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What OUSU needs

When Peter Bowden ran for OUSU Rep at Lincoln College, his manifesto was deceptively funny. He promised to make all the good things OUSU did better, and make all the bad things go away. And that’s not a summary.

But as with most of the stuff he writes, beneath the acidic, controversial humour, there is a rich vein of potent criticism and commentary. What he was saying was what a lot of people have been thinking for a while now: that OUSU is all petty politics and no action.

This is why Iwu’s election last year was, in my opinion, a step forward for our student union. Let’s take an example: when I first heard about student-run clubbing-venture ‘Pulse’ last Trinity, I was cautiously optimistic. When I found out that OUSU had last week entered into a partnership with them I thought, “OUSU have actually got something right”. For that Iwu deserves applause.

From the current early marketing campaign, it is clear that Pulse is run by two enterprising, experienced students who have a clear understanding of the Oxford nightlife scene and who are willing to outthink their competitors.

Are these two guys, though, the first ever Oxford students to have this entrepreneurial flair and experience of club promotion? I remain unconvinced. So why the hell hasn’t OUSU – in the face of a mammoth Rock Oxford and a sickly looking Zoo – not attempted this sort of venture before? Why have we been relying on Business Managers and VP (Finance)s of previous years to run our club nights? Rock Oxford’s success has been based on a network of student promoters. OUSU could have contracted their Zoo nights out to some of these people years ago, by simply offering them better incentives to defect. Instead it waited for these promoters to come to OUSU, with a viable policy thankfully served up on a platter. That’s just not good enough, and is a blemish on past OUSU Exectuives.

When the potential candidates in the OUSU Presidential contest become evident in the next few weeks, I want to see someone coming forward who has the initiative to propose these kind of schemes. I don’t want woolly phrases or simple platitudes; I want the kind of serious proposals that students can assess on a logical basis.

Hand in hand with this hope is the assertion that an OUSU President has to be competent. Anybody can stand up and claim an idea as their own, but what Oxford students deserve is a candidate who can prove that they have been a success in the past, and will continue to be a success in the future. Given that, for instance, welfare service provision is dependent on OUSU, there’s no room for mistakes, and no room for ineptitude. In short, we can’t afford to see OUSU suffer through a series of debacles that, say, the Oxford Union has been subjected to in recent years. In a university where thousands of the brightest young minds in the world are congregated, how hard can this really be?

Most importantly, I’ll be looking for an OUSU President that cares. And I don’t mean about OUSU or – whisper it quietly – about themselves, and their political aspirations. I mean about the students of Oxford; the services they receive, the support they get and the faith they have in their representative body. This point shouldn’t be underestimated; being OUSU President is an unglamorous job. Early mornings; hard work; constant criticism. We have to look for someone who’ll cope with all that, and still negotiate for endless hours to implement the plans they’ve promised us, the students they represent.

It is my full belief that there must be a student who fulfils all these criteria: initiative, competence and passion. But mixed in with this belief is the knowledge that only the average student – you and I – can elect him or her. If we truly wish to see a resurgent OUSU continue along its upward trajectory, we must admit our own responsibility to ensure this; we must find the right candidate, and not content ourselves to be fooled by the shiny signs that inevitably find themselves outside our colleges come election day.

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