What the hell does the Union even do?

“The Union of UEA Students is an independent charity, whose primary goal is to represent the students at the University of East Anglia. Every student at UEA is a member of The Union and it is our purpose to enrich the life of every UEA student.”

Erm. Okay. That’s great and everything, but maybe I’m the only who isn’t sure exactly how they ‘enrich’ our lives? And they’re a charity? So we’re now a charity case? Do we raise money for them? For us?

It’s election week, but does it really matter?

The Union of UEA Students is always the subject of much debate, people take their manifestoes very seriously and some conscientious people even read them before voting for the fittest one or the one they’ve seen around campus the most (I mean if I’ve seen them, they’re not going to be some psycho who doesn’t actually go to UEA pretending to go to UEA, are they? Logic.)

I’m pretty sure that the Union building is the same as the LCR/Hive building, and they may have something to do with each other, at least that’s what I tell prospective students on Visit Days…

But what do they actually, in the course of a day, a week, a semester, do? Sometimes we get live tweets from union meetings: “been waiting for half an hour for the chair. He’s still not here. This is bollocks” (A typical tweet). But who is the union? Who is the chair? What does it all mean??

A building of mystery…

“The Union and its services have a combined annual turnover of around £10 million.”

Well that’s impressive. So our fees, presumably, go to the union (and there was me thinking they went to the lecturers and the hub and the vice president and the new buildings).

No, I’m not an idiot. I am aware that some of the fees (£9000 a year, still sore) go towards the union and they organise the LCR and other entertainment, but what about the “300 students” elected to “look after the day-to-day operations”?

What day-to-day operations??? I mean, in the bar, or the Hive, or the LCR, those people aren’t elected, they are paid. Surely they are the ones running the ‘day-to-day operations”? The module representatives have something to do with the union, I think…I don’t know.

I am sure there is a function of the union representatives, I am sure they are being extremely productive with that £10 million, but I do think that we should be told why we are voting in elections, what responsibilities and ‘day-to-day operations’ go on, so that we can make an informed vote.

Posters like these are practically our only contact with union policy

As I recall, the union policy we all voted for last year was to have exam timetables released early. They promised us they would be out by the end of January. I received mine on Friday the 7th March, the same time as last year. I can’t help thinking there is a problem here.

Assuming the union is responsible for the LCR, then I am totally pro. Go union, go UEA, but maybe tell us how exactly you are enriching our lives sometime soon…