On Monday 31st January Christ Church students attended the annual general meeting of the Student Union, held in Anselm Hall, seeing an hour and a half of presentations, ideas, discussion and changes due to come, whilst be broadcasted live on CSR FM.

Student Union President, Steve Godwin, opened his address to the (initially present) 193 students by summarising the work of the Student Union over the previous year, focusing on charity work, the growth in media services, and financial activity. The total income of the Student Union was announced as £413,150, an increase of 3.13% on the previous year, and the total expenditure was £397,638, an increase of 6%, leaving a surplus of £15,512.

Following Mr Godwin was Vice President and Sabbatical Officer for Sports Steph White, who focused upon the increase in the number of Christ Church students participating in sports this year, and the renovation of the Stodmarsh sports fields. She closed by mentioning that Varsity is only five weeks away.

Vice President and Sabbatical Officer for Student Activities, Kal Sajad, spoke of the continued success of the re-launched UNIfied, the increased presence of CSR FM (the radio station run between Christ Church, University of Kent and the local community) on campus, and the growth of student societies since September.

Vice President and Sabbatical Officer for Student Welfare and Education Silvia Rasca concentrated on the success of the newly discounted ticket prices for student bus tickets, the assurance that students will have their assignments marked and returned before the next one is set, and the plans for a new Student Union building.

Guest speaker Usman Ali, Vice President for Higher Education for the National Union of Students, (NUS) focused heavily upon diversity in the student body, and the need to maintain such diversity in the face of economic difficulty and rising tuition fees, which he praised Christ Church for upholding thus far. He went on to criticise university league tables, arguing that they reflect the reputation rather than the actual achievement of universities.

Following Mr. Ali’s speech motions were proposed, which had to be approved with a majority of 50 votes in order to come into effect. The motions passed were for the introduction of Sports Colours awards (proposed by Steph White), for the improvement of the university’s room booking system (proposed by Steve Godwin), for student smartcards to be replaced for free (proposed by Steve Godwin), for the process of granting special membership to the Student Union to change (proposed by Silvia Rasca) and for the staggering of assignment deadlines (proposed by Jo Bartson -Umuliisa). The motions that did not pass were for the introduction of a duty officer at weekends, (proposed by Matthew Stone), for the staggering of information for freshers over the first 12 weeks of Michaelmas term (proposed by Steve Godwin) which failed due to a lack of a 50 vote majority.

The next item on the agenda was to unveil the plans for the new Student Union building. The Student building, due to move in 18 months to St George’s Place, was provisionally revealed with images of what the interior is predicted to look like, and is due to include offices for sabbatical officers, study spaces, a bar and a cafeteria. The student body elected to name the office space ‘The Office’, the cafeteria ‘The Coffee Shop’ and the bar ‘The Pub’.

The final item on the agenda was a vote upon the granting of special membership for the current sabbatical officers and members of the student body selected for their dedicated work for the Student Union. The motion was approved, seeing several more Christ Church students granted lifelong membership to the Student Union.

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