President of the Graduate Union, Arsalan Ghani, has reacted angrily to accusations levelled at him in the last ten days in the Cambridge student press about his professional conduct. In discussions with Varsity, and in a letter to the News Editor, Ghani has refuted criticism of his behaviour as GU President, as reported in the last two print issues of ­ The Cambridge Student. He alleges inaccuracies in many of the judgements made against him, and claims they are the result of an environment of frustration among GU members in the continued absence of a working constitution. “In order to divert the attention from the main constitution, non-issues are being propped up and highlighted to confuse the graduate community”, he says. The absence of a constitution, Ghani laments, is preventing the Graduate Union from making vital changes on behalf of the student population.

The Graduate Union has been operating without a constitution since 18th September 2012, when the CCSSU (Council Committee for the Supervision of Student Unions), a subcommittee of the University Council, identi­fied that under the terms of the new constitution which the GU had been operating under since July of that year, the GU was operating with an insufficient number of trustees. This was despite the fact that the CCSSU had been presented with and approved the constitution in April 2012. They instructed Ghani to suspend the constitution with immediate effect, and work with their recommended lawyers, from the law ­ firm Taylor Vinter to draft a new constitutional document. In the meantime, the CCSSU froze the Union’s bank account. 

Ghani has been accused of dragging out the creation of a new constitution owing to his “perception that there is a controversy against him”. His response is that it is not him, but the CCSSU which is hindering progress. Ghani has also expressed concern that the university’s decision to impose their own lawyers to draft a new constitution may see any new document failing to address the issues of graduates properly: “…whatever advice the lawyers will give will favour the University Administration, not us – that is why I want to make sure GU Trustees and MCRs (Middle Common Rooms) are actively involved in the constitution making process”.

The GU President has identified inaccuracies in nearly all the allegations levelled at him in the last two articles published against him in ­ The Cambridge Student, which use evidence from an anonymous source close to the Union. The newspaper last week reported an accusation against Ghani that he was implicated in the disappearance of £1,000 from the union’s safe. This followed the hosting of an ‘international event’ in the GU’s name in September last year. Ghani insists the charge is a “totally ridiculous and blatant lie”. He notes that no more than £200-300 can be held in the GU safe at any one time, and that the accusation he “lost” the key to the safe is unrealistic, since it is operable by dial rather than key. The GU’s Finance Clerk has never reported a disappearance of money from the safe during any audit.

Ghani’s response to the allegation that he hired unpaid interns without authorisation from other GU members, meanwhile, is that the intern concerned was hired only for the summer period, when a constitution for the union was still in place, and with the full backing of colleagues. The possibility of recruiting an intern on a short-term basis was put forward in a Graduate Union board meeting on 7th August, where it was noted that any intern would have to be employed in full compliance with the law.

Under those terms, the intern’s appointment was confirmed in the minutes of the GU Committee Meeting on 14th August 2012. Ghani claims to have raised the question of remuneration in the meeting, but was told that the budget did not allow for this, and so the minutes note the agreement made that interns should be allowed to achieve something tangible during their engagement with the union to enhance their CVs. When the GU constitution was suspended in September, the board agreed that interns could no longer be hired in the absence of a contract of employment. No interns are currently working for the Graduate Union.

Reporting the financial irregularities in this week’s issue (‘Grad union update: the madness continues’), TCS has changed tack from the week before to suggest that it was the GU intern who took the cash proceeds home. This represents a turn-around from last week’s article, when Ghani is cited as having “attempted to blame” the intern, and is implicated directly in the money’s disappearance, the article stating that 10 per cent of the sum had been returned by him.

The allegation that Ghani changed the minutes of Graduate Union committee meetings is an issue dating from August 2012 concerning the GU Treasurer, Carmen Jack. The amendment to the minutes was not to “fire” the treasurer, Ghani says, as last week’s TCS article claims. Instead, it was to reflect a decision reached by the whole board to transfer some of her financial oversight responsibilities to another board member owing to her research commitments in the Brabaham Institute at the time, which were preventing her from attending meetings. Speaking to Varsity, Ghani argues his only intervention was to make this decision explicit in wording, which the draft minutes of the meeting had not done. Jack has already communicated with TCS to express concerns about inaccuracies in last week’s article, and to ask that her name be removed.

Ghani insists: “I always remained professional in my dealings and communication”. He points to instances during the last six months when he has requested college MCR committee members including Luke Fletcher, MCR President of St Edmund’s College, to sit on GU Executive Committee meetings to make them feel more included in the constitutional situation. Fletcher, speaking to Varsity, defended Ghani’s record. “My observations from attending the GU Executive Committee meetings last term are that the GU Secretariat, including the President, have been working very earnestly, under not inconsiderable pressure, to resolve a very tricky situation that was not of their making. As far as I can tell, what everyone involved wants is to see a new constitution in place and the GU up and running at full capacity as soon as possible.”

Ghani has taken issue with the short notice given by TCS about their article last week before they went to print, saying that “it was impossible for me to respond to those questions [they asked me] in the given time. I was looking after my 4 year old child at [sic] that night who was severely ill for some days and they demanded answers within 2 hours – this is totally unacceptable.”

“I am extremely disappointed with this irresponsible journalism from TCS, who have not checked any of the allegations by their anonymous source – which I have previously answered – against the facts. They have breached the privacy of all the concerned officers of the GU and tried to sensationalise the story in a bizarre manner.”

Speaking after the Graduate Union council meeting held on Wednesday 6 February, Ghani told Varsity the meeting had been “overwhelmingly positive”, and that “developments are being made towards the resolution of the constitutional issues”. He added, “minutes of the Council meeting will be released soon, and the dirt spilled by TCS will be exposed.”