Robert Walmsley: Yes
We all know OUSU has a terrible reputation. Ranked the least popular student union in the UK for two years running and with a turnout of 16% at its last election, OUSU is anything but a cherished Oxford institution. Given this recent history, it is not surprising then that the idea has emerged that Oxford students need to somehow reclaim OUSU, if it can be said that students ever had a popular claim on it.
OUSU came into existence in the 1960s, with the aim of representing, supporting and enhancing the lives of students. Few would disagree that in recent years OUSU has fallen short of these aims. In spite of this, OUSU continues to matter, as it manages a fairly sizeable budget. OUSU is funded by a block grant from the University and the profits from its commercial subsidiary, Oxford Student Services Limited, known for sending you spam emails. However, despite these resources few students could tell you what this money is spent on. Although, the people who do use their services seem to be generally positive about them.
According to the website Unistat, Oxford has an extremely low level of satisfaction with its student union, even for a collegiate university. For example, the National Student Survey found student satisfaction with the Oxford University student union was 36%, compared to 42%, at Cambridge, 50%, at Durham, and 62% at York.
Considering the clear lack of an OUSU fan club, who are we to blame for this distinct lack of popularity? The answer most people seem to suggest is the indomitable scourge of student politicians. OUSU does not have an unearned reputation for this. For example, Will Straw, OUSU President in 2003, has been selected to run, as the Labour candidate, in the constituency of Rossendale and Darwen, for the 2015 general election. It is no wonder then we see repeated promises of change, which has condemned Oxford students to feel like they are suffering from an endless rerun of the rhetoric of the 2008 American presidential election.
What seems to turn many people off is the disparity between the language candidates use to talk about OUSU elections and how students talk about it. Candidates talk in terms of utopian ideals of representation and abstract promises, while when students talk about OUSU the conversation is often characterised by mistrust, suspicion and general apathy. The consistently low turnout in OUSU elections is a demonstration of this fact.
The largest problem OUSU has is it has so far failed to reach a widely recognised purpose, which demonstrates its value to Oxford students. Oxford students need to know what OUSU provides them that their JCR or MCR does not. What will be far less clear to most Oxford students is who the right candidate to establish such a purpose is. Oxford has no shortage of student politicians, but it does seem to have a shortage of popular ones. If sweeping change does not happen this year… well, there is always next year.
(This article was mistakenly attributed to Will Railton in print on 15/11/13. Apologies to both Robert and Will)
Alexander Trafford: No
As we approach sixth week, and election-obsessed hacks of all sorts become increasingly nervous and over friendly, it is hard to miss the fact that you’ll soon be asked to vote for at least one person in at least one election because they are ‘the only candidate who will really make a difference’. OUSU’s is certainly the most obvious and least avoidable upcoming election. This is either because someone will almost certainly wake you up one morning by banging on your door and asking you to vote, or because the candidates will appear in your JCR meeting so that each of them can explain in turn why they really are the person who should be in the Labour Party cabinet in fifteen years’ time. With the largest electorate, OUSU’s is not an election to be ignored, and so I’m sure that you noticed the rallying cry this week that this term is our chance to ‘Reclaim OUSU’. Now, I didn’t want to write on this side of the debate to attack the particular slate or campaign; I think it’s an honourable one. Instead, I simply suggest that successful reclamation or not, most students won’t notice the difference.
It is stereotypical and dull to criticise OUSU and suggest that our student union ‘does nothing’, which is why I’m only going to do that a little bit. Right or wrong, it is certainly a popular view that OUSU is irrelevant to the life of an Oxford undergraduate. There is of course a legitimate part of this claim; the collegiate nature of the University does mean that much of what is done by most other student unions is handled in Oxford by JCRs and their committees. Repeated pledges and plans for OUSU to offer a more typical student union building to act as a student hub are met with tepid responses and blank stares. Though there are a few particularly angry people who disaffiliate themselves from our student union before they even arrive here, on the whole OUSU doesn’t inspire hatred. Instead, most people simply aren’t interested: I say that the OUSU election shouldn’t be ignored, but it might be useful to remember the fact that the vast majority of students don’t even bother to vote.
I don’t deny that what OUSU does, it does well. Particularly when it comes to specific areas such as welfare, rather than attempting to represent the views of Oxford’s students on national issues, OUSU clearly provides a real benefit. The OUSU Exec repeatedly prove themselves to be very good at what they do, whether or not they are the ‘student politicians’ that some would have us resent. So why would OUSU need reclaiming? For more pledges to find new ways to extend OUSU’s reach and remit; something that students clearly aren’t calling for. Seeing as a student union’s purpose is to reflect its student’s views and wishes, it might be worth listening to that. Our student union doesn’t need reclaiming: the indifferent student body it represents clearly thinks OUSU is doing just fine.
