The OUSA student executive elections are coming up, with campaigning beginning on the 14th of September. For those that are tuned in to the happenings of OUSA, they’ll have some understanding of the current Exec roles.
However, the Exec has passed a decision this week to put major role changes to the student body via SGM. These role changes will rejig half of the Exec. As far as I’m aware, the rationale, justification and description of those roles has not really been released or advertised to students. But at the SGM that is set to be held on September 9th, students will be expected to vote on these changes in order to make the final decision. There will be time for questions – and I have a lot. I think all students should.
What I do know is that if students pass the role changes on that Wednesday SGM, current indications from the Exec suggest nominations for those same roles will open on the Monday (September 14th), with campaigning beginning on the Thursday (September 17th). While the average student (and even the super clued in student) won’t necessarily be well versed in what those role changes mean, the current Exec will be. I implore students to keep an eye on this fact: some Exec members will rerun for the Exec. Notice whether those members immediately run for the new roles that they created. Consider whether that is fair. As described in my opinionated news article in Issue 18 (Can The OUSA Executive Get It The Fuck Together?) there has been very little information circulated about these new roles. But the Exec must know, and they’ve been slack in explaining – despite knowing their way around an informative Instagram carousel. And those bad comms are the fault of every single Exec member.
In my opinion, that lack of explanation to students is nothing new. Even last year, I published an article that expressed my opinion that the OUSA referendum had been poorly advertised. Year upon year, I tend to feel as if the Exec (and often OUSA generally) rely on Critic to explain and advertise their activities. That leaves us very little room for critical commentary when all our time is being used to understand what the fuck is happening and trying to bring students up to speed.
At the end of the day, everyone’s burnt out at this point in the year. I definitely am. I think the Exec are too. We’re all students and working way too many hours. But it’s one thing for me to rush around and miss some edits, and another for them to seemingly hastily pass major role changes with next to no advertisement or explanation to students.
I hope students ask questions at the SGM. I’ll see you there.
