The University of Sydney Union (USU) motion on changing the composition of the Board of Directors failed at a Special General Meeting (SGM) on 17th April. The motion failed 115 ‘for’ to 79 ‘against’ (59.3 per cent) — lacking the two thirds majority required for passing constitutional amendments.
The constitutional amendments would have seen the current Board composition be changed through the removal of two elected student directors, to be replaced by the Immediate Past President (IPP) and Immediate Past Vice President (IPVP) as voting members of the Board.
The USU Board, who proposed the motion, claim that this is a “necessary prerequisite” for the incorporation of the USU.
Prior to the SGM, the USU had ‘spent tens of thousands of dollars on consultancy fees’, as USU President Bryson Constable (Liberal) would remark in his opening address. The membership of the USU has yet to see a draft constitution.
The meeting began at 4:30pm in the Holme Refectory. Constable, chairing the meeting, opened with an Acknowledgement of Country.
Constable moved the bloc of motions along with Vice President Ben Hines (Independent). Constable and Hines were joined by former USU President Naz Sharifi (Independent), and Michael Bromley, a current Senate Appointed Director of the USU and former interim CEO. The four delivered lengthy speeches extolling the virtues of the process, arguing that incorporation was “impossible” without the governance changes being discussed.
Following their speeches — which lasted nearly an hour — the floor was opened to 12 minutes of debate with rebuttals from SRC Global Solidarity Officer Jessica Heap (NSWLS), USyd Labor Club President William Yang (SLS), Jonathon Gilliland (NLS), and Jack Wicks (Unity). Despite having her hand up for the full twelve minutes, Constable refused to take questions from SRC General Secretary Grace Street (Grassroots).
The motion was put to a vote after the brief debate. USU members were told to use a “hands up” system, and zoom attendees were to directly message the moderator with their vote. After the count, Constable announced the motion passed. However, once the math was checked over by many sceptics in the room, he announced that it was, in fact, voted down. The motion failed to meet the two-thirds majority it required to pass.
Constable closed the meeting, promising that incorporation will continue to go ahead. This is a clear backtrack on the comments made about this change being “crucial and necessary” for the incorporation to be agreed upon by the University.
Honi asked for comment after the meeting on this specific narrative, where Constable said “I can think of a number of ways that we’ll still do this”.
Honi will continue monitoring the situation.
Editors’ Note: Current Honi Soit editor Victor Zhang is an employee of the USU. He is not involved in any USU coverage for Honi Soit.
