A Sussex Students’ Union full-time Officer will be facing disiplinary proceedings over a tweet they posted using the union’s official Twitter account (@ussu) on 20 May, according to the Students’ Union.
They tweeted: “The Students’ Union Executive has collectively agreed that we #supportbaharmustafa and the right of liberation groups to self organise”.
However, no such agreement had been made by the Executive Committee over any support for the campaign.
The offending tweet referred to the ongoing controversy over Goldsmiths Welfare Officer Bahar Mustafa’s decision to ask white people not to attend an event specifically for black and ethnic minority (BME) students in April.
Bahar Mustafa has also been criticised over her use of the hashtag #killallwhitemen.
A petition calling for Bahar Mustafa to be excluded from Goldsmiths University has attracted over 21,000 signatures on the petition website change.org.
However, a separate petition calling for a vote of no confidence in Mustafa failed after not attracting the 3% of Goldsmith’s 8,000 students needed for it to pass.
The University of Sussex Students’ Union have released a statement reaffirming: “The Students’ Union recognises and supports “minority groups organising events solely for those who self-identify as members of that group.”
The tweet has been deleted and the officer’s use of the @USSU twitter account has been suspended.
Daniel Green , Pete Humphreys and Paul Millar
