6 June Town Hall Referenda
Should the LSESU lobby LSE to allow students to chair societal events with a guest speaker?
Proponent: Dylan Sellors
Issue: LSE students are currently not allowed to chair events with a guest speaker.
Recently, as president of the PPE society I managed to get the Labour MP and Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry to come in to talk to LSESU PPE and LSESU Labour Society. I would have loved to have been able to chair the event myself, but unfortunately due to current SU policy, this is not permissible.
This is particularly frustrating as the University of Oxford and the University of Reading both allowed students to chair a similar event when Emily Thornberry visited them!
UCL also allows their students to chair similar events (such as with Richard Burgon MP).
This policy change will vastly benefit LSE students as it will:
- Allow LSE students to enhance personal skills such as questioning and public speaking.
- Allow events to be better catered to the interests of the audience.
What is the solution?
Allow LSE students to chair events, and choose whether they chair events.
Under my proposal the LSESU would still be able to offer guidance and/ or 'strongly recommend' an academic chair but the final say would be with the hosting society. This would allow LSESU societies to rightly enjoy the same benefits that many other students at societies at other universities already enjoy!
Amendments:
Any student who wants to act as a chair for a guest speaker must undergo media, moderating & de-escalation training.