NUS has an annual calendar. Those of us who have been involved for a while get used to the seasonal familiarity. Summer brings training events and campaigns launches whilst Autumn the mental health day and the beginning of regional conferences.

Winter brings electioneering and NEC members profiling themselves and their factions whilst Spring calms down a little bit and allows us to get on with work.

For pretty much all of the year, NUS finances dominate the calendar. Underspends, overspends, budgets, insurance company deals, buying and selling buildings - after a while it becomes really quite predictable. If quite as much energy was dedicated to campaigning for students, I do sometimes wonder what more could be achieved.

I don’t mean to be flippant, though. NUS has for some time, and still is, a financial nightmare. It needs sorting and concentrating time on sorting out will, I guess, be good for students in the long run. A stronger and more secure NUS can only be a good thing.

For the Disabled Students’ campaign, things are a little different. Although I’m involved in some or all of the above seasonal familiarity, we also have our own annual events and milestones.

This year, as a result of policy passed at Disabled Students’ conference, we’ll be taking an even greater interest in annual conference this year. In particular, we’ll be supporting and actively campaigning for policy that removes the harmful targeted grants policy. In addition, we’ll be supporting and campaigning for the introduction of a Mature Students’ Officer on the NUS NEC.

But most of all, we’ll be looking forward to conference setting a new agenda for NUS.

We’ll be looking forward to receiving the support and recognition that we deserve in NUS.

The Disabled Students’ campaign is the youngest liberation campaign in NUS, and it has a proud record of fighting and winning for disabled students.

In the short time we’ve existed, some incredibly dedicated and able officers and committees have achieved wonderful things for disabled students.

We’ve campaigned for and won the Disability Discrimination Act and overseen the introduction of the DDA in educational institutions.

We’ve fought and won against two harmful pieces of mental health legislation that would harm students with mental ill health terribly. We’re as committed as ever to winning the current draconian New Labour proposals.

We’ve raised awareness of hidden disabilities – 5 years ago the vast majority of student officers had no understanding of any of the issues involved and now a greater understanding has been reached and more students are receiving the support they deserve.

We’ve raised millions of pounds to ensure that heavily populated student areas have accessible transport.

We’ve held more event days than ever before, engaged more students than ever more and truly put disability equality at the heart of the student movement.

But we’ve faced challenges, not only on the issues we campaign, but also within NUS.

We’ve achieved all of the above with absolutely no staff support. Unlike other liberation campaigns, the work of the disabled students’ campaign is completed solely by the officer and committee.

Despite the commitment of various NEC members and Senior Management Teams, we still have no staff support whatsoever.

There has been no less than nine (to our knowledge) reviews of liberation staffing in NUS in the last few years, all of which have concluded that we desperately need staff support. But, generally due to financial pressures, this has never materialised.

NUS has been in financial difficulty for eons. This year, though, we’re told that a new type of financial accountability should be part of our day to day business. We’ve promised student officers that we will honest and accountable for the state of NUS.

And we’ve promised that we’ll broaden the scope and accelerate the pace of change within NUS.

It all sounds very wonderful, but my concerns about the ‘change’ process began at an NEC meeting when we were told about a ‘change manager’.

At a time of financial crisis, understaffed liberation campaigns, no fundraiser and increasing referendums, NUS has decided to spend £100,000 on a Change Manager, or Interim Operations Manager or similar. Apparently this individual will be employed to ensure that NUS’s internal systems are licked into shape.

Well, I say £100,000. The NEC voted on this without actually being very clear on how much it will cost. Despite us allegedly taking on a new level of detail, a new understanding of the finances and a new accountability – we were expected to make this decision without any papers to confirm what or even how much it would cost.

I’ve explored more to establish this, but got no definitive answers. Was the £100k figure the salary and recruiting costs of one person? Or is this figure the total cost of the (so called) improvement board?

No-one seems quite sure.

Doesn’t seem very honest, accountable and clear to me.

Let’s just be clear about one thing. NUS cannot and should not continue in the same financial vein as it currently does. NUS cannot and should not continue making irresponsible financial errors and overspending.

But to refuse to commit to any financial necessity until NUS is in the NUS is out of the red, is quite ridiculous. The NEC know this – they’ve committed to ensuring that extra is a success, including the costs involved, despite NUS being in the red.

And there’s some things we need. We need a building, perhaps not the swanky offices we currently have in NW1, but we need a building. We need a conference, perhaps not one with such cumbersome procedures that result in lots of unnecessary time and money spent, but we need a conference.

Because NUS is in the red, it doesn’t mean we are going to get rid of those things. They are needed in order to make the organisation operate. If they don’t exist, we may as well all go home and not bother.

But we also need to make new financial commitments, whilst ensuring that waste is depleted.

One of these commitments has to be staff support for the disabled and black students campaign. We’re going to be in financial difficulty for many more years to come, and the campaigns cannot function without appropriate staff support any longer.

I’m fast approaching burn out, working over 70 hours a week often doing very basic tasks like arranging transport for committee or replying to case work emails.

I know the black students’ officer works a similar amount of time due to a lack of staff support.

The reality is that the campaigns will fail unless they are properly resourced. The achievements of the disabled students’ campaign this year are as a direct result of my working a ridiculous amount of hours.

The NEC can’t continue to say ‘we agree you need staff support but we can’t afford it right now’. Various NECs have been saying that for too long now.

The campaign will fail this year, unless it is properly resourced. NUS has a choice. To waste a vital campaign and resource for disabled students (along with £38,000 of its money down the drain on an ineffective campaign) or commit more resources so it can achieve.

I guess this is part of the seasons. The time has come for the liberation officer to get annoyed about staff support. Give it a few months and he’ll calm down and shut up.

That may be so. But NUS will be harming disabled students and wasting a lot of money, unless it provides resources to this campaign. I suspect the same is the case for the black students’ campaign.

Roll on Spring.

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