The union of Students in Ireland (USI) is on the verge of attaining its highest-ever membership, after students in UCC voted last week to return to the union after an absence of more than 15 years. Students at UCD vote this Thursday on whether to return to USI after a brief absence.
However, last Monday's win in Cork has not dispelled the prospect of USI president Dermot Lohan being impeached. While Lohan's authority has been bolstered by the win - and UCC union officials are unlikely to align themselves with the pro-impeachment camp - anti-Lohan students' unions are understood to be still keen to initiate an impeachment process. One such union has sent him a letter containing 15 questions, most of them relating to the financial management of the union.
Even if UCD students vote to return to USI on Thursday, there would be a window of opportunity for anti-Lohan unions to table a motion of no-confidence at a special national council, which could be held before UCD and UCC are formally back in USI. While this would give anti-Lohan unions the chance to muster a pro-impeachment majority, pro-Lohan unions may simply not turn up for any such meeting; such a move would render the meeting inquorate.
Immediately after the Cork referendum win, students' union officers from 10 colleges signed a statement affirming their support for Lohan. The officers, from two universities and eight ITs, praised him as a "good and honest" president who "came to office at a time when USI was at its lowest ebb in recent memory". Lohan had faced down "the selfish interests which have hampered USI for so long", the statement continued.
A College Tribune poll due out today suggests the referendum in UCD could also be a close call for USI. Some 73 per cent of the 200 students polled at the start of last week didn't know there was a referendum on the issue this week. Local students' union officers acknowledged at the end of last week that the campaign was virtually non-existent and were expecting a "sharp and short" campaign this week.
Only 39 per cent of students in the College Tribune poll said they would vote in the referendum, with 56 per cent saying they wouldn't vote; 5 per cent said saying they didn't know yet.
Of those who will vote, 14 per cent said they would vote Yes, 23 per cent No and 63 per cent didn't know which way they would vote. According to the Tribune, of the 200 students who were polled the majority didn't know who the USI president was. College Tribune co-editor Arnold Dillon suggests that because of the lack of an official "No" campaign last week, USI is likely to attract the majority of "Don't Knows" once its campaign begins in earnest. "If there was an organised No campaign, the vote could be very tight, and could even go against USI," he says.
UCD students' union is following a "standard precedent" and adopting a neutral position in the referendum. President John Nisbet said that while he will vote Yes, he will not be "campaigning vigorously" on the issue, and will be concentrating on other union business this week.
