Continuing Conversations: Critical Proposals for a new Student Union. #1: Marcus Dahl

The Burden on Student Leaders to Save Advocacy During a Pandemic

Marcus Dahl is a candidate for Student Trustee in the Oxford University Student Union election

Though opp will not be endorsing candidates for the elections to the Oxford Student Union, we believe in providing a platform for critical reflection on potential reform. Every candidate has been invited to contribute a piece tackling a single issue affecting the academic community concisely and critically.

This winter, student advocacy is at a low ebb. The pandemic has taken away several of the usual avenues for students to work together. In-person gatherings and protests are gone. With them went most of the pretexts for students to meet one another on campus, reducing cohesion and friendship within cohorts, and curbing both the organisation of student groups and the interpersonal buy-in for activism in general. This is especially so when the weight of a lockdown saps the energy of students spread across the country and the world. As long as student advocacy is suppressed, students fall victim to worse outcomes and existing projects lose their steam. It puts the university in a perfect position to patiently take advantage. What can student leaders do about it?

First, we must acknowledge the structural depth of the challenge. Oxford is already a decentralised institution which splinters in ways that make substantive change a moving target. This has been in the spotlight during the pandemic. The distributed and pandemic-mitigated response to the Black Lives Matter movement meant that colleges and faculties gave highly inconsistent responses. Progress was generally limited to pockets of the university, and the Vice-Chancellor was able to sidestep many of the big questions with vague words, promises and diversions. Similarly, Michaelmas term saw a patchwork of college and faculty pandemic responses which led to grave unfairnesses, financial burdens and difficulties for students. It came with high Covid-19 infections and failures to meet the standard of education promised and to properly consult with students.

Second, student leaders, if they can, need to reconceptualise their duty beyond their individual positions and go harder than usual. Student negotiating positions are badly diminished, and it is easy for the university to ignore a video square or an email. Since student advocacy is already defined by power imbalances and the university’s ability to delay and let campaigns fizzle and positions change hands, student leaders need to carry a heavier burden than usual. This means being clearer and stronger with their positions and demands. What used to be the polite and proper way of doing things might not get results anymore. Leaders need to be creative in bringing people together, coordinating across the university’s artificial dividing lines. And where students are left behind, leaders need to take students’ best interests on their backs and keep pushing. They must be ready to pull more levers to elevate student negotiating positions, even if that means writing stronger letters and emails, directly calling out the university’s stalling and failures, collaborating with unusual allies, more quickly turning to the media or protesting once permitted, and being ‘the difficult one’ at meeting after meeting.

It is a heavy burden to ask of young people experiencing some of their first tastes of leadership and advocacy. But this is what 2021 demands, if student leaders are able to answer the call.

Marcus’ manifesto, as well as the manifestos of the candidates he is running against, can be found here.