Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA) held its monthly student council meeting on the last day of October.
All but one of the Sabbatical Officers’ accountability reports failed to pass after calls by the Edinburgh University Justice for Palestine Society (EUJPS) to vote against them.
The Sabbatical Officers consist of the President and four Vice Presidents.
Taking to Instagram before the meeting, the group accused the officers of a “consistent failure” to assist calls for the university to divest from Israeli-linked firms, something they are mandated to do by a motion passed in March.
As part of the accountability process, the Sabbatical Officers each have to give a two-minute report on the work they have been doing over the past month and have a dedicated time for questioning from Council attendants.
The president of EUSA assured that whilst actions may not seem concrete, they “consistently” ask for divestment “behind the scenes” and apply pressure to shorten the timeline of divestment.
The thematic topic was centred around the university community or lack thereof.
An Arab student described “feeling very excluded” from the community and called for a “consistent” and “vocal” solidarity with Palestinian and Lebanese Arab students.
They added that the university’s removal of the Old College “martyrs’ memorial” dedicated to Palestinians who have been killed since 7 October made them feel “unsafe”.
The LGBTQ+ Liberation officer Ash Scholz also spoke on the exclusion felt by trans students, saying that transphobia is “rife” at the university.
“You see that in some of the staff members’ rhetoric in classes, in the appointment of the rector, you see it in generally how the university corresponds with trans students,” Scholz added.
They also discussed updates to the university’s Trans Equality Policy which is due to the executive in January.
Encouraging students to reach out with feedback, Vice President Welfare Indigo Williams said that while trans voices have been included in the process, “we can always do better”.
There was a general consensus that the university was lacking a coherent community in schools, with one representative pointing to the impact of differing contact hours between students.
Finally, an extraordinary motion on the creation of a Widening Participation (WP) liberation officer passed.
The motion was introduced by Grace Clark, the president of the 93% Club – a society representing state school-educated students, who said:
“The fact that this representation is missing means that WP issues are prone to being overlooked”
“WP students are recognised as a minority group at the university and we believe that they need to be guaranteed representation at this level,” she added.
A full summary and recording of the council meeting can be found here.
Image via EUJPS