Senate Reps report to Sociologists, as sent to them last week.

Dear Students,

Apologies for the delay in this report reaching you, I thought it had been sent to you on Thursday but there were some administrative issues which resulted in its delay.

The protest last week was very impressive, congratulations on pulling it off; the chanting could be heard from the Senate Chamber! We wanted to give you our report of what happened yesterday.

When it came to Sociology being discussed, the Vice Chancellor first clarified the procedure. He stated that the role of Senate was to give its views to Council, and that all views given in the meeting would be passed in a report to Council to inform their decision on whether or not to continue the consultation. He emphasized that no decision on closure or any other course of action will be taken until April.

The Vice Chancellor further stated that should the consultation period continue, all six options considered in the report, a to f, would remain live, as would any others that may arise from the consultation process, and that all would be given thorough and equal consideration if the consultation moved forward and remain on the table for discussion. Professor Edward Peck confirmed that should the paper go to consultation, weekly meetings would be held for all students to attend to discuss aspects of the options, that weekly meetings would be held for the Student Reps to look deeper into certain aspects, and theme groups of students and staff would be set up to address the key areas of concern that you and the staff have raised. He acknowledged that the consultation with students had failed thus far and that the consultation process would have to compensate for this. These guarantees were confirmed to Senate and minuted.

A representative from the Staff union read out a statement on their behalf, and Brigid gave a statement on your behalf, which included all the concerns you have brought to us from the meetings and via email. It was stated that the view of the student body was that the paper must be rejected. Further comments from representatives were critical of the review process so far and the proposals that had been drawn up, and there was some acknowledgement from Senate members that the procedure for the consultation moving forward was now a positive one.

We were happy to see the new framework for consultation be confirmed by the Vice Chancellor and Edward Peck before Senate and these are now guaranteed should consultation go forward.

Please let us know what you think of this framework, and your thoughts on this moving forward.

Best wishes

Brigid, Claire, Hadrian, Simon, Simon and Vicky
Your Senate Reps