SU cause election outrage after closing building until vote quota is met

Leicester students have voiced their disgust after the SU closed its buildings to blackmail students into voting.

In a statement made by the Students’ Union released at the same time as voting opened, students were told: “For the first time in its 57-year history, The Percy Gee building will be closed during term-time on Monday 24th February. Students won’t be able to access any facilities or services managed by the University of Leicester Students’ Union.”

The SU is closing its doors in an attempt to prove to students the impact of not voting. However, they failed to realise that if less than 400 people voted, the number required to open Ryman, students wanting to get their dissertations bound tomorrow would not be able to.

One geography student told The Tab: “It’s ridiculous, I’ve got a dissertation to hand in on Tuesday and if I can’t get it bound this ridiculous publicity stunt will cost me a 2:1”.

They later said that the ED and Welfare Services were the only two facilities that would be open as normal.

Students seized the opportunity to voice their concerns over the issue, launching a tirade of comments suggesting that the SU was coercing people into voting to ensure the services at the Students’ Union would remain open and increase the voter turnout.

Some students decided that they would still vote despite the fact it appeared as though the SU was attempting to coerce students into voting. However, instead of voting for candidates that have been campaigning for several weeks they have decided to vote to reopen nominations (RON) in a show of defiance to will still mean that the SU and it’s facilities will be open as normal tomorrow.

It appears that the decision has backfired with the majority of students deciding to abstain from voting.

Whilst the Students’ Union may claim this as a successful idea that has increased the number of votes cast during the elections, especially in light of the fact that all Students’ Union services will now be open as normal just an hour after opening, it is likely that many of them have just voted without thinking about who they are voting for or have voted to reopen nominations just to reach the target.

One student told The Tab: “The SU has caused a colossal shitstorm here.”

The post has also led students to question their university experience, making fun of the phrase ‘Exceptional Union, Exceptional Experience’. 

They also took the opportunity to highlight the fact that forcing students to vote in an election does not mean that they are being fairly represented or that students are truly engaged with the sabbatical team and the election process.

In a statement made to The Ripple, SU President Dan Flatt said: “Hopefully we will get people talking about the elections and how they relate to everything the SU does.

“I’m excited as we are really showing the membership that voting has a direct result on the services of the Students’ Union.

“Hopefully people won’t be too inconvenienced but will in fact see the relation between exercising their democratic right and the day to day running of the SU. I hope everybody gets as excited as I am. I really want to beat the record voting turnout and I hope that this will make that happen.”

The Students’ Union have since said that the Percy Gee building will be open as normal.

They have also made it clear to students that no election candidates were involved in the planning or execution of the plan.

In a statement made to The Tab, Michael Rubin and Sean Kelly-Walsh explained that: “We have our active social media accounts taken off us to prevent electioneering. We are also excluded from any election meetings to ensure that the election is completely fair”.

The Elephant in the room

The move to close the SU until 200 students had voted came after an inflatable elephant appeared in the Percy Gee building towards the end of last week.

In numerous posts over the weekend the staff at the Students’ Union explained what the animal was and what it was for, publishing the following video.

It was later revealed that the inflatable animal was designed to be the ‘elephant in the room’ and was used in conjunction with the phrase ‘an elephant never forgets’. The description of the animal as ‘the elephant in the room’ has caused further outrage with students because the phrase is normally used in mental health campaigns to encourage people to talk about potential problems.