Our Student Forum is 'the Parliament' of the Newman Student body. Any student member is able to attend meetings, put forward agenda items, and debate the issues of the meeting. There are representatives from the different 'constituencies' (in Newman’s case our societies, executive officers and faculty reps) who vote on motions. Items which any student can submit to Student Forum include motions to create policy or motions to create a mandate. Our Student Forum helps to ensure that students remain at the centre of our work and can drive our policy and campaigning agenda.
Student Forum is your opportunity to speak to the Executive Committee and find out what they have been up to, and ask questions about the work they have been doing. Forum has a number of students who are "voting members". Voting members are made up of the Executive Committee, Faculty Reps and the Chair of every Society (or treasurer in their absence).
At the first forum of the year we elect a Chair of Forum. This role is HEAR accredited and the responsibilities within this role are to gather and send papers out to all members of forum, to keep a note of apologies and report back to Sabbatical Officers and Co-ordinators and to keep the meeting running on time, have affective outcomes and to make sure that the code of conduct for forum is followed.
Any student can now register to become a voting member by emailing the chair of forum at su-forum-chair@newman.ac.uk This must be done two weeks before the meeting is scheduled.
Student Forum Meetings
Meetings of the Student Forum are held 4 times per Academic Year, the third meeting of Student Forum is also the Students' Union Annual General Meeting. The dates of the meetings for the cademic Year 2023/24 are listed below. Before the meeting the Agenda will also be uploaded along with minutes of the last meeting. If you would like to propose a motion to Student Forum, please follow the guidance in this section.
Meetings 2023/24
Wednesday 25th October 2023 - Agenda
Wednesday 24th January 2024
Wednesday 10th April (AGM) 2024 - Agenda - Accounts - Minutes
Papers -
SU President
SU Vice-President
SU Academic Representation Officer
SU Equality & Campaigns Officer
SU Events & Activities Officer
SU Societies Officer
Wednesday 22nd May 2024
Motions
A motion is a proposal that discusses specific change that you would like to see made, why you would like it made and what difference it will make to the lives of students. It is a formal process where members of Forum vote on the idea. If it passes, it then becomes policy.
The Executive Committee are then accountable to Forum for delivering the outcomes of the motion. Updates are published in the SU What's On email, in further forum meetings and on social media.
In order to submit a motion, you can use the template below and send it to the chair of forum. If you are ever unsure, then make sure to always ask a member of the SU team who can help with this process.
Current Forum Motions
The motions listed below were passed at the last Forum meeting of the 2022/23 Academic Year and ratified by the current Executive Committee at their first meeting of the 2023/24 Academic Year. To find out more about these motions, please click the link to download.
