a stall and put \u00a3249 worth of pasta on display. A little gimmicky, we thought, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "history"","block_context":{"text":"history","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":508,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/04\/26\/general-fiasco\/","url_meta":{"origin":397,"position":1},"title":"GENERAL FIASCO","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"April 26 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"subtext was unable to report on the LUSU General Meeting last month, so here's SCAN's report:\u00a0http:\/\/scan.lusu.co.uk\/index.php\/2018\/03\/15\/union-on-the-defensive-in-ill-tempered-agm\/ What was of interest to subtext was the excuses reeled off by the officer team for the poor attendance. Students were blamed for not tabling exciting agenda items and instead expecting their elected officers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":644,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/06\/07\/another-glorious-victory-for-subtext\/","url_meta":{"origin":397,"position":2},"title":"ANOTHER GLORIOUS VICTORY FOR SUBTEXT","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"June 7 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In subtext 178, we helpfully noted that LUSU's online general meeting was not only completely unconstitutional, but also easy to game, as it was possible for students to vote as many times as they wished. Since our report, we note that LUSU has sent out a 'special newsletter' to promote\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1270,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/06\/19\/nuttall-officers\/","url_meta":{"origin":397,"position":3},"title":"Nuttall Officers","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"June 19 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Contributed article by Ronnie Rowlands Back in those heady, wistful days of February 2020, subtext reported that the students' union (LUSU) had passed a drastic restructure of its executive officer team without adequate consultation. LUSU's reorganisation continues apace, with the sacking of President George Nuttall and the resignation of Vice-President\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":356,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/02\/15\/student-citizens-advice-bureau\/","url_meta":{"origin":397,"position":4},"title":"STUDENT CITIZENS’ ADVICE BUREAU?","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"February 15 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"'To govern is to choose. To appear to be unable to choose is to appear to be unable to govern.' So said a wise person... well, OK, actually it was Nigel Lawson. Still, it's a good quote. LUSU's executive committee has decided against taking a position on the UCU strike.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1098,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/11\/01\/special-feature-lancaster-university-students-disunion\/","url_meta":{"origin":397,"position":5},"title":"SPECIAL FEATURE: LANCASTER UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ DISUNION","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 1 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"SPECIAL FEATURE: LANCASTER UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' DISUNION Contributed articles by Ronnie Rowlands ONE SUGAR, PLEASE When we covered the Students' Union officer elections for the 19\/20 academic year, your subtext correspondents observed that the new crop of officers ought to make short work of becoming popular. LUSU had been awash with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":398,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions\/398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}