On the 24th of September, the Welfare and Campaigns Co-President Jess Kumwongpin-Barnes resigned from their role through an email sent to the entire student body. Following Jess’ sudden resignation, the Students’ Union (SU) released a statement, writing that Jess ‘had not discussed this decision with us, and it came as a surprise.’
‘In their resignation letter, Jess stated that the ‘lack of accountability, transparency and honesty in the Union and the School’ led them to decide to no longer be involved in the SU.’
Jess’ letter connects their justification for resigning with the political aspects of a bigger movement amongst the SOAS community. Jess mentioned accountability, transparency and honesty as an issue within the SU. In their statement, the SU wrote that those comments ‘were unfair on the fellow Co-Presidents, and the committed staff team, to suggest that there is a lack of accountability, transparency and honesty in the Union that we are doing nothing to bridge.’
Jess called for ‘radical students, who are still hopeful in changing SOAS to be the place it could be’ to mobilise and be part of campaigns such as Account For This, Justice For Workers, and Fractionals For Fair Play. A quote from the resignation letter- ‘there is power in the grassroots’- was echoed in an event Jess organised for the following week. The event, Back to the Grassroots, saw the three campaigns make accusations of the SU co-opting their causes rather than acknowledging them as independent movements. Following the significant attention created by the abrupt resignation, attendance was high, though Jess kept a low profile and spoke only briefly.
Regarding the campaigns’ increasing calls for independence from the SU, the SU Co-Presidents said that ‘We respect them for being independent because they need to hold the SU accountable […] but at the same time there has to be cooperation to some extent because otherwise, you can’t change anything.’ They pointed out that SU personnel engaged highly with campaigns such as Justice For Workers in the past, before and while holding their mandate, making use of their privileges in the university to offer support, such as helping with room bookings. The SU Co-Presidents state that this was never part of an attempt to take over, but to help facilitate the campaigns.
At the Back to the Grassroots event, students criticised the SU Co-Presidents’ planned trip to South Africa, which is being paid for by SOAS management. The Justice For Workers campaign released a letter in solidarity with Jess, addressing the allegedly ‘undemocratic’ structure of the SU, and writing that ‘everything is done for officers to feel cosy in the pockets of the school management.’
The SU responded that ‘We can appreciate why people would criticise this. It does look like we are in management’s pocket, but I think the SU is here to hold management to account,’ and that ‘you can make change in two ways: you can either shout louder or work together.’
In light of Jess‘ sudden resignation, an emergency trustee meeting decided on 3 October that the SU would not hold re-elections. Instead, where possible, the SU would hire students and others to support the responsibilities of the Welfare and Campaigns Co-president on a project-by-project basis.
The SU said that they want ‘any student concerned by the issues raised to reach out to them and seek clarification.’ Students at the Back to the Grassroots event called on other students to raise their frustrations regarding a lack of solidarity and trust with both the SU and SOAS management, stating that both parties need to address these issues to meet their responsibilities of protecting and addressing the needs of students.