Last year, the Students’ Union Opt-Out Project (SUOOP) was launched in Trinity. The project is based on the simple belief that students should not be forced to be a member of an organisation of which they do not want to be a part.
It’s a simple idea and one that’s gained traction in a number of Irish universities in recent months. So, with the issue as topical as ever, last night the College Historical Society (the Hist) asked: “Should students be allowed to leave a students’ union?”
If the answer is unclear among Trinity’s students, last night the Hist had a clear answer: students should have the right to leave their union.
Former Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) President President Adrian Lagan was drafted in to chair the debate. First to the floor was Chloe Kennedy, who represented the proposition. Kennedy began her argument by defining the motion, clarifying that the proposition were not arguing for students to leave TCDSU, but just the right to do so. Kennedy explained that students may feel alienated or disconnected because of how political the union has become: not all students agree with the stances it takes on certain issues.
“If you don’t agree with the views of political parties, you can leave the party”, she said. So why is it not the same for TCDSU?
Hugh Whelan opened his speech promising that he wasn’t an “SU hack”. But, he said, students having the choice to leave the union would have gross implications and would cause a withdrawal of financial supports from the union and leave needy students vulnerable.
Addressing the so-called “elephant in the room”, Whelan brought up the issue of abortion and suggested that the SUOOP campaign was only set up as a result of TCDSU opting to support the repeal campaign. Whelan suggested that people wanting to leave are just throwing a tantrum about not having their way in the abortion debate and need to “check their privilege” before they do anything drastic.
Continuing the argument for the proposition was James Martin. Martin started off on the right foot by jokingly telling the audience that “the Irish Constitution does in fact outweigh the SU Constitution”.
As the laughter and applause quieted down, Martin pointed out the his side are not consenting to be in a union simply because they are students. Martin picked up the issue of abortion toward the end of his speech and asked the opposition if they were to attend a college with a pro-life majority would they not want to leave that union for fear of their fees going towards promoting pro-life issues.
“The SU is pro-choice”, joked Martin, “but not on the issue of membership”.
Aine Corry, in her speech, suggested that leaving the union wasn’t the way to fix it. No one is forced, she said, to engage with TCDSU if they don’t want to.
Donnacadh Curran began his speech by saying that the debate was not about whether the SU is good or bad, but that “it’s about individual liberty”. He used a simple metaphor to make his point: “We are customers that cannot withdraw our business.”
Giving an option to students to leave would motivate the union to reform and be increasingly accountable, he said. Other countries have allowed their students to leave unions: why can’t Ireland?
Catherine Kelly, speaking for the opposition, said that if the students’ union was abolished, we’d all lose essential services. Likening the students’ union to a state, instead of a political party, Kelly used Leo Varadkar as an example: she is in no way coerced to join him in his different stances and she can disagree with Varadkar even though he is taoiseach, and still remain a part of the state.
Clare McCarthy, former Chair of Trinity Publications, argued that the students’ union isn’t like a state at all. “The SU do not rule us, they represent us”, McCarthy said, before going on to explain in the ways in which TCDSU fails to represent her.
McCarthy said how “utterly morally opposed” she was to be giving her money and involuntary support to a students’ union that supports pro-choice campaigns. McCarthy argued that the union is costly and that “the opposition have done a lot of scaremongering” throughout the debate.
“TCDSU, let your students go”, she said.
Closing the debate as a whole was Patrick McDonagh. McDonagh’s speech was derailed on many occasions by the points of information he took and tried to answer. First of all, McDonagh addressed McCarthy, the previous speaker, and said that it was understandable that she did not want her money going towards the repeal campaign in her own college, but that said money also goes towards more mundane issues that affect day-to-day life.
On a final note, McDonagh left the audience with a piece of advice: “At the end of the day”, advised McDonagh, “you should think about what is the collective right, not the individual right”.
