Who are the Student Officers?
The student officers are eight students, elected by the whole student population, who work full time at the Students' Union for a year.
You Run Us - Online Petitions
Want to Change Something?
Every student at the University of Sheffield is automatically a member of Sheffield Students' Union.
We're a democratic, member led organisation. There are a number of ways for you to create the change that you want to see.
You could talk to the relevant Students' Union Officer. These are students elected to work full-time on your behalf to defend and extend the rights of students at Sheffield University.
You could talk to your Students' Union Councillor. Students' Union Council is a group of students elected from each of the academic departments and representative groups that meet each fortnight to make decisions on behalf of the student body. Students' Union Council set policy, express opinions and hold the Students' Union Officers to account. All students can attend Students' Union Council as observers and Students' Union Councillors can raise issues on behalf of the students they represent.
Or, you can start a petition. This is the best option if you have either tried the options above and haven't got the change you want or if you want to launch a campaign to go along with your desired change.
Petitions can be signed by any full member of the Students' Union. All you need is your student number. There are two key numbers that are important to the progress of a petition:
- 50 – when a petition has 50 signatures it is added to the next available agenda of Students' Union Council as 'Members' Business'.
- 1000 – at 1000 signatures the petition will become a referendum. This is a vote of all students on a specific issue. If passed it then becomes policy of the Students' Union. Referenda must have at least 2,500 students voting in them to make them valid.
Students' Union Constitution
It is important to remember that where a proposal has implications for the Students' Union's constitution then, to pass and be accepted, it requires either a 2/3rds majority vote of Students' Union Council or a 2/3rds majority vote of a referendum.
If you have any questions on this process please email tom.langrish@sheffield.ac.uk.
