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.
It has emerged that two UGM constitutional motions were adopted by YUSU despite the fact that they didn’t pass quorum.
Under YUSU’s constitution, for a constitutional amendment to pass, 2.45% of the student body needs to vote. This currently works out at 298 votes cast one way or another for the motion to pass quorum. However for the motion titled “Resubmission: Annual constitutional tidy up” only 272 people voted, meaning not only did it fail to achieve the requisite quorum for a constitutional amendment but also the requirement for an ordinary motion, which stands at 2.25% of the student body or 273 votes.
A further constitutional change regarding changing the name of Student Action to YUSU Volunteering also failed to achieve quorum with only 291 votes cast on that motion.
The culprit appears to be Lewis Bretts who missed the clause in the YUSU constitution that constitutional amendments require an additional 0.2% to achieve quorum. In an email leaked to the Yorker, Bretts admits fault with and reveals that YUSU normally have a member of staff attached to Democracy & Services who would have double checked such issues but due to a current vacancy, there is no-one in that role.
Bretts has resubmitted both as emergency motions for Thursday’s UGM. Other motions being tabled cover reforming the Equality, Diversity & Welfare committee, creating a disability committee, including Nightline in the Union Council, a new motion on portering and for YUSU to provide more information about its activities through an independent Chair of Union Council.
Is this really a big deal? Does it actually change anything? Does anyone actually care?
In terms of the motions it wasn't a big deal.
However for other motions which could have much more importance then yes it would be a big deal.
Also it means YUSU have been operating under an un-ratified constitution for the last 4 weeks....
Constitution isn't ratified until the University Council agrees anyway
This is a clear example of the failure of York University's students to use their right to democratic vote. YUSU needs to see more participation from students, even on such unexciting issues as ratifying the constitution.
That, or YUSU need to engage students more to encourage better participation. I for one knew nothing about this last round of voting.
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