Oriel referendum rage
JCRs from across the University have expressed their anger at Oriel's referendum result last week, which confirmed their disaffiliation from OUSU for another year.
In a letter in this week's OxStu, 23 JCR Presidents condemn Oriel's decision to continue to withhold its subscription fee from the Student Union. They claim that the resulting funding deficit forces the other, affiliated, common rooms to subsidise services that Oriel enjoy, and that OUSU are still legally required to provide.
Oriel JCR voted last Thursday to defeat the referendum motion "This JCR shall subscribe to OUSU with effect from the start of Michaelmas Term 2004" by 131 votes to 49. The JCR therefore retained its disaffiliation, first implemented in 2001.
Despite not receiving subscription fees from Oriel JCR, the 1994 Education Act stipulates that OUSU must provide certain welfare services and provisions to individual students and allow them to stand for and vote in elections.
Oriel, however, must independently purchase other services such as the Freshers' Fair and publications from OUSU.
According to calculations based on the recently published OUSU budget for 2004/5, it would cost Oriel JCR £940.80 if they were to pay for services OUSU currently provides for free. The dearth of funds forces the affiliated common rooms to foot the bill, which has sparked discontent across the University.
Rob Vance, Wadham SU President and one of the letter's signatories, called the referendum outcome "foolish but inevitable." He added: "They should be made to pay for what they get."
There is widespread belief that OUSU appears toothless to act in the face of Oriel's decision to continued withholding subscriptions. Worcester JCR President, Peter Jones, who declined to put his name to the letter, warned that the issue should be tackled "because if this goes unchecked it may influence other colleges into thinking there is a financial benefit to disaffiliation; OUSU should act for fear of colleges upping and leaving."
The Oriel Freshers' Handbook states: "The JCR Committee will be working as hard as possible to ... exploit any advantages, that may arise from not being subscribed to OUSU," further fuelling speculation that the JCR's position is one of extreme self-interest.
Speaking to The OxStu, Oriel JCR President Adam Reid conceeded that he could understand where the criticism that the JCR was "free-loading" came from, but that he "can only represent the views of the JCR; how they choose to spend the money saved by their disaffiliation is up to them."
However, as reported in last week's OxStu, the referendum itself did not escape controversy as complaints were made against the anti-affiliation campaign. The resulting tribunal suggested reforms to Oriel's constitution to provide for similar cases in the future.
OUSU President Helena Puig Larrauri was critical of the referendum practice: "It was difficult to attain a two-thirds majority in a referendum where virtually no publicity was allowed and the college has had limited acquaintance with OUSU over the past three years."
There are ongoing discussions about how to settle the issue of the services to which disaffiliated common rooms are entitled.
27th May 2004