10 signatures reached
To: NUS President Megan Dunn
Mandatory Re-election of NUS Representatives
Call for a mandatory re-election of NUS delegates and leadership positions.
Why is this important?
In recent years the NUS has become a laughing stock that many students no longer feels represents them or their best interests. The curtailing of free speech and a proliferation in censorship have made themselves uncomfortably common occurrences on a local and national level, this has to stop.
Non-platforming speakers that the NUS does not see eye-to-eye with and creating "safe spaces" sterile of conflicting opinions doesn't solve anything, it is un-academic and makes UK University students seem like petulant children whenever we find an idea we disagree with. Students deserve better than this, we want debate, to challenge and be challenged, that is what University should be about. Not to be molly-coddled, and our fragile points of view "protected" from views that differ to ours. People with unacceptable views must be argued with, not banned.
We also wish to see and end to the unbelievable representation rankings in the LGBTQI division. Recently it was decided that gay male students do not deserve the same level of representation in this division anymore because they are 'not oppressed enough', by NUS standards. An assumption that is not necessarily true to life. This is an unacceptable display of discrimination based on orientation and gender that the NUS has previously prided itself on stamping out, yet now is guilty of. Irony.
The banning of certain items of clothing and decorations, especially at Universities such as Manchester truly trivialize the issues that the actions are meant to be in aid of and make a mockery of the real advancements in social justice that were achieved by our forebears.
For these reasons I am calling for the NUS leadership to take in to account our collective displeasure with the direction the NUS has taken and demand that we be allowed to re-elect our national and local representatives in the near future. It should also be made clear where the candidates stand on the above mentioned issues: "Safe spaces", no-platforming, and LGBTQI representation, so that students may make an informed choice on who they elect.
