NUS Disaffiliation Referendum – Sabbatical Officer Supporting Document
To expand on the reasonings to trigger this referendum, I wish to elaborate further on the points that are on the executive summary page on the UCSU.org website. I wish to give the student body a choice in this key decision about your union, and I hope you take into account both my views as your elected officer and the views of the NUS. The following is based on mine, and recent past sabbatical officer experiences. This has been discussed by sabbatical officers since 2018, and so it has been decided (with the support of Student Council and the UCSU Trustee Board) that now is an appropriate time to hold this referendum. If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at supresident@chi.ac.uk.
I would like to make it clear that we are among many other unions around the UK that are looking for the student voice in helping us with this important decision. Just some of the other institutions that are holding the same referendum are: Kent Union, Lancaster Students’ Union, Aberdeen University Students Association’, Lincoln Students’ Union, Brighton Students’ Union, Cambridge University Students’ Union, Essex Students’ Union (who have voted to leave the NUS), Canterbury Christ Church Students’ Union, Loughborough Students’ Union, St Andrews Students’ Association. I would urge you to read some of the reasonings from other institutions as to why they too have triggered this referendum. This is not something that we have decided to do out of the blue. This is a national concern, and the student voice is extremely necessary in helping us to make this decision. We are a democratic organisation and will honour and embrace the majority decision and therefore, cannot stress enough the importance of you all casting your vote.
Points
Continued association with NUS UK is no longer desirable due to the antisemitic allegations and ongoing investigation.
To elaborate:
Here is some information taken from a webpage of historical information to do with NUS UK (linked below):
‘The NUS has had a long history with antisemitism. In 2005 a member of the NUS National Executive Committee and now Labour MP, Luciana Berger, resigned due to ingrained antisemitism against her and other Jewish representatives. Among other things, she was spat on at the annual conference.
In 2011 Malia put into action one of the NUS’s definitions of antisemitism, claiming that Birmingham University was a “Zionist outpost in higher education”, and alluded to a “Zionist led lobby” controlling western foreign policy.
In 2014, Malia appeared at a pro-Palestinian resistance conference where the poster featured two leaders designated terrorist organisations: Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah, and George Habash of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Two months after the event, the PFLP claimed responsibility for the murder of 4 Jews in Jerusalem with Habash calling it a “heroic act”, and the head of Hesbollah is quoted as having said he hopes all Jews can congregate in Israel so he doesn’t have to hunt them down individually.
Then, earlier in this year, 2016, we saw the abolition of the only secure seat for a Jewish student on the Anti-racist anti-fascist campaign in the NUS, the last remaining fixed representation for Jewish students.
At this year's conference, delegates cheered and applauded speeches against the commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day, because it was somehow giving privilege to one genocide over another.’ - https://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/the-nus-anti-semitic-out-of-touch-and-ineffective/
Alongside the historical allegations, there was another allegation against the President Elect of the NUS, info is as follows: ‘Complaints have been made by the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) about comments by Dallali on social media, including a post from when she was a young teenager, which read: “Khaybar Khaybar O Jews … Muhammad’s army will return Gaza,” referencing an AD628 massacre. She has since apologised for the post.’ - https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/apr/13/national-union-students-investigated-antisemitism
Much of NUS UKs work does not align with the vision and values of UCSU.
To elaborate:
Having been in office since June 2021 (officially becoming President on 1st July 2021), I have encountered several instances where the work of NUS does not align to our vision and values. One of these, for example, is that much of the work they are doing is very politically driven and anti-establishment, and at the University of Chichester Students’ Union, we have a duty to represent all students. I have found this is particularly overwhelming when attending the NUS Conference. Most conversations circled back to politics and those in charge of our country. Don’t get me wrong – I 100% see and understand the value of challenging the government, but here at the University of Chichester in particular, we are fortunate that both myself and the wider officer team have a very open and honest relationship with the Vice Chancellor and the Senior Team at the University - we have regular meetings, are included at key decision making committees/meetings and really do have the opportunity to share the student voice. This has been a historically positive relationship that has been created through worthwhile interactions, challenges and respect built. Whilst it can be positive to be part of a National organisation, I have found during my term of office that the NUS approach can be more extreme that we would usually consider necessary.
Remaining affiliated to NUS UK is not considered to add value to UCSU, particularly in recent years.
To elaborate:
At the moment, we are a part of NUS UK (the political arm) and NUS Charity (the purchasing consortium, which also gives us election support and access to officer training). I have almost exclusively interacted with the NUS Charity arm of NUS during my time in office. I have done so by attending the officer training – which was an extremely beneficial networking event, and off the back of this, campaigns with other officers from around the country have been formed and created together, with the hope of creating lasting change for our students. I see a great deal of value in remaining affiliated with this arm of the NUS, so that is not in the referendum.
However, regarding what I have found value in with NUS UK, I am on an e-mail thread that is shared with all other sabbatical officers. During the investigation period into the NUS, my former Vice-President and I were invited to attend a Zoom session with the former President of the NUS, this was a meeting that other sabbatical officers from around the country also attended, and were given a platform to ask relevant questions. Unfortunately, I didn’t find that we were given a clear and honest response to the questions that were raised during the meeting (often regarding the anti-sematic allegations), and that is one of the main opportunities that we have been given to directly speak with members of the NUS, other than the occasional e-mail exchange.
From my personal experience with them over the last two years, I don’t find this a necessity in order to make lasting change for our students. Not all unions are affiliated and we are a part of a wider network of unions that share a great number of similar issues and concerns around the South of England. We find this an extremely valuable network and it has proved much more beneficial in terms of collective campaigns and change. In recent years, other unions have made the decision to disaffiliate from NUS UK and it seems as though more are choosing to do the same this year.
The cost of being affiliated to NUS UK is 2% of our Block Grant funding from the University. Based on our 2022/23 this amounts to £6,440, which does not represent value for money.
To elaborate:
This year, should the student body choose for the union to disaffiliate, we will see a 50% saving, as we will have had access to the NUS until December, which is roughly half of the year for NUS. This will therefore deliver a small saving, but it will give us some headway in the event that we need to fund any campaigns that crop up. For example, last year there was a national crisis regarding spiking, of which students felt as though their safety was at risk. The union introduced several initiatives, all of which came with a cost. This will give us some freedom to invest in future issues that may arise. With this point, though, I want to make it abundantly clear that this referendum has come to light primarily due to the Union struggling to find value in the continued affiliation, and is not driven solely from the financial commitment that we have.
In terms of value moving forward, we currently pay just over £6K per year for our affiliation to NUS UK and just over £1.5K for NUS Charity; in terms of the amount paid to NUS UK, I am not able to demonstrate how this has benefited the Union and therefore the student body, whereas the money paid to NUS Charity with whom we have active engagement, has demonstrated value. We can link back to benefits from our purchasing consortium (which helps us generate funds for reinvesting back in student activities), access to elections support and officer training.
Government support and recognition of the work of NUS UK has diminished in recent years.
To elaborate:
Government support for the NUS was retracted earlier in the year. Historically, NUS was very powerful, but our perception and understanding is that this has dwindled in recent years, therefore meaning that NUS' credibility as the recognised body has been reduced. Not all Unions are affiliated, and we are aware of at least another 3 from across what we know as the Southern Unions network that are planning to, or have held, referendums - each will have its own reason for asking its students to vote.
The government have said, ‘The NUS will be removed from all Department for Education groups and replaced with alternative student representation, such as from the Office for Student’s student panel or from individual student unions, to ensure all students’ views are reflected fairly in conversations about higher education. The Department for Education is asking arm’s length bodies, including the Office for Students, to take similar action.’ I’ve found this particularly important as it is clear that even without the NUS’ support, the student voice will prevail through other external organisations.
For further reading, I would urge you to read this article on the gov.uk website: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-suspends-engagement-with-the-nus-over-antisemitism
NUS haven’t been on campus for an extremely long time. We are very out of touch with them and do not feel valued as a union.
To elaborate:
In terms of NUS not having visited campus; I certainly have not seen/met with NUS on either of our campuses during my time of office. Having spoken to previous sabbatical officers, there have been minimal visits (or 1-2-1 calls) during the last 10 years from NUS Officers. Until 2018 when NUS restructured, there were visits from a membership executive (staff member) a couple of times a year where key issues and challenges could be discussed, however most of the conversations that were held at this point were regarding what is covered by the NUS Charity arm (which we are not holding a referendum to disaffiliate from). The current approach by NUS is based around utilising Facebook workplace and being involved in the subsequent e-mail thread - for us as a small union with limited resources, this means we have to try and identify chats, posts and issues that are most likely to be relevant to our student body. I find that NUS UK, being a large organisation, often put more energy into relationships with larger institutions that pay more money for their affiliation. This can be difficult as a small institution, as I would love to feel valued in our own right, but that is not currently how we feel, nor has it been felt by previous Sabbatical officers at the University of Chichester.
To conclude
I can understand why, as a student, you may be wanting to challenge us on these points. Have we, as a union, been proactive in opportunities to engage with the NUS? I believe that we have. I have attended the NUS Conferences in the years that I have been President – including an online conference and an in-person one. I found that these were beneficial for networking, although the same if not greater networking is achieved through the Southern Unions group, but I found little value in the content that was shared with us. I also attended a virtual session with the former President of the NUS, Larissa Kennedy, to discuss the allegations against the organisation. I came away from this meeting feeling as though the questions weren’t answered in their entirety, and all in all not feeling reassured by the outcomes. Outside of these standard interactions, I do not believe we have not had any contact with the NUS over and above standard events they have run. This poses the question, what is the value of these interactions? Similarly, to help with your deliberations on how you vote, I would urge you to consider your own interactions with the NUS (have you received relevant communication from them, have you joined any of their political campaigns etc.) and how relevant they are to you. I, and future sabbatical officers, will also still have access to the aforementioned, positive material through the continued affiliation to the NUS Charity.
The University of Chichester Students’ Union openly encourages feedback from the student body, which we can use to grow and change actions accordingly. This can be done by going to: ucsu.org/feedback and filling in the feedback form. After doing so, a member of staff will be in contact with you directly. We recognise that not everything is perfect, and it has been noted in the ‘No’ campaign, that on the free calendar for freshers during welcome week that key Jewish and potentially other religious holidays were not included. This has been passed on to the appropriate teams who will endeavour to ensure appropriate changes are actioned for future years. Without this valuable feedback, issues such as this could go unnoticed. Therefore, I urge you to speak to us.
Other FAQs
Why is this the chosen timing of the referendum?
Timing of the referendum in terms of proximity to the publication of the results of the independent report: the date that is now given (28/10) as the date for the final independent report is the latest in several dates we have been given for updates and outcomes. In terms of setting the date for the referendum, this has been done in accordance with our by-laws which require the referendum to take place within 10-20 days of it being triggered. Voting must be open for a minimum of 24 hours. From previous experience, in order to facilitate as much engagement as possible and to avoid voting during the student directed week for standard undergraduate timetabled courses, the dates have been set to coincide with the dates for the by-election, including the voting period being open for 3 days.
Can I still get a Totum card?
Yes. Students wishing to get a Totum (student discount) card will still be able to do so, should the disaffiliation happen.