Inanimate YUSU democracy

In just over three weeks’ time YUSU delegates will vote for their preferred candidate to become the next President of the National Union of Students.

Elected representatives Kallum Taylor, Ben Dilks, Bob Hughes, Graeme Osborn and Megan Ollerhead will be in YourSpace this Thursday evening (14th March), looking for students’ advice and opinions on which candidate should receive official YUSU backing.

However, York students will not be able to force the delegates to vote in any particular way, and their votes will not even be made public.

A motion has been sent to YUSU suggesting that the Union officially backs the Inanimate Carbon Rod for NUS President.

It claims that the NUS alienates regular students, with those in York feeling “especially detached from the National Union.”

It suggests: “Backing the ‘cylinder of very few words’ for President would duly acknowledge the concerns of York students, encourage necessary debate on NUS democracy and produce stronger sets of candidates in future elections.”

YUSU President Kallum Taylor has said: “If students do want me to vote for the Carbon Rod, then I will.” However, he initially stated that he did “not intend” to vote that way.

“As much as I find it slightly amusing, I don’t intend to vote on behalf of YUSU for the Inanimate Carbon Rod’ to be NUS President,” he had told Vision. He continued: “The National Union of Students has enough problems already; both in terms of how it operates and its wider credibility amongst students, and I really don’t think this would help things. I’ll be voting for the candidate who can put the NUS back on its feet and unite the various factions within to then move the issues surrounding students and tiertary education further up national agenda.”

Taylor now intends to vote on behalf of York’s students, which could mean he is forced to go against his own personal views and vote for the rod.

Outgoing Union Chair Nick Hall said it is vital that students take Thursday’s “fantastic opportunity” to make their views heard. He told Vision: “In previous years, we held formal discussions at Assemblies about NUS candidates, but it took nearly eight hours of students’ lives, and this week’s event will be quicker and more effective.”

He went on to say that he hopes students are represented fairly, and if he were in Kallum’s shoes, he would listen to students: “If I was a delegate, I would vote for the Inanimate Carbon Rod if I knew that is what York students want. There has been a big social media push in its favour and often behind those less serious candidates’ policies, there are very serious undertones.

“I hope that delegates take the views of students into account when casting their ballots. If students don’t feel like they are being represented properly here, there are plenty of ways to hold the delegate leader to account.”

Samuel Gaus, a student officer at University College London, is acting on behalf of the rod on this year’s NUS presidential ballot. Inspiration came from a 1994 episode of The Simpsons, where an inanimate carbon rod becomes ‘worker of the week’ at a nuclear power plant.

A number of students feel misrepresented by the current NUS. Andrew Tindall, an Aberystwyth student who helped start the Rod’s campaign, told The Guardian it arose out of the frustration of seeing “candidates with all the usual affiliations launching bland campaigns that offer nothing but another rehash of the same empty slogans and promises we see every year.

“What started as a joke quickly snowballed into a campaign with actual reach, a hilarious amount of supporters, and a real purpose.”

Gaus will be standing against three other candidates – Toni Pearce, Vicki Baars and Peter Smallwood.

And fellow candidate Toni Pearce is at ease with her competition: “There’s a proud tradition of humour and satire in student politics, and in fact I often think that we take ourselves too seriously in the student movement.”

The vote on who will replace Liam Burns as NUS President will take place at the NUS annual conference, starting on April 8.

Comment: Alex Finnis 

To state the obvious, YUSU is the Students’ Union. It is not the Sabbatical Officers’ Union, it is not Kallum Taylor’s Union, it is all of ours.

Kallum might be the President, but if the student voice says it wants the Inanimate Carbon Rod as NUS President and he goes against them then he would be doing his job wrong.

The NUS as an organisation is certainly not to every student’s taste – if their being heckled offstage at the national demo did not highlight this then the rod’s popularity during this year’s campaign certainly has.

It is clear that many feel misrepresented by a Union that is out of touch with its electorate, and the rod means that this year, students have the opportunity to voice this.

To vote for the rod is not to waste a vote but to send out the message that none of the other candidates are good enough and that a more significant change is required.

It is like voting for RON in the YUSU elections but with more of a message behind it – that an inanimate rod is better than a crop of self-involved politicians.

If our students say they want the rod and Kallum goes with them then it is something he should feel proud of, not humiliated by. He would be standing up for the views of the students he represents, and going against his own views to do this would be even more commendable.