YES: CORPUS CHRISTI JCR

The past year has been an eventful one in Corpus. Most Corpus students appeared, banners and placards in hand, on the New Court lawn to protest changes made by the college to student experience. Students lamented the breakdown of communication between them, the JCR, and the college. Reforms have been made at all levels in response to these events, by College and students alike. At a time when the JCR Committee has been placing greater emphasis on transparency and accountability in its dealings, then, the question of CUSU affiliation could not be ignored.

What is surprising is the lack of information available to students detailing exactly what CUSU does and does not do for them, why CUSU affiliation is important, and what provision is made for those JCRs that decide to disaffiliate. Given the recurrent tendency of JCRs and MCRs to question the point of affiliation, this is an odd oversight on CUSU’s part. Requests for documentation to the CUSU President yielded some results, as did Corpus’s invitation for CUSU Representatives to meet with the JCR and answer questions at open meetings.

On the strength of this information, however, Corpus students could still not find sufficient justification for the cost of affiliation to CUSU.

Affiliation in Cambridge operates on a two-tiered system. On one hand, students are affiliated as individuals, and the University recognises CUSU’s claim to represent them on this basis. At the same time, JCRs and MCRs are affiliated as corporate bodies, and are given certain services in return. It is important to remember that Corpus’s affiliation fees, at £2,800, constitute over 10% of the JCR budget, but only 0.6% of CUSU’s. The onus is on CUSU to demonstrate why affiliation fees will have a greater positive impact in their hands than in those of a JCR more directly responsive to its students needs, but operating with a far smaller budget.

At open meetings, Corpus students struggled to identify any services which they or the JCR used to a meaningful degree. Questions were also raised over how ‘in touch’ CUSU is with mainstream student concerns – the experience of CUSU Council or open meetings would seem to attest to this. Troublesome too were CUSU’s failures to respond to crises in Corpus’s past even when asked by the JCR for assistance.

The decision to disaffiliate is not an easy one. Opinions are divided, both within the JCR Committee and within the student body at large. There will be those that criticise Corpus’s decision. One charge levied is that Corpus students will be ‘freeloading’, using the range of services CUSU provides without contributing to their upkeep. Corpus students will go on being individual members of CUSU, and having representation at a University level through that organisation, but they will not as a corporate body continue to contribute to services they do not actually use, or else do not feel they really receive.

Another worry is that Corpus’s disaffiliation could restrict CUSU’s ability to operate, or impinge on the experiences of students at other colleges. Again, this fear is ungrounded. The financial blow to CUSU is minimal: £2,800 when its budget for 2010/11 reports an expenditure of £547,275. Over 80% of CUSU income comes from sources other than affiliation fees. Magdalene and Downing Colleges’ MCRs have both disaffiliated without seriously undermining CUSU, or precipitating a mass run on disaffiliation. CUSU, and the work it does to represent students, go on. Another charge will perhaps be that these are difficult times for students, and that unity is needed in the face of things like education cuts. However, it must be remembered that these are hard times for colleges too, not just CUSU. Bad timing cannot be used as an excuse to call for homogeneity of student voice: if Corpus students feel CUSU is not responsive to their needs, or representative of their views, affiliation simply isn’t justifiable at a time when the resources could be better deployed elsewhere.

Corpus students are not alone in feeling frustrated with CUSU, the costs of affiliation, or the quality of service the organisation provides. The JCR committee hopes CUSU can make the constructive changes necessary to re-connect with student concerns and better address them in future.

 

NO: JAMES TIFFIN, CLARE COLLEGE JCR PRESIDENT

Student politics, in the wider scheme of things, is not really that important. No one except a student would care about hobs being taken away from gyp rooms, or the intricacies of college finance.

This is the life of a JCR committee member. Much of their work goes unnoticed and is seemingly mundane and pointless: sitting on college committees, discussing the details of common room furniture, filling out trivial paper work. All of this means that we, the Union of Clare Students for example, are representing Clare undergraduates to the College and will stand up for them when College is out of line. However, while I might have a lot of weight in minor college matters, I am powerless to influence the real issues which could have a detrimental impact on the lives of those I represent. How could I have any hope of telling the University that we want a longer Freshers’ Week, a Reading Week in the middle of term or a sports centre?

The concept is simple: JCRs are powerless to bring about real change in the University. We need, like every other university in the country, to have a Student Union. CUSU does this job incredibly well and I will explain how. JCR committees, for one thing, receive unlimited support from the CUSU sabbatical officers. There are fortnightly ‘Presidents and Externals’ meetings, organised by CUSU, to help JCR and MCR presidents discuss how they can get Around any problems they may be having. CUSU provides invaluable training to JCR welfare officers, which they would be lucky to get off their own back. We use a CUSU system for running online elections. In fact, JCRs are almost entirely dependent on CUSU.

As for individuals, just think what the place would be like without CUSU. For a start, would we have any concept of equality in the system? Be it LBGT, disabled, women or whatever, who stands up for minorities? Academics certainly don’t. And I don’t think JCRs stand much chance there. Without CUSU, there would be no Student Advice Service, which does incredible work, but which those who don’t struggle fail to see. Without CUSU, we wouldn’t have the country’s biggest student-run access initiative. Without CUSU, we would have no hope of getting a sports centre. Without CUSU, the people who run the University would crap on every student who was having difficulties – they just want good results and good money. It is thanks to the dedicated CUSU sabbs, who sit on the ridiculous number of committees through which the University operates, who work 12 hours or more a day, that our lives here are a lot better than they could be. And it is only thanks to the money they receive through JCR affiliation that they are able to do this.

I doubt students at Corpus really worried about this when they voted to disaffiliate. But it’s not like they had to: it would be unfair for CUSU to fail to support any individual students, simply because their JCR had decided to disaffiliate. I’m not sure that anyone is really questioning the value of CUSU, and for the reasons stated above I think I have made that clear enough. But what the Corpus JCR is doing is to deprive CUSU of a considerable chunk of their funds, which means that the services they are able to offer could be severely diminished this time next year. If every JCR committee decided that they didn’t want to pay, CUSU could not function. We have a collective responsibility to pay for the services we receive from them – it is stupid to expect something for nothing here. It is not even as if each student at Corpus will get an extra £6 off their college bill, or as if the JCR will have a few thousand extra to spend, because the College will probably just spend that money on something else. As it is, however, every other JCR will be funding services which Corpus students can still take full advantage of.

CUSU is the only Student Union in the country which has to put up with this nuisance. Even OUSU is funded through a block grant. CUSU is working on a more reliable way to fund itself, but until this is achieved, I think it is stupid and selfish of any JCR to do something which could have such a negative impact on other students, something which serves no purpose but to kick up controversy.

There is no viable financial justification for disaffiliating from CUSU. It is not only pointless, but damaging, and I would strongly advise any JCR to remain affiliated, for the good of their own students.