Democracy

 
The Union is run and operated democratically by students and everyone has an equal say. Obviously to ask everyone about everything all the time is a bit unnecessary, you don’t want to be constantly bothered with endless questions, you may not have an opinion or you may not know enough information to feel like you can form an opinion.

Therefore there are 2 groups of students who make decisions on behalf of everyone; Union Executive and Union Council.

Anyone can stand to be elected as a representative on these 2 decision making bodies and are chosen by the student population in 2 sets of elections.

Early in October anyone who wishes to be one of the 40 people who make up Union Council runs in the Union-wide elections. Each person writes a small paragraph of why they feel they are best suited to be on Union Council and the Union publicises everyone running for election. You can then make an informed decision and vote for your favourite people online.

Union Executive consists of the 6 Sabbatical Officers. These are full time positions that start in June, after the summer exams, and last 12 months. The SABBs do not study but live and work on campus, to improve the Union for everyone.

Any student can run to be a SABB, from freshers to final years. People run to be a SABB for all kinds of reasons, but are united by just one – to make a difference.

For some officers a SABB year becomes their placement, for others it is a break from their course and for many it is their first job after graduating.

The elections, held in March, work slightly differently to those for Union Council. Everyone still writes a piece about why you should vote for them and the voting is still online, however, all the people standing for election are allowed to actively campaign to win the votes of students. As a result campus becomes awash with posters, badges, t-shirts and crazy activities, in a bid to make you more aware of each person. Some contenders dress in fancy dress, others have BBQs and some run activities on the Parade, like trampolining in front of the Library! But remember the purpose of the elections is not to vote for who entertains you most, but who you feel will best represent you in the role they are running for.

Each SABB has set responsibilities and they meet as a Union Executive all the time to make important decisions. On Union Council a few people have set roles, but most act in the interest of the general student population. All decisions that the Union Executive make are reported to Union Council and may be overruled, because Union Council is a more representative group, indeed some decisions go straight to Union Council. The Union Council can also set work for the Union Executive to do.

All decisions that Union Council make are sent for approval by the entire student population at the Annual General Meeting (AGM). Everyone may attend and vote on the issues discussed at the AGM.

This is just an outline of how the Union makes decisions. There are many other ways to be involved in the running of the Union, mainly through different representative groups like the Executives for Societies, Sports or Volunteering.
More information on getting involved with the SU>>