Pluto asks “does the Students’ Union strike a fair balance between its financial and ideological aims?”
Peter Shilton-Godwin, the Students’ Union’s Chief Executive, thinks it does
“In common with every students’ union in England and Wales UCLan SU u registered with the charity commission for the first time this year. We are now registered Charity No. 1142616.
“This change reflects the growing sense that students’ unions do an important job that has real benefit to students and society. That our activities like independent advice, clubs and societies, Give it a Go, job shops, student media and supporting course reps are an essential part of campus life.
“There are few obvious outward changes to what we do but the new status brings into focus our responsibilities to make sure we spend union funds to fulfil our charitable objectives.
“The trustees of the Union made up of elected students (the SAC you all elect and unpaid volunteers from the outside) are charged with making sure this happens. They also have the job to ensure that our services meet the needs of students and the Union safeguards its positive reputation.
“One area the Trustees discuss regularly is the commercial aspects of the Union. How well they are performing and whether students use and value the services?
“One traditional area of debate is bar prices and promotions. The Union has to walk a delicate line between offering promotions we know students like and our responsibility for student health and welfare. We can’t, like some bars just give away drinks so our response is to offer year round competitive pricing and to use limited promotions for particular events.
“We also know from a survey last year that discounts are really important to you so in Source this year we are offering 10% off everything with your NUS extra card which we think is great value.
“In retail we have also teamed up with the Co-op to make sure there are load of promotions in Essentials, our on-campus convenience store.
You might also like to know that every penny spent in the Union supports Union activities. There are no shareholders or highly paid directors with bonuses hovering in the background to take money out of the Union.
“If you buy a sandwich in Atrium, an NUS Extra Card, a meal in Source or a Mars bar in Essentials you help keep the Union going and support the nearly 400 students we employ each year.
“So we think we have the right balance between being business like and meeting students’ needs. We offer good value in a safe, student friendly atmosphere on a not for profit basis.
“We need to be ‘business-like’ but we always need to remember that we are here to make life better for students.”
Pluto’s Deputy Editor, Hannah Breeze, thinks it doesn’t
“When you ask the average student what their Students’ Union means to them, traditionally, the most frequent answer would most likely be to do with nights out, cheap alcohol and freshers’ fair freebies.
“However, UCLan Students’ Union does a brilliant job of making our Union more than just that, by promoting engagement on all levels.
“This has been proven time and time again, with hundreds of students demonstrating against higher fees last year, high voter turnout in elections, and more people standing for elected positions that before.
“But student engagement doesn’t make money, it’s as simple as that.
“So how can an organisation continue its good work, when the fruit of it provides no income? We all know that the union is a non-for-profit organisation, and that any money it does make is invested back into its services.
“However, some money has to be made in order for it to fund the political side of the union; things like the electoral processes, campaigns, and indeed the very paper on which this debate is printed.
“The frustrating issue arises when all of the hard work that the union does in terms of its political and ideological aims is often contradicted by its events of a night-time.
“When the union is so keen to promote liberation, representation and non-prejudice, how can it justify event themes such as Playboy and Chavs and Geeks?
“The Playboy themes event last year actively encouraged women to dress as Playboy bunny girls, and for the men to come in their dressing gowns just like Hugh Hefner.
“How does this promotion and reinforcement of gender roles fit into the agenda of women’s liberation, and does this not directly contradict the role of the women’s representative?
“Ironically, the profit made from the Playboy event would go into the same non-for-profit pot that enables the facilitation of a women’s rep, and indeed all other liberation reps, SAC positions and everything else representation based across the union.
“It is at this point that I must stress that is it not the theme of the events that I am opposed to in general, it is simply that it is the union that holds them which then often contradicts and undermines all the other work that they do.
“Additionally, the promotion of a Chavs and Geeks event again reinforces prejudice, trivialises issues like bullying and strongly adheres to stringent stereotypes.
“How can such events be established, funded and promoted by a union that, by day, spends the profits of such events on providing remedies for the very issues that, by night, it encourages?
“To sum up, I believe the union does a brilliant job of promoting liberation, representation and democracy during the day, but its after house events that fund such good work severely let the side down.”
