On Wednesday, student societies from around Cambridge descended on the Guildhall in order to participate in a campaigning project launched by the Cambridge University Students’ Union.

According to the event’s Facebook page, Campaigning Cambridge aimed to “bring together different societies and groups from around Cambridge that campaign for change within the University and the wider community.”

The CUSU project was structured around a series of panel debates on issues such as the cost of education, the value of your vote, no platform policies, and the living wage, with a brief interlude featuring comedian Chris Coltrane.

The various participating societies were also given the opportunity of campaigning at stalls, in a fashion similar to Freshers’ Fair.

Roughly 20 political societies set up stalls in the Guildhall’s main chamber. Several of the UK’s main political parties campaigned at the event, with stations representing the Green Party, Labour, the Lib Dems and the Conservatives present.

Other interntionalist societies were also present such as the European Society, War Child and the Palestinian Society.

Student campaigns focusing on social issues such as tuition fees, the living wage and women’s rights were represented at the event by Cambridge Defend Education, the Hills Road Feminist Society, the Living Wage Campaign and Marxist Syllabus.

As may be expected, various initiatives set up by CUSU including the Women’s Campaign and CUSU Supports Education also participated in the project. These campaigns were joined by stalls for the Vegan Society, RAG, and, perhaps most surprisingly, by the Cambridge University Light Entertainment Society, an amateur dramatics group.

The event, which stretched over a six hour period from 12pm to 6pm, was marked by a distinctly low turnout and lack of interest. Consequently, panel discussions set up in an adjacent chamber were moved to the main hall. This, however, still did not manage to attract large audiences to the panel debates.

Oliver Garner, a second year economist from Robinson who was one of the few attendees, gave Varsity the following statement: “As a theoretical concept such events could work. But having it so close to the start of term may make Campaigning Cambridge unappealing to students. The notion that some people don’t want to go to the Guildhall and are apathetic to CUSU should also be considered.”

Susi Navara, one of the representatives of the European Society, stated that “in theory it was a really good idea. Publicity for the event could have however been better.”

Regarding the low turnout Matteo Mirolo, another European Society campaigner, claimed that “[the low attendance rate] is quite symptomatic of the state of student involvement in politics.” Similar sentiments concerning the disparity between campaigning projects in theory and practice were voiced by Tom Wilson, a campaigner for the CU Labour Club. Citing his own pre-university experiences, Wilson stated:

“In theory it is a really, really good concept. You find out about the various parties and learn how to get involved. In practice however, it may not engage people who are completely apolitical and haven’t come into contact with politics before.”

Reece Edmends, the current Chair of the Cambridge Student Liberal Democrats, approached the issue of campaigning slightly differently claiming: “It is a good way to inform students of the good things their MP, Julian Huppert [Lib Dem], is doing.”

The approach to campaigning adopted by the project was summarised by Oliver Garner as follows: “You’re getting a series of facts, which aren’t being debated. It consequently quickly turns into a sales pitch.”