The UEL Students’ Union is in crisis. It is incapable of representing the students. This is a betrayal to EVERY SINGLE UEL student. It can no longer be tolerated. Enough is enough!

We, the students of the University of East London (UEL), out of sheer desperation, call upon UEL Board of Governors, the Office for Students (OfS) and the Charity Commission to take urgent measures to ensure the UEL Students’ Union functions in a fair and democratic way. We are urging all UEL students to stand firmly together, sign this petition to show solidarity and revive the Students’ Union and save it from this crisis.

We demand an urgent full-blown independent investigation!

WHAT IS THE ISSUE?

Serious mismanagement of UEL Students’ Union

1. Our Student Governor was prevented from meeting other members of the Board of Governors for what can only be described as an attempt to silence the students’ voice and a blatant attempt to use the students as a pawn in the bigger political games that are being played at UEL. 
2. Deliberately providing false information to students and some of the students’ representatives.
3. The insatiable desire of some people in the University of East London to control the narrative coming out of the Students’ Union to gain an edge over the political tit-for-tat games going on at UEL means that the students and some of their representatives are not always able to represent the true views of the students. This will have a catastrophic consequence for the students, the Students’ Union and the University, at a time the University is going through significant changes.
4. There have been concerted efforts to keep the Board of Governors in the dark about the serious mismanagement issues that exist at UEL and UEL Students’ Union.
5. A toxic culture has been forced into the Students’ Union since the mass layoffs of staff as part of a poorly planned and even more poorly executed staff restructuring.
6. Micromanagement has reached an unacceptable level. The hankering to control almost all aspect of the Students’ Union has created an atmosphere of fear that is visibly affecting the staff and the student representatives. Unquestionably, this is affecting the Students’ Union’s ability to effectively represent the students and provide services the students need and deserve.
7. There is a lack of support for both staff and student representatives. The staff are underpaid, overworked; services are stretched to their limits, no avenue for the student representatives or the staff to grow and prosper. Some staff members have broken down crying their eyes out because of the debilitating working environment they have to live through.

Serious irregularities in the way proposed changes to the Representation Structure is being introduced.

1. Students were provided false, inaccurate, misleading information during the referendum.
2. False information was provided to students in the first Members Meeting held on 12 December 2019.
3. Students were lied to AGAIN on the second Members Meeting held on 4 February 2020.
4. The President of the Students’ Union was prohibited from speaking with the students in the second Members Meeting because he was opposed to some of the changes being proposed.
5. A Point of Order was raised in the Meeting by a student representative, in response, a senior member of staff confirmed that quorum was not met and also confirmed that other senior members organising the Meeting knew it.
6. It was explicitly announced in the meeting that the quorum was not met, and another Members Meeting will be held ‘again’ (hearing this many students had left), later in the midst of confusion hastily voting was called and later it was claimed quorum was met!

We could say a lot more, but we believe we have made our point!

We do not wish to bring UEL or UEL Students’ Union to disrepute. However, repeated attempts to deal with these issues discretely have fallen into deaf ears. We have shouted in the dark for long enough; we demand to be heard now! Therefore, as a measure of last resort, we are calling upon UEL Governors, the OfS and the Charity Commission to intervene and address these issues by launching a full-blown independent investigation urgently.