DCU Students’ Union Education Officer, Aaron Clogher, has questioned whether DCU will return to be a member of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI).
Clogher confirmed that since taking over the sabbatical position during the summer, the union is yet to receive any official communication from the USI.
While not criticising the USI officials themselves, Clogher was at a loss to explain why the USI had not yet been in contact, adding that if he was in that position in the USI, he would have contacted DCU immediately.
“If the USI was serious about getting DCU in, they should be knocking down our door to discuss the possibility with us. But we’ve had no communication from the USI in our three and a half months in office, any of us officially, no letter, email, phone call or text, and that to me sounds ridiculous.
“If I was president of USI, I would have been out here first thing asking us, and that’s no criticism of individuals, I just think from a national union perspective that they should be at least selling their side of the story to us.
“We don’t have both sides of the story. Let’s talk about it, you know there are pros and cons and I’m looking forward to the debate. If we want to go in, it’ll be great. If we don’t, we’re doing fine.”
Clogher is Education Officer in the Students’ Union, but his own views on USI membership have changed numerous times since taking office, but he believes that non-membership won’t affect the DCU student.
“To be honest, since I’ve started the job, I’ve went from no to yes, to no to yes to definitely not to definitely yes, so many times it’s unbelievable. I’ve been doing my research and it’s interesting.
“It’s odd that we find ourselves in the position that we are in a very small minority on the outside but at the same time, I think we’re doing fine. I don’t think we’re, us three, are going to do ten times better job if we’re in, but I don’t think that by being out that we’re getting all that we could.
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