IADT students to vote on future of USI affiliation

Students of the Institute of Art, Design, and Technology (IADT), in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, will be asked to vote today, Thursday February 16^th, on the future of their Students’ Union’s affiliation with the Union of Students of Ireland (USI).  The result of this referendum may see IADT follow the lead of other third-level institutions, such as UL and DCU, whose unions have ceased membership of the national student body in recent times.

I caught up with IADTSU President David Edwards, who explained to me why the referendum is taking place at this point. “Our students asked us to vote down the new USI constitution at the special congress, and it was eventually passed. This has led to us holding a referendum to see what the wider population of the college feels on it”. Edwards believes that the new constitution signals the emergence of a new union, and is therefore not the one IADTSU originally signed up to.

In the lead up to the vote, a Q&A session on the issue at hand was arranged with USI Deputy President Colm Murphy. While IADTSU are issuing information on the referendum topic in the hope that students will come to a decision and cast their vote, the poor turnout which showed for this Q&A session may forecast a further apathetic display by the student electorate on polling day. If this is to be the case, IADT would certainly not be the first college to have difficulty in generating student interest in union and political issues. But do students, across the board, realise the implications their union’s USI membership or lack thereof, has on the fortunes of their union and thus their experience at college?

Edwards demonstrated how aspects of IADT students’ interests are represented by the USI, particularly when it comes to their fighting of national campaigns, such as on the issue of fees. IADTSU have also found association helpful in terms of complicated grant or welfare issues which they may not have previous experience of dealing with. In these cases, the experiences of other officers from other unions are of great assistance. However, IADT SU does not benefit to the same extent as other colleges may from sharing information and ideas with other unions as, by its nature, it includes or is surrounded by creative people.

USI affiliation can cost IADTSU in the region of €17,000 in any one given year. €11,000 of this goes directly on membership fees, with a further €5,000 going towards going to USI events and training, and another €2,000 going towards costs such as buses, t-shirts etc. for protesting. Edwards has interesting views with regards to finances; he would prefer to see €10,000 spent on hiring professional lobbyists, with additional moneys reserved for the college’s welfare budget.

Whatever the result of today’s vote, the IADTSU President believes it is important that a national student voice exists, provided all areas gain individual attention. Suggestions that a new form of national voice may be about to emerge from the debris of unions who have pulled their membership of the USI do not make sense to Edwards. “I don’t think that it would be any different if another national union was set up… if there are multiple unions then nobody knows who to talk to. The issues with USI would still be issues with any other group”.

(Image courtesy of http://truedemocracyparty.net/voting-machines/)