‘Yes’ Campaign Team
USI Referendum
The movement for disaffiliation of Trinity Students’ Union from the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) began in November 2011. A group of frustrated students got together to discuss the many problems they had with the dysfunctional organisation. After an hour’s discussion, the consensus among these students was clear. Disaffiliation was the only option.
Now here we are almost a year later and a referendum to decide the future of Trinity SU’s membership of the USI is about to take place. It’s unfortunate that the only reasonable option for Trinity students is to disaffiliate but that’s the reality of the situation.
We, as students, need national representation, something that the USI is not adequately providing. To be a successful representative you need to have credibility, capability and accountability. Recent events have revealed that the USI can no longer claim to possess any of these three characteristics.
It is clear that the students of Trinity College Dublin have long held different views on how the USI should be run and what policies it should pursue. Therefore, it is irrelevant that the USI has a seat on the Higher Education Authority or that it is invited to make media appearances.
That seat and those appearances do not represent the views of Trinity students. We need to ask ourselves the question: what benefit are we getting from the €77,000 a year we pay for the “privilege” of USI membership?
Disaffiliation would not mean abandoning the vision that brought about the USI. Disaffiliation would show that we are serious about who represents us; that we are serious about pursuing the principles of national representation. Disaffiliation would show that we are not willing to settle for a failed organisation; an organisation that refuses to look for self-improvement and is indifferent to its lack of accountability. It is vitally important that we let our own Union, Trinity College Students’ Union, provide us with national representation instead. Trinity College Students’ Union possesses the three characteristics necessary to take on this role: credibility, capability and accountability. The contrast in competence with the USI could not be clearer.
This isn’t the first time in recent years that Trinity has been frustrated with the USI. There have been frustrations before. But these frustrations were dampened by the hope of change, by the hope that we could develop a better organisation and by the hope that our views and those of the USI hierarchy would come into alignment.
These hopes were far from realised.
The USI has not changed, it has not developed into a better organisation and if anything, the views of the USI and Trinity students have diverged even further. The sad reality is that the USI lacks anything even approaching the credibility, capability, and accountability that we need to have our viewpoint, the needs of Irish students, truly represented on the national stage.
A YES vote for disaffiliation from the Union of Students in Ireland is a vote for credibility, capability and accountability in the representation of Trinity Students.
Read the thoughts of the ‘No’ campaign team and why they are advocating a vote against disaffiliation here.
This article was originally published as a note on the Facebook page of the Yes campaign in the USI Referendum.
