Student Activist Diary

So, it’s October now. The Freshers’ Week (or Fortnight, you lucky, heavy-drinking lot) fug has risen, even the worst hangovers have succumbed to orange juice and Ibuprofen, and the reason you have someone saved in your phone as “Tall Brown-Eyed Boy” has become a mystery that will never be solved.
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(Unless you only move to uni in October, of course, in which case here’s a free tip for you – make sure you save people’s numbers with their actual names. Seriously).
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Anyway, now you’ve realised that you don’t really want to be a member of those twelve societies you joined because they were giving out free pens/USB drives/pizza at the Freshers’ Fair, one of the things you might be thinking about – alongside how many highlighters you need and the best way to get red-wine stains out of a cream carpet – is how to get involved with the people who make it all happen: the student union.
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“Student politics” is a mystifying topic for a lot of us. I count myself amongst that number; I’m in my fourth year at the University of Edinburgh, and up until I sat down and wrote ‘So, it’s October now’ at the top of this page, I hadn’t ever really thought about how to get involved.
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That’s a mistake, honestly. Edinburgh’s student union, just like most others, is a wonderful, vibrant place. Political students usually come in two clear-cut stereotypes: the left-wing hippie, complete with dreadlocks, clothes that haven’t seen a washing machine since the seventies, and a permanent fug of patchouli and weed, goes up against the right-wing would-be Thatcherite, all sharp suits and impressive CV.
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The problem is, of course, this isn’t true: in fact it’s a stereotype straight out of ‘The Young Ones’. In reality, your student union offers much more than just a collection of outdated archetypes – whether you simply want to take advantage of their cheap pints and free advice services, or actually help out in making the decisions that keep it going.
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Each student union is unique, of course, but most have some things in common. They offer academic support, as well as advice on general issues. They have the ultimate say over what goes on in societies, voting on financial matters as well as, in rare cases, having the power to sanction them. They run campaigns, both individually and alongside the National Union of Students – the protests in London, for example, were organised by student unions.
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It’s easy to think that the student union just sits around all day talking about how to stick it to the man. Indeed, Edinburgh University’s Vice President for Academic Affairs, Mike Williamson, says that before he got involved in student politics, he “used to think that the students’ association was a big talking shop that never got anything done” – mind you, he adds, “my mind was changed when, in 2009, the University tried to close the Portuguese department, which was part of my joint degree, and EUSA really stepped up to the plate and ran a hugely successful campaign to keep it open.”
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Because, of course, it isn’t true that your union does nothing. Both in front of and behind the scenes, it works very hard to keep you in the lazy student lifestyle to which you’ll no doubt become accustomed (another free tip – Neighbours starts at half one, and is best enjoyed from the comfort of your bed).
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Of course, even I understood that there’s more to the student union than a yearly election campaign and a number of posters technically known as a “shit-ton”. Where I came unstuck, though, and I don’t think I’m the only one, is in trying to figure out how it all works. There are so many different strands to the union, and in most cases they don’t all fall into a neat pattern! Still, in most cases, it goes something like this:
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- The sabbatical team. A sabbatical student (i.e. someone who has taken a year off, usually after graduation, to focus on student politics.) This team is usually led by a President – this person presides over the rest of the union. A new president is elected yearly, and all sabbatical officers pledge certain things to the student population (more on this later).
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- The executive committee. The president is also technically a part of this committee, alongside several vice presidents who focus on different aspects of student life. The exact titles of the vice presidents differ from university to university, but you’ll generally find someone in charge of academic affairs, communications, societies and activities, campaigns, etc. Again, these are all sabbs who run for election each year.
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- The student body! Membership of your student union is generally considered an automatic part of being enrolled at the university, and there are loads of ways to get involved – from as soon as you start right up until you leave.
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It depends what you want to do! If you’re interested in the academic side of things – you want to help make sure that your courses are properly reflective of your needs, for example – you can become a Course Rep. This is a position which your lecturers ought to mention in the first couple of weeks; each course needs one. The course reps meet towards the beginning of the semester, and can decide to nominate themselves to become year reps, department reps, and faculty reps (some of these may be dependent on individual unions’ policies). This means that if you fancy giving this sort of thing a go, but aren’t quite sure how far you want to take it, you can choose to stop nominating yourself at any point, which makes it a good way to test the water.
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If, on the other hand, you’re more interested in getting your voice heard in terms of campaigning, most universities run forums every few weeks during semester time. These are open meetings which allow any student to share their ideas on a given topic. Forums tend to be split into different areas – for example academic affairs, societies, postgraduate issues – so make sure you go along to the right one; your university union’s website ought to be able to provide you with some more information.
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Also, if the student union decide to hold a protest/campaign at any point during the year, there will undoubtedly be information in your student newspaper or on the website, so make sure you keep checking! You don’t have to be informed on every decision the union makes to get involved with one campaign. Zahid Raja, NUS Wales national executive committee, says that ‘the best place to get up to date information on what your SU does is from social media – you have to remember that these officers are students and 8/10 times, they will update facebook or twitter before they update the Student Union website. Also, be on the lookout for their blogs if you want the real gossip behind SU decisions.’
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What if you’re more of a society person? James Hickie, Activities Officer of USSU, the University of Sussex’s student union, says that he first got involved with USSU through playing for the student orchestra. Even societies that aren’t overtly political have to go through the union for many things, and it’s very easy to be involved in both.
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Finally, every union has an AGM, to which the whole student body is invited. Depressingly, not all of these meetings achieve quorum, meaning that the one opportunity everyone has to vote directly on motions that will affect you can be somewhat wasted – basically a polling exercise. By going along you’ll not only be adding your voice to the pool, you might be making the difference between a motion being passed or not.
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If, like me, you’re jaded and bitter and feel cynical every Freshers’ Week when you see excited freshers queuing up in Tesco, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s too late to get involved in the student union, even if this breathless whistle-stop tour has suggested that it might be something you’re interested in. Or perhaps you are an excited fresher, but you want to spend your first year getting horribly drunk and inventing new cocktails (and I speak as the proud creator of the ‘Manhandler’) without any sort of responsibility to worry your pretty head.
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If this is sounding about right, then never fear: you can get involved with your union at any point during your degree! Edinburgh’s Mike Williamson is a perfect example: he studied for two years at Edinburgh and did a year in Portugal without ever standing for election for a union position. “I got involved in the anti-cuts group, which decided to run a big slate for the EUSA elections. Being in my final year I could only run for a sabbatical position so, after some persuading, that’s what I did! It’s quite strange, particularly because I don’t know all the processes and what’s happened in the past, but I used to do quite a lot of campaigning anyway, so getting paid to do that is my idea of a dream job,” he says.
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So, hopefully, this article’s done its job, and whether or not you decide to put yourself forward to be an active part of the student union you will at least have a better understanding of what’s going on. It simply remains for me to wish you luck, should you decide to nominate yourself to be a course rep, go along to a forum or even stand in an election. In the words of James Hickie: “Over the course of my degree I set up and ran societies, helped out coaching sports teams, attended and organised events, volunteered during Freshers Week, met many of my closest friends and had some of my most memorable University experiences, all through the Students’ Union.” If that’s not a selling point, I don’t know what is.

Edinburgh student? Sussex student? Swansea Student? Intrigued by what you’ve heard? Find out more about EUSA at www.eusa.co.uk and USSU at www.sussexstudent.com. SUSU at www.swansea-union.co.uk