Despite withdrawals Keegan says DCU will remain in university discussion forum

Students’ Union president Alan Keegan has insisted that DCU’s place in the Forum for University Students’ Unions of Ireland (FUSU) remains “secure” despite the two largest Dublin-based members of the forum opting to withdraw.

Keegan did warn however that if the withdrawals from FUSU continue “then the existence of the body will have to be looked at”.

Both Trinity College and UCD have withdrawn from FUSU in the past two months after motions to leave the forum were passed at both universities’ union councils.

The SU president added that he would like to see the members who withdrew to “rejoin and actively participate in FUSU as a free and beneficial student discussion forum”.

Trinity College SU president Cónán Ó Broin put forward the motion to withdraw from the organisation, telling the college’s union council meeting last month that FUSU was “not an effective organisation, having meetings with no agenda and no leader.”

He also said that while working alongside FUSU on the campaign to prevent the re-introduction of tuition fees he felt it was an “ineffective organisation.”

According to Keegan, there is still value left in DCU remaining as a member of FUSU but that the withdrawals are a loss to the forum.

“There are still five universities who sit on the forum and their information can be vital to DCU. Being realistic, Trinity’s and UCD’s withdrawal is a significant loss to the forum but I do believe there is still a need for it,” he said.

FUSU was originally setup in 1997 as a discussion forum between the country’s seven universities and DIT, which the forum recognised as a member because of its size.

The forum is viewed as DCU’s principal means of interacting with other universities after it disaffiliated with the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) in 2002.

The next meeting of FUSU takes place in UCC on December 18.