Protest AUSA

Student-led campaign to reform & reclaim AUSA. Vote #ProtestAUSA 16th - 18th March

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

Standing as a protest candidate for @ausatweet Sabbatical Elections. Vote #ProtestAUSA 16th - 18th March at https://t.co/zB2oG3DGUJ

[Jack Boag @sodabrunette]

Love how Aberdeen has the biggest student population in Scotland but no student social spaces of any note

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

(3. these are back-of-the-envelope figures on a Friday night. Rounding errors are fucking gremlins.)

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

2. As outgoing SP told us, membership of AUSA is opt-out in line with Education Act 1994 (https://t.co/muvxiHtf9F). Again don't expect this to be more than ±~5%. To opt-out, a student would have to i) know about AUSA membership, ii) care enough about it to opt out.

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

Percentages could be off - two errors need to be addressed:
1. No. of students at UoA is surprisingly hard to pin down, so 15k is a ballpark. ±1k students is ±~6.7% of the student body. However, because turnout is SO LOW <10%, this means range is no more than 1% {7/8}

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

This is not a broadside against the victors - they will surely serve capably & with great spirit. But they must also recognise this electoral system is broken and they are not representing 90% of students in Aberdeen {7/7}

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

Student President, Alisa Koester – 611 (~4.10%)
Communities, Camilo Torres-Barragan – 678 (~4.52%)
Education, Ondrej Kucerak – 781 (~5.21%)
Adam Lambert – 425 (~2.83%)
Welfare, Ivana Drdakova – 344 (~2.29%)

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

To summarise, Sabbs are ‘full-time, paid representatives of the student body’, and are meant to ‘represent you and drive forward your interests’. This year’s Officers have been elected on a turnout of ~7.2% (not sure where 1,081 students has come from; it’s not in the pdf) {6/7}

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

Bear in mind turnout for Sabb Elections in previous years has been all <10% – ~8.0% in 2018-19, with the SP on 586 votes; 9.7% in 2019-20, SP on 588 votes; 5.4% in 2020-21, SP on 398 votes. Repeat, this is for AUSA membership of ~15,000 students (https://t.co/JnqXGUE1Im) {5/7}

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

Welfare

Votes – 950 (6.79 > 6.33 > 5.94 %)
Quota – 475

RON – 28 (0.20 > 0.19 > 0.18 %)
Natalie Campbell – 292 (2.09 > 1.95 > 1.83 %)
Ivana Drdakova – 344 (2.46 > 2.29 > 2.15 %)
Callum McWilliam – 163 (1.16 > 1.09 > 1.02 %)
Orsolya Fulop – 123 (0.88 > 0.82 > 0.77 %)

*FP votes

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

Sports

Votes – 910 (6.50 > 6.07 > 5.69 %)
Quota – 455

RON – 36 (0.26 > 0.24 > 0.23 %)
Adam Lambert – 425 (3.04 > 2.83 > 2.66 %)
Victoria Orr – 397 (2.84 > 2.65 > 2.48 %)
Donovan Brown – 152 (1.09 > 1.01 > 0.95 %)

*percentage of First Preference votes

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

Communities

Votes – 940 (6.71 > 6.26 > 5.88 %)
Quota – 470

RON – 41 (0.29 > 0.27 > 0.26 %)
Camilo Torres-Barragan – 678 (4.84 > 4.52 > 4.24 %)
Gavin Mackenzie – 221 (1.58 > 1.47 > 1.38 %)

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

Education

Votes – 909 (6.49 > 6.06 > 5.68 %)
Quota – 454½

RON – 128 (0.91 > 0.85 > 0.80 %)
Ondrej Kucerak – 781 (5.58 > 5.21 > 4.88 %)

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

Student President

Votes – 993 (7.09 > 6.62 > 6.21 % of students)
Quota – 496½

RON – 23 (0.16 > 0.15 > 0.14 %)
George Taylor – 262 (1.87 > 1.75 > 1.64 %)
Alisa Koester – 611 (4.36 > 4.10 > 3.82 %)
Xiuping Zhai – 97 (0.69 > 0.65 > 0.61 %)

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

AUSA uses STV/ATV where relevant. Sabb Elections use Alternative Transferable Voting –https://t.co/NEnGokIhaO. This means a quota must be met for a candidate to be elected {4/7}

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

So let’s give a reasonable ±1,000 students either way. This gives us a lower bound of 14k students (the upper bound of %ages), and an u.b. of 16k (the l.b. of %ages) {3/7}

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

Let’s do some back-of-the-envelope calculations. Percentages would be a lot more exact if AUSA actually knew how many students are at university. 15k is an average figure (https://t.co/JnqXGUE1Im). Last exact figure floating around is 14,150 from 2016 (cit. @A_James_Esq) {1/7}

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

So full results have been released - https://t.co/xvHrmP6cDn

[Anttoni Numminen - LDR @A_James_Esq]

Fewer than 300 people took part in the campus-wide referendum on @ausatweet's membership of @NUSScotland.

https://t.co/Hk6cnHQfGh

[Protest AUSA @ProtestAUSA]

Congrats to all new @ausatweet Sabbatical Officers 👏

Glad #ProtestAUSA raised important issues of low turnout & student engagement that Sabbs now urgently need to address 🗳️