A group of York students has won the opportunity to have their very own I-phone application developed after winning The App Challenge final, held at the Ron Cooke Hub on Wednesday, January 18.
YUSU Welfare officer Bob Hughes has warned students to be vigilant after a student loans phishing scam has been revealed.
Her Majesty the Queen will be visiting York on Maundy Thursday, 5th April, as part of the 800th anniversary of York’s Charter for the traditional “Royal Maundy” ceremony.
A flood caused by a heating system “failure” forced the university IT services to shut down many essential systems on Sunday night, causing problems for many students on the eve of their exams and assignment due-dates.
YUSU has announced the two policies which will be put to a student vote this term in the first of the new “referendum” format.
The referenda replace the Union General Meetings, and are expected to be a termly occurrence. Each referendum will be about a policy proposed by a York student, which the union’s Democracy Committee believes will “substantively guide or constrain” the work of the YUSU and is “reasonably contentious”.
One of the new motions calls for the role of YUSU Women’s Officer to be redefined to a role of Gender Equalities Officer in order to address the disparity as there is currently no YUSU Men's Officer. Currently, only individuals who self-define as women may run for the position, which aims to represent women’s issues within YUSU.
The motion also proposes redefining the Women’s Committee, which campaigns and holds events on women’s issues to a Gender Equalities Committee.
This issue has raised significant contention in the past and in 2010 Peter Saul and Mark Pickard self-defined as women and ran for the position in protest against the position’s exclusivity for women; however, they gained condemnation from women's organisations across campus and were banned from campaigning.
Current YUSU Women's Officers Cat Wayland and Nell Beecham are opposing the motion and have told The Yorker: "We're deeply concerned about the effects this motion could have on women's representation in the union - should it pass, there will be only one union position specifically designated for a woman student (LGBT Women's place)."
They added: "We fear that removing the position of women's officer and placing it under the remit of 'gender equality' further subordinates women's issues in a world where women are disproportionately disadvantaged by gender inequality."
The other motion up for debate is to “twin” the union with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and to encourage the university to do the same.
Such a move would be likely to be seen as support from the union for Israel. The debate is particularly pertinent given former Racial Equalities Officer Lawrence Bintie’s criticism of the Israeli government and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Heslington Councillor David Levene’s Facebook wall. Bintie later resigned following the comments.
There are concerns that the recent postering ban on campus will hamper the referenda campaigns, and fears have been raised that neither motion will attract sufficient votes to pass.
YUSU rules require at least 5% of its members (approximately 750 people) to vote in a referendum in order for the result to be binding. Only 290 votes were cast on motions arising from the final Union General Meeting last year.
The referenda debate will be held on Tuesday, November 29 at 6.30pm in P/X/001 and voting opens on Wednesday, November 30, closing the following Monday.
With regards to Mark Pickard and Peter Saul running for Women's Officer having "gained condemnation from women's groups" I can assure you that it was NOT just female students who were insulted. As the Hustings video shows there were plenty of male feminists who took issue with the pair's reprehensible campaign. Every ridiculous "sarcastic" comment shows exactly why women's liberation is still so relevant today.
ystv.co.uk/watch/Elections/2010/Hustings-2010/Womens-Officers/Candidate-Questions/
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