Following decisions taken in last Tuesday’s CUSU Council, the Elections Committee have announced that two university-wide referenda will be called in February. Cambridge students will be given the chance to vote on two aspects on the way CUSU is run.

Students will decide whether CUSU should remain affiliated to the National Union of Students for this academic year, and will also vote on the replacement of the CUSU Welfare Officer and Graduates Officer with a joint CUSU and Graduate Union Support Officer and a full-time Student Advisor. Voting will take place online between Thursday 4th February and Tuesday 9th February.

Campaigning for and against these issues begins today and will be overseen by the Elections Committee. Both sides hope to engage students in debate and generate enough interest to achieve the 2,000 votes required for the referenda to be valid.

In past years, CUSU’s affiliation to the NUS has been decided by referendum. However, due to the general apathy amongst Cambridge students, referendums never achieved the quorum of 2,000 votes, and CUSU remained affiliated to the NUS by default year on year.

This year, the issue of NUS affiliation has proved to be more contentious than expected. Grayden Webb, ex-JCR President at Churchill, Ben Towse, External Officer for Churchill, and David Lowry, Jesus JCR President, have positioned themselves at the forefront the NO campaign and spoke out against affiliation at last week’s CUSU Council.

Their Facebook group currently has over a hundred members, including four former sabbatical officers and last year’s CUSU President Mark Fletcher.

Mark Fletcher, who was in office for two years, has commented, “The NUS is ineffective, undemocratic, out of touch, financially incompetent and rife with infighting. Its elections are decided by shady backroom deals and the membership is treated with disdain. Cambridge students need more than a card (that they pay ‘extra’ for) from their national union.”

The opposition have also stated that the NUS has been "woefully inadequate as a campaigning organisation and shows no sign of changing that record on these challenges." They also argue that there is no way to affect change from within because "the leadership has consistently sought to consolidate its own power at the expense of democratic participation."

In a speech last Tuesday, David Lowry questioned how much the NUS actually delivers, citing a long list of past failures, which included campaigns against top-up fees, tuition fees and points-based immigration, as well as last term’s ‘Town Takeover’.

At CUSU Council, Tom Chigbo argued in favour of affiliation, stating that the NUS remained the most effective and indeed the only way for Cambridge students to represent themselves on a national level.

He told Varsity, “CUSU’s affiliation ensures that what NUS says to decision makers remains something that Cambridge students have some control over, as well as providing us with a powerful voice to pursue our own objectives.

Through NUS campaigns, Cambridge students have benefitted from interest-free overdrafts from their banks, a 100% increase in government funding for disabled students, not to mention all the support given to CUSU and JCR/MCRs.”

He added: “Students must work together at all levels to have any hope of making positive changes to their experience at university. It is disappointing that some still seem more interested in dividing and weakening the student voice than working constructively to improve it.”

Grayden Webb has described Chigbo’s arguments in favour of NUS as “very weak” adding, “He just has to hope students are not engaged properly in the debate and vote for the status quo of staying affiliated.”

The NO campaign has also suggested that Tom Chigbo’s bias in favour of affiliation was a consequence of his plans to stand for election on the NUS National Executive Committee.

However, Chigbo has categorically denied the validity of this rumour. When asked by Varsity, he stated, “I am not running for an NUS position and have never planned to do so. The invention of rumours of this sort is perhaps a sign of the NO campaign’s lack of credible arguments.”

The proposed changes to student support are the culmination of a long series of negotiations between both student unions, CUSU and GU, and the University, and will mean that the new CUSU/GU Student Support Officer can coordinate welfare and student support across both unions, with the help of an expanded Welfare Team.

Tom Chigbo, CUSU President, told Varsity, “I’m confident that students will be excited by this opportunity to strengthen their students’ union and improve the support that is given to students in Cambridge.”

“Currently, Cambridge is the only University in the Russell Group that doesn't have a Student Advisor. After over a decade of campaigning, CUSU has received University funding to create a student advice service. This is our best opportunity to make a positive change to improve student support in Cambridge.

“If the referenda fails, CUSU will have to turn down the funding it has been offered and will be unable improve the Student Support Service.”