Officers of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) were celebrating a new sign of the recent turn-around in their fortunes last week when a disaffiliation referendum due to be held today in NUI Galway was called off at the 11th hour by its sponsors.
The ballot, which was called on foot of a petition collected by NUIG's Law Society would have asked students whether they wished to remain members of the national students' union. However, on Thursday, with, effectively, just over two days left to campaign, the disaffiliation committee of the Law Society requested that the referendum be postponed indefinitely.
The Law Society said it sought the deferral in order to enable students to assess how reforms passed at the recent USI congress would be implemented next term. It also said the society could not countenance "such an important ballot" being held just two weeks before exams begin.
The society's petition, collected last term, called for a ballot on the issue and was signed by 300 students. Many of them considered the national union to be poor value for money for the local union's £17,000 affiliation fee; others considered USI too politically liberal for their tastes.
However, much has changed at USI in the past few months. Students concerned about the "politically correct" orientation of the national union were mollified by the downgrading of two officer positions - lesbian, gay and bisexual rights and women's rights - to part-time, unpaid posts. The money saved was used to create a research post, a position which the union in Galway had pressed for. The sting was also taken out of the controversy about the level of expenses claimed by the national union's officers when USI reformed its administrative structures and financial control mechanisms.
The national union's chances of keeping Galway in the fold were further improved by the election of local students' union president Darren McCallig as incoming education officer of USI, and fellow student Orla Richardson as lesbian, gay and bisexual officer.
As a result of these developments, some of those who helped organise the petition for the referendum had started to distance themselves from the campaign. With less than a week to go, there was little evidence of an organised campaign against remaining in USI. Both USI and the local union were running very low-key pro-USI campaigns, so as not to alienate students far more concerned with their exams than their membership of the national students' union.
USI was always likely to meet with less hostility in Galway than it encountered at UCD earlier in the academic year, when the national union lost a disaffiliation referendum by a handful of votes after an acrimonious campaign. Whereas the local students union in Belfield advised students to vote to pull out of USI, the union in Galway was foursquare behind the national union, with several of its officers actively involved in USI. NUIG students' union vice-president Julian de Spainn (who is also USI's Irish language officer) said there would have been "a fairly good poll for USI" in the referendum. "USI have really performed for Galway this year and put through major reforms at this year's national congress. We haven't heard a word from the `No' campaigners since then, and they haven't told us what they think of the reforms."
USI deputy president Helen Ryan led the national union's campaign in Galway. "On the one hand it's a pity we didn't have an opportunity to put the issue to the students, which in normal circumstances would have allowed a good debate between USI officers and the union's critics. "However, as the campaign developed it was obvious that it was going to be completely one-sided. We actually found ourselves setting out the criticisms of us, so we could address them! "I am confident that if the referendum is held next year, it will effectively be a re-affirmation of NUIG students' belief in the concept of a national students' union. I hope that if our campaign achieved anything last week, it will have encouraged people to become more actively involved in USI."
USI will welcome the indefinite postponement of the referendum because of what it indicates about the political success of its reforms. However, predictions of the the likely turnout, which sources in both unions acknowledge could have been as low as 10 per cent of the student electorate in Galway, highlight just how far down the list of students' priorities their national union is - and the enormity of the task of getting them interested in national student politics.
