Understanding Policy
Political policy is a statement of the political and representational will or beliefs of Durham SU. Policy directs our activities, Student Officers, representatives and bodies.
There are two types of political policy that can be submitted to Assembly – proactive policy and reactive policy.
- Proactive policy indicates students want Durham SU to take action on an issue e.g. run a campaign or lobby the University to make a change.
- Reactive policy indicates students want Durham SU to take a position on an issue e.g. make a statement on behalf of students on a community incident or a government policy.
All Durham SU’s political policy can be found on our website. Once a year the Assembly Procedures Committee recommend which of these policies have either been achieved or are no longer relevant. Assembly members then vote to remove the expired policies.
Creating and discussing policy ideas
Good policy ideas should make a compelling argument as to why an issue matters to students or specific groups of students. When writing your policy, you should make sure it is well evidenced and consider how students’ lives would be improved if the policy were to be implemented. The Assembly Procedures Committee is responsible for designing the format of how policy should be written each year and staff at Durham SU can always be on hand for advice.
To help other students to better understand your policy idea and how it would impact students, we host informal policy discussion sessions called ‘Papers and Pizza’. At these sessions, students present their policy ideas in a relaxed environment before it is debated and discussed at the formal Assembly meeting. Papers and Pizza events can also be used for students to work with Assembly members to co-design a policy they may want to submit to Assembly to be debated.
Any student can submit a motion to be debated, but only members can vote.
