Bored of it.

'Your sister's not a cold-blooded murderer. She's never been a planner.'
Karen Tyler - Wonderfalls

It may not have escaped your notice that we have an by-election at the end of the month for a new BME (Black and Ethnic Minority) Student's Officer, completing the quartet of liberation officers, the others being Womens, LGBTQ and Disabled. Although anyone can stand and anyone can vote under the present rules, there is a sensibility that only students who define as Black or from a minority ethic background should stand and a further one that only self-defining students should vote, that these officers and campaigns should be autonomous. Simon Fairbanks, the VPDR states here that if you're a BME student, this is how you can become a representative. Great. Good. Grood. There seems to be an obvious gap between what we say and what we do. We preach liberation (or we damn well should do) but the procedures we have for the electing officers, who are also co-convenors of  the wider liberation associations, don't practice it in the purest form the Guild provides. In the LGBTQ constitution, only self-defining students can run and vote in elections and hold committee positions. So LGBTQ students elect 
their own representatives from amongst themselves and they act according in the best interests of those students. Simple. So why don't we do this for liberation officers? Don't get me wrong, I self-define, I work for students, I go to as many LGBTQ events and committee meetings as I can to make sure that I know what I'm doing is right, but I am not a true representative of LGBTQ students, neither was Sid, my predecessor. I know self-definition is open to abuse and that liberation officers, although not trustees, have executive functions, but I think we've become afraid to look at the next step. It's comfy here, it sort of works, most of the time self-defining students will run, will want to run for the right reasons and will care deeply about liberation issues.
Hopefully. And hope isn't good enough, especially when this is something we can deliver. Not for this year no, but for next. Let's think about what we're doing here and what liberation means to those who use it. Let's look at NUS where autonomous liberation works and is one of the biggest ways in which students are engaged on a national level.
The Guild is restarting, if all goes well, we're reviewing all the big questions. So when it comes to liberation and its future, let's ask how we put it in the hands of the students who care about it, who it applies to and for whom it can make a difference. Let's look at how our organisation can adapt to make this work. Let's look at the difficult questions, let's answer them and take a stand.

Peace out.