YORK UNIVERSITY Student Union’s membership to the National Union of Students will be up for debate in Term 3, York Vision can confirm. The membership is debated every 3 years and all York students will have the opportunity to vote on the motion.
The affiliation was last reviewed in May 2011 when 751 voted to stick with the NUS and 263 voted to leave. Students Unions at Imperial College London, the University of Southampton and St Andrews are the most notable institutions that have chosen to disaffiliate.
Toni Pearce, President of the NUS, commented on a recent visit to the University of York: “I think that York should stay as part of the NUS because it is more relevant than it has ever been to students. A lot of that’s about a realisation that you have to give different people different things. We have to focus on what it is that students want, not just the students that shout the loudest. We only have that power if we have 600 student union members and 7 million student members.”
Tom, a second year Politics student, disagrees with Pearce and thinks YUSU should disaffiliate.
“I don’t see why YUSU cannot adequately represent the students of this university without retaining membership of an increasingly politicised and out of touch NUS. Why should the students of York continue to support what has essentially become a training academy for the Labour Party?”
Pearce, a member of the Labour Party, asserted that the NUS’ financial benefits are becoming increasingly important to students.
“I know that students, whether they are in York or anywhere else in the country, are worried about the cost of living whilst they’re at university and if they’re going to get a job when they leave.
Those are the things we should be concentrating on so those are the things we are concentrating on. We are making massive changes.”
Gender Accessible Politics Society (GAP) are also expected to propose a motion that would balance YUSU’s NUS delegation to at least 2 out of 5 officers are female.
The exact dates of the Summer Referendum will be announced shortly.
The last pro-disaffiliation campaign was an absolute farce. Here’s hoping the next one’s equally useless.