Saturday 17-11-2018 - 10:30

A new Code of Conduct panel appointed by the students’ union met and concluded yesterday (Friday November 16) and agreed formal sanctions against Lancaster University Students’ Union Snowsports’ Club after offensive material and hate speech was written on students’ clothing during a ‘white t-shirt’ social.

The panel, composed of three current Lancaster students, agreed that the behaviour of students on the social was absolutely unacceptable and against the values of the students’ union and that the following sanctions should be made:

• A formal, public apology statement should be made by the club to the university community concerning the offence their behaviour has caused. The club executive themselves were eager to do this
• The group be placed on probation for a period of two years. Any further breaches of the students’ union Code of Conduct or disciplinary matters involving the university during this time, would lead to an automatic one-year suspension
• For a period of two years, the Lancaster University Students’ Union Snowsports Executive Committee will be required to undertake the following training in addition to what is already required:

- Bystander Intervention Training

- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Training

- Hate Speech Awareness Training – an external facilitator is being identified for this

• For a period of two years, the club will be required to submit notification of socials in advance to the students’ union for formal approval and these socials must be risk assessed and/where appropriate limits set on numbers able to attend. Members of the executive are also required to have attended all the appropriate and relevant training prior to these socials going ahead
• The Snowsports Club will have a time-limited suspension placed on them for the running of ‘social’ events/activities. The definition of this being any activity [official or unofficial] that doesn’t include competing in events and/or training sessions. This shall be for a period lasting until the end of week one in Lent Term
• The students’ union will be exploring restorative justice options with the local Community Cohesion team

The students’ union launched this investigation on its own initiative, and no complaints were received in relation to the social at the time. The scope of the students’ union’s investigation was to consider disciplinary matters in relation to the Lancaster University Snowsports group. The students’ union has now concluded the matter and carried out its responsibilities laid out in its Code of Conduct and associated governance.

Following the decision of the panel, it will now be for Lancaster University to consider whether further disciplinary action will be initiated in relation to individuals. Evidence gathered by the students’ union in its investigation will be made available to the university.

As the students’ union has now completed its investigation, we would like to be very clear that the behaviour of some of the students involved in this social was completely unacceptable. Members of the club have acknowledged that they made a serious error of judgment and have expressed remorse for their behaviour.

Misinformation about the investigation

The students’ union would like to take the opportunity to address a significant amount of misinformation that has circulated in regard to this issue.

Central to this is the claim made on social media that the students’ union took four weeks to form a panel to investigate the Snowsports social.

The actual timeline of events is as follows:

Friday October 12: Snowsports social takes place

Monday October 15: Internal investigation launched and club suspended, photographs discovered, immediately removed from the Sugarhouse Facebook page, and retained as evidence by union staff

Thursday October 25: Investigation concluded

Monday October 29: Panel hearing date agreed

Tuesday October 30: Club given notification of panel hearing, details of evidence against them and rights to representation for preparation

Wednesday November 7: Panel met and agreed behaviour was against codes of conduct, but did not agree sanctions

Friday November 9: Panel reconvened, failed to agree sanctions

Monday November 12: Confidential evidence released online by a member of the Conduct Panel

Tuesday November 13: Conduct Panel had been due to meet again to discuss sanctions, but this did not take place as a result of the release of evidence by a panellist

It has also been claimed that the students’ union was quicker to react to the release of confidential information than it was to the behaviour of members of the Snowsports group.

The students’ union refutes this claim.

The timeline of events is as follows:

Monday November 12: Confidential evidence released online by a member of the investigation panel

Tuesday November 13: Panel member suspended from their officership and investigation launched into unauthorised release of confidential material

It should be noted that the suspension of the officer concerned does not constitute a form of sanction. No Code of Conduct panel has yet been appointed and no conclusions have been reached on sanctions.

The union is satisfied that all aspects of the investigation process have been handled in accordance with its policies and procedures and have ensured that those involved have been given the opportunity to receive a fair hearing.

And if you’ve been affected by this, the union has an independent Advice service that is here to support you – contact advice@lancastersu.co.uk.