Be a truly legitimate and democratic Union.

Represent our members in key areas of student life.

Make Union campaigns more effective.

We exist to help our members through their time at University by representing and supporting their needs. With more members involved in decision-making and electing their representatives, we will be able to support and act on behalf of our members more effectively. The past year has seen improvements to allow the realisation of this goal.

The Sabbatical Elections in March 2006 saw the highest voter turnout in recent years. With over 3,500 members taking part they elected representatives for the coming 2006/2007 academic year.

The new Referendum process replaced the Annual General Meeting, allowing more members to take part in decision-making by extending the voting process to three days.

The Union will run two Referenda a year. The first one of the 2006/2007academic year held in November, saw the biggest turnout ever to a Referendum with a few votes

short of 3,000 being cast. This was achieved by taking the ballot station to the members at sites around campus, as well as having key resources such as campaigning packs, podcasts of the meetings and copies of proposals available online. This helped to include more members than ever before in the decision making process.

The Referendum also saw a proposal presented by the current Student Executive Officers. They recommended reducing the number of Student Executive Officer positions from eight to six, updating the roles to best tackle the needs of our changing membership. The motion was passed and from June 2007 the new Student Executive Officer structure will be as follows:

Democracy Support has also been responsible for the continuing development of the Union Academic Representative Scheme. 24 Union Academic Representatives were recruited and trained to work with Faculties to represent our members’ needs and provide feedback to departments. The Union Academic Representatives are then supported by over 300 Course Representatives, all feeding back information on the quality of education and level of support our members are receiving from the University of Leeds. It is this feedback that allows the Student Executive Officers to lobby the University on our members’ behalf.

The Student Executive Officers 2006/2007.

The Student Executive Officers have been working on the issue of how the Union is governed. Assessing the effectiveness of our current governance structure and developing, alongside senior management and legal advisors, a structure that reflects the culture of this organisation, with a view to taking a recommended governance proposal to the referendum in March 2007.

As well as campaigning to restructure the Student Executive Officer body with a view to providing more effective representation for our members, the current Student Executive Officers have been involved in the higher education funding debate on a national level organising Leeds University Union’s presence at a major demonstration; lobbying parliament; and hosting a funding debate attended by higher education minister Bill Rammell here in our building.

Following our research into students’ sexual health, a Sexual Health clinic was set up in conjunction with Terrance Higgins Trust. The service’s promotion was spearheaded by the Student Executive Officers, and soon became flooded with patients. Women’s Officer, Sarah Wayman, successfully lobbied the local Primary Care Trust to fund extended opening hours and an extra session every week to help improve the sexual health of our members.

Many students have had the chance to put questions to the University of Leeds Vice Chancellor, Professor Michael Arthur, at one of the many “Vice Chancellor’s Question Time” sessions throughout the year. These sessions have helped members find out about how their University works and what its future plans are for their education.

The Intro period in September 2006 saw the Student Executive Officers introduce themselves to around 1,000 new students in presentations held in the Union building and the University halls of residence to illustrate to the new students what Leeds University Union can offer them.