Whatever happened?
I’ve been away for a while and return to campus to find out that last week’s referenda were inquorate. Where was everyone? I was a little concerned that I could not find out the results of the referenda on the Union website yesterday but thought that it was because of my lack of computer literacy. I then looked through The Boar this morning and on page 5 saw the headline “No result in disappointing referenda turnout”. All 5 motions were inquorate and will now be debated by council.
I am a little disappointed that this has happened. I remember debating the importance (from my point of view) of Union democracy in a previous entry on this blog.
I know I don’t really have the right to rant as I have been away from my computer (though due to completely unavoidable circumatances) since the end of week 8 and therefore was unable to vote. I would, however, have made sure that I did vote had I not been ill. I gave my dad my login details and asked him to vote on my behalf when I realised I would not be back on time but that happened to be the night the site was down.
It is not my place to speculate on why so few people bothered to vote as I simply do not know. There could be lots of reasons. I can just imagine that it is very frustrating for those who did.
05 Dec 2006 15:31
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Tags: Democracy Referenda Union
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Tony Collins
Simple: we didn’t care enough. We didn’t care about whether Warwick twinned itself with some University in Palestine that nobody had ever heard of. We didn’t care about the Union’s political stance towards the Israel/Palestine conflict. We didn’t care about whether the Union would promise to ban Coca-Cola and then perhaps change their minds or never get round to it (remember the smoking ban?)
And you know why?
Because these aren’t issues that most students care about. What difference does it make to any student here if the Union is twinned with somewhere we’ve never heard of, will never go, and will likely never make a difference to us one way or the other? What difference does it really make if the Union serves watered down Pepsi instead of watered down Coke?
Ask the student population to vote on an issue we really give a damn about and you’ll get a result. Otherwise don’t be surprised when student apathy rears its ugly head once again.
05 Dec 2006, 16:40
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