Students’ Unions and Political Parties mix as well as oil and water

national | politics / elections | opinion/analysis

Tuesday February 06, 2007 14:29

by Simon Bolger

Yesterday I was horrified to see that politic campaigns are getting started and soon we will have to endure giant billboards of Michael McDowell face scaring us at every turn. Something you would not want to run into in a dark alley. But this got me thinking about a serious question, should political parties have anything to do with Students’ Unions?

As in how can someone represent a political party as well as the students they represent? It is in my opinion that they can’t, when representing you the students your officers should have no other loyalties but to you. We shouldn’t force our opinions about issues that aren’t yours, as every decision we make goes in front of Union Council to see what you the students think. If this changed we would not be a union any more because foremost and before anything we’re your representatives and should represent you fully and your opinion is the one that matters to us. Not one of some person sitting in an office in Dublin. An example of this would be the split in USI (union of students of Ireland) who we are no longer members of. When their Executive decided to have opinions that did not agree with the 250,000 students that they claim to represent it caused a split that is still affecting them today. This shows exactly what happens to a union when outside factors come into it.

A union should be prepared to go to any lengths for the students but could they go against there own party? In most Dublin colleges not all the situation is different, it would be a hard task to find a member of an exec not affiliated with one party or another. Most candidates get there campaign funding from there respective parties but what are they asked in return? This I can not answer. True if asked they’ll all say that they put students first. But how can a person fighting against fees for third level colleges also be member of the party that raises them. I don’t think you can. I think it comes down to a decision about who and what you think is more important and I hope for students sakes all over this country that future and current union execs make the right decision.