the continuing stupidity of student politics

[fox]

(note:  the icon is absolutely not to be taken as any sort of volunteering on my part.)

saw this in the dead-tree edition last week, but have just remembered that it's online as well.  Budget errors leave Student Union facing £110,000 deficit.

that's £110,000.  un-bygod-believable.  i saw that headline and i was more pleased than ever that my common room voted not to affiliate.  now that we have a statement from the VP (Graduates) -- who is not, by the way, a graduate student -- i'll be in a position to assure my own people that it's none of their money that's been mis-handled, because we've paid no dues.

the article is really disheartening.  i'm in favor of student unions as a concept, but man, not this one.  eh, cannons_at_dawn, anything to add?

Comments

[cannons-at-dawn.livejournal.com]

Not much. I've always been wary of the potential for financial disaster whern you have budgets set according to priorities which can alter radically from one year's set of SU officers to the next. It tends to be an institutional problem - it's hard to strike a balance between the need to run the thing financially on similar lines to a business (which can only really be done by trained staff employed on a permanent basis) and the need to keep the whole organisation under the control of temporarily elected officers. All student politics (unfortunately) is stupid, but yes, some is more stupid than others.

[osymandias.livejournal.com]

Yes, I noticed that as well. Having always thought OUSU to be a bit of a useless organisation, it didn't bother me a great deal, especially since Oriel is likewise unaffiliated.

I don't think I am in favour of Studen Unions in general, unless they serve a specific purpose. I don't in general like the idea of any body claiming to represent me unless I've specifically asked them to. Representative democracy may be necessary at points, but I think I'm far more in favour of single issue bodies created (if necessary) to address a specific task than one body claiming to represent the views of students.

I've never voted in an OUSU election, and have no intention of doing so... as far as I'm concerned, it has nothing to do with me, whether I am a de facto member or not.

[potatofiend.livejournal.com]

Oh, bloody hell.

I don't see why Oxford needs a student union, really; all collegiate universities are organised so that every college has on hand what usually the student union would provide for everyone. OUSU is almost entirely useless.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

i happen to think everyone should disaffiliate -- certainly all the MCRs -- until OUSU can demonstrate that we're better off with them than without them. there are ways that students relate to the university, rather than to their individual colleges, and times when it's good for students from the various colleges to be able to represent themselves to the university directly and together rather than counting on their colleges to do it for them. it has not been clear to me, though, since i've been here, that this is a function OUSU accomplishes. last year the VP grads resigned in something like november and was not replaced; this year we have a VP grads, and apart from one or two more e-mails in my box (which i wouldn't have had last year anyway, as i wasn't common room president at the time), i haven't noticed a difference.

[anariel-di-gaia.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind them being rubbish so much if they provided a severely cheap student union bar like they do at other unis. Luckily we're disaffiliated from them also.