USI Referendum in UCC 2015

Richmond Ultra

As announced in this weeks Express on campus the tri-annual vote regarding USI membership will take place. I have looked through various threads re the USI and haven't seen this one mentioned so I said I'd set up this thread.

The voting will take place on the 26th/27th of January. The question will be do you want UCC to disaffiliate from the USI?

A few rules have been put in place for this vote unlike what has been seen at other colleges in the past and that is for both sides in the interest of fairness. Both sides can only nominate eight non-UCC graduates to campaign on campus and anybody else may be ejected by campus security. This is to stop the policy of the USI in the past of busing in students from other colleges to campaign on campus. The reason eight was chosen according to the SU is because it allows for each member of the executive of USI to campaign on campus plus one or two others.

So as the thread says discuss the merits of USI membership for UCC. It's €5 a full time student and €2.50 a part time student.

CantGetNoSleep

What have they achieved in recent years (or ever)? Apart from creating a few jobs for the nerdy little hitler types you seem to get in student politics, little or nothing i would say.

Richmond Ultra

Well the achievements they list for UCC include successful lobbying of td's to stop further education cuts.

Help to support the protests for eduction. They called the one successful back in October that had a grand total of 150 students who traveled to Dublin for a concert and March costing €3 that the USI subsidised.

Free condoms for shag week that the USI pay for instead of the SU.

Lobby college bodies for better academic standards.

Run workshops for dealing with mental health and suicide etc.

Lastly they run the pink training for lgbt people and its the only event in the country for lgbt people to meet in large numbers and tells them all the new techniques etc in order to deal with people coming out etc. Interestingly it was picked for CIT this year despite them not having an lgbt society like other colleges but they do happen to have a referendum vote in the next few months like UCC so it was a politically relevant choice of venue.

I think any SU worth their salt could easily provide all of the above given the extra money they would have considering they wont have to give over €90,000? to the USI. The USI have refused to announce how much they currently make in student fee's from UCC and other colleges despite repeated emails from various people around the country. That is the reason for the ? behind the figure.

magicianz

As far as I'm aware, UCC would be more on the order of €120,000 - €150,000 p/a but I'm not 100% sure.

The only reason that I would support USI is that it takes that money out of potentially corrupt hands in the SU. The accounts are extremely guarded, only the President and the UCCSU Returning Officer get to see them. Other members of the SU team just hear figures, they don't get to see the books. It's quite common for money to go on nights out and such in bars and it to be claimed as food. That money going to USI means that part of that money won't be completely squandered in years where there is an unscrupulous union.

Apart from that, I've been falling out of interest with USI, and I would be classed as one of those political types. I have my fingers in the pies I need still and I hear about quite a lot. This year's SU, while I don't agree with parts of what they've done and with the behaviour of one of them, they're much better than the last few years have been.

Honestly, there shouldn't be a massive body like USI. It has grown too big and has too many people in there to function as a lean, mean campaigning machine its meant to be. It would be too much work for all of the SU's around the country to actually run nationwide things themselves, as well as the definite ego tripping that would wreck any type of events they scraped together.

There is definitely a need for a body to represent all students and to co-ordinate the efforts of students around the country to fight for our rights and our future, however the USI is basically acting like a political party now. Bringing people they like up through the ranks, getting money from their public (students) to act the mick and organise a few things here and there. If it was run correctly and truly in the interest of students, it would be much leaner and much more effective. Unfortunately, there are always freeloaders, there are always people who can only pull off mediocre events/campaigns are told that they're fantastic by their sycophantic possy and there are always people who are only interested in it as a gateway to mainstream politics.

tl;dr I'm voting no to affiliation because the USI is a money sucking dinosaur. I will vote yes when they clean up their act, get rid of their cronyism and actually start becoming worth the money.

Richmond Ultra

Young fine Gael will host a debate on the above topic in west wing 6 at 7.30 tomorrow night. I have no idea of who the debaters will be at this event.

JohnyDarko

A completely(ish) unbiased pros/cons list (from the last vote that was held, but it hasn't really changed).

Pros

• They provide SU sabbat training
• They provide training for LGBT officers
• They organize protests

Cons

• There is training orginized by non-USI institutions (such as UCD, the largest university in Ireland)
• They're protests aren't all that effective and they invite all non-USI members to them to boost numbers anyway
• They take €100,000+ of UCC student money which could otherwise be spent on something worthwhile
• They spend an inordinate amount (ie: over €200,000) hosting a lavish 4 day piss-up at a 5 star hotel for members of the SU's plus their various hangers on.
• Their protests have had little to no effect (see the "cap" on fees, pushing Labour in the last general election because they'd support lower fees, etc)
• There is no benefit they give us which you would miss if you disaffiliate

Then again, I'm long graduated, but I'm still annoyed we didn't disaffiliate the last time, in no part down to them not playing by the referendum rules students had to abide to and the SU at the time supporting them in every way possible (like them giving us such short notice that a referendum was coming up on this issue at all - a week if I remember correctly, not publicizing it at all, and not taking a neutral stance on it).

Richmond Ultra

The following is important for anybody looking to campaign on the above matter regardless of how you want the vote to go. It's taken from the college Facebook page.
***IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ALL CAMPAIGNERS***

If you are campaigning or leading a campaign team for either a YES or NO vote you are required to register with Dick Murphy, the Deputy President & Campaigns Officer no later than Monday 19th January. Your teams and you need to be briefed on the rules and regulations. If rules and regulations are not adhered to disciplinary action will be taken and may be damaging to your campaign. Contact Dick on deputy@uccsu.ie

To Need a Woman

Richmond Ultra wrote: »

Free condoms for shag week that the USI pay for instead of the SU.

Where do actually hand them out! Is it poss to get em discretely?

To Need a Woman

Someone said something about this gay (so called) marriage vote too?

Richmond Ultra

To Need a Woman wrote: »

Where do actually hand them out! Is it poss to get em discretely?

call into the welfare office you'll get four free. They've a big choice to pick from with flavoured condoms to extra safe etc. Everybody has gone in there to get them at one stage. if your embarrassed about getting condoms you probably shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

Richmond Ultra

To Need a Woman wrote: »

Someone said something about this gay (so called) marriage vote too?

Yes this vote is on as well. Voting closes at 5pm. You'll see all the lgbt people outside the library canvassing.

Dave47

jaysus they were hammered. To be expected when there was a lot more campaigners from the yes vote out I suppose.

Luno

Surprised by the stark difference but I think that it was expected because of the wide-scale yes campaigning. I'm a little disappointed being honest, I feel with the right UCC Union greater measures could be implemented to ensure equality & resources for all. I don't think that I have ever benefited from being a member of USI to date.

magicianz

Most people haven't really benefited from USI. They're at most a lobbying body for the government which, so far, hasn't really had that much success. Many of the things they have had success with was through someone else starting a movement and them latching on. Any of the physical items/trainings they provide for our fees are but a fraction of the money they get from UCC.

It was quite disappointing to see that USI were able to fund leaflets and tshirts and everything else, as well have having sabbats from UCCSU out canvassing for a yes vote, regardless of whether or not they took the days off. I love the fact that the USI spent the money we gave them to pay for those leaflets and tshirts, that money is really working for us, isn't it....

To Need a Woman

Richmond Ultra wrote: »

call into the welfare office you'll get four free. They've a big choice to pick from with flavoured condoms to extra safe etc. Everybody has gone in there to get them at one stage. if your embarrassed about getting condoms you probably shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

I'd also have shame going into the welfare office. Emphasis on the word 'welfare'

To Need a Woman

magicianz wrote: »

Most people haven't really benefited from USI. They're at most a lobbying body for the government which, so far, hasn't really had that much success. Many of the things they have had success with was through someone else starting a movement and them latching on. Any of the physical items/trainings they provide for our fees are but a fraction of the money they get from UCC.

It was quite disappointing to see that USI were able to fund leaflets and tshirts and everything else, as well have having sabbats from UCCSU out canvassing for a yes vote, regardless of whether or not they took the days off. I love the fact that the USI spent the money we gave them to pay for those leaflets and tshirts, that money is really working for us, isn't it....

My guess would be that how well one does is all down to the individual. The USI will only help people who are struggling, and I'm not one of them. It's just a hobby for people while in uni, so they can feel like they're doing something