As Union members, you can find out what your elected Sabbatical Officers have been doing, how they prioritise their work and make sure what they’re doing is in the best interest of students. Each Sabbatical Officer's page on our website has information on what they are working on and the progress that they have made through the year, as well as links for you to contact them with any queries.
Elected student officers are voted in by you and can also be voted out by you. If you feel that an elected officer has done something which warrants no longer holding their position you can call for a vote of no confidence.
First, determine whether the officer is a sabbatical officer (full-time) as the procedures vary slightly for part-time officers.
Sabbatical Officer No Confidence Procedure
1. Petition: First, you need to state your reasons for why you wish to call a no confidence vote for a Sabbatical Officer on a petition. This needs to be signed by at least 1% of all Students' Union Members. Once we've verified the signatures, a referendum vote will take place.
2. Referendum: Voting will open and at least 5% of the Students' Union membership must cast a vote. This means you should try and reach as much students across UCL as possible!
3. Majority Vote: A 75% majority vote is required for the vote of no confidence to be implemented
Non-Sabbatical Officer No Confidence
1. Petition: You will need to outline your reasons on why you want to call for a no confidence vote for a student officer. You need other students to sign on to your petition of no confidence. The minimum number of signatures required will vary by position. This is set at 25% of the votes cast in the election for that position. See previous election results to determine this. For example, the petition threshold for a position which initially had 2,500 votes would be 625 signatures.
Please note that voter restrictions apply to petition signatories as well. For example, students must self identify or be eligible to vote in the position to sign a no-confidence petition. For example, only society members could sign a No Confidence petition for the Societies' Officer.
2. Vote: A no confidence vote will take place once petition signatures are validated. A simple majority vote is required, however a minimum number of student votes is required for the vote to be considered valid. This is matched at the total number of votes cast for the position. For example, if the position's initial election turnout was 2,500 votes, the confidence vote must also have a turnout of 2,500 votes
Likewise, only students eligible to vote for the position are eligible to vote for no confidence.
You can ask your elected officer questions throughout the year primarily by:
1. Emailing them directly: On our website you can find the contact details for Academic Reps and Part-Time Student Officers.
2. Attending an open student meeting: Each Zone Meeting will have time on the agenda to question officers.
3. You may also fill in our question form below. You do not need to attend the meeting to pose these questions; they will be put to the officers in the relevant meetings and responses will be recorded in that meeting's minutes.
When submitting a question, please provide your name and email address (this won't be made public but is needed for the question to be posed), do not provide personal information about yourself or others, ensure that your question is relevant to the officer it is addressed to and do not make abusive, defamatory or libellous comments.