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.
Both YUSU referenda have failed, meaning neither will become union policy. Turnout was 1,250 voters (8%) which Union Chair Luke Sandford described as “huge”.
The most controversial motion to rename the women’s officer to 'Gender Equalities Officer' fell only 56 votes short of passing. Such a close result was unexpected, considering the significant ‘no’ campaign with very little ‘yes' campaign activity.
YUSU Women’s Committee expressed their joy at the result, with the official twitter account proclaiming: “Thank you to everyone who voted, well done, we won!!! #winning #savewomcom #feministchamps”.
Meanwhile Gareth Bennet, proposer of the motion tweeted: “Very tight margin on the vote showed just how relevant the #genderequality motion was...”.
The second motion asked whether YUSU should "twin with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem” and was rejected by a large margin. With only 11.5% of votes in favour, it received one of the heaviest defeats of any policy motion in recent YUSU history.
The motion, which was even discussed in the Jewish chronicle, failed to gain recognisable support, despite its proposer arguing that it would reduce anti-Semitism on campus.
The ‘no’ campaign however argued that “twinning would waste resources that could otherwise be used to improve student societies and welfare.”
The fact that at 8%, turnout exceeded the 5% required for any result to be binding will be seen as a victory for YUSU, especially given the recent poster ban. Whilst the figure remains low for most democratic elections in the UK, it has exceeded that of some local Students’ Unions such as Leeds (approx. 6.6%).
Quoracy rules within YUSU remain contentious as debate continues as to whether less than 10% of the members should be able to decide union policy. A motion to redefine quoracy last year was rejected after failing to reach quoracy.
"Quoracy rules within YUSU remain contentious as debate continues as to whether less than 10% of the members should be able to decide union policy. "
I'm not really sure they are, I've not had any complaints and UGM Quoracy used to be lower. The motion last year didn't involve increasing quoracy, just whether or not "no" votes would count towards it.
How is it a fail?
It comfortably passed quorum. Just because you don't agree that people who vote against something don't exist democratically doesn't make this a fail.
Your articles are nearly all about YUSU, maybe try branching out a bit...
I think he means fail as in didn't pass, not a failure...
^ that.
And yes, 10% of members should be able to decide union policy - do you think that MPs represent 10% of the country? There are a select few, equivalent to the Cabinet and civil service, making some decisions and major changes go to 10% of everyone it affects - that's democracy. 8% is high, nationally, but I wouldn't say "huge" given some voting numbers we have had in the past. It's still impressive though.
As for treating anti-semitism - jewish people on campus tend to only be disliked by massive anti-Israel people who are stupid (see Racial Equality situation in Sept), whilst 'middle eastern' people tend to get attacked by a much larger proportion of York's residents and elsewhere. There is inequality on both sides, but making a motion to support Zionism and claiming it's treating "Jewish Inequality" is just bollocks 
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