UUJ Deem NARC 'Offensive'

Lee Casey,

James Sheridan Cumann,

Ógra Shinn Féin

‘To sin by silence when we should protest, makes cowards of men’ is a quote from the American author and poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox. It promotes resistance and activism and is the complete anti-thesis of what the University of Ulster calls its ‘political protocol’.

The so-called ‘political protocol’ is a set of rules concerning the activities of political societies at all of the University of Ulster’s four main campuses; Magee, Coleraine, Belfast and Jordanstown. It states that ‘Political activity is a fundamental right devolved to the students union and the activities undertaken by its clubs and societies’.

It aims to create a politically neutral environment by suppressing and slapping down the activism of Political societies with the goal that it will supposedly avoid causing offence to ‘students, staff or visitors to the university’. This may sound both reasonable and understandable but recently the issue has come to a head.

The James Sheridan Jordanstown Cumann applied, via the vice-president of the students union, to the provost for permission to have a stall. The stall was to be positioned in the mall section of the university as this section is the busiest part of the campus. The Stall was needed to allow the James Sheridan cumann to have an official launch of Ógra Shinn Fein’s new campaign N.A.R.C. (not another ravaged community). This is an important, hard-hitting campaign based around the issue of Drugs and alcohol awareness.

However, due to the suppressive and restrictive nature of the protocol and the tyrannical tendencies of the University Authorities our application was denied. What is so wrong with being active on-campus about an issue such as drugs awareness? Does the University of Ulster want their students to take drugs?

The reality is that this protocol is pure hypocrisy. The University of Ulster offers a politics course and yet if their students, be they unionist or republican in political persuasion, decide to exercise their acquired knowledge through the mantle of activism they are slapped down and restricted.

In the students union section of the university there is large billboard urging students to register to vote, because if they don’t they will ‘lose their voice’. Yet what is the purpose of the political protocol if not but to silence the voice of politics and politically active students?

The University of Ulster has over 25,000 students, and for those students, who are the future leaders of this country and are destined to be the great minds of tomorrow, for them to be deprived of any access to political issues or involvement in political activism as a result of this protocol is not only wrong but it is also an unhealthy thing for society and much more a threat to democracy. Adolf Hitler once said ‘What joy for rulers that men do not think’, and for our future great minds to fall into the trap of not thinking about issues is setting a dangerous precedent.

The political protocol is a relic of a bygone era. We all live in a new peaceful society with its political foundations a lot more stable than they once were. There is no need for such a restrictive policy on political activism. Queens University allows for a lot more freedom and caters for the nurturing and development of political societies.

To return to the focus of my original quote, we in Ógra Shinn Féin will not sin by silence when we should protest. We are active and will continue to be active and vocal about this issue until the restrictive chains of the protocol are broken and both political activism and freedom of speech can return to the University of Ulster. I urge all political societies in the University of Ulster to unite with Ógra Shinn Féin in their opposition to this restrictive political protocol.