My university guild of students is on my mind a lot at the moment as we are busy with campaigning to pass a referendum to help us comply with charity laws and to help us run better. Last night I went door knocking, in the snow for three hours. An also by the time I got home I was basically one giant icicle, it was actually really fun.
However what this has bought to my mind is student satisfaction with our guild. Many students are saying that we are failing them. Many say we are failing them because Tuition fees exist which I personally think is frankly unfair, yes we all hate tuition fees but realistically, how is one guild meant to convince the government?
Especially as most students at our university don't get involved with the guild. At our election last year less than 10% of people voted! Yet they seem to expect the guild to have the force to push major changes. How can we do this if it is seen to be a minority of students campaigning?
Another quite depressing factor is people complaining about the lack of services which I know the guild provides I've used them. The problem is students just don't know. So they way our guild of students is failing people most is because they don't know or care about us. But i know the guild is trying to encourage people, we have an officer whose job is to do just that. We are failing because so many students don't care and we haven't found the right way to make them. Obviosuly we are not doing enough, but I find it quite depressing that we have to go out and make students interested in the guild. Depressing that we are trying to convince people they should care.
This apathy for voting, is unfortunately something I see reflected in a society as a whole as well. Looking back across all the societies that existed we are incredibly looking to be in one thats democratic, and allows more than just one group of society to vote. there have been times when people would have given anything to be able to vote. Juts think about the suffragettes. Yet a hundred years on how many women are actually utilizing this vote that was fought for so strongly?
Our society is so secure in it's democracy that voting is no longer seen as a privilege it's a chore.
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1 comment:
I totally agree with your comments about the Guild. It's a wonderful place and people clearly need to realise this and use and appreciate it more.
Also your blog is already more thought provoking than mine, where I generally just talk about the random crap I've been doing and respond to memes and quizzes!
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