At an emergency meeting this evening, both the Student Representative Council (SRC) and the Student Services Committee (SSC) voted to postpone the May NUS referendum until November 2012. This comes only weeks after both committees, on the recommendation of the current sabbaticals, voted to approve a May vote.
This backtracking appears to be the result of an emergency meeting by the Students Association Board (the governing body of the Association), in which the Board was reported to have expressed its extreme displeasure over the rushed nature of the referendum and the inadequate assessment of the financial impact of NUS membership. In addition, The Stand has been told that the incoming sabbs unanimously agreed that a rushed May referendum would not have allowed for a free and fair vote.
The Stand spoke to 'devastatingly good-looking philistine' and 3rd year, Maureen MacIsaac, "it is a travesty that we, the students of St Andrews, have waited this long to get the NUS student discount on asos.com clothes, and now must still our itchy mouse-tapping fingers even a second longer."
Tonight's meeting heard some criticisms leveled at the newly elected sabbs for their role in the postponement. However, new and old sabbs argued that the change in timing was needed to avoid clashing with exam revision and for a fair referendum to be had.
