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The Oxford University Student Union is the official student union of the University of Oxford, representing the interests of its members to the university and the outside world. It is better known in Oxford by its acronym, OUSU (OW-zoo). 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 student organisation, independent of the university and without any representative function.
Structure
Reflecting the federated nature of the University of Oxford itself, OUSU is both an association of Oxford's more than 17,000 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 of the University of Oxford.
Individual students can opt out of membership, though this is rarely exercised. Individual Common Rooms can also opt out of the federation, and fierce votes of disaffiliation are perennial fixtures of some JCRs. The dual nature of OUSU membership is not repeated in its funding arrangements: OUSU's core funding is drawn from annual subscription fees levied on Common Rooms, and it receives no University block grant. The remainder of its income is drawn from its commercial services and from smaller grants for specific projects.
OUSU is led by a 21 member Executive Committee. This includes 7 full-time salaried sabbatical officers, who generally serve in the year following completion of their Finals: President; Vice President (Finance); Vice President (Welfare and Equal Opportunities); Vice President (Women); Vice President (Graduates); Vice President (Access and Academic Affairs); and Vice President (Charities and Community). The remaining 14 Executive Officers, 4 of whom must be graduate students, serve while continuing their studies.
OUSU Council acts as the sovereign body of the Student Union, and theoretically has over 150 members, including: every Executive Officer; 3 representatives from each JCR; 2 representatives from each MCR; and 12 Council delegates at large. If a JCR or MCR has fewer than 100 members it receives one less council vote. The Chair of Council is elected by the Council itself in each academic term.
History
The University of Oxford's nascent students' union arguably 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, 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.
Notable former presidents
- 1355 – The first true student leader'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, contributing to the eventual dismissal from Cabinet of the then Secretary of State for Education.
- 1998 – Katherine Rainwood resigns only days into her term of office, having been found by the University Proctors to have used "unfair means" during her final exams.
- 2003 – Will Straw carries on protests against the government's introduction of tuition fees for students, despite his father Jack Straw being a senior member of that government. Before coming to Oxford, Will Straw had made headlines for receiving a formal police caution for drug-dealing.
See also
External links
Former presidents
English students' unions | Oxford student societies | University of Oxford
"Oxford University Student Union"