Marriage of convenience for the GSA
It has by any standards been a rough year for the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA). Of three sabbatical officers elected in the summer, two resigned before even taking up their posts, leaving a beleaguered Internal Officer to run the organisation single-handedly, organise fresh elections and salvage her PhD. The subsequent by-election ended in farce when Wentworth Edge reached capacity during the voting event, disenfranchising anyone who didn’t show up for a cocktail.
This was surpassed by the next election in which both presidential candidates were disqualified for breaching election rules. We are now in our fourth round for positions that should have been filled last summer.
But the problems seem to run deeper than shambolic elections. A consultant’s report from September said the GSA’s “lack of connection with the membership is unacceptable for a members’ organisation”, and claimed there is “no clarity of who is in charge of what’ from either a democratic or managerial perspective”. Last year’s Executive achieved virtually nothing aside from nursing a long-term grudge against the over-funded undergraduates at YUSU (Former President Anne-Marie Canning was allegedly told to “run along” after one meeting).
All of this begs the question: Why not scrap the GSA and bring it under YUSU? The idea is tempting. Staff salaries and administrative costs last year were in the region of £70,000. There are huge economies of scale to be had in a merger. A single student representative body would also close the gap between YUSU and the GSA into which the University can divisively wedge in negotiations.
Ultimately the question is: could YUSU effectively represent the needs of postgraduates? Do you know what a Thesis Advisory Panel is, or a PGWT? The difference between an MPhil and a PhD? I don’t and I’m a final year undergraduate, the same as many of those now poised to become sabbaticals. While it’s dangerous to talk of ‘typical’ undergrads, the postgraduate community is far more diverse and so are their needs. There is a real danger they would get swallowed up by the concerns of an undergrad majority. Even if there were a sabbatical postgrad position it’s unlikely a high-calibre person would take it and risk having their PhD topic printed elsewhere.
In recent years the GSA has failed as an organisation. The current field of candidates is promising and the pace of reform is picking up. Cooperation with YUSU is increasing and handover procedures are being strengthened.
Regardless, for whoever takes over the stakes are high. A choice between imperfect representation by YUSU or none by the GSA is no choice at all.
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A decent article quietly slipped in there. Thought it was gonna be purely negative until the last couple of paragraphs.
Interested to know why you don’t think a high calibre candidate for a YUSU Graduate Students Officer (Full-time sabbatical) position would come forward?
I agree – a very good article, with the last couple of paragraphs highlighting some very important issues regarding the distinctive nature of postgraduate representation.
On the issue of why we probably wouldn’t get a “high caliber” of candidates for a YUSU Grad Officer – I think it’s more to do with the fact that PhD studens (who are a large portion of the membership) simply wouldn’t want to take a year out of their doctoral studies (a similar argument applies to PGCE students too). That’s why the GSA currently have part-time paid positions, so they can combine them.
Additionally, students are more likely to get involved when they have ownership over the organisation. As an undergraduate I was never involved in the Students’ Union, and made the choice at postgraduate level *because* I was so impressed that York placed such an emphasis on postgraduate students (which really doesn’t exist in the vast majority of other Universities).
I must say I’m also rather impressed with this article. After so much criticism of the GSA in recent months, I think this a fair and honest assessment.
On Friday I was at a General Meeting of the National Postgraduate Committee and it was incredibly heartening to hear how many Postgraduate Officers were jealous of our independent status and capacity to focus properly on graduate issues. I was amazed by how often I heard the complaint that postgrad issues just get lost in other unions, as the focus on undergrad needs and campaigns takes over and graduates get a disproportionately low level of targeted service provision and representation.
Should the GSA get things right with their new constitution and implementing the changes highlighted as necessary in their governance report, it will be a hugely valuable resource to postgrad students at York. I only hope this article helps the wider student community realise this.