The campaign intends to organise a march and sleep-out in Dublin next month to fight the speculative figure. The feeling in USI is that more radical action must be taken, therefore a sleep-out would be more effective and would mirror the “Occupy Wall Street” protests.
The demonstration is to begin on the afternoon of November 16th, and the USI expects to place a few thousand tents on either O’Connell St or preferably Kildare St. The demonstration is not expected to be as big as last year’s “Education not Emigration” march as there is limited enthusiasm from constituent organisations for another march. Tralee IT and the western universities and ITs were particularly reluctant to mimic last year’s efforts.
Speaking to The College Tribune, President of the USI Gary Redmond explained that if fees rose to €5,000 in December’s budget then “tens of thousands” of students would not be able to afford to attend college next September.
In addition, many students have questioned the validity of the campaign considering where the source came from. The Irish Independent quoted a senior university manager stating that “around €5,000 a year were needed to put universities on a sound footing”. However, there has been no known source inside the Department of Education or the government that has confirmed this figure.
In a recent interview with The University Times Deputy President, Colm Murphy said that “the figure was tossed around” and that no decisions had been made in regard to the registration fee by any governmental departments. Murphy then went on to explain that it was important to keep students in the loop because the increase “is always a possibility”. Furthermore, the figure was “not to be used as a scare tactic”, but to make sure that students get involved with campaigns to make an impact.
Another issue that students have with the new campaign is that USI are implicitly implying that they will no longer be campaigning for the removal of fees. Some students are disappointed that USI have dropped the campaign for free education.
Despite this, Murphy claims that without the efforts of the USI that fees would be €3,000 this year and that it was extremely important for students to oppose fees early in the budgetary process.
“If students don’t take part then the government can put whatever price they want on education,” said Murphy.
