Disaffiliation will force a conversation we need to have

I remember when I first joined my Sixth Form College in 2011. For reasons I don’t quite understand, I ended up being pushed into signing up to the NUS Extra card. At this point, I didn’t know what this organisation was, and I’ll be honest I hardly got my £12 worth over the year.

Now, I’m in my second year of university, and I’m practically none the wiser as to what this ‘NUS’ does for me as a student. And I consider myself to be ‘involved’ in student movement.

To me, this shows the one serious problem with the NUS: the fact that the overwhelming majority of students have no real idea what it is about, what it does. Their only connection with it is the 10% discount cards (the same 10% discount you can get from UNIDAYS for free). This lack of representation and transparency is, to me, a serious argument for sacking the whole thing off and flying solo.

This lack of representation and transparency is, to me, a serious argument for sacking the whole thing off and flying solo.

Yet, the NUS has a lot of positives. It does work for liberation campaigns and for minority groups, providing resources, advice and support. We have access to an NUS trade deal, which allows us to buy food and drink cheaper than negotiating prices on our own. For a number, these reasons are enough to stay.

Of course there are two sides to every story, and both the YES and NO campaigns have acknowledged this, admittedly some more than others. I’ve already cast my vote, and I voted to disaffiliate. While I can understand, and do not deny the work the NUS does, this serious disengagement with the students the NUS claims to represent is enough for me to seriously reconsider our membership. And if you feel the same, the best thing to do is to send a message to the NUS that they are not doing their job properly, and vote to leave.

I’ve already cast my vote, and I voted to disaffiliate.

However, regardless of the result on Friday, I hope that this will not be the end of the debate. I think what we all can agree on is that the NUS needs serious, serious reform. It needs to listen, to engage, to involve the 99% of students it currently doesn’t. It worries me that despite over 40 disaffiliation campaigns popping up over the UK since the last NUS Conference, the NUS still hasn’t held up its hands and admitted it needs to change.

It worries me how the NUS reacted to the strength of the disaffiliation campaign at Exeter last week, where instead of showing signs of improvement, it panicked and heavily campaigned for itself in not the politest of terms. It worries me that despite the YES campaign knowing the NUS isn’t perfect, there has been little attempt to address these serious problems before Warwick’s referendum came about. This all makes me sceptical that if we stay in, the NUS will voluntarily buck its ideas up.

This all makes me sceptical that if we stay in, the NUS will voluntarily buck its ideas up.

So I voted to disaffiliate. But this is not the best result we could get, in my opinion. If we vote out, I want this to send a message of dissatisfaction to the NUS, and maybe then it’ll change. If we vote to stay, I want us (as the YES campaign say) to push the NUS to change. I want both sides of the Warwick debate to come together to listen to what each other has to say, to find areas where the NUS is good, and areas where the NUS could do better.

If we vote out, both sides can address how Warwick SU can survive and thrive without it, offering discounts for local businesses instead of national chains, and focusing on the problems that Warwick students face. We can still campaign on a national basis through collaboration with other SUs – it does not necessarily have to be through the NUS.

Regardless of the outcome, I hope that this isn’t the end of an era, but the start of a conversation.

If we vote in, both sides can address how Warwick can lead in lobbying for reform within the NUS, campaigning for better transparency and engagement in NUS voting. Regardless of the outcome, I hope that this isn’t the end of an era, but the start of a conversation.

Ellie King