JCSU OGM Minutes- 4/11/2014
Committee Present:
Danny McGrath (President)
Hazel Jackson (Vice President)
Theo Morris Clarke (Treasurer)
Rebecca Zhao (Secretary)
Dan Hunt (Services)
James Swaden and Kitty Grady (Ents)
Jane Baxter (Green)
Anthony Wheeler (LGBT)
Freddie Valletta (Male welfare)
Aiden Goulden (Access)
Sarah Glew (Mental Health and Disabilities)
Charlotte Jackson (Female welfare)
Katherine Lee (International and Racial affairs)
Julien Cohen (International and Racial affairs)
Apologies for absence:
Tim Kitching (Communications)
Start of meeting
Reports of member’s activities since last meeting:
JS&KG: Had 2 bops, been organising the Welfare-joint-ents event for week 5, comedy smoker and hopefully a freshers play is on the cards. Christmas bop in the last week of term
JB: Organised veggie formal, green impact, met with domestic bursar about food waste bins. They have concerns about mice as people might not clean them out
SG: Freshers’ stuff, liaising about counselling, helping to organise next week’s events
CJ and FV (welfare): Helped organise freshers week, sexual consent workshops, Movember
HJ: Freshers week, currently organising yearbook and college stash
BZ: Organised committee meetings and societies fair
DM: Organised freshers week, Wesley house committee with architects, getting a new JCR, talking to the dean about disciplinary action
TMC: Did the end of year accounts for the JCSU, drawn up the annual budget, sold gowns to freshers
AG: Preparing the CUSU shadowing scheme, helping to train the schools liaison officer, rewriting the prospectus (photo competition)
JC: We’ve been welcoming Freshers and Erasmus students, answering queries, helped welfare team, social events across university
AW: LGBT and biscuits, signed Jesus up to university wide pub crawl, swap, welfare
DH: Societies photos, working with IT department to sort out Eduroam problems
Any questions for the committee?
JC: Completion date on Wesley house?
DM: Phase 1 scheduled for completion before freshers week next year (although currently dealing with some council issues), this includes the JCR and bar/cafe. Phase 2 (auditorium and gym) has to wait for further funds
Budget
TMC: Rather than running through each item on the budget will just mention any significant changes since last year. Access are no longer being funded by college and need to have a new prospectus, Basketball have requested more for capital expenditure, Boat club have asked for more, MedSoc is quite contentious- fairly large sum of money going now, Green is having more money as didn’t have a budget in the past, Jesus ski team didn’t either
Medsoc
TMC: Medsoc have requested money to fund student dinners provided that all members of college should be allowed to join
RA: Not just dinners, they fund talks in college with visiting speakers. And it’s not just one dinner but several per term
TMC: Don’t you think we’re asking for too much
JS: How would this work with medsoc being open to all of college?
RP: Tickets allocated on a first come first serve basis
TS: I propose an amendment to the budget to not fund Medsoc’s student dinners
Against: 21
For: 27
Badminton
Badminton budget should have been changed for £29 increase
TMC: Sorry for the mistake, misread the email
Amendment to budget to increase badminton funding from last year by £29 past
Engineering Society
TMC: Any engineers present at meeting?
JC: Yes our funding is to pay for speakers to talk at dinners
TMC: Well its written in budget application that there is an end of year punting trip too
AG: Has in past been funded by the second years
TMC: Propose amendment to get rid of funding the punting trip
For:27
Against: 2
Abstention: 1
Jesus Singers
TMC: Propose amendment to not fund pizza for Jesus singers?
No opposition
TMC: Everything we have discussed must be approved by the finance committee, so none of these decisions have been immediately carried
Voting for male/female welfare officers
SG: I feel like they work as a team, at least one of them might be your friend and it’s nice to be able to turn to someone else. Roles are gendered but a lot of their roles are not exclusive. As male and female undergraduates may approach either officer freely with welfare or academic issues and many issues are not gender specific, both male and female undergraduates should have a say in the choice of new officers.
AW: Same as fact that all member’s of college have a say in the LGBT officer
For: 24
Against: 5
Abstention: 5
Motion passed
Women’s officer
JY: I’m proposing this motion, many other colleges have a women’s officer. I would focus on the college’s sexual harassment policy, gender gap, attainment gap, organising consent workshops. Crucial that this is an autonomous position, would be too much to ask female welfare officer to do this too. The role of the female welfare officer as it currently stands is to provide individual support for women facing difficulties with regards to academic problems, sexual health, and emotional stress. There is not a position in place that represents women as a minority group within the college and university as a whole. Structural inequality faced by women is recognised by the vice-chancellor as a problem within universities, and it requires pro-active action. This role is therefore different to that of a female welfare officer, and combining the two roles would make the female welfare officer an impossible role to fulfil to a good standard.
JS: To what extent will the women’s officer be part of the welfare team?
JY: Women’s officer will complement roles of the female welfare officer
AW: Would only self identifying women be able to vote?
JY: Yes
JC: Would like to amend this aspect of the role.
TMC: The JCSU is not political so how is this different from other types of campaigning?
JY: It would involve looking at policies in place and how they should be adjusted. It has been recognised that we need to be proactive in maintaining gender equality. It’s all about representation.
RRM: I would like to support Jinan if male and female welfare officers are being voted for by male and females, a role just voted for my women should be preserved
SG: As a woman in Jesus college, there is a feeling amongst some women that this isn’t a problem at all, women don’t really want to be treated as a minority
AG: Also the attainment gap does not apply to Jesus college
TMC: CJ and FV, do you feel like these jobs are not possible within your existing position?
CJ: No it’d be too much, if there are some women in college who feel like they need a representative, they should have it even if they don’t vocalise it
JS: Is this a permanent role, or does it have a goal to achieve only
JY: There would be no need for a women’s officer once gender equality has been achieved
JA: LGBT role is voted for by all members of college so why should this be any different
JC: I would like to propose an amendment to the constitution so that everyone can vote for the women’s officer, it’s in both male and female interests to achieve gender equality. Men are interested in this issue, it’s a question of democracy
RRM: Should just be a representative of women
JS: If we introduce a role only women can vote for, we are introducing structural inequality. Women are then represented on committee more
JY: The whole idea of having a women’s officer is recognition of gender equality. Women have been shown to be disadvantaged. It is important to listen to women that we need this position. It is worrying that potentially a ‘disliked women’ might not get onto the committee because of the dominance carried by male votes
Amendment
For:11
Against: 15
Abstention:6
Motion
For:21
Against: 3
Abstention8
Changing the title of the LBGT officer
AW: Change from LBGT to LGBT+, this is more conventional and inclusive
JY: Why don’t we have the q , people identify as q (LGBTQ+)
AW: Should be in keeping with CUSU and other colleges, also people identifying as q are included in the(+)
JY: Okay that seems fair so retract amendment
No objections
Motion passed
Any other business?
End of meeting