A student proposal came through to the Leicester 100 (our democratic student decision-making body) to Demilitarise the University of Leicester and received 60% yes votes, therefore was recommended for referenda (with the threshold to pass at 67%). All students had the opportunity to join a campaign team for either side with campaigning commencing on Monday 26th January. The Students' Union hosted the referendum voting at various locations on campus and online on Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th January. The results of the vote are as follows: 

 

 

 The Students' Union will now work with the proposer, the elected officers, its staff team and its Board to work out the operational delivery possible alongside this mandate. The Students' Union will issue further communications in due course. 

The proposal as part of the referenda outlined the following desired actions in the event of a 'yes' vote:  

1. The Students’ Union to issue a statement that condemns the University’s continued work, and promotion of companies producing armaments. This statement should highlight those companies found to be supporting what has been ruled a plausible genocide. This statement should urge the university to ban arms companies from careers fairs and events, to disallow staff to promote these companies when acting as a representative for the University and to commit to cutting all research and enterprise relationships with companies involved in the arms trade upon the end of those contracts. It should be highlighted that the continued work being undertaken with arms companies has had a substantial effect on the University of Leicester’s reputation, with several articles on reputable news sites being published online.

2. The Students’ Union should organise regular meetings to talk with upper management and the careers department on this issue to voice student’s concerns. These meetings should also be used to defend students’ rights to protest against this.

3. To pressure the University to change, the Students’ Union should refuse to work with the careers department for any future events or the University on any unnecessary events until actions are implemented to ban these companies from campus and to cut research contracts with these companies in due time. This could involve not using and SU staff hours on these events, and if possible, not allowing these events to go ahead inside the Students’ Union building.