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Let's be friendsHow to: get your SU to ban domestic flights and support your Go Green campaign
UCL People & Planet managed to pass a Student Union motion banning the union from funding domestic flights. Here is how you can recreate their success and make your own winning motions.
Getting a Students’ Union (SU) motion passed can be a bit of a challenge. But as the P&Pers at UCL have shown, it is possible and it’s a great way to bolster your campaign.
Nobody from UCL SU will be on this one
Image © davipt: flickr.com/davipt
UCL P&P’s low flying motion
The motion UCL P&P put forward was a wide ranging environmental policy covering the whole union. You can view a copy of the motion and you’ll see it covers eveything from energy and waste to Fairtrade and transport.
And transport had the killer clause in this motion, stating:
UCLU will not fund domestic flights for staff or students, and will endeavour to discourage short haul flights in general.
Not only does the clause save carbon emissions, but it also sends a strong message to the student body and the university itself, making it doubly good. But what made it a great SU motion was that it was as strong as possible while still being passable (it got through with 16 votes for and 14 against).
How strong can we make it?
This is the tricky tightrope you need to walk with SU motions: is it strong enough while still being passable? Groups frequently err on the side of caution and end up watering it down until it reads something like:
The Students’ Union commits to be green where economically viable.
At the other extreme groups can write something a bit too ambitious along the lines of:
The Students’ Union dissolves all democratic structures and transfers absolute power to the Ethics and Environment Officer who is now renamed “Our Magnanimous Green Master”
To find the perfect balance think about where it is going to be passed and how sympathetic the people making the decision will be. It could be voted on at Union Council, through an Online Referendum or at an Annual General Meeting and each of these will have a different audience and different people voting.
Also consider how much of a campaign you can run to get people on side. A lot of the time you won’t need to campaign for it, but a friendly word with the sabbaticals or council members always smooths things along. Sometimes it’s worth thinking about it as a lobbying exercise instead of a full scale campaign.
Remember: Even if you think your Union is dominated by conservative (little c) officers with no desire to change things, you might be surprised by the sort of things they will support. Particularly if you’ve done the work for them and you subtly make them aware of how good it’ll look on their CV (even if it’ll look better on yours).
Specific equals terrific
As well as being strong it’s crucial to be as specific as possible. If you state: “The Union commits to looking into recycling” they don’t really have to do anything and nothing may change at all. It would be far better if “The Union commits the Ethics and Environment Officer to install paper, cans and plastic recycling in all Union buildings by December 2009.”
As most Sabbatical Officers are quite busy (or addicted to Facebook) you need to give them personal responsibility for tasks to make sure they actually happen.
Example Clauses
These broad (and not so broad) example clauses will really help your campaign:
The Students’ Union commits to support the People & Planet society, the Environment and Ethics Officer and others, in campaigning for the University to Go Green, which involves the university meeting the four Go Green factors.
To mandate the Students’ Union President to write to and meet with the Vice Chancellor to express the Union’s support for the Go Green campaign.
To encourage all students to support the Go Green campaign through publicity in the Union and the website.
To make Go Green Week 2010 a Union supported campaign week.
The ingredients of a great motion
A good Students’ Union motion can address both the environmental impacts of the SU and also get support for your campaign.
Getting support
Getting your SU officially supporting your Go Green campaign can open lots of new doors. It can help you with funding for your events, Go Green Week and to pay for your travel and tickets to Shared Planet, Summer Gathering and the Forum. It can also help enormously with using the Union publicity machine to get your events promoted on their website and emails. What’s more it is a fantastic way to show your Vice Chancellor that the majority of students are behind the campaign.
Greening the Union
Have a look at what your SU is doing at the moment and mandate the Union to improve as much as you think possible. Don’t forget recycling, purchasing recycled paper, low energy lightbulbs, heat and lights being left on overnight and the Union’s transport arrangements. The UCL flights policy shows that you can include a range of things.
As well as achieving individual targets you can get your Students’ Union to sign up to schemes like the Sound Impact Awards run by NUS. This gives the Union a checklist of green aims which they can be rewarded for meeting with a bronze, silver or gold award.
Come on baby, do the SU motion
You can viewUCL P&P’s motion and download a template Go Green SU motion.
SU motions are also a really key part of the Ditch Dirty Development campaign. Find out more in the DDD Action Guide.
Email Andrew to let him know what kind of success you’ve had with Go Green SU motions or if you just want some advice on your motion.
