Originally published January 13th, 2009

Proposed reforms to the way the National Union of Students (NUS) is run have caused controversy, with prominent black public figures arguing that the measures will reduce black students’ representation.
Supporters of the new constitution say it are aimed at making the NUS more efficient, as well as improving representation for postgraduate and part-time students.

The reforms will be put the vote again at an extraordinary conference to be held on Tuesday, after having failed to pass at the 2008 annual meeting.

Black students’ representatives have been among the most prominent opponents of the reforms, arguing that minority groups’ concerns would be sidelined by the new system.

Representatives for female and disabled students have pledged to support the reforms.

Black students’ representatives have drafted in figures including Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, and the poet Benjamin Zephaniah, to campaign for the suspension of any vote on the reforms until an exhaustive equality assessment is complete.

Zepeniah said: “It saddens and disappoints me to see that, instead of encouraging representation, they are sidelining the black students officer.”

NUS President Wes Streeting has hit back at critics, describing the call for an equality report as “a cyncial political ploy” to block necessary changes.

The reforms have also been criticised as undemocratic, with claims that the proposed system of forming policy in locally elected ‘zones’ distances ordinary students from the process.