Another year is over – and what a year it has been!
At this week’s Annual General Meeting, I’ll be proud to report on a Union that is growing. After a year of record election turnout, record involvement in campaigns, record society and AU membership, and record numbers of students trained by the Union, LSE can still confidently say it has the most active student body in the country and, perhaps, the world.
When I became General Secretary in 2008, this Union was described by an external consultant as the worst managed in the country. Since then, it has been through a huge transformation. After a complete staffing overhaul, we have staff in campaigns, research, training, democracy and even environmental management for the first time, and we have more staff than ever before to support societies, sports and other activities. On top of this, we have been through a difficult but necessary period of democratic reform. We have new governing documents that reduce the bureaucracy on activists and societies, and we have opened our doors to groups of students that were previously excluded – I cannot wait to see our first Postgraduate Sabbatical Officer elected! Physically, the Union has also dramatically improved – internally, with last summer’s long overdue refurbishment, and externally, through our heavy involvement in LSE’s project to build a New Students’ Centre.
That’s not to say that everything has gone perfectly. But, of course, people make mistakes and Students’ Unions are all about allowing young people to learn; criticism and differences of opinion are evidence of a healthy organisation.
Sadly, differences of opinion in this Union often lead to polarisation, and there is still work that needs to be done on the Union’s culture. The cynicism and negativity that is often associated with active involvement in ‘Union politics’ still abounds. A prime example was when a few ‘activists’ went so far as to protest against their own Union to LSE Governors this week. I couldn’t think of a better contrast between the negativity that needs to be put behind us and the positive Union we are building for the future.
Unfortunately, the Union is still dominated by a clique. These self-proclaimed ‘activists’ are territorial – they talk about widening involvement but, when challenged, hold on jealously to their self-appointed titles as the Union’s ‘guardians’. They know what is best for students, not anyone else. When campaigns are organised by people outside this clique, they are shunned; for their own campaigns, they retain strict control and act like their issues are the only ones that matter. This is why they are so alarmed that the UGM will now use online voting; they can no longer pack out meetings, passing motions that claim to speak for 9000 students. Still, they shout the loudest and often get the most coverage from campus media.
Coming to The Beaver, being an editor is tough and I have often been in awe of the sacrifices made for the paper. All sorts of groups vie to control the paper and editors have to struggle with the fact that it can become a battleground for these competing interests. I have always tried to support editors when faced with fatuous complaints. It is therefore disheartening that an editorial a few weeks ago tried to claim that the Sabbs had caused a breakdown in the relationship with the paper. It takes two to cause a breakdown and, in my first year as a Sabb, we had a fantastic relationship with The Beaver. We can only speculate why this year was different and, in the end, it doesn’t really matter. But future editors need to decide whether an obsession with what goes on between their office in E204 and the Sabbs in the Kingsley Rooms is the best thing for students, or whether it only contributes to the cynicism that often holds this Union back.
Nonetheless, big strides have been made to involve previously distant groups – postgrads (both taught and research), the AU (once seen as separate from the ‘central’ Union), and others. But more needs to be done.
We have not yet even begun to scratch the surface of this Union’s potential. But after introspective recent years of deep internal change, the Union is now in a position to realise it. It has been an honour to be General Secretary of this Union, and I look forward to its future. Good luck to Charlotte, Ashok, Charlie, Hero and their team!
Related posts:
- Back to the Future
- Future of fees a farce
- Back to the Futureproof -
- Back to the Futureproof
- Moving forward and looking back
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 08:18 and is filed under Comment.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Gen Sec looks back to the future
on 16 Mar 2010 in Comment
Another year is over – and what a year it has been!
At this week’s Annual General Meeting, I’ll be proud to report on a Union that is growing. After a year of record election turnout, record involvement in campaigns, record society and AU membership, and record numbers of students trained by the Union, LSE can still confidently say it has the most active student body in the country and, perhaps, the world.
When I became General Secretary in 2008, this Union was described by an external consultant as the worst managed in the country. Since then, it has been through a huge transformation. After a complete staffing overhaul, we have staff in campaigns, research, training, democracy and even environmental management for the first time, and we have more staff than ever before to support societies, sports and other activities. On top of this, we have been through a difficult but necessary period of democratic reform. We have new governing documents that reduce the bureaucracy on activists and societies, and we have opened our doors to groups of students that were previously excluded – I cannot wait to see our first Postgraduate Sabbatical Officer elected! Physically, the Union has also dramatically improved – internally, with last summer’s long overdue refurbishment, and externally, through our heavy involvement in LSE’s project to build a New Students’ Centre.
That’s not to say that everything has gone perfectly. But, of course, people make mistakes and Students’ Unions are all about allowing young people to learn; criticism and differences of opinion are evidence of a healthy organisation.
Sadly, differences of opinion in this Union often lead to polarisation, and there is still work that needs to be done on the Union’s culture. The cynicism and negativity that is often associated with active involvement in ‘Union politics’ still abounds. A prime example was when a few ‘activists’ went so far as to protest against their own Union to LSE Governors this week. I couldn’t think of a better contrast between the negativity that needs to be put behind us and the positive Union we are building for the future.
Unfortunately, the Union is still dominated by a clique. These self-proclaimed ‘activists’ are territorial – they talk about widening involvement but, when challenged, hold on jealously to their self-appointed titles as the Union’s ‘guardians’. They know what is best for students, not anyone else. When campaigns are organised by people outside this clique, they are shunned; for their own campaigns, they retain strict control and act like their issues are the only ones that matter. This is why they are so alarmed that the UGM will now use online voting; they can no longer pack out meetings, passing motions that claim to speak for 9000 students. Still, they shout the loudest and often get the most coverage from campus media.
Coming to The Beaver, being an editor is tough and I have often been in awe of the sacrifices made for the paper. All sorts of groups vie to control the paper and editors have to struggle with the fact that it can become a battleground for these competing interests. I have always tried to support editors when faced with fatuous complaints. It is therefore disheartening that an editorial a few weeks ago tried to claim that the Sabbs had caused a breakdown in the relationship with the paper. It takes two to cause a breakdown and, in my first year as a Sabb, we had a fantastic relationship with The Beaver. We can only speculate why this year was different and, in the end, it doesn’t really matter. But future editors need to decide whether an obsession with what goes on between their office in E204 and the Sabbs in the Kingsley Rooms is the best thing for students, or whether it only contributes to the cynicism that often holds this Union back.
Nonetheless, big strides have been made to involve previously distant groups – postgrads (both taught and research), the AU (once seen as separate from the ‘central’ Union), and others. But more needs to be done.
We have not yet even begun to scratch the surface of this Union’s potential. But after introspective recent years of deep internal change, the Union is now in a position to realise it. It has been an honour to be General Secretary of this Union, and I look forward to its future. Good luck to Charlotte, Ashok, Charlie, Hero and their team!
Related posts:
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 08:18 and is filed under Comment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.