Just how divided is our Union?

Imperial College Union is vast. It has 344 different societies, and every year they collectively turn over £2 million. The entire Union turns over £7 million. There are 3000 different society committee positions and 40% of undergraduate students are a member of at least one club or society.

This is great for participation – but it ironically means there is a huge divide between the paid sabbatical ‘Officer Trustees’ at the top and the average society goer, I count four layers of management to the president: Member – Society President – Management Group Chair – Deputy President for Clubs, Societies & Projects – President ( – Council – Trustees). So many times I hear students talk about ‘the Union’ as if it’s this distant party-pooping fun police mafia, which gets its kicks out of charging entry to Metric, sending emails every other day, and banning any event involving alcohol.

In the latest high profile example, a club president actively lied to the sabbatical team about a police investigation, because they felt that was the best way to protect their members. Ironically, this was the worst possible thing to do because when the police come knocking – the president is the first person they go to. If stories don’t match up, clubs can get shut down.

The union sabbaticals did the absolute best they could to protect those in the rugby club who recently did wrong and the club as a whole, withholding names from public documents and giving out severe enough sanctions to prevent further punishment from College, the Police or the Rugby Union Federation. These efforts were successful, but their success was threatened by the dishonesty internally about what had happened.

This is ridiculous. We are shooting ourselves in the foot. It brings up issues of society president training, but we all have to work as a team. The sabbaticals need to connect with students, and be accessible. I don’t mean sitting on a desk in the JCR, glumly staring at the pie stand. I mean leaving the union building, crashing the odd Cheese Soc gathering; going to Harlington, being part of clubs and trying to be someone you’d actually want to talk to. Maybe each of the sports teams should adopt a sabb at the next ACC night? You can’t follow a leadership who don’t interact.

But it’s not just the sabbs who need to engage with us, it’s a two way process. Love your sabb. Next time you’re using the SAC printer for your coursework go and say hi. Tell Pascal your course rep doesn’t give a toss, or tell Alex your club president keeps complaining about not having enough money. Or just complain about Metric.

This is a union, but it’s sheer size means it’s becoming fragmented. It’s down to every member to prevent that happening and the leadership needs to lead it.