Lincoln SU’s referendum on counter-terrorism strategy Prevent failed to reach the 10% of students it needed to be valid, it was announced this week – as a poll of Linc readers said they think it should be reheld.
Last week, we reported on the referendum, which – at the time – hadn’t been promoted by the SU on social media or via email, and had been subject to a “technical glitch” where the question wasn’t displayed on the voting page.
The polls on that report found that 83% hadn’t heard of the referendum before reading our article – and 84% of readers believed the referendum should be reheld.
[infogram id=”prevent_referendum_poll” prefix=”DK8″ format=”interactive” title=”Prevent referendum poll”]
Prevent creates a duty for universities to “prevent people being drawn into terrorism”, including giving staff counter-terrorism training and reporting students who are acting suspiciously.
While the Students’ Union will still be legally obliged to give its staff training, the referendum was over whether they should oppose and campaign against the scheme, which has been accused of racism and curtailing freedom of speech.
Yet even though the referendum failed, there’s no commitment for it to be reheld – in fact, the SU have decided that the result means they will take no stand on Prevent.
A statement on the SU’s website, which has since been deleted, read: “Unfortunately the Referendum did not meet the 10% quoracy level required, therefore the motion fell. In this instance, this means that the SU will not hold any stance on the subject of PREVENT.”
The University of Lincoln Students’ Union declined The Linc‘s request for an interview.
Meanwhile, you can still vote on whether the referendum should be reheld in our poll: