SU Council’s last meeting before the Christmas recess passed three amendments to the SU constitution and unanimously backed the reports of each sabbatical officer. Tuesday’s meeting also witnessed lengthy debate both on last week’s student protest outside Belfast City Hall, and on the proposal for a Republican Congress society at Queen’s.
BY CONNOR DALY AND SEAN ASHFORD
Constitutional amendments were proposed by VP Equality and Diversity Samantha Tan, VP Community Jay Downs, and VP Clubs and Societies Niall Bole respectively. Tan’s amendment called to add to the commitment of excluding flags or emblems considered likely to be provocative or offensive, aiming for a re-worked version to be presented to the next meeting of Council. The second amendment to pass was that proposed by Downs, which will allow for regulated forms of competitions to be run within the Students’ Union. Having taken three years to pass Student Council, Downs emphasised that such games would only occur within the best interests of the Union. The passing of Bole’s proposed amendment, deferred by last month’s meeting of Council, means that potential clubs and societies will now be fully discussed by the Clubs, Societies and Student Development Committee before being put forward to Council.
Reports by Union sabbatical officers were backed unanimously by councillors. VP Campaigns and Communications Fiona Kidd expressed delight at reports that DEL Minister Danny Kennedy may consider options with the intent to keeping the current cap on tuition fees. VP Welfare Adam Union told Council that the SU has successfully managed to reclaim the £300,000 owed to the Student Support Fund, describing this as a “big victory” for the Union.
SU President Gareth McGreevy explained to Council that his report was submitted late as a result of his recent meeting with Business Secretary and Lib Dem MP Vince Cable at Westminster. Responding to McGreevy’s report, a member of the Free Education for Everyone (FEE) group challenged the president on his reaction to last Thursday’s student protest outside Belfast City Hall and standing orders were suspended to discuss the protest. VP Kidd condemned any illegal action on the day and expressed the Union’s relief that no Queen’s student was arrested. Various councillors openly supported Kidd, with one councilor saying the student fees issue is not “bigger than the law”. VP Downs described this debate as “farcically unfair” because neither side had time to present a formal argument, and called on Council to defer a proper debate until the next meeting scheduled for Monday 7 February, to which the majority of councillors agreed.
During the meeting a number of councillors expressed their discomfort with the attempted passing of a Republican Congress, with some claiming the group may be linked to the socialist republican political party Éirigi. Another point raised concerned the group’s constitution and conditions for membership, which some councillors claimed to be restrictive. In response to these claims, the student proposing the group said that there was a distinct difference between Éirigi and the Congress, and on the alleged restriction to membership he added that this was “something we’ll have to look at”. At this point VP Bole proposed to defer any voting on the group until further discussions were held between himself and the Congress to which a majority of councillors agreed.
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