NUSU is run by our students, for our students. Your Student Council is an important part of the decision making structure at NUSU.
How can you get involved?
Just Turn Up
Every single one of you at Newcastle University is welcome to attend and participate in your Student Council. Everyone who attends can ask questions of their elected Officers, hear about what NUSU are working on or debate the hot issues of the day. That’s why we want you to come along and get involved! You might even be in with the chance of gaining a voting place if the casual voting slots have not been filled.
Meeting Dates
The first Student Council of the year will take place on Thursday 18th October 2018 from 5.15pm and we will be in the History Room, 1st Floor NUSU. Details of other meeting dates are here.
Write and Submit a Motion
Even without a vote, you can set the tone of the debate. Is there something you want your Student’s Union to focus on? Something you want to change at NUSU? You can submit a motion which will be discussed and voted on. Hopefully you find submitting a motion easy and simple; if not, you can email any questions to Gocouncil.union@ncl.ac.uk.
Get Voting
We offer 62 Student Council voting positions to students from all walks of university life. However, 8 of these spaces are reserved as open spaces for any interested student. Students are elected to these open places at the first meeting of Student Council of the year. You can also take one of our 20 casual places available and become a voting member at Council. Click here to find out more.
I've been told I'm now a member of Student Council. What do I do now?
First of all, congratulations! Being a member of Student Council is a great opportunity to influence NUSU and represent the views of the students.
Full details of your role will be covered in your training, but the most important task for you to complete is simply to turn up to Council meetings and read the papers for those meetings. We understand that you may not be able to attend every session, if this is the case please let us know before the meeting and send your apologies to Angela. All the important information regarding training and meeting dates will be sent directly to your email inbox, so please keep checking back for updates.
Does Student Council have an impact?
Because of Student Council, NUSU:
- Opposed changes to international student VISAs
- Implemented a Safe Drinking Policy
- Banned initiations and bar crawls to protect the welfare of students
- Lobbied the University to divest in companies involved in fossil fuel
- Created provision to ensure zero tolerance to sexual harassment and diversity training for all involved in NUSU events
- Lobbied the University to scrap their zero tolerance approach to drug use in halls. This has changed the priority, when students are found with drugs in their rooms, to harm reduction and student welfare.
For more information about Student Council and how the meetings work, download our Rough Guide to Council.
Rough Guide to Council