NUIG students should action their ‘outrage’

Bradley Bytes – A Sort of Political Column with Dara Bradley 

The Students Union at NUI Galway is ‘outraged’ by the university’s decision to hike on-campus rents by 4%. We know the SU is ‘outraged’ because it said so in a press release.

But what are students, and their representatives in the Students Union, actually doing about it? Sweet damn all.

A single room at Goldcrest student accommodation on campus will increase to €750 per month in September. This is “price gouging”, said the SU. It’s “exploiting” 19,000 students, they said.

And they’re right. Absolutely, 100% correct.

NUIG SU president, Clare Austick was right too when she said that in the midst of an accommodation crisis NUIG was “again looking to profit from the desperation of students” looking for digs. Note the use of the word ‘again’. NUIG has form in bleeding cash from its students.

Students and their families are already struggling, and cannot afford the rent rises. High accommodation costs mean third level education is a pipe-dream for many more would-be students. They simply cannot afford it.

So, students, the Students Union and the general public, have every right to be outraged. But isn’t it time they did something more concrete about it? Channel the outrage. Students should be so outraged that they skip lectures and tutorials and petition Governing Body members.

In Cork, they camped out in tents on UCC campus in protest at rent rises. A symbolic protest but at least it was an expression of their outrage. NUIG students belatedly followed suit, erecting tents in the Quadrangle yesterday. They went on strike outside the President’s office . . . after all, Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh shares their concern at the rent rises.

Expressing outrage is not enough, though. It didn’t work last time. A few students or SU reps sleeping out in tents isn’t enough either. Collective action is needed – isn’t it time they took to the streets en masse? Students could picket the ‘Royal visit’ of Will and Kate next week, while the national and international spotlight is on Galway. Demand a reverse in accommodation prices. Rise up against this price gouging.

They won’t though. Can’t be arsed. It’s easier to sign an online petition – the student equivalent of ‘revolutionaries’ sitting at home on a sofa and roaring at the telly. So long as the toilets in NUIG are gender-neutral, students appear content . . . this outrage is temporary and will dissipate . . . they know it . . . NUIG knows it . . . until the next “outrageous” 4% increase.

*For more Bradley Bytes see this week’s Galway City Tribune