Editorial

‘Medics secure independence’ is a grand headline for a stirring story of triumph in the face of adversity. The medical students of St Mary’s and Charing Cross medical schools have succeeded in ring-fencing up to Ł80,000 a year for the students’ union of the Imperial College School of Medicine.

Unfortnately this is, and will be in the future, to the detriment of Imperial College students as a whole. Yet again St Mary’s students have managed to force the agenda to meet their own selfish interests and in the process have deprived other students of funds for their activities.

The new medical school students union, as they envision it, will bring much duplication of the services and clubs provided and funded by Imperial College Union. ICU and the College have been neatly sidestepped by a room full of baying medical students and left in a much weaker postion to face future demands by those students.

If it was simply a case of giving here where the College had taken away elsewhere, then some remuneration for the loss of social space in the new bio-medical science building might be justified. However, this possibly legitimate allocation of funds and the negoitations surrounding it have bypassed the College’s stated medium of providing student services, ICU, and have therefore prioritised one section of students over another.

Duplication of the services provided by ICU is unnecessary and a waste of resources when money is already scarce. Duplication of the clubs and societies by the union is again, apart from sporting clubs such as rugby and hockey that are already devolved to the Constituent College Unions, a wasteful and divisive use of funds. Nobody would deny the medical student’s right to an identity, particularly one reinforced by sporting merit and acheivement, but however vocal they may be, these students must be treated the same as other students at Imperial College.

The new ICSMSU will be a CCU of equal standing to the other three, slightly smaller than C&G and the RCS and bigger than the RSM. These CCUs run clubs similar to those that St Mary’s and Charing Cross currently operate with a fifth of the subvention. Additonally, these CCUs are funded through ICU thus ensuring that the College’s financial regulations are followed and allowing proper accounting of these funds to be maintained within the context of the student body as a whole.

I would question whether the medical students really have gained in the long run by sneakily extracting this concession from College. There is certainly a short term gain, for both ICSMSU and the College, but this move will only serve to help alienate these medical students from the rest of the College, which must be detrimental to the substance of this institution.

Ultimately, I can only say well done. Well done to St Mary’s for securing their ‘independence’. Well done to the College for ensuring future division on the campus.

OPERATIC SOCIETY

While I’m here, I feel that I ought to mention the excellent performance of ‘Sweet Charity’ by OpSoc I enjoyed this week. I would recommend it for an evening’s enjoyment.