Yes vs. No - the interviews

Coordinator of the 'Yes' campaign and YUSU Training Officer: Tom Langrish (TL)

Coordinator of the 'No' campagin: Dan Taylor (DT)

• Q. Firstly, why are you involved in this campaign?

TL: I’m involved I believe through my experience with YUSU that NUS is the best organisation for YUSU to be involved with.

DT: This campaign is the first chance for York students to give their view on an organisation that is distant and unaccountable from many people. The campaign itself has helped people learn the financial mess the NUS has found itself in, as well as the con of NUS Extra cards, a lack of accountability and the fact that delegates went swanning off to a Blackpool conference, costing the NUS over £300,000. I became involved to relate these facts to the grassroots students, all of whom have been taken for a ride by the NUS.

• Q. Why should everyday students care?

TL: Well, whether you engage with YUSU or not, it plays a large role in your time here, and whether with you engage with NUS or not, it plays a role, nationally, on all issues that affect all students, ensuring a better deal from government and big businesses.

DT: They should care because the NUS affects us. They have to pay £10 now for a discount card that was free for students a couple of years ago. They are dragged into collective political campaigns that can in no way claim to be the majority view of all students. For example, many suffered from the lecturers strike, which in spite of over 75% of students opposing, the NUS continued to support. Students should care because they are being taken for a ride and deserve better services at the grassroots, provided by people who know the individual demands of York students.

• Q. Which of NUS’ services do you feel is most important to York students?

TL: I would say that the two most services that NUS provides that should relate to all students are first of all, NSSL, which stocks Your:shop, with all food, drink and merchandise and it is over ₤10,000 cheaper than the company that the university uses. Secondly, the NUS Extra card, which every ₤10 you spend buying the card, ₤4 goes to back to the students union and you will save more than ₤10 on the exclusive discounts that you get.

DT: None of what the NUS provides students could not be replaced. In fact, we would be given increased choice by disaffiliating, in terms of choice in training services that can be provided by various companies (as St. Anrdews, Dundee, Aston and Southampton) have all proved. There is nothing the NUS provides that we would lose on disaffiliation, and stories to the contrary are frankly scare-mongering.

• Q. ₤36,000 affiliation fee – discuss.

TL: Well, first of all, its only 5% of the block grant that the university grants to us annually, if it were York students that paid the affiliation fee, it would ₤3 a year, which is less than the cost of joining a YUSU society. Don't let the 'No' campaign's figure of ₤54,000 confuse you, because you chose whether you buy NUS Extra or not, no-one makes you. And they are also not taking into consideration the ₤16,000 that YUSU received back through NUS Extra cards last year.

DT: £36,000 is a bad financial deal. We pay to be part of an organisation that is financially incapable, unaccountable (98% of York students we asked did not recognise who the NUS president was or know her name) and frankly a talking shop for individuals who have higher political ambitions and care little for the well being of York students. On disaffiliating, the uni would get certainly a chunk of this back to invest in grassroots clubs and societies and pay for alternative training programmes and welfare provision at vastly more competitive rates. Once more, to claim that we would receive none of the £36,000 back because of our vice-chancellor is frankly scare-mongering and thus disguises the facts of the issue.

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