Dear Editors,

Last week’s issue of The Student [published January 31 2012] included a news article about Student Council and then a piece in the Comment section which criticised the three motions that I had submitted to improve the accountability and democracy within EUSA. In the interest of balance, I would greatly appreciate it if you could print my response.

EUSA is not a student society. Student reps are entrusted to make decisions that impact on nearly 27,000 students; these decisions should not be taken lightly, so it is vital that reps can be held to account. A simple way of doing this is to record votes. In addition to minutes - taken for the past century - the votes of senior reps will now be recorded and students able to see what decisions their representatives are making on their behalf.

The idea that this “goes against everything that we’re at university for” is absurd. Representatives have both rights - to vote at council - and responsibilities – to have their records open to scrutiny. What’s the point of a manifesto if no one outside of student council can check if you followed it or not? Again, EUSA is for all students, not just the people who are heavily involved.

Student Council supported this motion because the majority of people wanted to put the interests of 28,000 students before the awkwardness of being recorded voting against how you said you would in your election. It’s clear that Student Council is getting better in terms of transparency and accountability: election turnout is higher, more elections are contested, attendance at Council is higher, and there is more coverage in The Student. Of course, there is still a lot to do but I think that it’s a shame that the article implied that Student Council was getting worse when it’s actually getting better.

Finally, as a minor note, you stated that the voting records motion fell when in actual fact it passed. This factual inaccuracy will presumably be picked up much more easily once voting records are implemented!

All the best,
James McAsh