Leanna Byrne
Deputy Editor
Well, here we are. After a year of bitching about the Union of Students in Ireland we finally have a referendum. Of course many of us have toyed with the idea that this referendum is a just a massive ‘Hack’s Day Out’; but regardless of whether this is true or not the issue is too important to go unnoticed.
First on the agenda is to have a read through the YES and NO manifestos. Aesthetically the NO campaign had the winning manifesto. The lovely pictures of Trinity and the colour scheme draws the eye in. Also, my favourite colour is blue…
In terms of the points made the NO side made a lot of them, whereas the YES men opted for a simple three point analysis of the situation. The YES campaign makes their argument under three headings: Credibility, Capability and Accountability. All in all the YES side do make a nice concise argument for students to understand – if they bother to read it. Nevertheless if you do bother to read the manifestos you’ll find that by reading them it only leads you to asking more questions.
We’ll start with the YES campaign. Today’s blog will deal with the first C: Credibility.
According to the YES side Trinity is in need of “a credible organisation to represent us and our views on a national level” and that “the USI have allowed their reputation to be tarnished by occupations of buildings which occurred during their own events, and by their own officers”.
Mark O’Meara, the YES Campaign Manager, feels that the USI has a lot to answer for, particularly with regard to ‘the preferendum debacle’.
“The USI were trying to decide on a new fees policy, and they figured the best way to do this would be for all affiliated SUs to hold a ‘preferendum’ among their own students. At this stage it was coming up to the end of the academic year, so many SUs – including Trinity – had to put in a lot of work to hold the preferendum on time. Yet when the USI delegates from around the country met, many delegates revealed that they hadn’t bothered holding the preferendum among their own students, but then claimed they could not vote because they didn’t know what their students wanted. This led to the decision being postponed. In light of this, an online preferendum was then held. Once delegates met again to cast votes based on the results from their students, many delegates were claiming that the online preferendum was unfair and biased… these claims were made when it seemed that the USI’s “100% exchequer funded” fees policy would not be continued. Yet when the votes were in and it was confirmed that the policy would be continued, these claims suddenly disappeared. This incident showed a clear lack of credibility that the USI has in how it forms its policy, and how it is an organisation that is simply not suitable for Trinity.”
O’Meara even went on to say that he doesn’t “see any reason why anyone, either a member organisation or a member of Government, would take the USI seriously”.
Meanwhile Jack Leahy, the NO Campaign Manager, told The University Times that “’the fact of the matter is that there’s only one recognized student representative organisation, so there is a great degree of credibility in that fact alone. Of course credibility comes from respect among members too and I know the USI officers have been very working hard to address reputational damage from previous leaderships.”
In fact the NO campaign are fairly confident after two good campaigning days under their belt. “We’ve a lot of support online, we got two rounds of applause from BESS classes, and a lot of people don’t even want the literature as their minds have been made up,”said Leahy.
Leahy appears unfazed by the fact that Ryan Bartlett, the former TCDSU President, will be debating for the YES side in the UT/Phil Referendum Debate next Monday evening. Leahy said that Bartlett’s support for the YES campaign was “unexpected” because he thought Bartlett would be staying out of student politics this year.
“At the end of the day this is what he loves and what he’s very good at. I respect him a lot for it. That said, I’m really looking forward to taking him on.”
Amidst all the positivity the YES side felt that the biggest problem about the campaign was apathy. O’Meara found that the most common question to be “what is USI?”, whereas Leahy believes the timing of the referendum to be bad as there “has been no discussion”.
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If you go down to the Arts Block today,
You’re sure of a big surprise.
If you go down to the Arts Block today,
You’d better go in disguise.
For every hack that ever there was
Will gather there for certain because
Today’s the day all the hacks have their picnic.
Additional reporting by Fionn O”Dea
On Monday next at 7pm in the Arts Block Swift theatre, The University Times and the Phil will be teaming up to host the Referendum Debate, featuring USI President John Logue, former TCDSU President Ryan Bartlett, and the best debaters of the Phil. Do come along!
