Student Council Vote of no Confidence (SCF5)Student Council has the power to submit motions of no-confidence in an elected Officer and/or Representative.

1. This Council NotesState the facts surrounding the issue

The Vice President of Education (VPE) has not fulfilled their role during this academic year despite repeated attempts to encourage them to do so. Attached is a 28-page document from some members of the Education Committee regarding the VPE’s performance (although, the proposer acknowledges no everything in the document can count as evidence). It is not an official document but is a record of interactions between various members of the Education Committee and the VPE.

There has been a breakdown in constructive relations between the VPE and the Education Committee. This creates far reaching effects considering the Education Committee is the primary source of student voice that the VPE can draw upon

The VPE is reluctant to support PTOs. There is anecdotal evidence in the 28-page document

The VPE has admitted to having more passion for Contract Cheating than the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) even though the TEF is the most controversial subject in Higher Education since tuition fees were introduced. Their justification is that Contract Cheating is their own campaign and the TEF is a joint campaign with the President

The VPE should be aware of the TEF’s significance and controversy in the Higher Education Sector and it should have been one of their main concerns. The ‘Education’ section of their job description reads:

o “Be responsible for knowing internal and national academic issues and reaction to them, including the position of NUS.

o Alongside Part Time Officers and relevant Union and University Staff coordinate and lead Education Campaigns for the year.”

The first point may have been fulfilled but it should have led to the second point being fulfilled, which it has not in regards to the TEF. A VPE should understand what policy will affect students and which they need to address proactively

The VPE secured funding for the Students’ Union to promote the National Student Survey (NSS) alongside employing another Student Voice Coordinator. Student Council voted to overturn the promotion of the NSS at the last Council which raises questions as to whether the VPE was out of their remit to secure such a deal on a controversial subject without first addressing Council

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The VPE struggles to make the student voice known in key meetings. Anecdotally, it has been said that the VPE rarely speaks at meetings and when they do it isn’t to challenge or defend student voice often enough. The proposer of this motion has experienced this themselves at the last Education Committee member as a guest

The VPE was part of signing off the TEF submission. This becomes problematic if in the next few months the student body decide they want their Sabbatical Officers (SABBs) to act against the TEF in any way, like they did with the NSS promotion

The VPE has shown themselves to be more of a reactive and reluctant SAAB in various important areas rather than proactive and facilitative one. Examples can be found in the 28-page document attached

This motion has received 10 signatories although only four are needed. This is an indicator of how strongly Councilors feel in regards to the VPE’s performance

2. This Council BelievesState what you want the Officer to change

If after nearly two terms in the role there are still issues and frustrations with the VPE’s performance (enough to warrant 9 signatories on a motion of No Confidence), a third term will unlikely change that.

3. This Council ResolvesExplain why you think a vote of censure or no confidence is appropriate

The VPE must be removed from his role as soon as procedures allow.

AMENDMENT PROPOSED BYNAME Arte Artemiou

DATE 03/03/17

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AMENDMENT SECONDED BYNAME Joe Atkins

DATE 03/03/17

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AMENDMENT THIRDED BYNAME Jen Dobson

DATE 03/03/17

SIGNATURE

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AMENDMENT FOURTHED BYNAME Dan Hart

DATE 03/03/17

SIGNATURE

AMENDMENT FIFTHED BYNAME Tisharn Panglose

DATE 03/03/17

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AMENDMENT SIXTHED BYNAME Dean Davies

DATE 03/03/17

SIGNATURE

AMENDMENT SEVENTHED BYNAME Jess Burnside

DATE 03/03/17

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AMENDMENT EIGHTHED BYNAME Tyler Spencer-Pote

DATE 03/03/17

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AMENDMENT NINTHED BYNAME Chelsea Eede

DATE 03/03/17

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AMENDMENT TENTHED BYNAME Elliot Spurling

DATE 03/03/17

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SIGNATURE

Appendix:

Contents Page

Issues around Danjie

Lack of Support1) Refusal to support and mentor the PTO’s and Faculty reps.2) Lack of attendance at Faculty Forum meetings3) Defying Education Committee’s action regarding 24 hour library.4) Unprofessional comments about a Faculty rep. 5) Course Rep Corner Banners Vs Faculty Forum Banners

Not Taking Role Seriously6) Other faculty Reps having to lead on important and vital topics. 7) Course Rep Corner promotion. 8) Not proactive and unwilling to approach students.9) 60 seconds with Exec videos.10) Danjie was late to the NU demo

Report Content and Progress 11) Danjie’s reports are the same each council12) Danjie manifesto support Mature Students- yet voted against MSA13) His manifesto points are not in his reports

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Support

1) Refusal to support and mentor the PTO’s and Faculty reps. Danjie has openly said he doesn’t want to support and mentor the PTO’s and Faculty reps at Exec meetings because it is more work and he doesn’t want to do it. However last year the President looked after all Faculty reps (called School Reps) and Part Time Officers (PTO’s) due to his role as President not being split in to two roles as it currently is. It is also actually a part of a Sab role and they receive training for it, in fact the other 2 sabs seemed more than happy to mentor others after it was mentioned to them.

-Please see below for evidence it is part of his role which is from the Job Description which was correct at the time of Danjie applying for the role and also 15/12/16.

-Also please see evidence from a November 2015 report from the President as evidence that he supported PTO’s and it was an expected part of the role when Danjie applied for the Role. This is available on the Student Unions website http://northampton.unioncloud.org/voice/student-council

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2) Lack of attendance at Faculty Forum meetings Lack of attendance at Faculty Forum meetings despite previous president (before role split for 2016 elections) doing this meaning it is standard practice and it being in education committee minutes. Also Danjie has received invitations to these meetings and is welcome to attend any due to the nature of his role.

-please see evidence from Education Committee minutes Dec 2015 regarding President attendance at meetings before role split in 2016.

(Please note Education Committee do not expect Danjie to attend every Faculty Forum, however we expect him to attend when he can and to show a genuine interest if he cannot attend).

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3) Defying Education Committee’s action regarding 24 hour library. Danjie tried to defy Education Committee’s action regarding 24 hour library, meaning another Faculty rep had to take the lead and had to do his job for him after discussion and encouragement and finally pressure had been applied to Danjie to complete his action. Despite being actioned in Education Committee, and him agreeing to these actions during the meeting.

Please see minutes from Education Committee regarding discussion and then also Danjies action point.

After he agreed to complete this task by presenting the petition, a petition was made which reached over 90 signatures before the meeting with librarians which took place on 09/12/16 and that on 16/12/16 it stands at 108 signatures. Please see screenshots of petition http://www.petitions24.com/signatures/we_want_avenue_library_to_be_24_hours/start/90 Please note names have been crossed off as it is not relevant to the point that is being raised.

Therefore the amount of signatures that would have been on the petition between Danjies meeting, and the meeting with a Faculty rep around the exact same issue, will not be substantially different. Also it shows that there is a big demand and this has more signatures than a toaster in halls campaign received (which was the previously most signed petition related to an SU topic) and yet that was confidently implemented by the sabs in the role at the time but wasn’t done by Danjie.

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Danjie at one point suggested not presenting the petition in the meeting he that he had agreed to present it in, and suggested instead just mentioning it. -please see group email conversation

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After this education committee members made it clear to students that the petition would be presented on the Friday.

- See screenshot from social media of a post on a 2015 student page group for the university.

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It was also raised at student council during discussion on education committee minutes however no student council minutes have been submitted to the page due to not reaching quorum.

After his meeting Danjie did not reach the outcome that education committee had hoped for or had expected.

-please see Danjies update on facebook.

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So we asked questions due to the concerns we had previous to the meeting.

-please see Faculty reps responses

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After this a faculty rep had a meeting with the same people and presented the petition and they agreed to a trial period, although they did warn us that it has to go through a few stages of higher up management but that it should be approved.

-please see copy of update on private social media group

So to summarise (as there is a lot of evidence spread over a few pages) Danjie was actioned (similar to being mandated at student council) to present the petition and discuss with library in a meeting on the 09/12/16. However despite agreeing to this action, tried to reduce it to a discussion. After questioning, encouraging him and eventually telling him he needed to complete his action he was still not able to get the result. This result could have been much easier, and education committee worked really hard to get that result, and unfortunately apart from organising the meeting, Danjie did not appear very helpful in this matter. Education committee got the right result, not Danjie.

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4) Unprofessional comments about a Faculty rep.

Danjie made a comment in the November Education Committee meeting, it was about a member of the committee who was unable to attend that specific meeting. By making a comment which was about someone’s character rather than commitment to the role or ability to do the role etc it became a personal attack, and this is not appropriate when that person is not there to stand up for themselves. Also whilst people of course judge others, don’t get along etc it is not appropriate to make a comment about someone’s character in an official meeting. This was heard by 4 members of the committee (in this meeting there was only 7 plus Danjie in attendance) and 2 more heard most of the comment made. Meaning half in attendance heard the comment in full and a further 25 % heard most and are convince they heard similar but were not sure on the exact words. The attendance is listed on the SU website.

-please find a link to the exact pagehttp://northampton.unioncloud.org/voice/student-council/council-3-8-december-2016 This means that faculty reps think if he talks about one of us, maybe he talks about all of us. Plus it doesn’t help to build a team, in fact Faculty reps suggested team building on 15/12/16.

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5) Course Rep Corner Banners Vs Faculty Forum Banners Course Rep Corner Banners where did the money come from and why are we not allowed them but he can, he didn’t fight for us to have them either. We were supposed to have them last year but due to budget we could not afford them last year.

-See actions from previous education committee minutes were it was discussed an agreed upon. The first is January, the second is February.

-the minutes for the next education committee meeting was lost, however the two committee members from the previous year remember this being discussed and the fact we do not have them 6 months later would suggest that they were not ordered and there was a reason.

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(Please note Education committee do not wish for Danjie to not have the banners as we recognise that advertising the event is important, but are questioning why Danjie has 2 and yet Education committee cannot have one which would be used by all 4 Faculties).

Education Committee would like to see Danjie supporting us in this, and we are concerned that he doesn’t appear to have fought for us to have equal advertisement opportunities.

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Not Taking Role Seriously1) Other faculty Reps having to lead on important and vital topics.

During Education Committee we work every year on the SWS (Student Written Submission) in conjunction with important staff members across all faculties in the university, it usually includes Wifi, Waterside, NILE and Postgraduate representation. Other faculty Reps had to say what the SWS is not Danjie, despite this being a clear part of the role and a major part of discussion during last year. Faculty reps had to take lead on other issues such as 24 hour library, timetabling etc, we are just supposed to be the voice and he is supposed to be the doer. Despite PATs being raised as an important issue Danjie has yet to take the lead either, and it appears that Faculty reps may have to take the lead there too. - Apart from TEF, there isn’t a lot more that is important to education committee that

isn’t listed above as individual and faculty wide issues are dealt with or supported at SSLC or QSEC FSEC level. If you can’t access the library at the right time, you haven’t got a chair to sit on, and the university isn’t completing actions that help the student experience through the SWS then what else could be more important to the educational experience?

- The SWS is a huge part of what education committee work towards and last year it was one of the presidents manifesto pledges and in his report.

- See evidence from the Students union website http://www.northamptonunion.com/voice/student-council/agm-council-3-24th-nov-2015

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-it was considered so important it was shared with people in the summer holiday.

We had monthly updates from November on the SWS as you can see from the education committee minutes in November.

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2) Course Rep Corner promotion. Danjie didn’t promote it during the session, even though no students showed up, only using social media to promote the event prior to it starting. This would have been fine if students turned up, but as he was sat on his own, he could have during that hour have posted again about the event. A PTO turned up part way through the event to see how it was going and after seeing that no students had turned up suggested talking to students within the room. He wouldn’t actively seek and talk to students, despite an elected officer suggesting it. Danjie said he didn’t feel comfortable to seek out students, even though they were just a few tables away, however he had to campaign for his role and so speaking to students should not be outside of his comfort zone. Despite saying in his manifesto he would be working on how to collect feedback and practicing better ways. However it could be argued that sitting on a table by yourself is not a good method of gaining feedback.

By refusing to actively seek out students during this time, it meant that Danjie sat there for one hour doing nothing for students, whilst breaks and time to refresh are important in this role, this was an hour that Danjie had deliberately set aside to speak to students and yet he didn’t react to the situation. In any other situation this would not be acceptable, and in fact it is outlined in his job application pack which was correct at the time that Danjie applied for the Role and 19/12/16

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3) Not proactive and unwilling to approach students. Danjie has put Course Rep corner as a manifesto pledge as evidence of seeking out more students sometimes referred to as GOaling and GOating. However this is a mandatory part of his job and is outlined in the job description which was correct at the time of Danjie applying for the role and 15/12/16.

Not proactive, he is unwilling to approach students, seems to spend the majority of his time in the voice office. Danjie doesn’t come to avenue at all, even after being asked to go to Avenue at student council and he even stated he would like to as below taken from the student council minutes from http://www.northamptonunion.com/voice/student-council/council-2-17-november-2016

However this is clearly outlined in his job description which was correct when Danjie applied for the role and 15/12/16.

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As a comparison last year’s president (who looked after Education before the splitting of the roles) made sure he recorded the number of students he interacted with to clearly communicate how many students he was interacting with.

All from November 2015 report.

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4) 60 seconds with Exec videos. Here are some examples of 60 seconds with execDanjie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y-89TUzwzg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uheic6039dc

So these two videos Danjie mentions 2 things (3 if you include mentioning we have badges). On the first video he mentions a meeting with Michael Ellis, however he attended this with the other 2 sabs, and whilst Danjie says they spoke about 3 different items, one is student safety which is Liam (President) main focus and part of his report so we doubt that Danjie spoke about all 3 issues and Danjie fails to mention it in a social media post. If he did it was still a team effort.

The second thing he mentions is about the 24/7 library which he didn’t present well in a library meeting and was barely involved in helping to make a success. So of the 2 things he spoke about neither are solo projects and neither are particularly big projects either. The first was a meeting which may have taken a few hours of preparation time, but then would have been roughly half an hour plus travelling. The second was he asked if a faculty rep could speak to the library team and he shared the post once. On the second report he spoke about the NUS demo, his Course Rep corner and badges. For the NUS demo Liam was heavily involved as well as a member of education committee and Danjie didn’t take the lead despite this clearly being about education and therefore his role.

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-please see evidence from social media where Liam asks people to contact him, and in the whole week he is the only one to post about the Demo.

So whilst he did attend the demo and it will have been a day long event, he didn’t do any work beforehand and he hasn’t reported back yet his findings, what he learnt or even what the demo was actually about to students yet.-please see Danjies social media updates about the demo.

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-in comparison here is what a faculty rep posted about the exact same demo.

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If you knew absolutely nothing about the demo, Stephanies gives information that gives the demo meaning and purpose, whereas Danjies looks more like a day out in London with a few signs, it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t already know what the demo is about.

In fact Liam the President had to do a press release type article about boycotting the NSS and the TEF, and whilst it is great that Liam has done this, this should have come from Danjie. -here is a link to Liams Presidential bloghttp://www.northamptonunion.com/articles/to-boycott-or-not-to-boycott -see evidence from his job description correct at time of Danjie applying for the role and also 15/12/16.

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His course rep corner is a mandatory part of his job as discussed before and badges is simply handing out badges. Liam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hRJu-2W8qU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9Fl_v6OUko

In the first video Liam speaks about 4 to 5 different projects, all of which are solo in that they might involve students but they don’t involve other sabs. Liam spoke about a TEF London conference (a days’ worth of work) and explained the relevance of this and whilst he didn’t explain what TEF is this should probably be done by Danjie with support from Liam, but not from Liam on his own. Spoke about completing a task related to student safety around lighting on campus which is roughly a few hours work. Thirdly he mentioned work on app development, both 2 and 3 involve actively working with and listening to students. Third one is maybe a few hours work. Fourthly he talks about the engine shed on waterside which is important he is involved as it’s the head of the new SU, this he says is loads of work and in exec meetings this is supported by both Danjie and David. He also had to go on an external visit. In the second video Liam talks about the NUS demo, and how to get involved with a very brief explanation about TEF (but this is because its 60 seconds). Secondly he discusses Nightowls again informing students how to get involved. Mentions new Exec officers which is good but for the purpose of this comparison will not be included in his tally. Inform students of Q& A sessions on waterside. So whilst this is 3 items they are well explained and invite students to get involved ask questions, why it is relevant. Davidhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0A5Mr5tZkU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jhuRlDHSd8

In the first video David speaks about a RAG policy explaining what it is and why it is relevant to students. Very briefly mentions a Disciplinary policy (however David as you will see at the end does speak about more things in his video when compared with the other 2 sabs). Thirdly sports facilities at waterside, he is not completing this task on his own and is getting help from Liam on this however Danjie agreed in exec meeting that this was huge and Liam would not help David if it was not a big development or issue. Fourthly he mentions UNO buses, but doesn’t go in to detail. Encourages students to give him any issues for some of his upcoming meetings and training day and lastly he says he is doing a lot of club councils. Education committee have witnessed David either holding club councils or meeting with the clubs just prior to one, plus contacts on AU committees confirm this to be true. Therefore David mentions 5-6 things, all of which are either big pieces of work or solo pieces. In the second video David announces when Varsity is, however its meant to be reporting so for this comparison it won’t be included in the total. Firstly talk about sponsorship deals for all activities with information on how. Secondly how he is helping Danjie with the course rep conference, thirdly how he is helping societies that are education based. These 2 should be for Danjie as they are clearly part of his role. And lastly information about an offer which again will not be included. Therefore he has one solo piece and 2 joint.

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So to summarise Liam and David speak about more projects, most of which are solo or confirmed to be big projects at exec meetings. Some of the tasks Liam and David talk about should realistically be done by Danjie, and these projects are mostly not that big and could have even been completed with help from faculty reps, the only one that has been confirmed to be big is work on the TEF however Danjie should be the one taking the lead.

When Danjie was questioned about his 60 seconds with exec video (the one about his meeting with Michael Ellis and the 24/7 petition) this is what happened. -questions asked by faculty rep, photos and then a type up due to image quality issues.

Hello Danjie, how are you? I have some questions about your video ’60 seconds with Exec’. Firstly, when you talk about Michael Ellis about the increase in tuition fees, safety on campus, and restrictions for international students, and that it was a good discussion, can you please summarise what the outcomes of this discussion will be in the long run? Secondly, with regards to the petition making Avenue Library 24/7, it was started by the Faculty Reps, so you shouldn’t have said ‘we started a petition’ as you had nothing to do with it. In addition, you had one meeting wih the librarians which did not go very far, and so we (the Faculty Reps) are trying to find other ways around it. One other thing; I know 60 seconds is not a lot of time, but it may be good to talk about everything you have done, and encourage students to read your report for more details? Because otherwise it looks like you’ve only done 2 things and that’s it, which is not acceptable for a full time VP.

-Here is Danjies response, again photos and a type up due to image quality.

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Hi Steph, thank you for your message. Its good that you have a look at the video. First of all, I agree with you that that’s so many thin cannot be contained within 60s. Secondly we cannot speak what we want as the marketing team has the final say. We basically just give everyone a heads up what has been happening. I got so many things to say in the video, my second course rep corner the new date for conference, the group discussion with course reps, the contact time report etc.. However, I will advise your suggestion to the marketing team to see how we can do about it as all the departments have their way to operate things, hope you understand. And I do encourage people to look and my report and ask people to run for the education councillors. I respect your opinions.

However after speaking to different staff in the SU, we have discovered some things as an education committee. Firstly some members of staff confirmed that marketing may be difficult to work with and try to force ideas or decide what is said so when Danjie said marketing has final say we as a team assume this is what he is referring to. However part of Danjies job is not just doing what members of staff tell him to do, it’s also to make sure that he is doing the best he can for students and it’s a shame that he did not fight to be able to discuss the other things he is doing. Secondly after speaking to marketing they said that the exec officers decide what to say and that it is a report of what they have done, it’s not scripted or determined by them, but if someone is talking about what they are going to do they may advise it’s a report. Therefore some of these things Danjie wanted to talk about may have been rejected eg the new date for the course rep conference. Now if Danjie said we have booked a new date for the conference that’s a report, saying the conference is coming up is not, see David 60 seconds on varsity for an example of this. Thirdly looking at his job role it says the following about Danjies role:

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Therefore he is responsible for what is put out. In the future we would expect Danjie to listen to advice and make sure he is wanting to include things that are part of a report not discussing the future. Making sure he gives information to students that he wants to give and stands up for what is right by students. Lastly Danjie said he encourages students to read his report, however when checking his most up to date report it does not mention that a new date has been set for the course rep conference

Also we have previously mentioned our concerns with the Course Rep corner, in that only one student came and he refused to speak to others, so how much could he really discuss when talking about it for his video update? Also his latest report does not mention much progress in his contact time report as in his previous report he already had 100 responses.

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5) Danjie was late to the NU demo

When Faculty reps have followed this concern up it turns out Danjie turned up on time and went to do something else and returned back late. This was due to lack of communication between himself, another sab and students who attended the demonstration.

-Staff member confirmed that Danjie did infact arrive at the SU on time, however Danjie admits he was late returning to the SU. In future we would expect Danjie to communicate reasons for delay in leaving for an external event, however we have also asked the person who raised this concern to ask reasons for lateness as well. However we would like it noted that normally in a paid role, you communicate why you are late to a meeting or activity and so Danjie should do this without reminders. And as Danjie had a paid role with the university previously this will have been expected of him then as well. -evidence of work experience has been provided from his campaign.

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Report Content and Progress1) Danjie’s reports are the same each council 2) Danjie manifesto support Mature Students- yet voted against MSA 3) His manifesto points are not in his reports

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