York SU held its Annual General Meeting at Courtyard last Wednesday evening, but with such a low engagement, it was lucky that the meeting went ahead at all.
From the start, the Sabbs voiced their concern to York Vision that they wouldn’t achieve the constitutionally mandated twenty-five attendees for any effect from the meeting. They just about managed to beat the quota, but it was a close shave, and this lack of engagement set up a recurring theme throughout the meeting.
Picking the room at the Courtyard next to Hendrix Hall for the meeting betrayed their lack of confidence in their ability to hit the mandatory attendance figures quota. Several attendees questioned the decision to hold it next to a lively pub when the much larger Hendrix Hall was next door. But we can’t complain too much; after all, the sounds of laughter from the next room across added a much-needed student ambience.
The meeting started with a brief review of the minutes from 2024’s AGM. Very brief in fact.
The Sabbs pushed us swiftly onto the key highlights of the 2023-24 year, including the merger between YUSU and the GSA, with a new look and new branding. The combination of the two unions was something that was a definitely a “significant change”, as affirmed by the Union Affairs Officer, Lewis Parrey.
Attendees – the few that appeared – told Vision that interest in the merger was a significant factor in the slight rise in attendees last year. Having more of a standard AGM, it seems, didn’t drive turnout so much.
The SU noted that it had distributed over 3,500 fruit and root bags, expanded the student pantry, and secured over £31,700 in Activities Access Grants in the 2023-2024 academic year. It had also raised over £130,000 for charity and offered over 5,000 hours of student volunteering work.
Parrey said: “We’ve spent time really trying to understand what students want and trying to fulfil those needs.” Said to a room of uninterested students reading their lecture notes, this line perhaps failed to pack the punch that was intended.
There were, however, highlights for York SU. Its self-care fair on Campus East appeared to be a success, and the Sustainability Action Plan led to its venues removing beef and lamb for CO₂ emissions.
Nonetheless, 51% of the Students Union’s income comes from the University and “diversifying our income remains a priority” said the Sabbs, adding that they had secured a long-term funding settlement, with grant guidelines for the next three years.
As for future plans and challenges, for the first time in a while, we heard the magical words ‘Student Centre’ uttered from their lips. The Students’ Union reaffirmed its commitment to advocate for something similar. They also discussed the “changing trading and student behaviour patterns,” regarding decreased footfall in York SU venues at certain times of the year due to semesterisation.
Oddly enough, student engagement wasn’t discussed as a challenge. But given the poor attendance, one might ask the Sabbs to reconsider (especially not all the the Sabbs advertised the event on their Instagram stories).
One attendee dryly suggested that if the Sabbs had spent less time on Roses and more time advertising this event, things might have been different.
It was one vocal student’s question from the crowd which brought the room to life. “How is it that, out of the thousands of students who go to York, the Sabbs struggled to get 25 students to assemble for an AGM?”.
The Sabbs gave well-thought out responses. Community and Wellbeing Officer, Freddy Russell said: “In terms of mitigations, this is the first year we’ve rebranded. It’s quite weird for YUSU and the GSA to exist as long as it has and then to suddenly say to a whole population of tudents ‘scrap that’ […] so I think naturally engagement is going to take a bit of a hit. We’re always on the lookout for how we can engage more with students and a lot of that has been led by Sabbs this year.”
This year, the Sabbs have launched several new initiatives to boost engagement. ‘Sabbs on the Spot’ is one example, wherein the Sabbs go to public venues and answer students’ questions.
This year’s Question Time event was another occasion where students were encouraged to ask the Sabbs their burning questions about student life.
Activities Officer Kaitlyn Beattie-Zarb raised the point that, despite the night’s low attendance, there are “thousands of signatories of societies” and inboxes are always full with communications from students.
She continued: “Students engage with what they’re interested in within their limits. It’s not for us to determine what students need or how they want to engage.”
The Sabbatical Officers said: “Student engagement at AGMs is something that Students’ Unions historically always struggle with. As a legal requirement of SUs, it is generally something the average student won’t necessarily be interested in – ultimately the higher-level finances of the union, the minutes of AGMs and the other data we’re required to share, is not something that impacts student lives day to day. So it’s understandable that students, who are already enormously time poor, have other priorities.
“However, we cannot use this as an excuse for low turnout. Timing constraints meant the AGM was unfortunately placed between Roses and the common assessment period, and thus promotion of and interest in the event was lacking.
“There is much that has been learned by the low turnout of the AGM, and we are actively considering how we might better approach and organise AGM’s in future.
“That being said, the number of students wishing to engage in the details of student union governance remains small, but we remain optimistic for student engagement in general evidenced by the huge turnout to Roses and Summer Ball, and a continually growing community of sports and societies.
“The focus of the Union going forward must be on providing all students with the opportunities to engage in whatever way interests them.”
Engagement comes in many different ways. But staring across a sea of empty chairs, this sentiment brings little comfort. Across the board, there was a noticeable lack of strong turnout from the College Chairs and Presidents to academic department reps, from student media to sports captains. And, despite all the mitigating circumstances that the Sabbs mentioned, one can’t help but feel a little concerned.