CUSU is facing yet more strife in the coming months as numerous colleges begin the process of potential disaffiliation.

Gonville and Caius JCR opened a referendum on affiliation on Wednesday, which closes at 9pm this evening, while individuals at both Robinson and Magdalene have told Varsity that they are planning to raise the issue at open meetings and call for referendums next term. Robinson College held a referendum on affliation two years ago and decided to remain affiliated.

These new calls for disaffiliation follow just weeks after Selwyn College narrowly decided to reaffiliate in a referendum with a majority of just 54.93 per cent of students voting in favour of CUSU.

Prior to the vote Selwyn hosted a highly charged debate between Flick Osborn, the current president of CUSU, and the Corpus Christi JCR president Jamie Wilman. The Corpus Christi JCR and MCR disaffiliated from CUSU in 2010 following claims of repeated failings of the CUSU sabbatical team to support the Corpus JCR and MCR committee members.

Corpus Christi is currently the only college in Cambridge to be disaffiliated from CUSU.

The arguments from both sides of the debate in Selwyn revealed much of the ill-feeling towards CUSU. Flick Osborn warned of the ‘domino effect’ of disaffiliation which is now potentially coming to fruition. Jamie Wilman repeatedly made the point that JCR subscription fees represent just 20 per cent of CUSU’s budget and so the organisation would not cease to exist if numerous colleges disaffiliated.

Following the surprise victory of the ‘joke’ Oxford University Student Union presidential candidate Louis Trup, there have been renewed calls for a restructuring of both Oxford and Cambridge Student Unions in order to end the apathy students feel towards the institutions.

In the last CUSU election one of the presidential candidates, George Bangham, ran on a platform of changing CUSU from an outsider’s perspective and won the highest number of first choice votes but ultimately lost to Flick Osborn.

Another point of contention in debates regarding disaffiliation is that every student remains a member of CUSU individually; even when a college disaffiliates the students themselves are still able to access the services that CUSU provides. Those in favour of disaffiliation argue that this strengthens the case for disaffiliating, as individual students are not affected directly.

The CUSU executive and those in favour of affiliation argue that it is both unethical to take advantage of services that you are not paying for, and that the services CUSU would be able to provide would be drastically affected by the budget cuts caused by disaffiliations.

The apathy towards CUSU has been well documented this term. It has been widely reported that 80 per cent of votes have gone uncast in the CUSU Council, which means that of the individuals who can vote on behalf of their colleges and other organisations, just one in five attend and then vote.

Speaking to The Cambridge Student earlier this week, Flick Osborn said of the Council issues: “I can’t overemphasise that the Council is open to all students. Don’t withdraw because you don’t like the tone of debate; come and contribute. Communicative and challenging debate is vital to all that CUSU does”.