Poor Brian Cantor. It seems that every term a group of students trot their way down to Heslington Hall, megaphone in hand, campaigning for this, that and the other. With all this irritable pleading and wheedling it’s a wonder he gets any work done. The same can be said for Jane Grenville, who valiantly learnt how to waltz last term as she doled out the possessively named ‘Jane Grenville Money’ which I assume does not come directly from her Nationwide account. However, the least that can be said for these two figures is that we actually know their names. That in times of want and need we know in which direction to point the megaphone and in whose face to thrust the beggars bowl. Or do we? Contrary to how it may seem, the University isn’t run by this solitary duo. Hidden on the University website, amongst all the demands for snowed in students to dig their way back and admission procedures is a list of University Council Members – the principal governing body of the University which exercises general control over the institution and its affairs.
Given the importance of such a body it does seem a little worrying that earlier this week Ms Grenville admitted that a video featuring the ‘opinions’ and ‘complaints’ of the ‘average’ student went down well with the Council because “they liked the feeling that they engaged with students”. Seriously, “they liked the feeling.” I have a suggestion for the Council: if they want to engage with the students who turn this collection of 1960s concrete into a University, an institution of learning and not just a research facility on the south east tip of York, then go and stand by the cash-point in Market Square or wander into Vanbrugh canteen at lunchtime (not Derwent, mind you, they closed that) and ask someone.
Council shouldn’t be ‘feeling’ anything unless they’ve actually done it, and contrived videos really don’t feature in many people’s definitions of ‘engaged’. Yes, as Grenville pointed out to our Vision interviewer, the Council is more about strategy than students and thus they needn’t know the name of every student whose ever lived in V/B/104 or have to attend Have I Got News for York. But the perception that the strategy (and what a meaningless word that is) of the University is not directly linked with students is a worrying one.
The two students who now stand on this council, YUSU President Tim Ngwena and President of the GSA, Rui Huang, are just two of twenty-two voices and given that they come bottom on the website’s list the message is clear: “This committee has little to do with you”.
Should Ngwena and Huang be the only students on the Council? As president of the Union, Ngwena does have a duty to the students. But he also has to perform a difficult balancing act, reconciling the desires of the student with the single-minded pragmatism of the management.
He is also someone, as the ousting of Academic/Welfare Sabb Grace Fletcher Hackwood two years ago indicates, whose job is never truly secure and is dependent on ‘good-behaviour’. Surely this committee would benefit from a seat, in amongst the faculty staff, administrative staff and owners of Betty’s, reserved for your average student. A student whose only job is to account for students in this setting. Only then can this mysterious body say that their strategising takes place with the whole needs of the community in mind.