The trustees have a responsibility to ensure we are not threatened by wrong financial decisions, do not break the law, and that the work being done is for the benefit of our members - Hallam students.
Our Board of Trustees consists of:
- President
- 3 College Officers
- International Students' Officer
- Wellbeing, Sport and Physical Activity Officer
- 4 External Trustees
- 4 Student Trustees
Articles of Association
Membership of the Students' Union
The University has prepared a statement concerning membership of the Students' Union.
View membership statement
Students' Union Code of Practice
A Code of Practice has been published in accordance with the requirements of s22(3) of the Education Act 1994 (the Act). The Act requires the University and Sheffield Hallam University Students' Union (the Union) to comply with a number of measures relating to the operation of the Union, in particular relating to its: constitution; membership; elections; sabbatical officers; finances; affiliations; complaints; and notification requirements.
View Students' Union Code of Practice
FAQs
How can we make something an official stance at HSU?
Our democratic structures give students the opportunity to propose a belief (our word for stance) on issues they care about.
If your proposed belief sits within our charitable objects, it goes through our normal democratic process, the policy forums. If voted through by our policy forum membership, it becomes an official belief (after also being signed off by our Trustee Board). You can see all our beliefs on our website and find out more about our democratic process in our byelaws.
If your proposed belief sits outside of our charitable objects, then due to various laws, we must facilitate an academic debate to come to a final decision, which is a student voice conclusion. We facilitate this through our additional members meeting process, which you can also read more about in our byelaws.
What do we mean by charitable objects?
Our charitable objects are the main aims and purpose of our charity (HSU).
What are our charitable objects?
We are a democratic members union for Sheffield Hallam University; our charitable objects are to support our members: Hallam Students.
They are written in our articles of association (our governing document) as follows:
“The advancement of education of Students at Sheffield Hallam University for the public benefit:
- by promoting the interests and welfare of Students at Sheffield Hallam University during their course of study and representing, supporting and advising Students.
- being the recognised representative channel between Students and Sheffield Hallam University and any other external bodies
- providing social, cultural, sporting and recreational activities and forums for discussions and debate for the personal development of its students.”
Why do charitable objects impact what HSU can do?
Legally, we can only spend our resources (money, staff time etc) on activity that furthers our charitable objects.
Because our charitable objects are about Hallam students, it means we can only put resources towards things that impact specifically “Hallam students as Hallam students”.
This means that it must impact Hallam students in their specific context. Some examples of what we mean:
- We couldn’t campaign for students in Warwick about Warwick bus fares, as whilst it does impact students, it doesn’t impact students studying at Hallam.
- But, we could campaign around cheaper student bus fares across the South Yorkshire region, as that includes Hallam students, and we know from feedback gathering that it’s an issue.
- We can’t campaign on better pay for NHS nurses, because whilst we have student nurses at Hallam, their pay only impacts them after they’ve left, when they are no longer students at Hallam.
When it comes to international affairs & worldwide issues, such as climate change or conflicts, deciding if it sits within our charitable objects must be made on a case-by-case basis and dependent on the asks of the belief.
The key thing is: “does this impact the student experience at Hallam?”.
Charities such as HSU aren’t allowed to use resources for things outside of their charitable objects, but they are allowed to articulate a view which is expressed by their membership on any topic (via a vote). That is called a corporate conclusion, or in Students’ Unions a student voice conclusion.
What is a student voice conclusion?
A student voice conclusion is where hallam students have shared a view on a topic outside of its charitable objects, and that outcome is shared with the student body and university.
Student voice conclusions can be about most topics or political issues, so long as it does not contain hate speech, discriminates or is libelous.
However, as charities such as HSU can only act on activities within their charitable objects, this limits what activity HSU can do around a corporate/student voice conclusion. This means we may have a student voice conclusion on something but cannot act on activities associated with that opinion.
Why can’t you call a boycott on xyz issue?
HSU may be able to boycott specific companies. But, due to our status as a higher education institution and a charity, we are bound by tight laws on how we can do this:
- Boycotting stances are not seen as a legally legitimate reason to break existing contracts and so we must stick to contracts till they lapse.
- As a charity, we must avoid incurring ‘opportunity cost’ from choosing a more expensive supplier because of the boycott.
- We shouldn’t boycott individuals or groups of people. We are expected to stick to companies/organisations with direct ties to the action we have a stance on.
We also can’t encourage others to boycott, which limits our activity in a lot of ways:
- We could only put out communication to our members (students) to tell them we are boycotting somewhere at the same rate we’d communicate anything. Pushing it out more than that would be considered us encouraging others to boycott.
- We are also restricted from having posters/plaques saying we are boycotting something, as it’s considered a way to encourage others to boycott.
- We can communicate to the University that we are boycotting somewhere, as they are a key stakeholder and it is part of our charitable objects to represent student opinion to them. But the limits on the activity to prevent the promotion of boycotts means most of the communication around the boycott will be matter-of-fact updates during meetings and committees, rather than open letters or social media posts.
Why can’t HSU donate to xyz cause?
HSU can only donate, partner with or fund a cause or campaign that is within our charitable objects. So, if we have a student voice conclusion on something, we will not be able to put funding towards the cause if it is outside of our charitable objects. This includes staff time/resources as well as monetary funding.
This also applies to the promotion of fundraising, so even if we aren’t fundraising ourselves, we still may not be able to promote another group or organisation fundraising if it sits outside of our charitable objects.
When you say you ‘can’t’ do something, what does that mean?
At HSU, we want to support students, their voice, and their wellbeing as much as possible. We want you to have a good time engaging with us, and we want you to feel represented. After all, those are our charitable objects and is at the core of what we do.
When we say we can’t or won’t do something, it is because there is significant risk to the organisation to do so. The penalties can involve heavy fines, legal action, and the suspension of staff or Trustees. We must act within the law and based on the guidelines from our regulators. Our Trustees would not be fulfilling their role of protecting the organisation if they allowed us to do something that would incur that level of penalty.
What has all of this got to do with freedom of speech?
As a charity and Higher Education institution, we are expected to uphold freedom of speech, and there are laws around it. We must demonstrate that we’ve provided opportunities for all opinions to be heard. We do this through our additional members meeting process.
As part of this process, if you put forward a belief and it was outside of our charitable objects, we would look to support students with different views on this topic to able to come and express those opinions, alongside your own. We want to ensure there is meaningful debate, discussion and opinion on these topics when they arise.
The only time we will prevent speech is if it constitutes hate speech, which is a crime. We have no tolerance for hate and will proactively put safeguards in place to make sure that any debate is free from hate.