We have recently turned off the Petitions system within our website. We have done this due to ongoing concerns about the functionality of the site and complaints about inaccessibility for some of our members.

As an interim alternative, we have written the below guidance to explain how you can initiate and deliver a petition that can verifiably effect Students’ Union policy or democratic accountability procedures.

 

Restricting Participants

As a membership organisation, the only valid signatures are those made by our members: students of Lancaster University. As an easy first step to restrict participation to only those eligible, we would recommend using either Microsoft Forms or Qualtrics. These two systems allow you to restrict access to only those with a valid Lancaster University user account and limit participants to one response.

We cannot accept petition via change.org or other open petition sites where we cannot verify the eligibility of signatories.

 

Acting Transparently

We ask that all petitioners act in a transparent and accountable manner. To do this, we request:

• You make contact with us (email lusugovernance@lancaster.ac.uk) before you launch your petition. This allows us to offer guidance and allow you to correct errors before gathering signatures. By identifying yourself as the person/people leading the petition, we know who to contact should there be complaints or concerns.
• Share a collaborator or edit link to your petition. This allows us to monitor and scrutinise the list of signatories. The above guidance on restricting participation still allows nonmembers with a university account to sign, we will need to manually remove them should the petition progress.

Our role, as staff, it to support and facilitate all lawful campaigning that sits within the bounds of our charitable objects. This includes petitions.

 

Designing your Petition

Firstly, it is incredibly important that it is abundantly clear to potential signatories what they are signing their support for via your petition. You should be clear about the beliefs of stances your petitions advocates for, the actions you are calling for the Union to take, and any evidence you intend to use to support your cause.

We also ask that you collect the follow data from signatories:

• Full Name
• Student ID number
• (optional) email address

All above data should be collected from signatories to allow us to verify membership status.

 

Thresholds

Regardless of what your petition is about, or what you are asking the Students’ Union to do, you should always aim to gain the support of as many students as possible. Nevertheless, the minimum amount of support your petitions needs will depend on what you are trying to achieve:

• If you would like to trigger a debate and vote at Union Assembly, at 150 students must sign your petition.
• If you would like the Students’ Union to facilitate a Referendum, at least 2%* of the student population must sign your petition.
• If you would like the Students’ Union to facilitate an allstudent vote of no confidence in any of our Trustees, at least 2%* of the student population must sign your petition.

Depending on the number of signatories you receive, we may discuss the various options available to you and your campaign.

*The student population in June 2025 was 16,351; therefore 2% would equate to 328. For a definite threshold, please email lusuinsight@lancaster.ac.uk.

 

Doing it on Paper

If you choose to do your petition as a traditional paper petition all the above rules apply.

You must be mindful of how you handle and protect the data provided in your paper petition. We can help you plan for this. Similarly, you need to mindful about the logistical challenges of having large numbers of people sign a physical petition. You may need multiple copies and a team of people to help manage the distribution, promotion, and signing of the petition.

 

Submitting your Petition

Depending on your intended outcome, you will need to submit your petition to either Union Assembly, the Trustee Board, or another body within the Students’ Union.

Once submitted, and if it surpasses the relevant threshold of valid signatories, we will support you through the next stage, whatever that may be.