Student Senate
Student Senate is the Students' Union's policy making body and all students are invited to take up seats as Student Senators to represent their fellow peers and help lead the Union forward.
Policies provide the framework which the Union and its Elected Officers operate within. Student Senate has the power to make and review policy, ensuring the Union works to reflect the values and ideals of the Student Body.
Student Senate is the Union's highest regular decision-making body. However, the Annual Members Meeting and Referenda have higher authority as they allow all students a vote, not just their elected representatives.
The Union has policies to ensure that the services and activities we provide are in line with student values and ideals.
How does Student Senate make decisions?
Student Senators: 25 seats are reserved for students that get elected in October. They will be Student Senators for the whole academic year, carrying out the role alongside their studies. They will elect a Chair to lead the meetings. The Chair will gain extra responsibilities but will not have a casting vote.
Randomly Selected Students: To make sure we are as representative as possible we will invite 10 randomly selected students to attend each meeting. They will be allowed to vote for that one meeting only. At the next meeting we will invite 10 new randomly selected students and so on. So keep an eye out for the invite!
Associations: The Union has nine elected Campaign Officers that each head up an association. Each Campaign Officer's association has a vote in senate. Normally the Campaign Officer, as the head of the association would attend the meeting but they can defer their vote to someone else in the association.
Officers: Between them, the Full Time Elected Officers (FTOs) have 2 seats on Senate. They will decide amongst themselves who attends which meeting.
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How often does Student Senate meet?
Student Senate will meet five times per academic year. The meetings are always on a Tuesday at 5.00pm.
You’ll be able to find information on upcoming meetings (agenda, location ect) on the website, on Facebook, Twitter and in Gair Rhydd.
The Meeting
The meeting starts with a 30 minute informal discussion session. This is a chance to talk one to one, ask questions, lobby for your case etc.
All ideas will be presented on displays around the room to generate active discussion in a less formal setting.
After the informal discussion the meeting will continue in a slightly more formal manner centering around whether or not to adopt an idea.
At the end of the discussion there will be a vote which will approve, reject or put the idea to a referendum.
All students can partake in all aspects of the meeting apart from the voting. However the Chair reserves the right to remove observers that are obstructive to the meeting.
How does the vote work?
At least 21 people must be present for a vote to be valid, i.e. 50% +1 of all voting members.
Elected Officers and Senators vote as representatives of others, randomly selected students vote on their own behalf.
A voting record will be kept online of how Officers and Student Senators vote. However, since the randomly selected students are not elected and are only voting on their own behalf their vote will be counted anonymously.
How does it work?
Head to our ideas hub. This platform allows students to 'up vote' or 'down vote' your idea. If a 'down vote' is received, that means the total number will go down i.e. if you have 0 votes and someone 'down votes' it will become -1 votes.
If your idea receives 50 votes then it will be taken to Student Senate. Student Senate will then debate the idea and vote as to whether or not it will become students' union policy. If your idea has an operational component (for example, "the students' union should serve more vegan-friendly options") we can probably look at that without you having to pass it through this system, by providing feedback directly to our Sales and Customer Services team. So what are you waiting for?