Council denies Deputy President (Finances & Services) Honorary Life Membership

The decision of Union Council on Monday to award Honorary Life Membership (HLM) of the Union to only five of six Sabbatical Officers, excluding Deputy President (Finance & Services) Ravi Pall, was overturned at a meeting of the Union Court on Wednesday.

The rejection of the Council’s decision arose after a complaint that the procedure of the HLM vote was unconstitutional as the Sabbatical Officers were asked to leave the room while the other Council members debated the awards. The Sabbatical Officers were also not allowed to vote. In the constitution it stipulates that all full members of the Union, which includes Sabbaticals, have a right to participate in all Council discussions. Although the practice of asking the Sabbaticals to leave the room is a long-standing unwritten rule, the Court ruled that it violated the Union’s constitution.

In the decision to deny Ravi Pall Honorary Life Membership, some Council members cited what they deemed to be an unsatisfactory effort throughout his year in office. The RCC Chair, Nathaniel Bottrell, pointed to the Deputy President’s short written report for that Council meeting as indicative of his efforts. The members subsequently voted whether to confer Pall with membership, with five voting for and six against, along with 10 abstentions. Union President Alex Kendall explained his misgivings about the Council’s decision: “Ravi has done a great job this year and has been a very proactive Sabb. He has a strong personality and this can sometimes test some people’s patience but he is a good man and has had to deal with some tricky issues this year.”

Ravi Pall argued that because a lot of his work involved sensitive staffing issues, it was impossible to report fully to Council. He said that Council members “massively underappreciated the amount of effort [he] had put in” due to the loss of two permanent staff members, the Finance Manager and Commercial Services Manager.

While no complaint was made against the result during the meeting, one made afterwards led to the issue being discussed at Wednesday’s meeting of the Union Court.

Union Court Chair Hamish Common said that it was “with a heavy heart” that he quashed Council’s decision because Council had not knowingly acted improperly and that it was common sense to ask the Sabbaticals to leave the room while they were being discussed; he suggested that it would be a good idea that the constitution be changed to allow this practice to continue.

An emergency meeting of Council met on Thursday lunchtime but it was abandoned as it was not quorate. Another meeting has been scheduled for the 22nd of June, when Council will again decide on HLMs for the sabbatical team.