Members of the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) will vote tonight on key amendments to its constitution at its EGM at 7pm.
Many of the amendments emerged from the union’s year-long constitutional review, and are being billed as ways to make the “unworkable” document more user friendly.
However, the new constitution does introduce plenty of additional changes outside of this housekeeping. Here are the main five changes that GSU members can expect, if they vote through the new constitution tonight.
New Sabbatical Officer
The new constitution would introduce another sabbatical officer position – the paid, full-time elected members of the union of which there are currently two – who would represent PhD researchers specifically. The move, according to the motion brought to the EGM is part of the “the general aim of the Union to grow in stature”.
Removing Representatives
The new constitution states that any representative can be removed by a majority of “the total number of individuals who initially appointed them”. In the current constitution, a simple majority of members at a general meeting and a list of charges with 60 signatures was enough to remove any member of the executive committee.
The new constitution would remove two key powers that the executive committee possess. Members of the executive committee are currently able to remove one of its members – apart from the president or vice president – if the removal is supported in writing by three quarters of the committee. The president and vice president can also be removed by a unanimous vote of the executive committee, excluding the other person who they are attempting to remove.
Focus on Mandated Issue or Cohort
Officers and representatives in the union will have to focus on the issue or cohort that they were elected to represent. Straying from their mandate will constitute a breach of the constitution and will be “bona fide grounds for removal”. It is unclear what this could mean for executive committee members with specific briefs and whether they could play a part in decision making outside of their remit.
Technical Changes
If the amendments are passed, elections will take place in Hilary term, as opposed to Trinity term as has previously been the case, and will also be run electronically.
The provision stopping people from serving as an officer in the union for more than three years would also be removed, but members would still only be able to hold the same office for a maximum of two terms.
In addition the GSU sabbatical officers would nominate the chairperson, who the GSU council will then confirm. Previously, the sabbatical officers did not have the sole responsibility for nominating the chair. In practice, however, the union’s sabbatical officers normally do nominate the chairperson for voting by GSU council.
By-laws
The schedules in the constitution – considered “procedural” and “overly technical” – will be removed and placed into new by-laws, which have yet to be released and will be “enacted ancillary to this Constitution”. This is, according to the motion, an attempt to make the constitution more user friendly. Essentially, the by-laws will act as more accessible versions of the schedules that already exist in the GSU constitution.
Correction: 19:54, April 14th, 2021
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the new constitution would change the election date for sabbatical officers from Hilary term to Trinity term. The opposite is, in fact, the case.
