The issue of merging

Today, Union Council agreed to send to referendum a proposal to merge Union Links and Departmental Councillors. For those of you unfamiliar with the distinction between the 2, both roles are involved in representation, with Union Links liaising with academic structures within your department and attending the Staff-Student Liaison Committee as well as attending Links Forums which ensure communication on academic issues between the Union and the Council.

The departmental councillors exist to provide political representation to the highest level of the Union structures, and covers a lot more issues than just academic. There is some overlap as the Students’ Union also covers academic issue, but the roles are otherwise separate and clearly defined, if poorly communicated. One Link described the Union Links as the civil service of the Union, and the councillors as the MPs.

An ongoing issue with the Union is that representation structures are often called confusing, and the Union Officers have put together a proposal (ongoing for the past 2 years, at least) to eliminate some of the representation structures, moving their roles into the departmental councillor role (where there is some overlap already). I think that this type of merging is far too drastic, and there are perhaps smaller, less risky steps that could be taken (clearer communication of the difference of the Union Link – academic representation – vs. the Departmental Councillor – political representation). In particular, the risks of merging I see:

• loss of representation structure – having two points of call, especially in the larger departments, is possibly more effective than just having one;


• damage to one of the representation roles – some of the Union Links in a feedback forum expressed that they have a lot of work to do, I think that it would be very difficult for a new councillor to be able to adequately provide academic representation and political representation at the same time, one of these things will have to give (this is the core argument against an Equality Officer too);


• increased depoliticalisation of Union Council – quite often people interested in becoming course reps and links do so because they’re interested in improving their course or academic representation, not so much in Union politics which leads to an increasingly weak overall Council and a less progressive Union;


• the role of a councillor is to set the direction of the Union, the role of a link is to ensure that the academic direction of the Union is being properly implemented and communicated to departments. I see a large incompatibility here between setting this direction, and towing the party line wrt academic policy.

As I see it, there are two solutions to the problem of confusion over representation structures: changing the structures as the Officers want to push through, or changing the way these representation structures are communicated to the members of the Union. I favour the second, as the first method seems to be throwing the baby out with the bath water.

One clear change I consider very likely to have positive results would be changing the name of Union Links, perhaps to Academic Links, to make it clear the representation role of the Link is for academic, rather than general Union matters.

The other problem with the proposal is the issue of payment to councillors. Put simply, this is Council getting financial reward for their role. A role that has previously been filled by volunteers doing it out of the good of their own heart (and the experience should go over well with employers), changing it to a paid position will attract people less interested in the position and more interested in getting paid, doing the minimum amount of work required to get there.

I urge anyone voting on the referendum in March to very carefully consider the potential consequences of this change, and whether or not they think the perceived benefits are worth the risk of this wholesale change, or whether a series of smaller changes is at least worth trying first – this issue’s been around for a few years, one more to make sure we get it right won’t hurt.