Craig Cox - WTF (long)

Hey Guys

Just want to quickly introduce myself. My name is Sam ******** and I am the rep for the School of Chemistry on the Students’ Union Council. Union Council is the highest decision making body in the Students’ Union. It’s made up of representatives from all sorts of student groups including undergraduates, postgraduates, JCRs, associations and student-run services.

The Council decides on Union policy, mandates people to put policies into action and ensures the Exec and other people within the Students’ Union are doing their jobs properly. As your rep, it is my job to represent all Chemistry students to the Council, and in return, represent the Council to you. Through both your Course Reps (who sit on the Student Staff Consultative Committee) and me, we can work to sort out any issues that you may have with your course, the facilities on offer, or any other problem that you might have. Please feel free to contact your Course Reps or myself with any issues!

As some of you may have heard, on Tuesday night there was an Extraordinary Meeting of the Union Council. A vote of No Confidence was tabled to have Craig Cox, our Education Officer on the SU Exec, removed from Office. This was because in August, Craig accidentally held up a placard saying ‘Bring Back Slavery’ during an NUS training scenario. It is important to note, that the sign was not of Craig’s creation, and as soon as he saw that he was holding up the wrong sign he took it down. He apologised several times at the event in question and has subsequently publicly apologised. Some of you might have also seen a statement he (on the advice of Lawyers) released to the press. This statement, which he has agreed was inadvisably inflammatory, has now been withdrawn, and he has apologised for its release.

Having heard all the arguments it is my opinion that Craig is not a racist, and at no time has Craig been advocating a racist agenda, or the return of Slavery (which is acknowledged to be one of the darkest periods of human history, but one which still occurs even now). Craig vehemently opposes both of these things.

The issue of whether Craig should remain in post is not an issue of racism (as some have made it out to be), but of his ability to continue on in the role, given the events that have occurred. I have already spoken with some students regarding this issue, and have received letters from others regarding his actions.

Whilst he did not mean to display the sign, his actions both then and subsequently have brought disrepute to the Students’ Union. Therefore, before the Extraordinary Meeting, the Union Council voted to Censure Craig Cox, which is a public reprimand for his actions.

At the Extraordinary meeting, having heard arguments and rationale from both sides of the issue, the Union Council voted by an almost two thirds majority against the Motion for No Confidence and to keep Craig on as our Education Officer on our SU Exec.

I know that this is a contentious issue, and should anyone want further information on this subject, or wish to raise any other issue with me, please do not hesitate to email me (*****@nottingham.ac.uk)

Many thanks

Sam ********

Well, since you offered your email address out I have a couple of questions regarding this.

1. How did he accidentally hold up the wrong sign? Who was responsible for the sign being in a position where it might be mistaken for the correct sign? If you have access to enough information regarding the exact circumstances to convince you personally that it was an accident then I'd like to see it, because you did not present it in the original email.

2. The statement he released to the press on the advice of his lawyers was as follows: 'These witch-hunts have got to stop. It's about time the NUS started representing ordinary students again and stopped acting as a front for Left-wing zealots.' Are you seriously saying that the Education Officer and a team of lawyers failed to notice that this statement might possibly be inflammatory until it got published? Who were the lawyers? Are they employed by the SU? Have they been sacked for being complete ****ing idiots?


That turned out to be more than a couple of questions. Sorry.

George Noble

Hi everyone!

Right, I'll get right down to the crux of this email - namely an introduction on my part, a report back on the Jeremy Kyle episode of Students' Union council that we had on Tuesday night, and a TL;DR at the end of it all for the minimalists amongst us (although I obviously recommend you read the lot given that I've typed it all up!)

As you might have guessed, my name is Laurence; I'm a second year in Mathematics and Computer Science, and you all have the dubious honour of having me as your academic representative for the School of Computer Science on this years' Students' Union - which means that in a roundabout kind of way, I'm the guy that all of your coursereps feed into with input that you all provide them regarding issues such as (about to blatantly nick this list from the coursereps handout at the school office desk...):

- Library and IT resources
- Teaching quality
- Exams and coursework
- Course structure
- Tutorial support

Although with that being said, a fair few of you know me (or of me) already and I make a point of being all too easy to grab a hold of and have words with if there's an issue that either you feel needs bringing directly to myself or if your courserep isn't getting his/her job done properly (it happens, I know full well :/) - long and short, if there's critique, I'd like to hear it so I can get it brought to the appropriate place - I work with the Faculty of Science coordinator Henry Blanchard, and indirectly with Craig Cox, the Education Officer.

I'll also be addressing you in advance of Students' Union council meetings (something I forgot to get around to doing before the first one on Tuesday, which I apologise for) with issues that are pertinent to us all as students of the University and requesting feedback so that I can chuck together a report to present to council if needs be!

Right, onto the council meeting itself - again I apologise for not actually getting in touch with you all prior to it, it won't happen again! Insofar as what was dealt with in the council meeting itself, there are only a handful of issues that you may wish to be aware of, and these are:

1) As of this year, the Summer Party will be considered a Student-Run Service no longer solely under the wing of Broadgate Park and Derby and Lincoln Halls. What does this mean for you? Not too much really, save for the fact that now people from all halls can be chosen to serve on the Summer Party Exec, as well as the usual malarkey about having a bit more freedom to play around with finance, security et al - the debate as to further impact got quite heated when we were voting on the motion, so expect to hear more about this.

2) The JCR logo is apparently being reconsidered, due to it 'being designed by a four year old' with no communication between the JCR Exec and the SU. This was a pretty vague point, but suffice to say you may be seeing some kind of new graphical gimmick appearing at some point, if you even notice the change is a different story...

The real meat of the evening was saved for the Extraordinary Council immediately afterwards to debate and ultimately vote on the issue of effectively sacking Craig Cox (re: the impact and repercussions of his inadvertently holding up a 'Bring Back Slavery' sign at a NUS rally at York University), our Education Officer. The fact that I still refer to him as our Education Officer says it all about how the vote slided, but I have the following to mention:

i) Some of you may not even be aware of the issue at hand. Those of you that are will probably either have been apathetic about it, outraged at the audacity of the man, or simply have a fuzzy knowledge about it due to campaigners asking you to sign letters calling for his removal from office. I'll remain impartial on the issue, but those of you who genuinely wish to hear more about what happened can contact me in one of the ways I'll mention below and I'll get back to you.

ii) When it came to the vote as to No Confidencing Craig (council jargon wherein saying 'yes' was to sack him, and 'no' was to keep him), given that I hadn't voiced this issue to you all prior I abstained from the vote, as I really wouldn't have been able to justify myself to any Computer Science students who genuinely did want him removed or firmly believed his repentance for the incident. Of 56 votes cast with a special majority of 38 'yes' votes required for the No Confidence to go through, 19 were received. Motion fell, Craig Cox remains.

With the exception of that though, by and large it was a very ordinary meeting with nothing in particular aimed at Computer Science as a department (as these things usually are)...I haven't really got much to report further than that.

In closing then, thanks for reading this if you've bothered to, and below are my contact details if you wish to get in touch about any pertinent issues relating to Computer Science!

E-Mail: *******@nottingham.ac.uk
(not giving my cell number, sorry ladies!)
Facebook: Laurence Day [networks: Uni. Nottingham 2011, South Africa]

And as I promised...

Too Long; Didn't Read: Hi, I'm Laurence your school rep, Summer Party is a SRS from now, Craig Cox didn't get sacked.

All the best!

Laurence