Support and University Engagement

“The Executive collectively supports the Council’s recommendation to urge the University to issue a more comprehensive and improved statement. We will communicate to the Principal’s Office our support of this. However, we propose an additional step, we suggest that Councillors encourage students to actively lobby the University for a more significant push too. There is often a misconception that DUSA and the University are the same and this collaborative effort can amplify the impact of our advocacy and show to other students that DUSA is independent of the University. It’s important to recognise that the Executive are only a small part of the SRC – all SRC Councillors have the ability to further escalate student interests and lobby as an established Council.”

Therefore, as an executive, we would like to formally share our own and the student body’s dissatisfaction with parts of previous statements that were sent out.

We acknowledge the university’s aim to maintain an impartial stance, and we commend its unwavering support for all students. DUSA has notably extended its assistance to students across the board. However, it has come to our attention that while the university rightfully condemns Hamas’s actions in its initial statement, it does not extend the same condemnation towards the Israeli government. The distressing and escalating toll of innocent civilian deaths in Gaza and the West Bank is deeply alarming. On behalf of the student body, we strongly urge the university to unequivocally condemn the actions of the Israeli government and its military as well.

We are aware of the timing of this communication, but we felt it was still an essential component of what we aimed to do with the counter-motion as a whole. We hope that the university will be forthcoming with further actions developed by our SRC working group, which moving forward will be communicated timely.

Kind regards,

The Student Executive

Nyasha Mutembwa, President
Mubarak Babalola, VP of Academia
Nicole Okoro, VP of Representation
Bernard Aihevba, VP of Student Wellbeing
Manaswi Budhathoki, VP of Community
Yaa Agyei-Akwa, VP of Fundraising
Parissa Robinson, VP of Student Activities