Two motions passed, but Associate Membership still dominates at Student Council

By James Lewis, co Editor-in-Chief

Bristol University's Student Council, which is made up of a range of elected student representatives, convened yesterday, December 11, to discuss and debate issues important to the student body.

Usually, motions passed become Students’ Union (SU) policy straight away.

However, since a quoracy of 94 members were not present – probably due to the unfortunate timing of being in the middle of exam preparation week – all motions passed will need to be ratified at the Annual Members Meeting in February.

Before any democratic votes, the Full Time Officers (FTO) presented their successes from the last few weeks. Increased emergency financial assistance for postgraduate students, campaigning against government plans for tuition fees, and £43,000 raised by societies for Movember were highlighted among others.

Members of the DSC | Epigram / *James Lewis*

Student Living Officer, Lucy Pears, spoke about her work in getting the University to commit to capping laundry at £3.80 in University accommodation.

Ms Pears also revealed the work she’s been doing to change the University’s renting model. Ms Pears said that ‘this will be the biggest change to student renting in Bristol ever seen,’ as the gap between the least and most expensive accommodations will be reduced.

‘Mission Mandir‘ – lobby the University for the provision of a Hindu prayer room

The first motion that members could vote on was called ‘Mission Mandir’, put forward by Aum Gaijir through the SU's Ideas Board, newly introduced this year.

The motion asks the SU to ‘lobby the University to designate a permanent and dedicated Hindu Prayer Room.’ This will give Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, and Sikh students the appropriate space to practice their faith.

With no one speaking ‘against’ the proposition, the motion was brought to a vote where it passed unanimously.

This will mean that the University of Bristol will be the second university in the South West to offer this dedicated religious space.

Move the election of the Democratic Standards Committee (DSC) to TB2

The second motion, brought forward by Lucy Pears proposed to move the election of the DSC into Teaching Block 2.

The DSC are a committee of five elected students plus the Chair of Student Council and the Union Affairs Officer. They discuss and allocate motions, set agendas, and approve election rules. Currently, they are elected in TB1.

The move, Pears said, would align their election with the larger elections in the second half of the year. This would enable democratic events – like this one – to be earlier in the year, and to increase the DSC’s training.

Unlike the last motion, this was met with some resistance. Despite admitting that he would ‘vote in favour’ of the motion, second year Chemistry student and course representative, Ned Gardner-Thorpe, spoke against the motion.

Mr Gardner-Thorpe said that he was ‘disappointed’ in the motion as he expressed his concern that the wording would give extra powers to the Union Affairs Officer. He said that he had tried to submit an amendment, but this was rejected by the DSC, because ‘they didn’t know what it was trying to do’, he said.

Ms Pears stood back up – as is the process of these events – to defend the proposal. On Mr Gardner-Thorpe's returning to the lectern, he said that ‘[members] should all be disappointed here tonight,’ referring to an apparent degradation of democracy at the Student Union.

The motion ultimately passed with little resistance, with only a handful of those voting against or abstaining.

Associate Membership

The question of democracy persisted as the Council moved onto an ‘Any Other Business’ section, which included an ‘Expression of Dissatisfaction’ over the SU Trustee Board’s overriding of the SU Council’s vote to maintain Associate Membership at the SU.

The Associate Membership scheme had previously meant non-University of Bristol students could be part of Bristol SU societies.

This has been a hot topic since it was scrapped over the summer. At the last Student Council, held in November, students voted against scrapping it, but in an unprecedented move the SU’s Board of Trustees overturned it. This decision was made for several reasons: ‘safeguarding students, managing conduct, charitable purpose and insurance,’ an SU spokesperson told Epigram.

Again, Mr Gardner-Thorpe went head-to-head with Ms Pears. Mr Gardner-Thorpe said, in reference to an earlier comment by Ms Pears, that it had been ‘shameful’ that six of the Trustees’ Board (referring to the FTO’s present) couldn’t remember on what grounds the motion was overturned.

Mr Gardner-Thorpe said in his three-minute speech that he had lodged a complaint with the Charity Commission.

Ms Pears stood up and defended the SU, and reiterated their decision was made in the interest of members’ safety. She said that it was about ‘bring[ing] down the risk’ of sexual violence, as the policy change had come from a review into the SU’s policies triggered by complaints made by students in 2024.

Members voted in favour of the motion. This meant – as was clarified multiple times – that Council members were dissatisfied with how the Board of Trustees had acted.

After the event, enjoying the incentivised pizza, Epigram spoke to multiple Council members as to how they thought the night went.

Finlay Reid, a member of the DSC and president of the Mycological Society, told Epigram that ‘the meeting went well’ and that there was ‘good back and forth on the agenda [...] that allowed members to make informed decisions on what they were voting for.’

Louis Anscombe, the Chair of Student Council, told Epigram that the meeting showed how ‘Student Council is the perfect place to [...] talk about problems and express your opinions.’

The next democratic event will be the SU’s Annual Members Meeting (AMM). This will be held on 19 February 2026 where all students will be allowed to vote, and is the largest democratic meeting held by the SU. You can expect strong debate, and the chance to hear from those who are passionate about the student experience in Bristol.

Featured image: Epigram / Sofia Lambis

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