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It's astonishing to me that it's that time of year already. But on the day before most of them leave (some have already gone, some over next few weeks but lots tomorrow) a thread about elected SU officers over the years.
There are people who weren’t prepared to put up with their members being groped in nightclubs anymore – and had the temerity to launch social norming campaigns and behaviour codes amongst students long before universities were shamed into joining in.
There are the people who, when running their own shop, didn’t want to profit from selling The Sun. NOTE not wanting to profit from the sales – not banning it, or geoblocking the URL on Eduroam, or confiscating copies from the local Tesco.
They just got together and decided through open debate what they wanted to sell to each other.
There are people who wanted us to ask other students not to “black up” at social events, or to parade around at fancy dress events mocking people of colour or people that are poor.
There’s the student who wanted to know what to do about her “handsy” lecturer for whom women had developed avoidance techniques over 20 years who stood for election and won.
There are the reps campaigning to have some reading from talented people and thinkers that aren’t white.
There are the LGBT+ officers who weren’t happy that the hockey team thought it was just “bants” to play Gay Chicken on their way to fixtures.
There are the students who wanted to get through a night out without a DJ playing “Blurred Lines”, slurring down the mic that it was time for the “lads” to go “blur the lines with the ladies”, with obvious consequences.
These are the students who were told that adjustments would be made to allow them to access learning and were then told they were in fact being unreasonable. And decided to do something about it.
There are the students – not studying politics or philosophy or religion – who just wanted to get through the day without having to justify their own identity or existence.
The people who just wanted their members to get a heads up if their class was about to discuss something they’ll find traumatic, which without warning would prevent their active participation.
Assertive, passionate, advocates. They challenge authority. They point out elephants in the room and raise uncomfortable things at uncomfortable times in uncomfortable ways.
They do appear in prospectus photos, and they do go on protests, but they also present evidence and make arguments and provoke the powerful. They tackle each other’s behaviour. And they’re genuinely brave.
Of course, they can use baffling and exclusionary language, creating rarified environments that seem hard to access. But how do you think they feel in university committees? Or watching Parliament?
And they can be dogmatic, and difficult, and occasionally just daft. But so can VCs.
Best of luck to all of them. We should be immensely proud of them. Now go change the world.
