“I will never apologise for standing up for NUS full time officers coming on campus”

 

Yesterday, Hull students voted to disaffiliate from the NUS. Matthew Evans, the leader of the ‘Yes’ campaign and the President-Elect has now released a statement on the Union website.

In his statement, he addresses the poor-timing of the referendum, the accusations that the ‘Yes’ campaigns were continually breaking the rules and the notion that the NUS was advocating a ban on YikYak.

“10 per cent of you voted, which just shows: people do care. They care for different reasons, and have differing views – and that’s okay. We’ve not given enough credit to the people who campaigned for YES and NO who were standing up for something they believed in.”

He added: “The NUS is divisive. But it’s okay to disagree – and we seem to have forgotten that somewhere along the way. It’s apparent that HUU needed to be clearer along the way over the last few years about how the NUS is supporting HUU to support you. That’s something for us to reflect on for a longer time, and is part of the bigger picture of how we communicate with our members effectively”.

Evans also referenced the NUS Officers who were seen campaigning for the ‘Yes’ campaign, despite the rules stipulating that only current students and members of the HUU are allowed to campaign.

“There were external people on campus, and I have to take responsibility for that. Those people are passionate NUS campaigners who are passionate about Hull, and are two of the biggest supporters of HUU and of SUs more broadly across the country.

“I will never apologise for standing up for the NUS full time officers coming onto campus, supporting SU officers and through them, students”.

The social media platforms were also criticised for trolling both sides of the campaign; Evans says that he was dubbed “Matt Mugabe” and compared to “other genocidal dictators” on social media.

“To the Yakkers, Twitter trolls and Facebook haters: you have an opinion – great. Stand up and be counted for it. That’s what the people you’re slagging off have done. If you’re slagging something off about HUU – the point of us is that we change, adapt and stay relevant to our members and offer you the services that you want or need.

“Come and chat to us, or be constructive in your tweets. Let’s work together to fix something, and make our SU amazing! Let’s not attack someone personally who is working hard to do that anyway”.