Yes or No Referendum Results Now In

Friday 12-02-2016 - 13:47
Yes no results article

After a week of all-student voting around the university, the results are now in for Middlesex Students' Union's first referendum of 2015/16!

 

There were seven ideas included in this February's Yes or No referendum, which all Middlesex students were invited to vote on.

 

All ideas were submitted by MDX students either through November's Student Voice Conference or through the Ideas for Change toolkit on the MDXSU website, which any student can use to share a suggestion.

 

The ideas focused on a range of non-academic issues which students felt would improve their experience at the university, from microwaves and more veggie options to zero tolerance to lad culture on campus. You can view the details of all ideas passed here.

 

If any idea receives a majority vote in favour, Middlesex Students' Union will make the idea official policy and work on making it happen, meaning that MDXSU referendums are a powerful but simple way of actively directing the work of your Students' Union as a student.

 

Congratulations to the Campaign Leaders, campaign teams and our student staff for a hard week of campaigning and talking to students about the referendum. And now the for important bit...

 

The results

Should the university provide temporary accommodation to homeless students?

Campaign team: Sam Hughes, Aman Siddiqi, Katie Dragomirova

The idea: "Student housing is a huge concern at Middlesex and the University doesn't do enough to support students who are homeless or may be in an accommodation crisis. 17% of Middlesex students drop out every single year. While we know that drop-out rates in halls are slightly lower, this still suggests that at least 1 in 10 rooms are vacant. What are the university doing with these rooms? 

These rooms should be kept vacant and allocated to students in crisis. This may include students who are temporarily homeless, estranged from their parents or families."

The result: Passed! 473 votes in favour, 20 against.

What next? MDXSU will lobby the University to provide temporary accommodation to homeless students.

 

Should the Students’ Union take a stance against the PREVENT agenda?

Campaign team: Sayed Alkadiri, Sulaiman Lkadiri, ISoc Committee

The idea: "The government’s Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 places a statutory requirement on public bodies – including universities – to ’prevent people being drawn into terrorism’ and to implement the PREVENT agenda. Under the PREVENT agenda, lecturers across the country have been known to report students as being ‘at risk of radicalisation’ for anything from taking an interest in political affairs in class to observing their religion more closely, whilst politically active students have found themselves visited by counter-terrorism officers.

As charities, Students’ Union are not legally bound to comply or engage with PREVENT. Universities should be places for education, not surveillance. Any expectation by the state for academic staff to be involved in monitoring their students is deeply worrying, and will have a chilling effect on relations between staff and students. The implementation of the PREVENT  strategy on campus will not only isolate Muslim students but undermine the civil liberties of other groups such as environmental, political and humanitarian activists."

Result: Passed! 418 votes in favour, 41 against.

What next? MDXSU will take a stance against the PREVENT agenda by:

  • Not supporting the PREVENT strategy unless legally required to do so.
  • Issuing a public statement condemning the PREVENT strategy for the impact it has on Middlesex students.
  • Lobbying the university to be more open and transparent about how they are engaging with PREVENT and other similar initiatives.
  • Joining the NUS ‘Students not Suspects’ campaign and raise awareness on campus about the dangers of the PREVENT strategy.

 

Should the university provide microwaves on campus for students?

Submitted by: Camilla Silva

The idea: "Not every student wishes to buy food from the outlets on campus. Some students may have food allergies which mean they can’t eat the food on campus or they simply can’t afford to buy a meal on campus every time they come to a class. However, because the University does not provide microwaves for students on campus they have to eat cold meals or eat the food cold because they can’t warm it up.

Having microwaves available on campus would be an easy and fast solution for students with special food requirements such as allergies, intolerances, coeliacs, vegans or simply people that want to bring their own food."

The result: Passed! 426 votes in favour, 19 against.

What next? MDXSU will lobby the University to provide microwaves for students to use on campus.

 

In line with our constitution, to ensure that the results of the referendum are representative of the views of the MDX student body as a whole, each idea needs to receive a certain number of votes as a percentage of the entire student population. If it passes this threshold it is deemed "quorate".

 

Unfortunately the following ideas didn't receive the required number of overall votes (whether in favour or against), and so cannot be passed:

Should the Students’ Union have a zero tolerance stance towards sexual harassment on campus?

Should the Students’ Union have a zero tolerance stance towards ‘Lad Culture’?

Should the Students’ Union campaign for the resettlement of Syrian refugees into our local community, Barnet?

Should there be more vegetarian and vegan options on campus?

 

Got an idea of your own?

Got an idea that would improve your time at Middlesex? Submit an Idea for Change! The easiest way is probably to use the Ideas for Change webpage on our website: just submit your idea with a title, picture and short description then - once approved - you'll have two weeks to share your idea and campaign for votes!

If your idea receives more than 30 votes in favour, it'll be taken to the next level. Academic ideas will go to Student Voice Conference to be voted on by Student Voice Leaders, who represent courses from across the university, while non-academic ideas will go to an all-student referendum, like this, so all students have the chance to vote on it. If your idea passes at this higher stage, MDXSU will be mandated to work on the idea, and can be held accountable on it's idea's progress.

 

Want to take the lead?

Interested in taking the lead on making these ideas a reality? Why not stand for a role in the MDXSU Elections? There are a range of full-time and part-time roles available for student leaders within the Student's Union, from our President and Vice Presidents to School Voice Leaders and trustees. It's an amazing and unique opportunity to help lead an organisation with 18,000 members while making a difference to the lives of students at Middlesex and beyond, and you'll have the chance to work with the university to enact the ideas above and any of your own!

Find out more in our elections page at www.mdxsu.com/elections, or get in touch with any questions. You can email us at studentvoice@mdx.ac.uk, or pop in and see us any weekday 2-4pm at the MDXSU office downstairs in MDX House.

 

Related Tags :

student voice conference ideas for change student voice democracy vote all student Referendum no yes yes or no,

More Middlesex University Students' Union Articles

More Articles...