Oxford University Student Union
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The Oxford University Student Union is the official student government of the University of Oxford. It is better known in Oxford by its acronym, OUSU. It exists to represent Oxford students in University decision-making, to act as the voice of students in the national higher education policy debate, and to provide direct services to the student body. It is not to be confused with the Oxford Union Society, which though similarly named is an entirely separate organisation.
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Structure
Reflecting the federated nature of the University of Oxford itself, OUSU is both an association of Oxford's 16500 individual students, and a federation of the Junior Common Rooms (JCRs) and Middle Common Rooms (MCRs) that represent students and graduate students (respectively) at the University's 46 colleges. Individual students and common rooms can opt out of OUSU membership, and votes of disaffiliation are perennial fixtures of some JCRs.
Seven full-time officers lead OUSU: a president and six vice-presidents, who are elected by students in an annual University-wide ballot, and who take a year's sabbatical from study to serve in their portfolios.
There are also twelve part-time executive officers, who are similarly elected annually, but who carry on their studies during their tenure.
The OUSU Council acts as the equivalent of a legislature over OUSU, and is largely composed of representatives from JCRs and MCRs, but also includes a small number of at-large representatives elected in a university-wide ballot as well as the sabbatical and executive officers.
History
The University of Oxford's nascent students' union emerged in the 13th century, as student leaders attempted to mediate the violent clashes between "nations" at the University. Southern English, northern English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish students would frequently battle against one another, with fatalities recorded as early as 1260.
Despite this ancient pedigree, the University of Oxford's governing council resisted formally recognising Oxford's university-wide student estate for some 750 years, although JCRs and MCRs came to be recognised in their respective colleges during the 19th century.
In 1961, with France's Évenements du mai and the United States' anti-Vietnam war protests looming, the University Proctors banned the student magazine Isis from publishing reviews of lectures. Students resisted, and legally incorporated the Oxford University Student Representative Council (OUSRC) for the first time. They then agitated for formal university recognition of the OUSRC, and petitioned the United Kingdom's Privy Council, asking the government to amend the Oxford and Cambridge Universities Act. Rather than risk having its hand forced by legislation, the University relented, and formally recognised the OUSRC in 1970.
The OUSRC adopted its contemporary constitution in 1974, changing its name to the Oxford University Student Union.
Milestone Oxford presidents
- 1355 - The first true student president's name has been lost, and all that is known of him is that he was an undergraduate from the "northern English nation". He appeared during the St Scholastica Day Massacre, rallying Oxford students from the different "nations" of Britain together to defend the University, after riots erupted with townspeople that ultimately left hundreds of students dead and most colleges abandoned. He is sometimes also credited with leading students back to the University in the aftermath of the riots, but this is probably apocryphal.
- 1971 - Emily Wallace is elected OUSRC president, and is the first president of Oxford students to be officially recognised by the University.
- 1973 - Michael Sullivan becomes the first president of the new Oxford University Student Union.
- 1981 - Lesley Riddoch is elected OUSU's first female president, although there had been a substantial number of female presidents of the OUSRC and earlier incarnations of the student government.
- 1982 - John Grogan becomes the first president to succeed in obtaining a seat for students at the University's governing council, in June 1983. He and two other students chosen by OUSU become observers for most of the council's agenda, and this practice is enshrined in the University's Statutes, Decrees, and Regulations.
- 1993 - Akaash Maharaj becomes the first ever visible minority president and first president from overseas. He helps lead a successful national campaign against a 1994 government bill to restrict the ability of students' unions to comment on public policy issues: the then Minister of Education is ultimately dismissed from Cabinet.
- 1998 - Katherine Rainwood becomes the first president to resign from office. Caught using "unfair means" in her final exams, she had been sent down from the University, and therefore disqualified from continuing to hold the presidency.
- 2003 - Will Straw, son of government front-bencher Jack Straw, leads protests against the government's introduction of tuition fees for students. Before coming to Oxford, Will Straw had made headlines for receiving a formal police caution for drug-dealing.
See also
External links
- Official website (http://www.ousu.org/)
- University of Oxford (http://www.ox.ac.uk/)
- National Union of Students (http://www.nus.org.uk/)
Former presidents
- (1993) Akaash Maharaj (http://www.maharaj.org/)
- (1982) John Grogan (http://www.johngrogan.co.uk/)
- (1981) Lesley Riddoch (http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/radioscotland/view/show.shtml?lesley)