St Anne’s College

JCR Motions – General Meeting

1st Week, MT 2017 (Sunday October 15th) 8pm

President’s Business

Anyone in second year or above interested in coming to the dinner to celebrate the library opening on Friday should sign up.

About passing motions – the best way to deal with some motions is to go to college body and offices directlyif it doesn’t rest with us. Debating them here is great but it’s important to realise that ultimately with some things, like leaving the back gate open longer, we don’t have jurisdiction over, so sometimes it’s better to go to a committee member and we can raise it in a more diplomatic tone with the college body itself.

Motion: Introduce compulsory race workshops for first years as part of OUSU’s Campaign for Racial Awareness and Equality

Proposed by: Ramani Chandramohan

Seconded by: Becca Murray

This JCR notes that:
  • Holding workshops, as part of the OUSU Campaign for Racial Awareness and Equality (CRAE), is crucial in educating students when they arrive at Oxford about issues around race, privilege, discrimination and intersectionality. These workshops run in a similar format to the Consent Workshops.
  • At the moment, whilst other colleges have implemented these workshops as a compulsory part of Freshers’ Week, St Anne’s has not.
  • Racial equality and awareness are issues that affect many of the international, as well as domestic, BME students at St Anne’s. However, these issues need to be discussed by both white and BME students, as we must work together to fight racism.

This JCR believes that:
  • Racism is still an issue at Oxford and needs to be tackled through discussions at college and university level. This has been demonstrated by a survey carried out by CRAEin 2014 in which38.5% of white respondents said that they believed racism was a problem in Oxford, compared to 57.4% of BME respondents.
  • St Anne’s is a community that prides itself on welcoming students from all backgrounds. The college is committed to addressing the permutations of issues around race, including institutional racism, micro-aggressions, cultural appropriation, a lack of diversity amongst students and staff and a predominately Western focused curriculum.

This JCR therefore resolves to:
  • Introduce compulsory race workshops for first years in Freshers’ Week or at another point in the year.
  • Potentiallyholdfollow-up sessions to reinforce the message of the race workshops and further discuss issues around racial equality and awareness.

Proposer:

I’m Ramani, I’m the JCR BMErep. The main point is for the race workshop to be compulsory, like the consent workshops during Freshers’ week, to combat inequality and racial awareness right from the start. It could be in a lecture format if the workshops are too much.

Questions:

Q - What sort of topics would be covered?

A – We would look at issues surrounding individual acts of racism, privilege, institutional acts of racism, micro-aggression that reinforces racial stereotypes and issues surrounding cultural appropriation.

Q. Is this an OUSU led initiative?

A. It’spart of a campaigncalled CRAE (Campaign for Racial Awareness and Equality) which is part of OUSU.

Q. Are the sexual consent workshops compulsory?

A. Yes.

Tom (President) – Having a vote on this is great but ultimately the timetable of freshers’ week is up to the Academic Committee, so if this is passed, I will discuss it with the committee but they’re allowed to say no

Q- Would it be for freshers?

A- Ultimately yes, but open to everyone.

Q- But there’ll be three years of college that haven’t done it?

A-We’ll make it compulsory for freshers and make it voluntary for everyone else.

Kir (Equalities Rep) – you can go to other colleges to do it too.

Q- Who would be running them and what training?

A-Training sessions in TT or Saturday and Sunday before Freshers’ week begins but that potentially couldn’t work with fresher helpers. There are a lot of people in other colleges that would be willing to help.

Vote:

Votes for: / 42
Votes against: / 1
Abstentions: / 0
Motion passed? / Yes

Proposed by: Lydia Higman

Seconded by: Katie Day (+Ali Johnston )

This JCR notes that:
  • The current tortoise house is too small

This JCR believes that:
  • The size of the tortoise house needs to be enlarged to accommodate her growth
  • It’s an imperative for a healthy tortoise to have space to move around in
  • We have the outdoor tortoise house we could attach to her current one so practically it is possible

This JCR therefore resolves to:
  • Provide a healthy and more adequate living space for the tortoise

Proposer:

Essentially, Tortellini is growing and it’s unfair. Tortellini doesn’t have much room to move around in. I could ask Maintenance to make something or buy online.

Questions of Fact:

Q - Is this going to cost money, and how much?

Lydia –It will be an outdoor house, or Deborah Walker said Maintenance could make something. These options won’t cost anything for the JCR.

Vote:

Votes for: / 45
Votes against: / 0
Abstentions: / 0
Motion passed? / Yes

Motion

Proposed by: Rosie Collier

Seconded by: Hannah Cribben

…to support SolidariTee by donating £150 to go towards the making of t-shirts that will, in return be sent to the relevant college representative (Rosie Collier) to sell to members of the college community.

Proposer:

This is such an important thing to do. Other colleges have passed this through their JCR already. It shows people outside of Oxford what we are doing and will have a positive impact. There will be one day where we will wear T shirts. Pembroke, Wadham and pretty much every Oxford college have done this so far. It’s really important for Oxford to get the ball rolling with this, Cambridge have done so already but other universities don’t have a JCR to fund this so it’s important that our college use our funds for a national issue.

Questions of Fact:

Q- How much?

£10 for the T Shirt itself and £150 to fund it, all proceeds will go to the charity.

Q- We are not buying the T Shirts to be sold within college?

A – T Shirts will be sold in the JCR but the £150 will be donated to create the T shirts.

Q – How many T Shirts will we get?

A - Not sure about exact figures of how many we will be getting, but I imagine around 100.

Q- Where are the T shirts produced?

A - Not sure.

Q- How much have other colleges donated?

A - £100-£300

Q- Is the £10 fixed by the body you’re going through, and non-negotiable?

A-Price is fixed

Q- Is there an event?

A – Yes, one day where everyone wears the T Shirt in support.

Q- Are there any other universities that have done this already?

A-Cambridge last year, it was a massive success. This year it’s branched out.

Q- How much was raised by Cambridge?

A - £4,000

Q- Is it possible to look online now where the T Shirts are produced?

A – It does not say online where the T Shirts are produced.

Debate:

Vote:

Votes for: / 37
Votes against: / 0
Abstentions: / 8
Motion passed? / Yes