As ever, it was wonderful to be at Membership Services Conference in August, seeing friends and contacts old and new from across the sector – the talent and thinking across SUs is inspiring.
On the train back south I was feeling slightly uneasy in a way I couldn’t shake off. This wasn’t due to cramming in too many sessions (I did too much), levels of sleep (I had too little), or drink consumed in the bars (I remember just enough), but instead discussions about democracy.
The conference started with a brilliant plenary on how unions should engage with the government. A common refrain was that younger people felt disillusioned with our systems or that there wasn’t enough opportunity to make change or it didn’t matter who got elected because representatives weren’t truly accountable.
Grim stuff. But there was an underlying sense of optimism that this wasn’t inevitable and that SUs could be the tide changers through civic engagement and education. I certainly hope so and with changes to allow votes at 16, it presents an astonishing opportunity, if we take it proactively.
Out of touch
This strong belief in the need for national democracy felt slightly ajar with some of my experiences at the conference and over my summer training period.
An elected student officer told me that they didn’t really believe in democracy. Apart from the dissonance of their own selection process, this should raise alarm bells.
Many more don’t see themselves as politicians at all, as if being elected and representing a group of individuals was a job but not a political one.
A number of unions have mentioned how they feel elections aren’t right for their institutions, that democracy isn’t the correct approach for their type of students – universal suffrage not being all that important.
I’ve been told by unions that engaging with student members through meetings is too hard or too inefficient and that we should rely instead on surveys instead. Using data clearly has its place, but it increases the danger of us doing things to students rather than with them. There’s a tension between insight and representation but when it comes to democracy, a MailOnline poll isn’t a replacement for local council town halls.
Delivering or deciding
A central element of SUs has been that members get to set the rules that govern their organisation, embedding their values and principles in constitutions, articles and byelaws.
The link between officers and their members sometimes seems mainly theoretical. Absent from policy creation and accountability, officers make statements based on their own thoughts rather than something set out for them by students.
But back to the conference, there was the threat of declining democracy in the world but also there was enthusiasm for member engagement in campaigns and events. Several sessions were held that applauded the resurrection of community organising amongst unions or the importance of working with students to run events and projects.
So student involvement is on the rise when it comes to delivering services and activism but declining when it comes to deciding what those services and campaigns are.
What’s our core principles
Times are changing and new innovations are to be applauded. But there’s some core principles that SUs don’t want to get away from.
Students are at the top of our democracy
The key players in democratic models are students. Not full or part time officers – students.
This may be directly through referenda or members’ meetings or indirectly through elected representatives at councils or zones but the end result is that students are the starting point when considering structures.
There may be agile structures that have a small number of representatives, but their link to the general student body should be an initial consideration not an afterthought.
Democracy should be educational
Few think we should educate council representatives on rhetoric and debate skills, but also very few think we should remove all aspects of challenge from university programmes.
There are times where the challenge in our democratic structures is a good thing for students. Public speaking boosts confidence and negotiating amendments develops problem solving and so on. We can make democracy accessible and educational without being sterile.
Officers report (meaningfully) to the students
Student leadership is in service to students and that service requires accountability. If students don’t feel connected to their representatives on campus, can those students map what that connection with their local and national representatives should look like?
Where accountability doesn’t happen in democratic processes or forums, it happens elsewhere in open letters and social media posts. Students will always have an opinion about their SU and reducing democratic opportunities increases the chances of uncontrolled backlashes because there is nowhere for those thoughts to be discussed.
Students set the rules
We want students to set the boundaries for the world in which they inhabit which means they should be able to do the same for their union. Changes to constitutions, byelaws and articles should be approved by those in their membership. Processes won’t work for students unless they’re involved in the design and delivery.
People, not algorithms
Insight and data are great tools, however we can’t step away from the people analysing and making decisions about it.
Looking coldly at an issue that 3.8 per cent of people say is a problem would reasonably make us ignore it. But 3.8 per cent is the percentage of LGBTQ+ people in the over 16 population in 2023. If we only deal with statistics and never go further, then minority voices would never be heard. We need to have the debates and not just rely on the numbers.
Electorates should be informed
One of the deals with democracy is that you trust the electorate to make decisions.
Unless you take that away, the best thing to do is give them as much information as possible to make a good decision. Giving opportunities for candidates to sell themselves through manifestos and speeches, answering questions from students and maybe even debating their opponents are all ways to do that. We support students in their education every day and we can support election candidates in providing information for voters.
As always, it was wonderful to be at Membership Services Conference. The talent across the sector is astonishing and a reminder of the passion and drive we have for improving students in a range of areas. SUs want to ensure students can decide on the things that are important to them whilst also supporting them to deliver stuff too – it’s both. My plea is that we keep them in the room for deciding what our unions should be doing and the rules within which we operate as well as the activities themselves.
