Cam Brown Addresses Removal of Rector’s Assessor from Union Draft Laws at All-Students Forum

On Tuesday 28 April, the St Andrews Students’ Association hosted an All-Students Forum (ASF) in the Old Union Diner from 6:30-8:30pm to discuss, among other topics, the removal of the role of the Rector’s Assessor from the organisation’s Draft Laws. 

The discussion consisted of a 21-slide presentation by current Rector’s Assessor Cam Brown and served as a comprehensive breakdown of the Rector’s Committee and role of the Rector’s Assessor within the Union’s structures. The discussion threatened to run past the ASF’s 8:30pm end time due to continuously raised questions.

Rector Stella Maris was in attendance but did not present alongside Brown. At one point, she offered to answer some of the questions asked by attendees, but was told that, unless she was addressed directly, she should refrain from doing so since she is not a matriculated student.

Following the ASF, Maris told The Saint she found it “very frustrating.” Brown echoed her sentiment, saying he was “disappointed” by the meeting.

“I've been on Court for six years as Rector’s Assessor and Rector, and I'm not able to say, ‘Hey, I can provide that context,’ especially because it is [...] complicated,” she said. “It has been six years [of] [...] not being able to have a conversation, not being listened to, and being pathologised.”

“It's just felt for a very long time that not enough of the conversation is focusing on how we can maximise the potential for student representation,” she continued. “Rather, it's about the Union being quite territorial over these issues.” 

Prior to the meeting, Brown and Maris had taken to social media to encourage students to attend the 28 April ASF, stating that “recent proposed changes to Union structures risk weakening” the support provided by the Rector’s Assessor. 

According to the Union’s website, the Rector’s Assessor “provides aid and advice to the Rector,” “sits on the University Court as a full member,” and “meets regularly with the Rector to advise on policy issues, discuss upcoming events and campaigns, and ensure the Rector has a coordinated media and web presence in St Andrews.” Maris said this counterpart is essential, as she “can’t be everywhere at once.”  

Maris said “we don’t understand what we’re going to lose” by way of the role’s removal. 

“This is about protecting structures students have already supported, defending representation, and making sure changes to student voices aren’t made without students,” read the caption of an Instagram post from 28 April, posted by Maris, Brown, and the anonymous submission hub Confessdrews. 

“[The role of Rector’s Assessor] has been taken out without any consultation, without any vote on the matter, not by officers, not by students,” Brown told The Saint. “So why is that? Why did they take it out before having that sort of discussion and consultation in the first place?”

In his presentation, Brown pointed out that the role of the Rector’s Assessor is legally solidified by way of the Universities (Scotland) Act 1889, which solidified the position as a member of University Court. 

Brown noted he had not been told outright of the role’s removal from the draft Laws, and only found out after emailing the Union’s Executive Team and CEO Graeme Kirkpatrick.

“I [...] reached out multiple times about how we can work through this and recruit committee, because I needed the support to do my role, and [was] sort of just constantly getting [replied] back with no, no, no,” he said. 

Brown assured that the role of Rector’s Assessor was “not [...] competitive” with the Students’ Association — a concern which many of the ASF’s attendees raised. “We're here to complement, not compete,” he said. “I think that seems to be where the misconception comes from.”

"The Association sits independently from the University so that we can hold it to account if necessary. In the same way, the Rector sits independently from both the University and the Union in order to hold each to account,” Alex Chun, Union President of Wellbeing and Community, wrote in a statement to The Saint. “Having the Rector’s Assessor embedded within our internal structures risks blurring these distinct and important lines of accountability.” 

Many of the ASF’s attendees — consisting mostly of the Executive and Representation Officers — echoed these concerns regarding the involvement of the Rector and Rector’s Assessor in the Union, citing that they are not elected in the same way as Officers, and, despite operating independently of the organisation, work out of a space in the building free of charge. 

“If we’re wanting to keep this structure, it needs to look different,” one officer said. 

Another cited the minutes of a Students’ Association Board meeting from 17 March, 2021 as proof of previous confusion surrounding the role. The meeting’s minutes read that Vice Principal Education (Proctor) Clare Peddie had reported that there had been University-level concerns about members of the Rector’s Committee “not working through established channels.” 

Then-Union President Dan Marshall attributed this problem to a possible “lack of clarity over the role and remit of the Rector’s Committee within the Association” — similar to Brown having cited a “misunderstanding” surrounding the role at 28 April’s ASF. 

“I have pushed — despite all of the extraordinarily negative experiences I've had in the Union — to stay in the Union, specifically because I want to work with the Union,” said Maris. “I don't want future Rectors to be isolated outside the Union. It makes them so much more susceptible to factors on the University Court that aren't prioritising the student voice, that have their own interests.”

On 23 April, Brown sent a five-page letter to the Union which detailed his concern for the role’s removal by citing its history and integration into the organisation’s Laws. 

“Under the existing Laws (Chapters 1.1.27 and 1.5.), both the Rector’s Assessor and Rector’s Committee were explicitly recognised,” Brown wrote. “In the absence of

a clear process for their removal, and without a clear legal basis for the draft Laws

taking effect, it is difficult to understand how these changes have been formalised.”

“We just need to come together with a plan and work this out,” Brown told The Saint. “Because, in the meantime, I don't feel supported in the role that I'm doing.” 

On 4 May, the Students’ Association provided a response to Brown’s letter via email, which he did “not think [...] addresse[d] the concerns set out in my original letter,” he wrote in his email reply. 

He reiterated his numerous attempts “to work through these questions and avoid acting unilaterally in recruiting a committee,” and maintained his request that “in the absence of a clear governance process, consultation, or agreed position, the Rector’s Assessor and Rector’s Committee are retained within the Association’s structures and reflected within the Laws on an interim basis.” 

“As the lead on the Change Programme from January 2024 to July 2025, I can say clearly that no previous motions were repealed, and at no stage were there proposals to remove the Rector, Rector’s Assessor, or Rector’s Committee from the Association’s structures,” Brown wrote in an email to The Saint. “The actions taken so far don’t reflect what students voted for in the Democracy Review, or the shift towards student-led decision-making the Change Programme [...] meant to deliver.”

According to Chun, a Draft Laws Working Group — which has since been disbanded — “met regularly throughout the process of updating our Association Laws to ensure students could [provide] feedback on any proposed changes” to the Laws, and also noted that the previous two ASFs “included updates from the Rector about the impact of changes.”

Last week’s ASF sought to “approve the framework” for these draft Laws in question. The refurbishment to the Union’s Laws follows the Students’ Representative Council having passed a motion in February calling for the dissolve of the organisation’s old Laws.  

“We hope these changes will create a stronger and more sustainable framework that enables us to continue working constructively with the Rector to enhance and strengthen the student voice, while ensuring the long-term sustainability of our relationship,” Chun wrote. “Our focus remains firmly on putting students first, and that continues to guide our decision making throughout this process."

At 28 April’s ASF, Jacob Carey, a member of the Draft Laws Working Group and Opportunities Forum Chair, assured that the Laws were not “fixed” and “can be adapted for what’s needed.” Union President of Student Opportunities Robert ‘RoMo’ Moran, who presented alongside Carey, echoed that he “fully supported” as many reviews as Officers saw fit as the Laws became fully implemented. 

Carey and RoMo said that they expected the Laws to be finalised in early July. The Laws themselves can be read on the Union’s website.

Photo courtesy of the University of St Andrews