By Kyle Young
If a deodorant merely masks and conceals odors can it truly be considered a deodorant?
In the same vein of thought, is a union who represents the majority of five percent of a total body truly a union? More to the point, if said union possessed none of the abilities of negotiation for which unions were initially developed, does it still serve a purpose?
A significant reason everyone is upset with our beleaguered Students’ Union is their expectations are far too high. This is largely due to a misunderstanding about just what our SU is.
Despite what the name implies, the SU is more like a club than a union. Unions are capable of getting what they want through organized dissent such as strikes. What power does the SU possess that allows it to become a credible consideration in negotiations with the administration? Shall we all stop learning for a month?
No, the SU provides us with fun activities and club space. When it comes around to tuition time, the SU gets a token vote on the matter, and then they blame administration and student apathy for the increase.
The SU claims to provide a voice for the student body, which in the cases where a voice is of significance, it needs no clarification For instance, how many members of the Board of Governors do you honestly think believed students wanted their tuition increased? Did we really need a union to tell them we don’t like giving them more of our money?
The stench of student discontent is nauseating, and the SU is the deodorant that is no more than a roll-on perfume. It masks instead of preventing odors.
Not that the current conglomeration that is the SU is fully to blame for their failings; the very idea of taking the students’ council from your high school and calling it a union is truly at the heart of the matter. What our current “representatives” deserve to be flogged for is that it in all occasions of significance, such as tuition increase, the SU has been pretending to be something it’s not–a union.
Yes, the SU does plenty of good and wonderful things for us, and we are better off with them. However, we must all realize that its capabilities as a union are nonexistent. We give them money and in a roundabout way they spend it on us, but our union payments are more like a membership fee to a mandatory club, minus the 18 holes of golf and caddies. But then again, what do you expect for a general fee of $55 a semester?