Last night’s CUSU Council saw its executive team propose a motion to clarify their position on Remembrance Day, in light of a two-week-long media controversy that has seen Cambridge students made victim to targeted online abuse and trolling.

The motion, which passed through CUSU Council with no votes against and seven abstentions, stated the student union’s belief that Remembrance Day is “an opportunity to commemorate those from our Cambridge community and beyond, who have lost their lives in conflict”, and that “it is important to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice, in particular during the First World War”.

It resolved to continue the student union’s “usual efforts in recognising Remembrance Day”.

The motion described the First World War as “the war to end all wars”, and said that it was “pertinent to reflect on the devastation caused by conflict”. CUSU President Evie Aspinall said at Council that the motion was drafted in consultation with “a variety of [student] groups” including with the students who proposed the original motion.

On Monday 8th October, Council attendees voted down a motion drafted by Cambridge University Conservative Association (CUCA) committee members, encouraging the commemoration of British veterans on Remembrance Sunday, as well as voting down an amendment reframing the motion around all those whose lives have been affected by war.

Aspinall told Council yesterday evening that “in light of recent media scrutiny, we believe it is important for CUSU to provide clarity”. She noted that the motion at last Council was rejected “for a variety of reasons”, one of which “was that it was not for CUSU to have a policy on Remembrance Day.” In light of the recent media storm, Aspinall said that now, “we believe it is important to reassert and clarify a position on this issue”.

One student, speaking at yesterday’s Council in a personal capacity, said they felt that “forcing people to remember in a particular style is antithetical to the idea of remembrance”, and that last week’s debate ceased to be about remembrance, becoming instead “a platform for bullying”. 

After the Remembrance Day debate was covered by much of UK national media, and CUSU sabbatical officers, as well as students involved in drafting the original amendment, were subject to severe online bullying, the University said: “We understand issues like these provoke strong views but we condemn the extreme online abuse of our students.”

Many of Cambridge’s student activist groups, as well as CUSU’s liberation campaigns, signed an open letter condemning targeted national press coverage and the “bizarre fixation with the minutiae of student politics”. It described “Britain’s oligarchic media” as being “little more than a mouthpiece for the far right”.

Updated Tuesday 23rd October, 12:51pm: This article was edited to clarify that the motion was proposed by the CUSU Executive team.