When one thinks of a Students' Union, the very basic,very broad, and universally the primary function of this body that comes to mind is: representation of students and their interests. In our college, where the Union is directly elected annually, one is justified in expecting it to function in a manner resembling a medium of people’s voice at the college level. However, the reality is quite different, and there are multiple factors in place which have brought about systematic deviations from what should ideally constitute a Union’s main responsibility. What exactly are these deviations? Following will give you a feel of the ideal versus actual situation with regards to the functions of the Union of our college:
1: Support to causes of students: Representing student interest in front of management and authorities is the most fundamental function of students union. However, in our college, both the collecting and compiling of problem areas in student life on campus, as well as the task of bringing attention of authorities to the same and putting pressure on them is practically non-existent.
2: Facilitation of Societies: Students union are supposed to harmonize the activities of the societies and provide them with assistance in their functioning. However, the experience of different societies varies here. It seems as if personal relations decide the fate of the society vis-à-vis the Union. In some cases there is even a rivalry between Union and other societies, where the Union is viewed as a competitor who wants to outperform them, for which it does not hesitate to misuse its powers. It can, and does, create obstacles in the working and fests of societies.
3: Ensuring welfare of students: The Union can work as a support system for students where they can act as one stop for all college related information dissemination. Besides having this permanent source of guidance for students, the Union can also responsibly organise discussions and programmes about important matters related to issues like mental health, cultural integration, developing student fraternity etc. However, as we can see, there is nothing in place that comes even remotely close to this function of the Union.
4: Taking Political Stands: Students union are expected to consolidate and represent the student viewpoints not only on matters internal to college, but also on social and political issues in a wider scope. The apolitical structure of students union in DU makes it an impossible task to achieve. Thus a potentially powerful voice group is completely quiet on issues even directly affecting them like privatisation of education sector and so on.
5: Organising fests: This is the one activity that the Union of our college does to its utmost perfection. ‘Crossroads’ has maintained its position at the very top of DU fests for many years. It takes tremendous hard work and energy to organise a fest of this scale, and the Union therefore deserves praise for it. However, the absolute non performance of other functions of the Union and the attitude of the students has propagated the general perception that the worth of the elected Union for that year can be gauged through the success of events like 'Crossroads' and ‘Business Conclave’ alone. This kind of narrow judgement of the Union feeds back on itself to propagate and perpetuate the situation where the Union finds it in its interest to only concentrate on fests. It is extremely unfortunate that the entire purpose of a body that should be the shrine of empowerment of students has been reduced to nothing but organising a grand party. Here we would like to point out that fest organisation also has its own share of negative effects associated with it which will be discussed in greater detail in an upcoming write up.
The failure of Students Union in most of these aspects is so complete that students do not even have any expectations from them. It is perfectly acceptable that the Union does not make any effort towards students' welfare and only acts as an event manager. This aspect is quite evident from the election campaigning it self. Panels do not even seriously raise any agenda other than fest and can still win the election with flying colors.
However, we have to realize that it would be extremely simplistic to pin the blame on the Union for this state of affairs. The fact is that the Union behaves how it does because of the overall institutional and cultural architecture of our college. A critical problem is that our student community is highly apolitical and lax when it comes to dealing with relevant issues, even issues that affect their own lives on a daily basis, leave alone what is happening to the society at large.Why this is, is an important question in itself. The curriculum and method of teaching adopted for the two subjects taught in our college, coupled with the lack of an active humanities department plays a major role here. Confined to subjects like Economics and Commerce, the thinking of students is straitjacketed towards narrow lines of personal gains and career achievements which do not allow much space for political consciousness, social commitment and collective spirit to grow. In fact, despite Economics being a social science, the 'social' aspect of it is conspicuous for its absence. However, it needs to be pointed out that most of us grow up in this apolitical atmosphere, with our schooling system rewarding the opposite of the spirit of enquiry and critical thinking, and our families providing no space for lively discussion of political events either. So while the structure of subjects like Economics and Commerce certainly fuels the apolitical spirit, to us looks as if we are taught not to care, right from the beginning. Moreover, breaking this mould can then be tougher if there is not even a dynamic liberal arts section to provoke the students. Moreover, even if the students have well formulated demands, there is a lethargy in taking these demands forward, which is originating from a lack of faith in the institution of the Students’ Union itself. If the belief is that nothing would be done ultimately anyway, then obviously there will be the attitude of 'why bother stirring up an issue at all'. On top of this, there is a lack of formal, properly functioning mechanism of communication between the Union and the students, which makes the task of taking up a concern with the Union that much more difficult.
Most importantly there is no functioning formal mechanism in place to discuss the issues of students with the authorities. So even if the Union is able to communicate with the students, how it is going to solve the issues brought before it is not very clear.
The magnitude and reality of these issues, however, does not mean that the Union should every year be easily and completely excused for its underperformance in core areas. The fact is that the Students' Union itself is the body which has the permanent responsibility to proactively take steps towards organising student community, reestablishing faith in the organisation, and pushing towards creating a formal mechanism of communication among union and students and union and college authorities. In fact, the only responsibility from the above mentioned responsibilities that the Union can be allowed to not perform is that of taking political stands, because the Union in our college is not structured along those lines. The Union should certainly focus more on increasing welfare of students through providing help services. This is something that it can do in the near future, without necessarily bringing about major institutional changes. It can at least take some elementary, honest steps towards this direction. However, it will be naive to think that the Union of a particular year will suddenly get the will to do anything at all, when it gets all the support it needs from the students just via Crossroads. So for even this easily attainable goal , an important precondition is that the culture of using 'Crossroads' as the only parameter of success of the Union should change. Students have got to actively demand for a radical change in the system.
The problem of over emphasis on the fest and zero emphasis on other jobs can be solved if the functioning of the Union is formalised further, and there is a clear demarcation between duty of fest organisation and student representation.Such a bifurcation will ensure that there is a compulsion to do something for the welfare of the students, because only one department will get credit for the fest. Also, the introduction of an office of opposition leader who holds the power to question and criticise the Union in office will be the first step in the creation of a proper mechanism to make student union accountable. This can go a long way towards creating a responsible, representative Union.
In fact, the best way to bring about these suggested changes can be through the adoption of a parliamentary system of representation with representatives of each section, and an elected body and opposition. This proposed system is similar to what is already being practiced in the Hindu college. Within this framework, regular and compulsory meeting of parliament sessions to discuss students issues should be made integral to system. The Parliament should hold the Union accountable for their activities including its budget, and strengthen initiatives such as the zero hour by making it mandatory. We would like to reiterate that if this system were to come in place, there should be a separate ministry of fest organisation so that the rest of the Union can focus on other activities. Further, provisions such as
- a formal and institutionalised mechanism for regular interaction between student
community and authorities, the meetings of which the opposition leader should also be a part of. Care should be taken to ensure that the system of meeting between Union and authorities does not become bureaucratic or time taking, where the Union members
have to burn themselves out for just one meeting. It should be prefixed, like in Hindu college, where the principal meets with the cabinet once every two weeks compulsorily to discuss important affairs. Such meetings should not be delayed or cancelled because of other last minute appointments.
- a grievance redressal cell of the Union to take complaints and suggestions from students and society heads,
- a help desk or advisory arm of the Union to provide necessary guidance to students,
especially first years,
- awareness campaigns under the leadership of the union itself to promote involvement of
students,
- mandatory reporting of how the Union interacted with and helped each society,
which should be attested by the society heads,
- some sort of monitoring to ensure that cases of embezzlement do not occur during fest
organisation and other events, will bring a positive step towards revolutionising the institution of the Union. This has the power to bring long lasting impact on student welfare, strengthen the student community, and help students internalise the democratic spirit and responsibility. The fact of the matter, though, still remains that even if we should ideally expect the Union to change its orientation, it will not come about without the aggressive demands of the students of the college. We cannot emphasize enough, the dire need of the politicization of our student community . We do not know what can be done to bring about this attitudinal change, but we do know that it is of supreme importance, and not just for the sake of having a better Union at the college level. For it is true that a student community which is not raising its voice for basic rights, is going to translate into a citizenry which is unconcerned with keeping democracy alive, that is unbothered to keep the State responsible, and that is uninterested in speaking up for itself and its fellow citizens; and that is going to be a dangerous future for the country.
Great article! It's also interesting how point #1 and point #5 are closely related - because fests are so huge, seen as the reason for the Union's existence, and are accompanied by major flows of money, the Union is forced to abide by school admin diktat. So the tension that is supposed to exist between the Union and admin in order to better advocate for student welfare is whittled to nothing.
To our 'honourable' editors - Better be informed and know about the facts before putting it out on social platforms (thinking where there is no one to question you perhaps)
It is quite sad to witness that just to 'keep the site active' or just to 'attract attention and viewership' some things are being posted in the veil of a 'perspective'.... There is some bit of 'untruthfulness' in all the points mentioned in this article. Just to mention a few:
1. *Compiling Students' problems and bringing them to authorities is practically non-existent* - just to put on record, whatever problem was communicated to the Students' Union was duly communicated to the authorities and also some of them handled at our…