‘Decisions are imposed from the top’: LUSU candidates criticise lack of student consultation

At the candidates question night, one of the most consistent themes was the issue of transparency in both LUSU and the university.

The past few years have brought major changes for the students of Lancaster, with bar closures, the curriculum transformation program (CTP), a general increase in campus accommodation fees, and the university’s non standardised AI guidelines.

These issues were brought up across all positions’ debates, with all candidates expressing a desire to see both LUSU and the university as more “transparent and open”.

Lack of student consultation in major decisions

via YouTube

This was first brought up during the Education Officer debate, candidate Niamh said  the policy across the university “isn’t clear” and should be “standardised”. Fellow candidate Navyah agreed, saying: “Every department cannot have a different kind of AI integration”. Both candidates argued students should be heavily consulted about future AI policy developments.

Navyah further added in regards to student disciplinary hearings for AI usage the “student should also get some kind of support to prove him or her whether that is correct or not”.

Niamh further expressed her desire for student inclusion in decision making regarding education, such as the now-delayed CTP and the cutting of modules seen last year. “Student’s cant do anything if they are not informed”, she said.

This was also carried into the president’s debate, in which candidate Kate argued the biggest current issue as “the university is not consulting students enough”. She had previously said the “walking back on CTP especially proves that it wasn’t ready” and argued “students need more input with decisions around their education”. Kate further alleged the university “just doesn’t understand the importance of student voice and student opinion”.

This was also said by fellow candidate Christina, who said that bar closures and the CTP delay shows that “students aren’t consulted on the kinds of decisions that are made about budgets, where money goes”.

Although most candidates expressed optimism at a potential future of working with the new Vice Chancellor Steve Decent, with candidate Sam stating: “I’ve heard from [the Vice‑Chancellor] himself that he wants to increase the dialogue between students and staff and make our university a lot more collaborative.”

Student accessibility in LUSU

This topic came from presidential candidate Sam, who described a “LUSU bubble” in which many of the previous and current candidates have come from college JCR backgrounds, and stated that many students not from these backgrounds “don’t feel welcome”.

This was echoed further along in the debate in a discussion surrounding the Union Assembly, which is a meeting open to any Lancaster student that is held twice a term and decisions are voted on by select members such as JCR presidents, representatives of affiliated societies and sports teams, and liberation and campaigns officers.

Christina said these assembly meetings being open to students allows for inclusion of “students from all different areas of the student body” and vowed to utilise more promotion of these events to “actually bring lots of students from different areas together”.

Kate commented  she would like to implement “more options for open forums and more frequent communication channels that happen in person between everyday students and [LUSU]” alongside the Union Assembly to ensure “more…ground level communication between [LUSU] and students”.

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Usul humorously suggested they would “get rid of all the other FTO positions” as they found “you can’t gate-keep things if it is only you”.

Frustration at gridlock

via YouTube

Although some of the most ambitious promises came from Usul the clown, including their manifesto pledge to make Bowland tower the “biggest skyscraper in the world”, many of the LUSU candidates seemed to agree that the lack of progress with change has been “frustrating”.

Christina said she had found that initiatives “get lost in communication” and suggested “creating some sort of tracker” to keep track of things that may need following up on.

Furthermore, Sam advocated that she would increase dialogue between the university and LUSU, citing that her experience with various campaigns which “had motions pass through union assembly” but resulted in the “university has either refus[ing] to meet with us or meet with us and then not advocat[ing] on anything we talked about”.

Christina further commented: “The president role in LUSU is a really influential role, because you do have a seat on a lot of those decision‑making bodies where you can say, ‘Listen, this can’t be spent here, that can’t be spent here.”

Since the debate on Monday night, Presidential candidate Usul has dropped out of the race.

A Lancaster University spokesperson told The Lancaster Tab: “Lancaster University is dedicated to providing gold-rated teaching and maintaining the high-quality student experience expected of us as a top ten university.

“The needs of our students sit at the heart of our decision making. The SU Full Time Officers do an extremely important job in representing the student body. We are following the SU elections with interest and listening carefully.

“University leadership shares the concerns raised, such as cost of living, welfare support and student representation and continue to focus on these issues.

“By working closely with the SU in our decision making, we are committed  to ensuring the student voice is heard at every level.

“We are immensely proud of our students and have much to celebrate at our university.”

Lancaster University Students’ Union declined to comment as the election is ongoing.

Featured image via YouTube