Wednesday 31-05-2023 - 15:40

In April, I attended NUS Liberation Conference, this year held in Blackpool. It is similar to the National NUS Conference, where students and SU Officers come together to debate policy and elect people into roles. The difference with Liberation Conference is that it brings together liberation groups – Black*, Disabled, LGBT+, Trans, and Women Students – to build communities of activists and plan our campaigning work. Delegates from HE and FE student unions attended Liberation Conference this year, including four delegates from Durham.

 

The first day of the Conference started with a talk from guest speaker Ruth Pearce, author of “Understanding Trans Health”, co-editor of “The Emergence of Trans” and “TERF Wars”, and former NUS Officer. This session was a great way to start the conference, and the insightful points raised were referred to during the following sessions.

 

Before Conference, SUs were given the opportunity to submit policy for debate and ultimately become NUS Policy. The three policies that were up for debate this year were Accessibility, Trans Rights, and Representing and Fighting for International Students. Each session was an opportunity to discuss these policies in detail, listen to the delegate’s opinions when raised, and suggesting amendments if deemed necessary. I attended the session on Accessibility.

The first day ended with an Accountability Session with the NUS VP for Welfare. Delegates were given the opportunity to submit questions which would be answered during this session. The aim of this session was for delegates to ask about the VP’s work so far, however, the majority of questions were centred around the conference itself, ranging from its structure to its accessibility. Responses to these questions varied from taking on board the comments going forward, to explaining that certain measures were not requested (such as BSL interpreters and closed captioning).
 

The second day of Liberation Conference began with a final Policy Session, focusing on the impacts that these policies should have if they were passed in the afternoon’s debate. It was beneficial to have an opportunity to focus on the short and long-term impacts of the Accessibility Policy if it were well implemented.
 

Liberation Caucuses are made up of students who self-identify into that group (in this case, Black*, Disabled, LGBT+, Trans, and Women) and are a space where these groups can discuss relevant topics and issues of importance. I attended the Women’s Caucus and then the LGBT+ Caucus, where we talked about issues such as misogyny at universities and inclusive consent education.

Next on the agenda were the Campaign Workshops. Delegates could attend a workshop in one of four areas, and I chose to attend the ‘protecting our values on campus’ workshop which focused on the debate around free speech at universities. Students had opportunities to talk about issues they came across on their campus and how they attempted to resolve them, most of which were successful. There was an overwhelming consensus in the room that the values students hold deserve to be upheld, with dignity and respect being paramount.

 

This was a chance to debate the policies in person before delegates voted on the policies online after the conference. In terms of structure, the delegates who submitted the policy spoke in favour, and this was followed by opportunities to speak against or for the policy, and then general comments.

The Trans Rights policy received overwhelming support, with everyone speaking in favour or providing general comments. The International Students policy was also well received, with great appreciation from the room for it. The final policy discussed, Accessibility, saw the most negative comments, not because of the contents of the policy, but due to the way in which the policy came about and the structure of the policy development sessions.
 

The Accessibility policy combined submissions from four SUs, and although all of these submissions addressed accessibility, they did so in very specific ways. These ranged from accessible spaces on campus for neurodivergent students, to accessible university accommodation and housing. Despite the fact that this amalgamated policy was significantly larger than the other previous policies discussed, the structure and time constraints of the policy sessions remained the same. As a result, the overwhelming feeling of delegates in the room was that the NUS took a stance of ‘let’s put all of these policies together and make it one big accessibility policy’ rather than giving any of the individually submitted policies their due diligence.
 

As a result of these concerns around policy debate, the organisers hosted an online Q&A session a couple of days after the conference. This was to give enough time and space for delegates to raise their concerns and for responses to be shared.
 

Voting took place online after Liberation Conference finished. After voting had closed, we were informed that all three policies had passed and will now inform NUS’s work going forward. There were also elections for Liberation Campaigns Committee and Liberation Steering Committee, with the successful candidates also being announced post-conference.

If anyone wishes to look at the policies in full, you can view them on the NUS website here.
 

Overall, Liberation Conference was a great opportunity for Sabbatical Officers and students from across the UK to address issues that students face on campus today, and begin to lay the foundations for tackling these issues. Meaningful representation must be at the heart of these processes, which is something that Liberation Conference does very well. I do wish that the suggestions raised by delegates are implemented for future conferences, so that delegates can have as much input into these processes as possible, and that the power that comes from passionate students and lived experience has the space to flourish.

 

*Black is an inclusive term NUS uses to denote people of African, Arab, Asian and Caribbean heritage. This wording comes from NUS, not Durham SU or the Welfare and Liberation Officer.