To sign in non-student guests for Club Sandwich, please click here

 

Here are the articles of governance and accompanying bye-laws: Constitution and Bye-Laws
 

 

Governance - Goldsmiths Students' Union has condemned its own Governance Structure:

This Union Notes:

 

  1. The new governance of the Student Union does not allow a regular forum for membership to propose policy and vote on changes to the future direction of their union.
  2. That the highest decision making body in the Union is the Student Assembly which is composed of a less than 25 elected officers.
  3. That there are almost 8,000 members of the Student Union.

 

This Union Believes:

 

1.      The current Student Union governance structure is undemocratic, top-down and disempowering to the majority of the membership who do not sit on the Student Assembly

2.      That the Student Assembly of elected officers do not represent the views of the whole membership and cannot adequately represent their interests without a regular forum for input from the whole membership.

3.      Students have no forum in which to have a voice to shape their own Union because there are no longer Student Meetings in which each vote counts equally

 

This Union Resolves:

 

  1. That Student Union condemns its new governance structure as undemocratic, top-down and disempowering to students.
  2. The form a working group to discuss how we can re-vitalise democracy and equality in Goldsmiths Student Union.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What the new governance means:

 

Elections

This is where it all starts, every year elections are held to elect student representatives and officers. In the autumn term department reps will be elected (one in each of the 15 departments at Goldsmiths) as will NUS Conference delegates.

 

Student Reps

Technically anyone can be a student rep and even if you don’t have an elected position you can still take part in open meetings and speak at assembly meetings.

 

Student Assembly

The assembly is made up of the following people:

 

9 x Student Officers

15 x Departmental Representatives

 

1 x Chair (the chair doesn’t vote unless there is a tie in which case they get the deciding vote)

 

The assembly sets the political and policy agenda of the Union and campaigns on issues affecting students. The assembly also makes recommendations to the Trustee Board. They meet five times throughout the year and any student may observe the meeting and at the discretion of the Chair may speak.

 

 

 

 

E-Referendum / Referendum

E-referendum and referendum can be called by the following groups of people:

 

A simple majority of the Trustee Board

A two thirds majority of the Student Assembly

A simple majority in an open meeting with at least 3% of members present (around 250 students)

By any member of the Union (any student) via a secure petition signed by 3% of membership

 

Referenda give the whole student body a chance to have their say; it may be done online in which case it will be named an e-referendum. Their will be a ballot box and each student will have one vote. For more details on this see articles of governance.

 

Open Meetings

Open meetings can be called by the following:

 

10 full members of Goldsmiths Students’ Union

Student Assembly

The Trustee Board

Sabbatical Trustees

 

Open meetings can be anywhere and about anything although they must have a specific topic of discussion. Open meetings are open to all students and although any vote taken in them do not mean an immediate change in Union policy, indications and minutes are taken and then presented to the Assembly and Trustee Board. All open meetings must be convened by a member of the Assembly or a Sabbatical Officer.

 

Trustee Board

The board is made up of:

 

4 x Student Trustees (part-time whilst still studying)

4 x Sabbatical Trustees

4 x Co-opted Trustees (non students)

 

The Trustee Board is responsible for overseeing the management and administration of the Union and may exercise all powers of the union. They have ultimate responsibility for the governance, the budget and the overall strategy and direction of the Union. In practical terms this means that the Board have the ability to over rule decisions made by the Assembly that they feel may potentially harm the Union in a financial or legal manner. The Board meets five times a year and is chaired by the President of the Students’ Union.

 

Annual General Meetings

The Union must hold a AGM once a year, here members receive the accounts, and a Trustee’s report, there are also open questions to the Trustees.

 

This hopefully makes things a little clearer, all the specifics can be found in the articles of governance, bye-laws and guidance documents.

 

If you have any questions about the above and what it means for you, don’t hesitate to contact us for more details.  Contact your President, Jess Tratt, directly on j.tratt@gold.ac.uk.

Win Bestival tickets 2009 Ant and Dec TheBigChoice - Graduate Jobs

Gol Looking for the main Goldsmiths, University of London website? Click here.
Fac

Find us on Facebook too. Join our group today!
Get here with Journey Planner Work out how to get here with the tfl journey planner

HTML Hit Counter

visitors since Tuesday 22nd July 2008