Clubs and societies: Taking action to save our broken union

Under the plans put forwards by 26 UCLU clubs and societies, the Union’s recurring deficit will be reduced from £250,000 per year to a more manageable £20,000 reducing the rapid decline of the Union’s £2 million reserves.

An artist’s impression of UCLU’s current financial planning

Under radical proposals, the Union’s Sabbatical officer count would be reverted to a more manageable 6, bringing the Union more in line with the other London universities – for example the unions at LSE, Imperial and our “friends” on the Strand each have only 5 full-time officers.

However at the same time part-time elected positions would be increased to 18, meaning a vast increase in overall representation of student views.

Due to an epidemic of Union overspending, half of the Union’s reserves that should be used for capital projects will be gone by the end of this year. Last year the union made a loss of over £400,000 with a similar amount predicted for this year.

They’ll probably replace it with another bloody cafe

At that rate, we predict that UCLU will cease to exist within 5 years.

A wide range of clubs and societies support the motion – across sports, arts and cultural clubs, with both men’s and women’s clubs backing the proposal.

The opposing motion from UCLU, which will reduce the number of Sabbs from 10 to 9, does next to nothing to reduce the deficit and in fact removes the only position within the Union whose role it is to act with financial responsibility.

Could UCLU be heading the same way as ULU?

After poor advice from certain parts of the Union we are no longer able to submit amendments, as a result at the next general meeting there are plans to amend the following.

The “Gender Equalities Executive Officer” will be changed to “Women’s Executive Officer”.

We will be adding a SSEES Executive Officer under the Education, Democracy and Communications Officer

The “Postgraduate Students and Medical Students Officer” will be changed to “Postgraduate and RUMS Officer” and “Medical Education Executive Officer” to “RUMS Executive Officer”.

The “Pharmacy Education Executive Officer” will be changed to “School of Pharmacy Executive Officer”.

James Simcox is President of UCLU Men’s Lacrosse.