USU Board Meeting: new directors, shaky finances and living with lockdown
Emily Graetz reports.
In typical Covid style, the USU board met on Zoom last Friday the 30th for their monthly meeting. This time, however, they were joined by the sprightly new board directors, Isla Mowbray, Cole Scott-Curwood, David Zhu, Telita Goile, Nicholas Comino and Du Du. Also, taking over the helm was newly minted President Prudence Wilkins-Wheat alongside Vice President Ruby Lotz, Honorary Treasurer Benjamin Hines and Honorary Secretary Vikki Qin and director Belinda Thomas.
As with all online events these days, the meeting opened with light chit chat about what was on the menu for Directors’ lunches and repeated mutterings of “you’re on mute”. Notably, as I jumped into the meeting 5 minutes early, I caught Senate Appointed Director Marie Leech proclaiming that “we have to be careful last year isn’t treated as a disaster for staff… they were treated well”. I can’t be sure of the context of this conversation but it was undoubtedly a sensitive opinion to announce with Immediate Past President Irene Ma warning Leech to be mindful of what she said in this “public forum”.
Finances
Reporting on June activity, the Finance Report was taken as read*. There wasn’t a whole lot of chat about finances this month then, although Finance Director Rebecca Sahni did comment that trading was “really, really poor” due to the lockdown before asking to discuss further In Camera**. There was some discussion about capital expenditure although understandably most projects have been placed on hold. Whatever the outcome of the In Camera component of the meeting, it’s safe to say the budget will be in a precarious position.
Activities
CEO Andrew Mills upped the presentation game with his infographic-filled PowerPoint covering the USU’s activities over June. Mills spoke of the successful lockdown lunches currently being provided to students of Regiment, Abercrombie and the Terraces. Not only has this been well received by students, but it has also generated more business for the USU and enabled them to keep a small number of staff on during a time they would have otherwise been out of work.
The renovations being made to the Holme Building Common Room are currently on hold due to restrictions on construction sites, as are other maintenance and renovation projects. Whilst not discussed, the Marketing Digital Headlines indicated a relative stagnation of Social Media performance and sadly but unsurprisingly, Mills noted that all Welcome Fest activities would now be held online.
In some more positive news, however, Mills congratulated Ellie Stephenson and Sweeney Hughes on their World University Debating Championships performance. He also announced that particular University owned venues, like Footbridge theatre, would be soon available to Clubs and Societies to hire free of charge (they previously would have paid 40% of the commercial rate, as noted by Scott-Curwood). Mills reported positively on the Language Exchange Program and ongoing staff communication about covid restrictions.
Disability Portfolio
The board was unable to fill the position of Disability Portfolio holder at their Executive elections in May. As such, they did so in this meeting with Telita Goile being elected unopposed.
Director of Student Publications’ policy
The Honorary Treasurer Benjamin Hines recommended the Board adopt the DSP policy which Wilkins-Wheat later clarified was a new set of guidelines for the Directors of Student Publications (they oversee Pulp and the literary magazine Hermes). The policy is set to confirm the boundaries of the DSP’s responsibilities and provide clarity around defamation and media training. Pulp asked whether the policy was introduced in response to any specific events but Wilkins-Wheat made it clear it was introduced solely to fill a gap in the directors’ induction.
Radical Sex and Consent week
Radical Sex and Consent week is tentatively set to be held in Week 2 in an online model with the potential for physical events to be held later in the year. Wilkins-Wheat said that she has been in communication with the SRC Wom*n’s officers but that details were yet to be finalised.
CathSoc
The Catholic Society is yet to complete their mandated disability empathy training but Mills stated they had been “very open and compliant” with their requirements. Some questions remain about how many members of the society are required to complete the training but they will remain suspended for the time being. The training was mandated in response to their ableist Life Week poster in April.
Reports from the Honorary Secretary, Honorary Treasurer, Vice President and President were all taken as read with minimal discussion.
The meeting went In Camera to discuss financial sensitive matters pertaining to investments, operations and tenancy.
Taken as read - means that its assumed Board Directors have already read the report and it is therefore not read out in the meeting. Directors are still able to ask questions of the reports even when they are taken as read though
In Camera - the confidential element of the meeting, where the board discuss sensitive information like finances, contracts and tenancy