College newspapers stay sceptical

The front page of the UCD College Tribune's USI referendum edition was reminiscent of the Sun's banner headline on the day of the 1992 British general election. "Vote NO to USI," it read (with the NO in four inch high letters, "or would the last person to leave UCD please turn the lights out".

The tongue-in-cheek headline recalled the Sun's request that, if Neil Kinnock were elected Prime Minister, the last person out of Britain should turn out the lights behind them.

The Tribune asked in a front page editorial whether UCD students "want to reaffiliate to an organisation we ditched barely a year ago". The paper claimed USI offered UCD "little more than token representation and a playground for our ambitious student student politicians."

The organisation was "based on outmoded structures that inhibit even the most well-intentioned attempts at reform," it said. Acrimony and infighting in the organisation had reached "obscene proportions" and reaffiliating would "be breathing life into an already dead union."

The college's University Observer was no less sceptical of returning to USI. "Last year the students' union told us all the reasons to leave USI," it said. "This year they will tell us the reverse. Change of heart or straight forward politicking? The SU will have to come up with some pretty good reasons for a complete U-turn in policy in the space of less than a year."

The newspaper regretted that no strong anti-affiliation campaign had emerged and concluded that "nothing has been achieved by USI in the last year that would warrant someone who voted against them last year reversing their decision."