University College Dublin Students’ Union (UCDSU) has opened the door to rejoining the Union of Students in Ireland, nearly a decade after exiting the national union.
The union’s President Ruairí Power is himself in favour of rejoining, and the issue may be put to referendum before the end of the academic year.
A discussion item brought to UCDSU council this week raised the issue, with members debating the pros and cons of re-affiliating with the USI. Speaking to The University Times, Power said that “the one thing that we’re really missing out on is the lobbying capacity of USI. They have the regular interactions with relevant ministers. We really struggle to get in the room a lot of the time”.
“We don’t have the frequent meetings with Minister Harris”, he continued. “We don’t have the connections to other ministers in government to the same extent. So our lobbying capacity is quite diminished. We’re not contributing to the national voice on a lot of issues.”
Power said that the annual cost of USI membership – €5 per student per year – was likely to be an argument for remaining unaffiliated with the national union. “A big thing was a lack of awareness about the USI does or what the benefits would be of rejoining, given the costs associated.”
With over 32,000 students, UCDSU would provide a significant financial boost to USI through additional member fees if it did rejoin. Currently, USI represents 374,000 on the island of Ireland.
Recent issues with USI such as ineffective lobbying were also raised during the discussion on Monday.
Power added that “it’s not something that has been a very topical issue in UCD for a while … a lot of students wouldn’t be aware of the situation”.
There was also a spectrum of opinions among UCDSU sabbatical officers, he said. “We’ve got very differing views on whether or not we should rejoin … students want time to sort of get the knowledge or get the facts of the situation – why we left, why we should or shouldn’t rejoin. So we essentially decided we’d take it to a discussion item first [and] see where people are at.”
“Then if we do decide to go for a referendum towards the end of the year, it’s something we need to do a lot of work on promoting to students.”
Power added that the union has successfully supported a number of Dublin-based student protests, such as a demonstration outside the offices of Dublin City Council last year and an anti-racism protest organised by Dublin City University Students’ Union.
He said: “It really comes back to a question of do you believe in the union movement or don’t you?”
USI membership has been a thorny issue for UCDSU for a long time – in 2013, two thirds of students voted to disaffiliate with the national union, with three quarters of students voting to remain disaffiliated in 2016.
