Thursday 05-04-2018 - 11:05

Our media observer Jamie Murphy wraps up the events of NUS Conference.

Day 3. The final day of the 2018 NUS Conference. Following day two’s protests, delegates returned to Glasgow’s Armadillo conference hall for a day of riveting speeches and enlightening reports. 

But the day began on a sombre note as a member of the Democratic Procedure Committee apologised for the DPC’s conduct during day two’s student protest that saw dozens of delegates seize the stage.

Kicking off a series of reports, the representative for the International Students’ Campaign raised details of their activity in the preceding year, including their appeals to government for formal and effective recognition of the fact that international students suffer different mental health issues and as a result require different support in educational institutions. Nations Reports followed, with Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland delegates extolling the successes and intentions of their respective groups, notable amongst each of these being their progress towards better provision for poorer students in the way of more affordable housing.

But NUS business itself was brief this morning, with only a couple of amendments making it through the voting process. These concerned help for refugees and included a proposed amendment recommending NUS lobby local authorities to allocate resources to unaccompanied child refugees, an amendment that was clearly added with a vast majority in favour.

Policy was brief because elections dominated the remainder of the conference, more than fifty delegates taking the microphone to argue their candidacy.

The first round of elections were for the position of VP for Welfare, where candidates Eva Crossan Jory and Izzy Lenga made assurances they would fight for women’s rights and against hate crime, with day two’s missed proposal concerning abortion rights for pregnant women in Northern Ireland receiving particular emphasis in both speeches.

Abdi Duale and Zamzam Ibrahim took the stage for the second round of election speeches, this time for the role of VP Society and Citizenship. Both candidates made reference to their family’s Somali refugee background before raising the issues they plan to tackle if voted in. Duale’s speech focused on criticising the success of NUS in this zone. If Duale was wide-ranging in his content, Ibrahim was laser-focused in hers, launching a determinedly feminist speech and stating ‘I am a woman, unafraid, unapologetic, unstoppable’ who promised the Society and Citizenship zone would be ‘the beating heart of resistance against misogyny, racism and anti-semitism’.

Due to time-constraints, speeches of the Block of 15 candidates were shortened to one minute each, and so a rolling procession of representatives took the stage, most using their time to dwell on similar themes such as ensuring NEC members fostered co-existence and inter-faith environments on campus. Interestingly, the ineffectiveness of the NUS was also a feature of these speeches, with one delegate arguing ‘the national union feels like more of a burden than a benefit’.

The positions of Student Director and Democratic Procedures Committee members were up next and were filled with the same style of promises for broad-based reform, though those standing for DPC roles were open and scathing in their denunciation of how the current DPC had handled day two’s protest, hoping to utilise the widely shared sense of injustice in the room to generate votes in their favour. 

However, in a day of impassioned and well-argued speeches, it was left to NUS Presidential re-elect Shakira Martin to steal the show. In a speech that expressed her joy at being part of the formative organisation for the next generation of leaders and world changers, Martin’s spirit and energy soon rocketed. Wearing a jumper that read ‘Property of No One’, Martin proved its message by rousing the crowd into cries of agreement and rounds of applause, announcing the NUS was going to ‘practice what we preach’, and that though she welcomes candidates mentioning specific instances of behaviour that needs tackling, she reminded the crowd that we need to remember bad things are happening everywhere and that they require the determination and activity of students to tackle them.

Her closing remarks concluded the conference.

With conference over, the foyer outside was abuzz. Some people called Martin’s closing speech the best talk of the event, whilst others openly accused her of compromising her beliefs re political parties in government. After an impressive turnout, constant admonitions from the DPC for delegates to stop whooping in support of speeches, and the indefatigable zeal of campaigning and debating delegates at the conference, NUS Conference 2018 was over.

Several important motions were passed, including proposals to improve the provision of mental health services, to support refugees and their access to education, and to improve sustainability on campus, and a host of candidates have been elected and re-elected to post. The next twelve months will prove crucial for the NUS to justify itself to the doubters, and to maintain the favour of its supporters, especially now a controversial protest has made clear that students will hold the Union to account.

Glasgow, it has been an exhilarating adventure of politics in action. Thank you for having us!