Council Agenda 5th Week Hilary 2008

a.    Minutes of the Previous Meeting
b.    Matters Arising from the Minutes   
c.    Ratifications in Council           
d.    Elections in Council
e.    Reports from the Sabbatical Officers   
f.    Reports from the Executive Officers who wish to make reports
g.    Questions to Members of the Executive   
h.    Emergency Motions           
i.    Passage of Motions Nem Con
j.    Motions of No Confidence or Censure
k.    First readings of Motions to Amend the Constitution or Standing Orders
l.    The Budget or Amended Budget
m.    Motions Authorising Capital Expenditure
n.    Other Motions
i.   motions affecting ousu members as ousu members
ii.  motions affecting ousu members as students at Oxford University
iii. motions affecting ousu members as members of the student movement
iv. motions affecting ousu members as residents of Oxford
v.  motions affecting ousu members as residents of the United Kingdom
vi. motions affecting ousu members as citizens of the world
o.    Any Other Business

n.    Other Motions

 1.    University Funding                            

tabled in 3rd week ht08

Council notes:

1.    Preparations among student union organisations for the 2009 review of the current top-up fee system.

2.    Oxford students have not been consulted on this issue since 2004.

Council believes:

1.    There should be an increased investment in Higher Education.

2.    Students should not have to pay up-front fees for an undergraduate education.

3.    Contributions by graduates towards higher education should be linked to their earnings and not the price of their tuition.

4.    There should be a structured business contribution to higher education encompassing both research and teaching.

5.    Student support should be based on what a student needs and not where or what a student studies.

6.    There should be one funding system for the whole of the United Kingdom.

7.    There should be a full review of the funding system for part time student fees.

8.    There should be greater regulation of post-graduate and international student fees.

9.    There should be review of support for post-graduate students.

Council resolves to:

1.    Mandate the OUSU President to set up and oversee a University Funding campaign that will     coordinate efforts to support funding systems that meet the principles Oxford students support.

Proposed: James Lamming (OUSU VP Access & Academic Affairs)

Seconded: Martin McCluskey (OUSU President)

2.    OUSU Support for Environment and Ethics

Council Notes:
1.    Council passed motions in support of the OUSU environment committee, and creation of common room environment reps in HT 2002.
2.    OUSU Environment committee has since become OUSU Environment and Ethics committee.
3.    This motion is intended to update these lapsing policies.
4.    E&E committee is the largest campaigning body within OUSU.

Council believes:
1.    That the work of the Environment and Ethics committee is important and should continue in its new joint role.
2.    Ethical campaigns take a significant role in E&E committee.
3.    Environmental and Ethical campaigns lend each other to shared resources and share a target group of campaigners. As a result the mixing of Environment and Ethics in a JCR officer is a sensible move.

Council resolves:
1.    To mandate the executive of the Environment and Ethics committee to continue to provide and promote a forum where relevant officers and interested individuals can discuss issues of a common interest and run campaigns.
2.    To motivate CR presidents to create roles of E&E officers where absent, or to update officerships where necessary, and to remind these officers to attend E&E committee at 5.30pm at the OUSU building.
3.    To support the role of the OUSU E&E officer and the OUSU E&E committee.

Seconded: Daniel Lowe (OUSU Environment & Ethics Officer)
Seconded: Ian Bhullar (Keble)

3.    Student Bus Pass

Council Notes
1.    Most British universities, including Oxford Brookes University, have an arrangement with their local authority and/or local bus companies for discounted student bus travel.
2.    The University of Oxford currently has no such arrangement.

Council Believes
1.    Oxford has an unusually comprehensive bus service which not enough students take advantage of.
2.    OUSU should encourage students to occasionally consider alternatives to traveling by bike, thereby reducing accidents and congestion in the city centre.
3.    Many students, particularly graduates, live a long way from the city centre and would welcome cheaper bus travel.
4.    In general, Oxford students need to ‘get out more.’

Council Resolves
1. To mandate the OUSU president, VP Graduates and other interested members of the Executive to:
a. Explore the possibility of cheaper student bus travel with the relevant authorities, including but not limited to the University, Oxford City Council, Oxford City Buses and Stagecoach.
b. Liase with Oxford Brookes student union to establish the precise details of their discounted bus travel.
c. Report back on any progress made to Council in 7th Week.

Proposed: James Stafford (St. Hugh’s)
Seconded: Ingrid Frater (OUSU VP Graduates)
 

4.    Student Academic Representation in Divisions, Faculties and Departments

Council notes:
1. The attached paper on Student Academic Representation in Divisions, Faculties and Departments

Council resolves:
1. To mandate the VP Graduates and VP Access & Academic Affairs to take this paper to Educational Policy and Standards Committee and to communicate the views expressed.

Proposed: Ingrid Frater (OUSU VP Graduates)
James Lamming (OUSU VP Access & Academic Affairs)
 
Paper on Student Academic Representation in Divisions, Faculties and Departments

5.    National Day of Action on University Funding and Open Debate with Vice Chancellor

Council Notes:
1.    In 2009, the government is reviewing higher education funding and is likely to suggest raising the cap on top-up fees for students beginning in 2010.
2.    On the 21st February, students at universities and colleges across the country will be holding demonstrations and publicity stunts on the issue of higher education funding.
3.    Portsmouth University Student Union is holding an open debate with their Vice-Chancellor, John Craven, on the issue of the cap on top-up fees, following a week of publicity stunts to raise awareness of the campaign.
4.    Oxford University Vice-Chancellor John Hood has been a proponent of lifting the cap on top-up fees (source: article in Education Guardian on Wednesday 4th October 2006). 

Council Believes:
1.    If universities like Oxford were to charge higher fees for tuition than other universities, this would have a significant impact on fair and equal access to higher education based on academic merit as opposed to greater financial resources.
2.    A national campaign is needed in the run-up to the 2009 decision to ensure that future students have fair and equal access to all higher education institutions.
3.    It is necessary to have wider debate and discussion amongst students and the public on the issue of higher education funding. The debate happening at Portsmouth University is a good example of this.

Council Resolves:
1.    To support a demonstration on the 21st February protesting against lifting the cap on tuition fees.
2.    To contact all OUSU members with the aim of publicising the demonstration.
3.    To invite the Vice-Chancellor John Hood to an open debate with students and the OUSU executive on the issue of higher education funding, to take place on the 21st of February or at a later date.

Proposed: Toby Harris (St. John's)
Seconded: Adam Graham (St. John's)
 

6.    Shelter Voucher Scheme – Making a real difference in our City

Council Notes:
1.    That Oxford is a city of great wealth and success, but also a city in which many are poor and disadvantaged.
2.    While we are at university we have a fabulous opportunity to work with and assist those without our advantages.
3.    That the Oxford Night Shelter exists to enable homeless people to find and sustain stable housing by providing emergency facilities, resettlement advice and assistance, and appropriate move-on accommodation.
4.    That the Oxford Night Shelter runs a voucher scheme that provides students with the opportunity to offer practical support to homeless people who ask them for help or money in the street.
5.    That 1 voucher entitles a person to a night’s accommodation in the Night Shelter, plus a hot meal, a shower, use of the laundry facilities and access to resettlement advice.

Council Believes:-
1.    That the Oxford Night Shelter Voucher scheme is an idea with great merit, providing students with a means to help their fellow citizens without having to worry that their generosity will ultimately cause harm.
2.    That the scheme is not widely known by students, and that the costs of a booklet of 10 vouchers (£30) combined with the time required to order or buy a booklet has put individuals off taking part in the past.
3.    That Common Rooms are the heart of Oxford University, and that great community and charity work is done by them and their members.
4.    That Common Rooms have the financial clout and apparatus to buy a significant number of Booklets and either sell or pass out individual vouchers to members.
5.    That the involvement of the Common Rooms would raise the profile of the scheme, and through the vouchers encourage a greater number of Oxford Students to get directly involved in useful charitable giving that will have a real, noticeable and local effect.
6.    That this is an opportunity that will encourage students to engage in meaningful and helpful ways with those who are homeless, and perhaps excite interest in volunteer work at a later date.

Council Resolves:-
1.    To call on the OUSU Executive to provide information about the scheme in emails and mailing already planned to go out to students, and to promote the scheme in the student press.
2.    To encourage and support the relevant Common Room Officers in putting a Motion to their Common Rooms for the purchase of a quantity of booklets whose vouchers can be distributed as the Common Rooms see fit among their members.
3.    To mandate the relevant members of OUSU Exec, where possible, to provide this encouragement and support to Common Room Officers in the way best for each particular situation.
4.    To mandate the Community Outreach and Charities Officer  to write a standard motion for Common Rooms for the purchase of a quantity of Oxford Night Shelter Vouchers.

Proposed: Joseph Ammoun (OUSU Community Outreach and Charities Officer)
Seconded: Valentine Kozin (St Edmund Hall OUSU Rep)
 

7.    Animal testing motion

Council notes:
1.    Testing cosmetics on animals has been banned in the UK since 1998.
2.    Animal testing for household products such as bleach, washing-up liquid, air freshener and laundry detergent is still allowed all over the world.

Council further notes:
1.    In household products research, painful experiments are carried out on hundreds of thousands of animals every year in the UK, including dogs, rabbits, pigs, mice, rats, guinea-pigs, fish and birds. This includes tests for skin or eye irritation, skin sensitisation (allergy), toxicity (poisoning), mutagenicity (genetic damage), teratogencity (birth defects), carcinogenicity (causing cancer), embryonic or fetal genetic damage and toxicokinetics (to study the absorption, metabolism, distribution and excretion of the substance).
2.    Animal tests for cosmetics or household products are not specifically required by law: to market a product a company must demonstrate its safety, but this can be done by using approved non-animal tests and combinations of existing ingredients that have already been established as safe for human use. It has been estimated that there are over 8,000 ingredients already proven safe for use. Many cruelty free companies have already stopped using animal testing and still produce safe, effective and high quality cleaning products.
3.    Over 100 MPs have already signed an early day motion for a total UK ban on household product testing on animals.

Council believes:
1.    The government should introduce an immediate and total ban on animal testing for household products.
2.    Companies that have not already done so should join the BUAV’s (British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection) Humane Household Products Standard.

Council resolves to:
1.    Mandate the Environment and Ethics committee to: write to the Home Office urging the government to introduce a UK ban on the testing of household products on animals, write to our local MPs to ask for their support, and write to the companies suggested by the BUAV’s “Dirty Secrets” campaign, urging them to join the Humane Household Products Standard.

Proposed: Alexandra Hill (St Hugh’s)
Seconded: Daniel Lowe (OUSU Environment & Ethics Officer)
 

 

8.    Voicing Concerns about Student ID Card Scheme

Council Notes:

1.    That the government is currently pushing for the introduction of compulsory ID cards for citizens and for visitors who stay in Britain for 3 months or  longer.
2.    That the government has yet to refute conclusively the suggestions made  that ID cards will not live up to be as necessary or as useful as has been  claimed at fighting crime, preventing terrorism, and eliminating benefit fraud.
3.    That ID cards have not yet been fully costed.
4.    The recent leak to the Guardian newspaper, which details plans to force students to have ID cards before they can apply for their loan.

Council Believes:
1.    That the case for the introduction of ID cards remains unproven by the government.
2.    That it is unlikely that there will be proper scrutiny of these proposals by Parliament.
3.    That the majority of British nationals studying at undergraduate level at Oxford University depend on their student loan for financial support.
4.    That, if the government‚s plan is introduced, many Oxford students will become unwilling guinea pigs for the ID card scheme.

Council Resolves:
1.    To call on the government to stop targeting students to be the first recipients of the ID card scheme, and to call for the continuation of the ability to open a bank account and apply for a loan with out an ID card.
2.    To raise awareness among students of the government‚s current proposals
3.    To mandate officers to encourage students to write to their local  councillors and MPs to voice their anxiety about the current proposals.
4.    To mandate the President to write a letter to the Prime Minister and the local MP to express the Student Union‚s concern about the current proposals.

Proposed; Laith Dilaimi (OUSU Access & Admissions Officer)
Seconded: Joseph Ammoun (OUSU Community Outreach and Charities Officer)

PLEASE PRINT A COPY OF THIS AGENDA AND TAKE IT WITH YOU TO THE MEETING