Over the last few blog entries I’ve covered parts of the President’s job that aren’t ever mentioned on manifestos: manual labour, disciplinary matters and graduation/commemoration ceremonies. I also took a brief detour to talk about external relations and lobbying.
This time I want to look at the President’s role on the College Council, which is the Governing Body of Imperial College. The Council (not to be confused with Union Council) is the ultimate decision-making body in the College, although many of its powers are delegated to other committees – academic issues are discussed at the Senate, on which we have two seats.
Sitting on the Council can be tricky, as it provides access to confidential information which must not be discussed outside the meeting, unless it appears in the minutes later. To reveal this information would undermine the President’s position on the Council, and it is better to have someone in the room putting a student view across than having them permanently excluded for releasing information. The student view can provide vital input into the process and a fresh take on the issues being discussed. When considering tuition fees it is also vital to have a student there to fight the corner.
For staffing issues the ICU President is currently removed from the room, as they are considered ‘reserved business’, meaning we do not find out about restructures or redundancies until after the decisions have been taken. This is one area in particular where I have put input into the College’s Governance Review process, as I believe there should also be a student view when discussions of any staff cuts take place – as an example, there was no student comment on the redundancies in medicine until after it was decided. Thankfully Imperial is in a good position, following the 5% cuts enacted last year (which ICU also felt), but should something along those lines come up again it would be good to have student input, even if it does generate a potential conflict for the President who would need to keep it confidential.
The job can be tricky sometimes!
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