Thanks Rabelais.The restrictions on political club...

2009-04-08T12:45:00.000+01:00

Thanks Rabelais.
The restrictions on political clubs has been lifted. At UUC this has led to a Socialist Society, a Young Unionist Society and some form of Young Sinn Fein (though I'm not sure if they are within the Union yet). There is a political protocol sheet to be signed.

I welcome such societies as a means of opening up students minds to politics. The reality is that students don't care. They are indifferent to local politics, and as such the educated who we would hope are pushing to get involved in a sphere of influence are not, leaving the route open to our country being governed by the uneducated (e.g. an Education Minister with no university degree)

As long as NI politics continues on its hard unionist/nationalist lines it looks like it will remain unappealing to those people with the capabilities and education who can make a difference

Hi Ulsterman,Read this and the rest of your blog w...

2009-04-07T09:55:00.000+01:00

Hi Ulsterman,
Read this and the rest of your blog with interest. I'm a graduate of UU also and I'm glad to hear that there is some life left in student protest. This is no thanks to some previous incumbents of the students' union at UU

A student’s union general meeting in 1995 (I think) approved the outlawing of any club or society on campus that was affiliated to a political party or organisation. It was an unprecedented example of students voting to curtail their own rights, made all the more astonishing by its timing. This was in the wake of loyalist and republican ceasefires, and at the beginning of a faltering peace process. Incredible that at such a critical moment students simply walked away from politics.

A students’ union representative explained to me at the time that they didn’t want political parties on campus raising the sectarian temperature among students. A fair enough point you might think but then why wasn’t the decision taken during the troubles rather than in the new dispensation?

Whatever the dubious reasons for the ‘no politics’ clause, the fact was that the students’ union was tilting at windmills. Political clubs and societies at the University of Ulster had witnessed a shocking decline in membership throughout the 90s and many had fallen into disuse. Students had simply turned their back on politics long before the Students’ Union decided to kick the remaining life out of organisations that were already on the critical list.

My own feeling with hindsight is that the banning of political societies only confirmed what had been obvious for some time. Students were trading in their citizenship for vacuous consumer sovereignty. As a consequence they were beginning to show all the signs of the sort of myopia and complacency that sees everything as a lifestyle choice.

Politics were chased of campus just as the corporations were being welcomed with open arms. For along time, at any Fresher’s Fair, the political stalls seemed to be withering away or were being hounded to the fringes, and in their place where the high street banks and mobile phone companies vying for a stake in the lucrative student and graduate market. Their philosophy was simple – relieve them of their loans today, secure their salaries and wages tomorrow.

Hopefully this trend is being reversed because fees have turned education into a little more than another commodity.

haha, great post baye. Now where was I Tuesday at ...

2008-12-03T19:06:00.000Z

haha, great post baye. Now where was I Tuesday at 12.30...

Comments on An Ulsterman's Ramblings: The Dispassionate Student

Thanks Rabelais.The restrictions on political club...

Hi Ulsterman,Read this and the rest of your blog w...

haha, great post baye. Now where was I Tuesday at ...