Fifty years of revolution and evolution

EDUCATION PROFILE:Street protests, ego clashes, court cases, imprisonment, money woes – the USI has had many ups and downs in its five-decade history, writes GRÁINNE FALLER

NEXT WEEK, the Union of Students in Ireland will celebrate its golden anniversary with a gala banquet attended by President McAleese.

USI has, at various times in its history, been a platform for the likes of Joe Duffy and Eamonn Gilmore, but these days it must battle with student apathy.

Street protests, almighty ego clashes, court cases, the occasional imprisonment, money troubles and a healthy dose of politicking – the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has had an eventful 50 years.

It has been a hotbed for high achievers – the SDLP’s Mark Durkan, Labour’s Eamonn Gilmore, Pat Rabbitte, Joe Duffy and Chief Justice John Murray are all former officers – but accusations of irrelevance crop up on a regular basis. Now, as needs develop and students change, can the organisation survive for another 50 years, or is a radical overhaul required?

In the first decades of USI’s existence, you couldn’t keep the students off the streets. Former Labour leader Pat Rabbitte recalls his time as president as one of excitement and idealism. “It was a time of fierce uproar,” he says. “I suppose in a way, we believed that we could change the world.”

The USI in Rabbitte’s time rode on the backwash of the radicalism of the 1960s. They campaigned on educational issues such as higher education grants and access, but the time is mainly remembered as one where students rallied about global issues such as peace and civil rights. Inevitably, the USI was sucked into the situation in Northern Ireland. “We managed to involve ourselves in the civil rights movement without ever getting involved in a sectarian way,” says Rabbitte.

The rebellious spirit continued on well into the 1980s. Perhaps the most famous incident involved RTÉ broadcaster Joe Duffy who, as president in 1983, had been leading a national protest over the withdrawal of the medical card for students. “My argument at the time was that, if they take it away and we give it up without a fight, who are they going to target next?” says Duffy. “Students are generally healthy – I don’t think I ever used my medical card – but letting them take it away would have opened the sluice gates.”

Duffy and four others ended up occupying the offices of the Eastern Health Board. The students were arrested and jailed for contempt of court when they ignored a High Court injunction against them. “In order to withdraw the medical card, they had to write to students to inform them,” he explains. “The letters were being written and sent from those offices. If they couldn’t send the letters, they couldn’t take the cards. We took a principled stance and we knew the consequences.”

As the 1980s wore on, the USI became embroiled in a row over the provision of information about abortion. In 1989, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) brought a case against then USI president, Stephen Grogan, and a number of other SU presidents. The case was lost, although the right to distribute information was eventually confirmed in 1992.

In the late 1980s, USI gained seats on the Higher Education Authority and other bodies such as Hetac (the Higher Education and Training Awards Council) and Fetac (the Further Education and Training Awards Council). This did much to bring students into the political fold.

“In the 1990s, student politics became a bit more pragmatic, I think,” says former officer and Fianna Fáil councillor Malcolm Byrne. “There was more of a focus on political lobbying, media relations, that sort of thing.”

“It’s difficult to inform people about all the work that’s done behind the scenes,” says former USI president Shane Kelly. “A quality assurance report is hardly sexy stuff.”

Nonetheless, current USI president Peter Mannion is quick to point out that protests and civil disobedience are still a large part of USI’s arsenal. “Students still take to the streets,” he says. “Duffy was essentially fighting for the same issues that we’re fighting for today. With the fees debate, we’re seeing a movement building again. Weve actually had the biggest student protests since the 1980s in the past two years. But there are different ways of protesting now as well. We use the internet, text messages. Its all part of the same thing.”

The union has always had its critics. While USI is the only national student representative body with a seat on the Higher Education Authority and other national bodies, it does not represent all students. DCU and UL students’ unions, for example, are not members and other unions reaffiliate and disaffiliate all the time.

Some argue that membership of USI should be compulsory for all unions so that all students will have a national voice, but that inevitably leads on to another perennial problem – money.

Most of USI’s funding comes from the €5 subscription that each full-time student pays. It is never enough and, granted, in other money matters, the union has been extremely unlucky. After its establishment in the summer of 1959, details of the union are sketchy, but one notable achievement was the formation of the USI travel bureau – Usit.

Some manoeuvring by the president of the time, Gordon Colleary (now chairman of the Sunday Tribune), enabled Irish students to avail of cheap flights at a time when air travel was prohibitively expensive. Special charter rates were available to groups such as football teams. Colleary realised that students who were members of the USI also constituted a group and started laying on charter flights. “We did it quietly, no fanfare or anything,” Colleary recalls mischievously. “We had been running these flights for three years before anyone noticed what we were doing.”

By 2001, Usit was doing extremely well. It had just bought the US travel company Council Travel and the USI was preparing to exchange some of its shares in Usit for loan stocks – a transaction that would net approximately €8 million and secure the future of the union. Then the planes hit the twin towers on 9/11 and the bottom fell out of USI’s financial world.

“People were working really hard just to keep the place afloat. They weren’t being paid; supposedly they didnt leave the offices because they were afraid that if they did the bailiffs would be in,” recalls former officer Steven Conlon.

Having regained some stability, a high-profile tuition fees debate led by Colm Jordan the following year, galvanised students once again. Mannion acknowledges that the USI is stronger when it has an issue to fight. “The union has come together really well again over tuition fees. Many people thought fees were a done deal but so far that hasn’t been the case,” he says. “But of course we’re strong when we have an issue. It’s the same with any union.”

As for the future, the union is buoyed by yet again having dodged the fees bullet, but the issues of equality and access remain. “The registration fee is an issue that we’re keeping a close eye on,” says Mannion. “The big social battles may be over but the education issues have remained the same. They’re bound to become more diverse as the student population changes, but USI will continue to do what is required of it. The challenge is for students to recognise that USI isn’t just some building or office. USI is about students pure and simple – it will always be that way.”

USI's five decades of action

1960s

Having been established the previous year by reps from TCD, UCD, UCC, UCG, Queens University Belfast and unions in the UK, the USI is recognised by the Department of Education as the national body for students. Usit begins operating.There is a wave of demonstrations against Vietnam culminating with mass sit-ins in UCD and other colleges in 1969.

1970s

Higher Education Grants Scheme is introduced. Campaigns include lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 and education access. Student protest over civil rights and the restrictive legislation introduced as a result of the conflict in the North. The high cost of fees and low level of grants means that access to third-level is still restricted for people from low-income families.

1980s

Growth of the RTC (now IOT) sector leads to a huge increase in the number of third-level students in Ireland. Mass protest over the withdrawal of the medical card for students leads to USI president Joe Duffy and others being imprisoned for contempt of court. In 1985, the USI secures a commitment that grants will be tagged to the CPI index. Trish Hegarty is the first female president of USI in 1986. USI gains a seat on the Higher Education Authority. SPUC brings USI president Stephen Grogan and others to court over the distribution of abortion information.

1990s

Spuc v Grogan is lost. Third-level tuition fees are abolished. Personality clashes and a lack of major issues take a toll in the form of mass disaffiliations in the late 1990s. In 1999, USI undertakes a strategic review.

2000s

Colleges reaffiliate under the leadership of Julian De Spainn in 2000. Usit is doing well and USI agrees a financial deal to secure its future, but thanks to 9/11, the market plummets just before the deal goes through. A fees debate in 2002 revitalises the organisation after a difficult year. Some internal strife is forgotten when fees crop up again in 2008, bringing students out on the streets yet again. Thanks to the Green Party, tuition fees are taken off the agenda.