E-voting set to change face of union policy
IN A RADICAL leap forwards for direct democracy, York students will now be able to have their say in what their Students’ Union does from the comfort of their own computers.
In a move to tackle the crippling problem of inquorate meetings on campus, as of Monday November 15th, any York student will be able to vote electronically on the motions discussed in the previous weeks Union General Meeting (UGM).
The UGM is the central decision making body for the SU, and it helps to set their agenda on campus. It allows members to propose, discuss and vote on motions that they wish the Union to actively support.
The very first electronic UGM in York’s forty year history has been greeted with a mixture of controversial motions, including the request for the SU to boycott both Nestle and Coca-Cola.
The ethical grounds for these boycotts were established during last weeks UGM discussion, as Nestle was accused of violations related to its control over the baby milk market and Coca-Cola’s notoriously low wages and worker bullying tactics were discussed.
Justin Webber, from the People and Planet group on campus, also proposed a motion in support of a campaign for ethical investment, which was spearheaded by Nouse at the start of term.
He proposed that York should invest in an ethical investment policy, on the grounds of evidence revealed in Nouse that York had 115,000 direct shares and 1,354,663 indirect shares in the arms firm, BAE systems.
Alongside these ethical campaigns, the long-awaited drive for Halifax to get its very own ‘non-alcoholic social space’, i.e. a common room, has also now got the potential to get its feet off the ground thanks to the new voting mechanism.
James Flinders, Halifax College Chair, said: “For many of our students, a place serving alcohol just isn’t an appropriate place to meet. We want our College to have a non-alcoholic social space, so that every Halifaxer can socialise in a place they feel comfortable.”
Despite this enthusiasm, the move to electronic voting has not been universally welcomed and concerns have been raised within the SU Executive Committee that students might not fully digest the debate surrounding each motion, now that they are able to simply click through the voting process.
However, Micky Armstrong, SU President, remained positive and said: “A lot of people were shocked that not many people turned out, but there was still constructive debate going on. It wasn’t bogged down with the quoracy thing, or people who were there that didn’t want to be.
The people that turned up wanted to be there. Up to fifty people cared about the motions enough to come and make a stance, which was fantastic. And we’ll just have to see now what happens with the online voting, as to whether the rest of the students can be bothered.”
Any York student can vote online on these motions and help to change union policy by going to www.yusu.org, and following the links from that page.
BY Simon Davis – NEWS EDITOR
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