DCU to rejoin USI, your thoughts?

tweak33

I've just found out that DCUSU invited Gary Redmond to DCUSU class rep training to unbiasedly give an opinion on the workings of USI. I don't know about the rest of you but in my opinion, that's pure bollocks.

The idea that one of the main and most influential people in the organisation would appear before an unaffiliated college to provide an unbiased opinion,which I can only assume was such as the one he presented at the USI debate last year, is completely unthinkable for me.

It should be uncomprehendable for any member of the current Union(as a whole not just the exec who obviously backed up this arrangement) to ever think re-affiliation would do any good for the college, in my opinion. The Union in Dcu works unlike any I've ever come across. It provides benificial and necessary campaigns that are suceessful to the students they are aimed at, events that are successfully profitably and enjoyble for the students attending them. It is a Union that works with out any unnecessary bullsh*it surrounding them by the members personal interests influencing the way in which the Union works. It is ran by the students of DCU and for the students of DCU without the question of party, political or national sh*ite.

Recently Brian MacCraith indicated that re-affiliation would be a good thing for the college, my personal view, one that has been mirrored by many members of this forum,in the past, is that reaffiliation would lead to politicalisation of the Union, something that I firmly believe would hugely be unbeneficial.

The point of this thread essentially is to see whether or not previous students who have been part of the Union who were members of USI, previous students who were or were not members of USI, new students who are not memeers of USI or students who were in a college previously who were members of USI think it would be beneifitial to rejoin them..... any thought?

Bluefox21

Why did they leave in the first place??

Garseys

Bluefox21 wrote: »

Why did they leave in the first place??

After the fiasco of the USIT collapse, DCU felt it was no longer beneficial to be a member of USI, we left in 2002 iirc.

trellheim

We were members back in 1987, it was bull then and its bull now. too many little fiefdoms and there is little that USI can do as an organization [ or could at the time anyway ]

phantom_lord

yeah i don't get what we'd get from joining.

Grudaire

Was their site hacked or what?

I personnally see no benefit from joining the USI, it's just a case of funding more SUhead types to get all uppity about stuff while eating through our money.

Tree

The SU is an ineffective body in its own right. Signing up to the USI means it's affiliated with an even more useless organisation and paying through the nose for pleasure of doing so. Better to stay out of USI and use the spare money to subsidise student life in a more worthwile manner.

badradio

I was at the Gary Redmond USI talk for rep training and at first I thought it could be beneficial to join, that they had our best interest in mind. However, when it came to question time (which lasted for about 2 hours, fml) most students had a negative view on their work, it seems to me that when the referdum goes through, more that likely we will not be affiliated with USI. But regardless of whether we are or not, they'll still be representing us and making choices for us, apparently. I think it would be no harm to join, especially with the grant situation and registration fees that are going to be introduced on the budget. 40 colleges are with USI, and our college, being college of the year could make a big difference. Besides...we can always leave USI if we dont like what theyre doing.

Tree

Nothing to stop SU's independantly organising protests. USI isnt the only organisation that SU's feed into, there are other forums.

monument

badradio wrote: »

But regardless of whether we are or not, they'll still be representing us and making choices for us, apparently.

Nobody of any real importance listens to them, not on the most important issues anyway.

badradio wrote: »

I think it would be no harm to join,

So, membership of the USI is now free? :eek: Or are you saying no harm bar wasting money?

badradio wrote: »

especially with the grant situation and registration fees that are going to be introduced on the budget.

(DCU members or not) how is the USI going to effect this?

badradio wrote: »

40 colleges are with USI, and our college, being college of the year could make a big difference.

How would it make a difference? What difference?

badradio wrote: »

Besides...we can always leave USI if we dont like what theyre doing.

DCU already did that because of the USI problems, the USI still has problems, nothing changed there, so why would DCU return?

Tree wrote: »

Nothing to stop SU's independantly organising protests. USI isnt the only organisation that SU's feed into, there are other forums.

Exactly, and there was nothing stopping DCU from joining any of the student protests in the last few years.

eagleye7

The problem I have with rejoining is the refusal of the USI to reform itself.
Theres a huge waste of resources in everything to do with the USI, from the huge joining fee to the overkill number of sabbatical offers they have.

It was remarked at the debate last year that the best thing to do is to join up and campaign for change in the organization. Imo I'm not going to pay someone to come in to their house and clean up. The reason we left from what I have heard is because the whole process was stagnating, and it was impossible for DCU and other parties to make any changes. from what i can see it hasnt changed much and I wouldnt be at all in favor of rejoining until they can show they have a better functioning union.

just my two cents

thusspakeblixa

My main problem is the money.

Yes, it costs less than a fiver to join the USI. But I have friends in NUI Maynooth (who rejoined last year), and there hasn't been a massive shift in their lives.

Being a USI member makes no difference 95% of the time.

That 4 euro (or 5) could be spent on joining a society. Which actually does make a difference.

Or, it could be spent on a breakfast roll.

That's tasty.

Tomar re

TBH we get all the USI perks without joining as it is, all we have lost is access to sabat training and pink training but we could just go in with other non-usi su's for training for sabats.
NUIM runs a non-usi pink training for LGBT that we could go to instead.

Dj Stiggie

thusspakeblixa wrote: »

My main problem is the money.

Yes, it costs less than a fiver to join the USI. But I have friends in NUI Maynooth (who rejoined last year), and there hasn't been a massive shift in their lives.

Being a USI member makes no difference 95% of the time.

That 4 euro (or 5) could be spent on joining a society. Which actually does make a difference.

Or, it could be spent on a breakfast roll.

That's tasty.

We were told tonight that realistically it'll be €5 for basic membership, plus €3 for other costs, if we ever want to do anything beyond being just a member, so it'll be €8.

Also, it was decided tonight by Union Council that there will be a referendum on it in the coming weeks

Grudaire

Dj Stiggie wrote: »

Also, it was decided tonight by Union Council that there will be a referendum on it in the coming weeks

Hurray - referendums. :rolleyes:

gizmo

Dj Stiggie wrote: »

We were told tonight that realistically it'll be €5 for basic membership, plus €3 for other costs, if we ever want to do anything beyond being just a member, so it'll be €8.

Also, it was decided tonight by Union Council that there will be a referendum on it in the coming weeks

So are the SU taking a side on this or do they have to remain impartial? If so, then I hope to hell we have some competent people leading the no vote.

tomar-re

gizmo wrote: »

So are the SU taking a side on this or do they have to remain impartial? If so, then I hope to hell we have some competent people leading the no vote.

The SU will be deciding if they shall have a stance at an emergency meeting next week. If the SU don't have a stance then USI will try and steamroll the campus into submission as they have a very large budget that DCU will refill next year.

Garseys

tomar-re wrote: »

The SU will be deciding if they shall have a stance at an emergency meeting next week. If the SU don't have a stance then USI will try and steamroll the campus into submission as they have a very large budget that DCU will refill next year.

Not exactly, I raised this issue at UC. If we vote to have a stance or no stance, this is still going to be an internally run referendum for the reasons you mentioned above.

But as some pointed out, that mightn't happen and we may have a repeat of what happened in st.pats last year.

thusspakeblixa

How much do referendums cost us?

Cid-Highwind

tomar-re wrote: »

The SU will be deciding if they shall have a stance at an emergency meeting next week. If the SU don't have a stance then USI will try and steamroll the campus into submission as they have a very large budget that DCU will refill next year.

The SU remaining impartial while allowing USI to campaign on campus is pretty much the worst possible combination in terms of allowing the campus to be 'streamrolled into submission' as I doubt anyone will have similar resources to put into a No campaign and the thing will quickly turn into a joke.

If the SU wants to take a side that's fine, the constitution allows for this and ensures that equal funding be allocated to those wishing to campaign against them.

If the issue is to be properly settled then there can't be any issues over USI buying the yes vote. The council can and should ask that USI respect that this is a matter for DCU students alone to campaign on. If they can't respect that then it doesn't sound like an organisation DCU should be joining.

Cid-Highwind

thusspakeblixa wrote: »

How much do referendums cost us?

Last referendum I was involved in probably cost a few hundred euro in terms of stationery, posters and lollipops etc. Since the electoral committee don't get paid they can be ran for almost nothing.

tomar-re

They cost 33 cent per person for the campaigns budget about 4 or 5k but that includes the money for the elections at the end of the year.

The union seem to be rushing this one to have it ready for the day of the big march, I don't see why we can't have a campaign of 5 weeks giving a long time to inform the student body.

Landa2

Timing of the referendum may be in question, Constitutionally they has to be a time period between when its announced and when it happens.. As of yet the date hasn't even been formally decided by Union Council so week 5 is looking like a non-runner..

I agree, for such a big decision we can have people going to polling stations to get their free lollipop, the electorate needs to be well informed on this one..

TheChrisD

Cliste wrote: »

Hurray - referendums. :rolleyes:

Oh dear. I can already sense Declan Traynor (or an equivalent) calling for many recounts :rolleyes:

myk

Dj Stiggie wrote: »

We were told tonight that realistically it'll be €5 for basic membership, plus €3 for other costs, if we ever want to do anything beyond being just a member, so it'll be €8.

Also, it was decided tonight by Union Council that there will be a referendum on it in the coming weeks

How are the costs of membership going to be paid? Will students be able to opt out of USI membership?

tomar-re

TheChrisD wrote: »

Oh dear. I can already sense Declan Traynor (or an equivalent) calling for many recounts :rolleyes:

Did he call for a recount at the last referendum?

Fiftysix

This was quick

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001701282181

Garseys

Cid-Highwind wrote: »

The council can and should ask that USI respect that this is a matter for DCU students alone to campaign on. If they can't respect that then it doesn't sound like an organisation DCU should be joining.

Qft

Imo USI dropped the ball constantly the last few years when they could have really ironed out issues with the govt.

Then again, having a body like USI lobbying DCU on certain issues could also be beneficial.

btw who has the largest vote at USI Council?

monument

Fiftysix wrote: »

This was quick

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001701282181

IF who ever set that up is watching could they set up a group page instead of a profile?

Garseys

monument wrote: »

IF who ever set that up is watching could they set up a group page instead of a profile?

Actually a page would be better, it shows up in the feeds etc...


I'm suprised how many graduates are adamant that DCU stay unaffiliated :pac:

myk

Garseys wrote: »

I'm suprised how many graduates are adamant that DCU stay unaffiliated :pac:

You mean the people who actually have experience of DCU being affiliated with USI?