USI: here comes trouble

At least four institutes of technology are set to pull out of the Union of Students in Ireland after the resignation of its president, Dermot Lohan, at the beginning of this month.

Cork IT's students' union will hold a general meeting today to decide whether they will pull out of the national students union. The mood in Cork is strongly in favour of disaffiliation, a move which does not require a referendum in Cork IT.

Tralee IT students' union will hold a referendum on disaffiliation from USI tomorrow. President Seanie Collum will recommend to students that they vote to pull out of the national union. For Tralee to revoke its membership of USI, 15 per cent of students would have to vote in the referendum and 60 per cent of those who vote would need to favour disaffiliation.

The union strongly supported the reform programme of Dermot Lohan but did not have any representatives at USI's annual congress this year, a fact which frustrated other IT student union officers who felt that the presence of Tralee and Cork could have changed the result of the presidential election. Delegates at the congress decided to create the full-time elected position of equality officer, against the advice of its then president, a move which several institutes of technology see as a reversion to the "politically correct" agenda which they feel has overly preoccupied USI in the past.

Tralee student politicians have already decided that they will not have any dealings with the remaining sabbatical officers in USI this year. Collum says he feels the officers are "chasing minority issues" and "have lost touch with the issues that really affect students".

Carlow IT's union has already decided "not to deal with USI in any shape or form" this year, according to president DJ Moore. "We don't consider USI to be worth our time at the moment," he said last week. USI representatives have been banned from visiting the Carlow union.

However, the union will not ballot students on complete disaffiliation from USI until next year, as Moore feels students would not be able to devote their full attention to a referendum in the run up to exams.

In effect, Carlow are "disaffiliating in all but name", he says.

Carlow, which pays £5,500 in affiliation fees to USI, had already delayed payment this year because of negotiations with college authorities on the capitation grant it receives.

Athlone IT's union will have a council meeting this week to consider whether it will leave USI. Union president Brendan Kiely says the national union is "not providing the service we believe we need". He describes the wave of threatened disaffiliations from institutes of technology outside Dublin as "the last stand of the ITs".

Kiely says the influence and voting entitlements of USI's member colleges in Northern Ireland are "a big problem for the institutes of technology.

"I have a problem with the fact that a group of colleges in the North, who don't contribute to USI's finances, can dictate our policy. The Belfast Institute of Further Education has 46 votes, which are usually under the control of just one delegate. I'm not a separatist nor am I anti-North, but they don't share an education system with us and their influence is distorting our policy."

Kiely says IT union officers are also angry that USI's finance committee refused to co-operate with an inquiry into elected officers' expenses. The inquiry found expense procedures in USI were lax and open to abuse and strongly criticised the finance committee for failing to assist it in its work.

IT union presidents are lukewarm about the idea of setting up an alternative national student union, but say some kind of forum will have to be set up if a number of ITs leave USI and stay out. The alternative structure might be similar to the Federation of University Student Unions, a group of universities which meets once a month under a rotating chair to discuss policy issues of mutual interest.