Unity is Strength

Unity is strength or so the USI motto goes! Hustings is over in NUIG and with the small turnout remaining to see the USI hustings, this motto came to mind.

Where USI falls down is the lack communication with our members. It is only when USI is united will our government really take our concerns to heart. Why do we never ask the question ‘why was the student who didn’t turn up for a meeting/march/occupation not here’? At the hustings we were asked about non-affiliates. With this question I asked myself ‘what about re-affiliating or re-energising our own members, especially the ones who do not engage with us?’

One in three students in the West will not be able to afford college if fees are brought in. One in three versus unity is strength. Unless the student base is sufficiently energised enough by our union, the apathy which has eroded student involvement threatens to dismantle our union. We must connect with these students, these students must be informed of any issue which may affect them.

In the interests of being fair, I can say that for the first few years of my college experience at NUIG I was ignorant to many of the issues. I had a life outside of the traditional college life and I saw no need to engage in anything on campus. I feel USI must broaden its message into the cities and regions of our members. This can be done by hosting events like the upcoming MAFS (mammies against fees) meetings in the western region or like the grant information evening that I co-ordinated in Galway city in late August. This was a massive success with hundreds of people turning up making myself and the sabbaticals from NUIG and GMIT work very hard for a couple of hours. These are a number of ways to get out and connect with students in a different manner. Our union is big enough to come up with other ways too.

Only when USI gets its important message out to our students will it have unity and it is in this unity that the organisation will find strength. Student marches across the country over the past number of months have been ‘well attended’. We need to ask ourselves why about 2000 students came to the march in Galway City (apart from the rain and all associated misery) or why the National march was not significantly bigger than the Dublin march. USI claims to have hundreds of thousands of members. Re-energising this base would create a stronger student movement and is something USI must address. It is on a parity with our other serious issue - the re-introduction of third level fees.

Perhaps a way forward is USI running a campus wide week long meet and greet session, whereby the officers go in to as many class addresses as possible and give a short statement on USI and why the students should care (I.e. because they pay for it) - hitting the biggest classes in as many colleges with as many USI officers as possible also has the potential for us to say to the media, politicians and other lobby groups ‘USI has consulted with 100,000 members this week’. The possible bang from this statement should not be underestimated.

We can do this - but we must start now. Apathy is eroding our power with students and it is something I feel we must counter. Unity is strength. One in three students. If the one third who are lost because they never engaged, never fought then we have failed as a union.