{"id":812,"date":"2018-11-08T19:49:12","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T19:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=812"},"modified":"2018-11-22T20:11:59","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T20:11:59","slug":"from-six-to-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/11\/08\/from-six-to-five\/","title":{"rendered":"FROM SIX TO FIVE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking of unions, the students’ union is planning a restructure:<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/lancastersu.co.uk\/officer-review<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The October meeting of its trustee board agreed a reduction in the number of full-time officers from six to five, keeping the President but replacing the proliferation of five Vice-Presidents (activities, campaigns & communications, education, welfare & community, and union development) with four new posts: activities officer, education officer (undergraduate), postgraduate officer, and welfare officer. There will be a referendum in Week 8, and campaign teams for and against are being formed this week.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, aside from the cosmetic name changes, we’re losing campaigns & communications, and union development, in favour of a full-time postgraduate officer. Not many are likely to oppose the loss of the union development post (formerly the General Secretary, aka ‘the President’s sidekick’), but the loss of a full-time political role in charge of LUSU media is more significant, and as for the proposal that undergraduates should be allowed to both stand and vote for the full-time postgraduate officer – well, good luck justifying that to the PG Board!<\/span><\/p>\n

Student media at Lancaster is now de-politicised, barring a few exceptions on SCAN’s team, so the loss of a full-time media sabbatical might just reflect reality. The days when SCAN could openly oppose the union’s political strategy are long gone. The activities officer gets to be SCAN’s editor-in-chief, but only as a small part of their brief.<\/span><\/p>\n

How, though, did the proposal get through to allow undergraduates to vote (and so have the decisive vote) on the postgraduate (who doesn’t have to be a postgraduate) officer? We’re told that, ‘as the officer would be a senior\/full-time officer of the students’ union and a trustee, legally any student will be eligible to vote for them. It wouldn’t be restricted to postgraduates.’ What’s more, ‘any full member of the students’ union would be eligible to stand for this role – even if they’re not actually a postgraduate student themselves.’<\/span><\/p>\n

Our legal correspondent describes this as ‘bollocks’. Exhibit A – UCL Union, which has a sabbatical Postgraduate Students’ Officer, open only to, and chosen only by, postgraduate students. Admittedly, we wouldn’t be the only students’ union to let undergraduates choose its postgraduate officer – Warwick seems to do it, and of course whenever Warwick does anything, Lancaster soon follows.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaking of unions, the students’ union is planning a restructure: https:\/\/lancastersu.co.uk\/officer-review The October meeting of its trustee board agreed a reduction in the number of full-time officers from six to five, keeping the President but replacing the proliferation of five … 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],"tags":[408,20,424,224],"class_list":["post-812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-issue-182","tag-lusu","tag-restructure","tag-scan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-d6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":927,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/03\/01\/students-union-hustings-a-report\/","url_meta":{"origin":812,"position":0},"title":"STUDENTS’ UNION HUSTINGS – A REPORT","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 1 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Scene: County South Lecture Theatre, Thursday 28 February, 7pm onwards, set out cabaret style. Audience: probably just short of 100 people, though this fluctuated a lot. Lighting: usually this was on 'low', except for the several moments when (we think some of the audience were leaning on the light switches)\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":474,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/03\/15\/lusu-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":812,"position":1},"title":"LUSU NEWS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 15 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"ELECTION Amidst all the \u2018disruption of the student experience\u2019 caused by the strike, the LUSU sabbatical elections rolled around last week, and six new people have been elected to replace the outgoing officers. The results were as follows: President: Rhiannon Llystyn Jones Vice-President (Union Development): Matty Robinson Vice-President (Activities): Toby\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":869,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/12\/17\/referen-dum\/","url_meta":{"origin":812,"position":2},"title":"REFEREN-DUM","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"December 17 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In case you missed it... the result of the Students' Union's referendum to change its full-time officer team (see subtext 182) has been announced, and it shows a decisive victory for the 'don't care!' campaign. On a 6% turnout of 892 votes, the votes were: Yes 438 (49%), No 396\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":812,"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":1199,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/02\/19\/student-democracy-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":812,"position":4},"title":"STUDENT DEMOCRACY UPDATE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"February 19 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in December 2018, subtext 184 reported on the Students' Union's unsuccessful referendum to change the make-up of its Full-Time Officer (FTO) team - a narrow majority voted 'yes' to the changes (yes 438, no 396, abstain 58), but the turnout failed to clear the 10% threshold needed for the\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":728,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/09\/13\/power-grabs-by-the-top-table\/","url_meta":{"origin":812,"position":5},"title":"POWER GRABS BY THE TOP TABLE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"September 13 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Along with completely obliterating the University Court, the top table has further gutted the responsibilities and the powers of the Senate, and given them to the University Council. The Senate consists of all department heads, all faculty deans, all college principals, four faculty lecturers, four faculty associate deans, two SU\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":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812","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=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":813,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions\/813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}