Students demand Appleyard resignation and referendum recognition at final council meeting

Union Council will tonight decide the fate of Experience Officer elect, Jay Appleyard, after the appearance of a photo during the sabbatical elections, depicting him in ‘blackface‘.

The ‘proposal of no confidence in Jay Appleyard’ to the members of the Council aims to convince them that Jay is unsuitable for his current role on the grounds that ‘Jay’s actions reflect someone who should not be responsible for student’s safety and happiness as his actions show ignorance’. It also aims to show that the reasons provided by the current Undergraduate Officer cannot  be true, drawing attention to the fact that ‘Hairspray does not have any “gangster” characters’.

As a result, there are demands that Jay step down from his role as a consequence of the emergence of the photo and his actions afterwards. It also calls for a suitable replacement to be found.

The proposal has been put forward by the same student, Naima Fowlis, who organised a petition to have Jay removed from office after his successful election campaign at the end of last term.

Naima told The Tab: “It’s hard to say about the result really as it all depends on the council and my speech! Hopefully they’ll see the facts and judge it solely on that.”

Regardless of the outcome, the fact the proposal has made it to Union Council is evidence that students are willing to engage with the Union when they feel strongly about something.

It is also hoped that the final meeting of Union Council this year will end the debate over whether or not political bans made by the Students’ Union should be put to a campus-wide referendum.

The referendum, to decide upon using referendums themselves for political bans, was launched at the start of the summer term and failed to meet the required number of votes to become active, despite receiving more than 1000 votes in a 45 hour period. More than 900 votes cast in the referendum were for future bans to be decided by referendum.

The proposal is the ultimate result of the Stop the Bans campaign

Despite the huge success of the referendum in mobilising students to get involved in Union politics and the decisions of the SU, it was declared unsuccessful and followed by a statement from the sabbatical team declaring that ‘your Executive Team wholeheartedly agree that whatever we can do as an organisation to increase student engagement is an extremely worthwhile exercise.’

They also promised that ‘the SU will hold a series of all student votes throughout the year on key issues’, much like the referendum on political bans.

The proposal, set to be put to Union Council tonight, will demand that the voices of “the landslide majority” be recognised. It aims to put forward the argument that ignoring these voices would be disheartening and disengaging for students who had voted.

It also suggests that the claims made by the SU exec’s could turn out to be empty and that passing the proposal forces them to act in the coming academic year rather than simply voice opinions on the matter.