This year's Conference was like no other. Over the last year, NUS found itself in a critical situation financially and its national leadership admitted they needed to change. This change did not just limit itself to the finances, but this also gave the movement to have an discussion about NUS politics and our structures. An out of touch NUS cannot represent 7 million students.

This Conference was to decide whether to reform NUS, or allow the 97 year old organisation to die.
The first day of Conference focussed itself around the full time national officer elections and their scrutiny. I'm proud the Salford delegation engaged in all these processes to ensure our voice was heard at a national level. Personally, as this was my second National Conference, I decided to openly back candidates running in some elections prior to and during conference.
 

President
I voted: Zamzam Ibrahim 

The successful candidate: Zamzam Ibrahim 
Our very own Zamzam Ibrahim was running to be the National President. I worked with Zamzam for a year when she was our President in Salford and was proud to support her to be the Vice- President Society and Citizenship in 2018. Her work on climate justice, on votes at 16, standing against Prevent and other barriers to students success meant she secured the necessary votes of hundreds of student delegates from across the UK in electing her as the next President of our national movement. Zamzam pledged to call for a National Student Strike to demand free education, brining back EMA and the return of the Post-Study work visa for international students. 
 

Vice- President Higher Education
I voted: Claire Sosienski Smith

The successful candidate: Claire Sosienski Smith
I was undecided on who to vote for for Higher Education. I had supported Claire on social media as I liked her radical and progressive ideas for work to be done in the Higher Education sector and wanted to ensure those ideas were being viewed by other delegates. It was only until her speech, that promised to breathe new political life into the position and work that I decided to back Claire. She put forward a brave and daring manifesto, pledging to campaign for free education through general taxation, campaigning for an end to TEF, developing training for Sabbs around resisting Prevent and lots of other policies I found fit for the HE zone to be working on. 
 

Vice- President Union Development
I voted: Erica Ramos

The successful candidate: Erica Ramos
I have known Erica for two years and her struggle as an International Student, as a woman, as someone who wouldn't be silenced and would stand up for herself and others. She pledged to protect the rights of international students in light of Brexit, review the work of One Voice in regards to Totum, create a national best practice forum for campaigns and work on new accountability structures for NUS elected Officers.
 

Vice- President Welfare
I voted for: Eva Crossan Jory

The successful candidate: Eva Crossan Jory
This was Eva's re-election for VP Welfare and the first year she got elected, I did not support her. However, seeing the work she has done in position and what she wants to build on, I'm proud to have supported her this time round. She promised to, over the next year, fight for international students to have access to all forms of healthcare for free, campaign to eradicate sexual harassment on our campuses, campaign for students to register at 2 GPs whilst studying at University and work to reestablish NHS work bursarys.
 

Reforms
Student delegates from across the UK reviewed reforms presented to us as delegates and were asked to pass them to financially, and politically, save the NUS. After passing several ammendments that protected the Trans Campaign, got rid of the NEC and replaced it with a Scrutiny Council, ensure all NUS delegates are elected by students in the future, protect gender balanced delegations and others, we passed the reforms. I'm proud to have supported a vast majority of the ammendments submitted by students and officers from across the UK and then pass the reforms to save the NUS.
These reforms will see:

- a reduction in our affiliation fee

- new accountability structures

- more specific focus on work done by NUS

- a reduced annual spend by NUS
We also passed many motions concerning reproductive rights of students, the Living Wage, support for Rent Strikes and other motions which have now been adopted as NUS policy. 
 

The conference was long but I was very proud to represent Salford students nationally, ensuring their voice was heard and NUS was held to account. 
If you would like to speak to me further about any of the above, please do email me at j.lyons1@salford.ac.uk