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OCASA – a constitutional update - The Open College of the Arts

To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.

OCASA – a constitutional update thumb

OCASA – a constitutional update


Not everyone will be aware that the formation of the OCA Student Association has to take place within a specific legal framework. Even though the association will be a part of OCA rather than a separate body, it falls within the definition of a “students union” under the Education Act 1994 . Amongst the many stipulations in the Act are a written constitution and a requirement that the governing body of the establishment to which the organisation is attached should take necessary steps to ensure that the “students union” is properly run (I paraphrase).
In the context of the second of these requirements, it has been agreed that there will be an OCASA Board of Trustees, which will ‘oversee’ the association on behalf of the OCA Board. It will comprise two OCA Trustees, Cathy Baxandall & Peter Bradley, and the OCA’s Finance Director, Malcolm Thompson; and the OCASA President will also attend the meetings. Its role will be to monitor the finances and conduct of OCASA in relation to current legislation.
The written constitution will ultimately need to be ratified by OCA and by the OCASA members, but we need some processes in place in order to get OCASA under way. There will be an elected Executive Committee tasked with running OCASA on a day-to-day basis, and it will comprise:
The OCASA President;
Six other elected representatives, one from each subject area, defined as follows:
Fine Art, History of Art & Masters Programme;
Textiles;
Music;
Photography;
Creative Writing;
Visual Communications;
Any other persons co-opted by the executive committee.
This committee will meet at least four times per year (and, as previously announced, the first meeting will take place on Thursday 20th October 2011). One of its first tasks will be to discuss and agree a written constitution (currently being drafted) that can go forward for ratification at a later date. Fundamentally, though, the role of the executive committee will be:
• To consult the student body in order to formulate policy;
• To represent policy to OCA;
• To implement and monitor policy decisions;
• To act as a channel of communication between members of the association, OCA management, the governing body and other organisations;
• To establish working groups, where relevant, to inform policy;
• To monitor the finances of OCASA.
There should be an announcement soon regarding the process and timing of elections for the six subject area representatives but I hope this is helpful in the meantime. Here is a reminder of my e-mail address if you wish to get in touch – president@ocasa.org.uk .


Posted by author: Stan

9 thoughts on “OCASA – a constitutional update

  • Having the art courses, the fine art masters program and the art history courses as part of the art rep’s responsibility will mean that they have 19 courses to cover as opposed to the maximum of 9 that the other reps will cover.

  • I can’t remember exactly what we voted in the survey but i’m fairly sure there was no mention of only having half a rep for art courses and half a rep for art history!
    Maybe there’s some superhuman out there willing to take it on though:)

  • ‘anned’ and ‘folio’ – thanks for your feedback, which is much appreciated.
    In the survey, students expressed a preference for representation by subject. This inevitably means that smaller subject areas get either over- or under-representation – unless there is a very large committee, which would go against the expressed preference for 5 or 6 members. Interestingly, OCA inform me that Music and Art History are the two smallest subject areas, but that most Music students do no other subject with OCA, whereas more than 50% of Art History students also do Fine Art courses!
    There is no perfect answer at this stage, and the situation will potentially change anyway, as OCA grows and develops. I believe that the model we have come up with is workable, and as close as we can get to the preferences expressed by students who responded to the survey. It is perhaps also worth bearing in mind that the constitution will allow for the co-opting of additional members by the executive committee. Whilst we don’t want it to grow too much, that might be a way of coping should one or more student reps workload turn out to be too difficult to manage.
    Let’s give this arrangement a chance to work, but remain mindful of the important issues that you have highlighted.
    I am told that an election announcement is likely this week, so ‘watch this space’!

  • OCASA Committee Elections | We are OCA says
    […] Stan’s announcement earlier this week, we are now ready to hold elections for members of the OCASA Executive […]

  • When we say ‘policy’, what exactly do we mean by that? Preumably it refers to the policy of the student association, but what in tangible plain English terms might that include – are we talking about student services ,communication, events etc or are we talking about influence on OCA strategy ,fees, engagement.
    – or is it both – or is still to be defined. This isn’t meant to be a picky point, it seems to me that it’s important everyone understands what it is setting out to achieve.

  • Hi Mark
    I don’t think you are being picky and I am sure Stan will want to respond in due course with with his views, but just to give an OCA oficial response to your question: I am expecting that the Student Association will seek to influence policy on major aspects of the student experience – for example, curriculum development, college/student communications and fee levels and structure. Our trustees have made it very clear that would not expect to see papers on significant aspects of the College strategy without a clear statement that OCASA had been consulted and a summary of the OCASA perspective.
    Gareth

  • Mark – as Gareth has said, you’re not being ‘picky’ and I’m glad to respond.
    The section on ‘Aims & Objectives’ in our draft constitution (and I have to keep emhasising that it is a ‘draft’ for discussion by elected representatives!) says that OCASA is devoted to the educational interests of its members and that it should 1) advance and support the education of its members and the students of the OCA; 2)represent the interests of its members and act as a channel of communication for students in dealing with OCA and other relevant bodies.
    You can see that this is a broad remit and ‘policy’ might refer to anything that falls within that remit – including influencing OCA strategic issues that impact on the ‘student experience’. Gareth has indicated that OCASA will be consulted, and OCASA may have its own priorities on which it proactively seeks to influence for change. As I said elsewhere – there is a lot to do – but there is also a real opportunity to help shape something important.

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