Brasenose NUS balls-up
BRASENOSE COLLEGE JCR has finally re-affiliated to the NUS, after deciding to withdraw from the student body in October 1998. At an emergency JCR meeting last Sunday, the motion was carried by a large majority.
The event was the second time this year that the JCR at Brasenose had re-affiliated to the NUS, the first attempt being declared invalid due to a clause in the JCR's charter stating that re-affiliation could only occur on a certain day. The motion still does not conclude the confusion over the issue. The JCR is still unclear as to whether they owe the NUS unpaid subscription fees from last year.
JCR committee member Ian McKinney explained that Brasenose will only re-affiliate if "the NUS agree to waive the existing debt" that they supposedly owe. NUS Membership Secretary, Christina Dimitrio, told the Oxford Student that the NUS is not able to divulge information on individual membership cases. Brasenose NUS Representative James Segan has said that the matter of the debt is being looked into by the NUS.
Despite the overwhelming desire to re-affiliate to the NUS at Brasenose, Ian McKinney has claimed that his "fellow students are only interested in the £2 discount at Topshop" and not what the NUS represents or the things for which it campaigns. The disgruntled committee member added that for the most part these students "are ignorant of the wider issues that affect them."
In a tirade of criticism, McKinney accused the NUS of being "very unaccountable as an organisation" and "not really representative" of students. In a further attack McKinney alleged that the "people at the top" of the NUS are using the Organisation "as a platform for their own views" and not "for the good of students."
James Segan, Brasenose NUS Representative, has hit back at these claims, arguing that re-affiliation has many benefits for Brasenose students. OUSU NUS co-chair Katherine Bartlett added: "It is important that students value the positive benefits of the NUS's work here." While Segan accepted that many people were swayed by the "practical benefits of the NUS card", he refutes the argument that BNC should stay out of the NUS. Explaining that the JCR "may disagree with their policies on a national level" he denied the claims of McKinney, arguing that the best way to influence the NUS was to "be part of it."
The NUS declined to comment on the issues raised at the JCR meeting on Sunday or the subsequent allegations.
8th Jun 2000