EUSA voting blunder as Edinburgh falls behind on minority representation

Plans put forward by the Student Representative Council (SRC) for increased representation on campus had to be put on hold last week after confusion over voting procedures.

The motion, which was initially passed, was to implement six ‘liberation officers’ into the council, who would represent self-defined minority groups, including female students, lesbian, gay or bisexual students, disabled students, and black students at the University.

The motion was recalled when it was discovered that EUSA’s constitution requires a two-thirds supermajority for a motion to be passed, a position that was not reached at the meeting.

President Adam Ramsay told Student a mistake had been made and said: “the constitution is a very long and complicated document”.

The proposal to introduce these additional officers sparked off a huge debate amongst the Council, as students disagreed as to the need and purpose of the ‘liberation’ figures.

While the NUS advises the implementation of these officials, and most universities in the UK already have them, some members of the council said that they would just result in increased bureaucracy and not affect long-term change.

“No one is suggesting underrepresentation is not a problem, but this isn’t the answer,” said Harry Cole, the social and political studies school representative. “If we are not already representing these groups, then we are not doing our jobs well enough. We should step up and talk to these people but we don’t need to create elected officials.”

However, Naomi Hunter, the sabbatical in charge of welfare within the University, said that she received many emails daily from students who felt that they were not currently being represented in the student council.

She said: “I don’t feel that we’re inclusive enough at the moment and I think it is disgraceful that people today - mostly white, straight men think that there is no discrimination on campus or in society.

“When we host campaigns for certain groups, we need to know what needs they have and make sure they have a platform to voice their opinions. This debate needs to continue until underrepresented groups are more included.”

Other members of the SRC said they had not been given any evidence of underrepresentation and therefore did not understand the severity of the problem.

“If students from these groups stood in elections, they would not be discriminated against and could be represented,” said Stephen Allison, a student representative. “The problem lies with student apathy and the solution is not to create token positions in the Council.”

Thomas Graham, the external affairs convener, said that the electoral figures spoke for themselves, with only one quarter of the electorate being female, when women make up half the student body.

“It appalls me that we are one of the only universities who completely disregards the need to represent certain people,” he said. “We need to make student council more accessible.”

Graham said that while the motion cannot now go to the Annual General Meeting later in the month, it might be brought back at some point next semester.