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.
The new bye-laws on Ideas and Policy were passed by students voting after the last UGM, along with 14 other sections, ranging from Membership, Student Activities and Union Representatives.
The Ideas and Policy bye-laws state that Union members will submit ideas to a Democracy Council, which will “meet regularly to steer ideas submitted by members to the relevant decision-making body within the Union.”
Ideas may not be considered if they are seen as a threat to the Union or if they have already been considered and resolved in the same academic year.
Accepted ideas will either be submitted as Policy Motions to the Union Assembly or, if thought to “substantively guide or constrain the work of the Union”, held as referenda for all union members.
At YUSU’s last UGM, four motions were proposed and will be voted on by students over the next few days.
Peter Spence called for an annual referendum on the University of York’s affiliation with the NUS, rather than holding one every three years, which is currently done.
He argued that “regular democratic processes such as cross campus ballots will likely result in an increase in engagement and discussion.”
This comes after the recent referendum to disaffiliate with the NUS failed.
YUSU President Tim Ngwena spoke against the motion, saying “the issue of referendum can come up at any time” and doesn’t need to be a policy.
Spence also proposed a motion to redefine quorum for Union referenda, wanting to change the current system of all votes at a referendum contributing to the quorum to only taking into account votes which desire change.
This motion also attracted criticism from Ngwena and YUSU Democracy and Services Officer Dan Walker said he was “vehemently opposed to this motion”.
In the third motion, Spence called for YUSU’s ‘End the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza’ to be repealed, arguing the Union has failed to affect foreign policy anywhere.
The policy requires YUSU to call for Israel and Hamas to stop attacks and for Israel to lift its siege of Gaza but Spence feels the policy is “entirely ineffective”.
Spence argued that “foreign policy should not be on the table for a Student Union or a Union claiming to represent student interests” and the university’s societies are a more effective way of getting involved.
The final motion, proposed by current Langwith College chair Cem Turhan, calls for support from YUSU Officers for the planned catering and social building on the Heslington East campus.
Hes East currently has only one café but no bar or cash point and there are plans for a social catering building and bars to provide services for the 1,300 students who will be living there from 1212.
Turhan wants YUSU to lobby the University to press forward with these plans and already has support from Ngwena and Tim Ellis and Goodricke chair Nacho Hernandez, who all seconded the motion.
Vote online at YUSU from midday on Friday Week 8 to midday Wednesday Week 9.
Can't understand why the YUSU lot oppose the quoracy motion. It basically says that motions should only pass if enough people want it to. At the moment, the rules say that a motion should only pass if enough people don't want it to - that's crazy.
Perhaps they only support democratic reform when its them whose proposing it?
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