adamsunman's diary

So,  just got back from the NUS extraordinary conference, and I regret to inform you all that NUS democracy has died today. 

 For those of you that don't know, the NUS decided at it's last NUS annual conference that the structure of the way the NUS is rusn is archaic and outdated and voted in favour of 'governance review' . The result of the ensuing action is an 84 page review that intends to replace the current constitution. The NEC had called an extraordinary conference in order to push through their agenda, and to ensure that their future place as New Labour MPs are secure. 

After extensive and heated debate on various amendments to the review, a motion was put forward that all other amendments were bypassed and a vote on the governance review was called. The delegates voted in favour of the governance review, by a majority of nearly 4:1  

 The result of this governance review completely rewrites the way in which the NUS is run, and not necessarily for the better. Under the review, what used to be the highest decision making body in the NUS, the annual conference, is now no more than a celebration of NUS achievements, and decisions will be made by a small board of six, unaccountable, external trustees, highly unrepresentative in comparison to a national conference of students. this board would have the power to veto any other body of the NUS, meaning anything passed by any other body can be struck down by an unaccountable board. 

There will still be student bodies, but in the form of fragmented zonal conferences, and there will be no vote in these as it is at the discretion of the chair to bring items to national level.  these will be less accountable and less representative of student opinion.

The Governance review is based on models of charitable organisations. organisations that decide how to spend the donations given to that charity. the NUS has a membership FEE and by my reckoning, we , as paid up members of the NUS have a right to say how our membership fee is spent, not leave it to a small board to decide. 

My biggest concern is the fact that the NUS extraordinary conference, because of it's immediate nature, was not fully representative of student opinion, merely the opinion of the students who's universities were able to have a cross-campus election in time to attend todays conference. surely, on such an important issue, the whole student population should be heard through its delegates and not just those that were able to attend today.