UPDATE: Nottingham, which was meant to announce its results today, has delayed the result to “consider complaints”. That makes six votes which have been called into some kind of question.
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The crisis-hit National Union of Students has been breaking campaign rules and spreading inflated claims about its own worth to universities considering abandoning it.
Questions have been raised over the conduct of NUS – which is struggling against a growing number of disaffiliations – after at least five separate votes were derailed by the actions of union staff.
Outraged students complained to election authorities after it emerged that the supposed facts of their membership were no such thing.
The NUS has been under fire ever since its controversial new president Malia Bouattia was elected – despite her past refusal to condemn ISIS, and widespread accusations from Jewish students that she is an anti-Semite.
Loughborough, Hull and York universities were all given misleading statements which overstated the financial impact of leaving, while at Oxford and Cambridge universities NUS officers trampled on local rules to use the union machine to campaign for an “in” vote.
@Cherwell_Online Mention NUS' illegal email sent during Cam #NUSreferendum. "NUS didn't know" is a terrible excuse. https://t.co/foj3m7muMV
— Cornelius Roemer (@CorneliusRoemer) May 31, 2016
Hull and Loughborough ditched the NUS regardless of the wrong figures they were given. Indeed, at Hull some students said the error was enough to change their vote from “in” to “out”.
York – which has been tipped to disaffiliate too – is expected to return a result tomorrow.
All three universities had to take action to redress misleading claims by the NUS.
Hull issued a correction on the first day of voting, telling students the benefits of remaining had been inflated by £17,000.
They then delayed their result to gather complaints from students.
Loughborough also intervened to rubbish claims from the NUS that they save students £400,000 a year, calling their stats “misleading” and “not realistic”.
A similar scandal erupted at York, where the voting period was extended after it emerged the NUS had overstated benefits of membership by some £30,000.
Oxford and Cambridge’s decisions were also marred by NUS malpractice, when NUS staff broke campaigning rules to target voters en masse.
Oxford University students have until 6pm today to vote #Yes2NUS. Visit https://t.co/hHWJz5GyHE & have a stronger student voice with #OxIN ????
— Malia Bouattia (@MaliaBouattia) June 2, 2016
In Cambridge, students who registered for an energy-saving campaign were hit with a propaganda shot from an NUS staffer – while other campaigners had been banned from using pre-made mailing lists.
At Oxford, where the same rules apply, NUS officer Richard Brooks blasted an email out to holders of the NUS Extra discount card trying to induce them to stay.
Human error and sheer ignorance – both, we imagine in plentiful supply at the NUS – could explain one or two slips. But five in a row starts to smell.
An NUS press officer contacted by Heat Street has so far been unable to offer an explanation.
