CUSU have announced a referendum on the creation of a full-time Disabled Students Officer (DSO) to be held later this month.

The referendum was triggered by a petition by the CUSU Disabled Students’ Campaign (DSC), which reached 350 signatures, the threshold to be passed by the CUSU Constitution before a referendum is triggered.

The petition accused the university of discriminating against students with disabilities through “inadequate mental health support, a lack of staff training, and a university that is inaccessible in its physical layout as well as its teaching and examination structures”.

It stated that the creation of a full-time DSO is needed in order to “challenge these deep institutional problems”.

Under the existing CUSU budget, a Disabled Students’ Officer would be paid £20,000 per annum, in line other sabbatical officers.

When the petition closed, a spokesperson for the Disabled Students’ Campaign called it a “landmark success that reflects the long-standing need to address the structural, attitudinal, and physical exclusion experienced by disabled students at Cambridge”.

The plebiscite which will take place on 27th January will be made up of a yes/no vote on the question: “Do you accept the proposed constitutional changes, which would add a Disabled Students’ Sabbatical Officer to the CUSU Full-Time Elected Officer Team?”

If successful, the Disabled Students’ Officer will join the President, Education and Deputy President, Access and Funding, Coordination and Services, Student Support, and Women’s Officers as annually elected, paid positions.

Those eligible for the role will be “ordinary members who self-define as disabled”, just as those eligible for the existing full-time position of Women’s Officer are self-defining women.

Up to now, the Disabled Students’ Campaign has been one of five autonomous campaigning bodies within CUSU. The other four are the BME, International, Women’s and LGBT+ campaigns. It is the newest campaign of the five, and was created as the “voice of disabled students” at Cambridge.

Self-identifying disabled students made up 7.2 per cent of the full-time student body, according to a survey last year, whereas 26.6 per cent identified as black and minority ethnicity (BME).

Concerns have been raised, however, on the value for money offered by a full-time sabbatical officer dealing with disabled students’ issues.

Cornelius Roemer, President of Trinity College Students’ Union and a member of the CUSU Part-time Executive, told Varsity that “the opportunity costs need to be considered carefully”. He added: “Even before the DSC petition/campaign arose, one of my working hypotheses was that CUSU might benefit [from] more support staff (rather than more sabbatical officers to deal with admin work) […] It is clear that it is not feasible to create sabbatical positions for all autonomous campaigns. This has to be taken into account to ensure fairness among campaigns. There may be good reasons why the DSC should get a sabb but not others, but this discussion needs to be had.”

During Monday’s CUSU Council meeting, CUSU President Priscilla Mensah addressed the contentious issue of individual JCRs and MCRs campaigning for either side of the referendum.

She expressed a desire for a “weighted conversation” to be had, and added that “hopefully [those wishing to express a particular view] would be happy to comply”.

Addressing concerns about the balance of the debate, and of the short time-scale of the campaign before the referendum, CUSU Coordinator Jemma Stewart told Varsity that “CUSU Elections Committee is committed to running a fair, accessible and democratic referendum”.

She also said that CUSU will be holding a debate on the referendum which will be live-streamed online on 26th January at 7 p.m.

Voting will take place on 27th January for 9 a.m. till 9 p.m., and results will be announced the next day.