Several Selwyn JCR officers strongly backed continued CUSU membership tonight – but raised their concerns about large numbers of defective condoms they had received from the central union.

Selwyn students quizzed their JCR committee, disaffiliated college presidents and CUSU president Amatey Doku on the benefits and pitfalls of continued affiliation at hustings this afternoon.

Around twenty students, many of them members of the current committee, met in the college’s JCR to discuss affiliation ahead voting opening later tonight. Selwyn is currently affiliated, but is constitutionally bound to hold a referendum this year as its policy on affiliation is due to lapse.

Selwyn’s welfare officers, Alex Goldin and Elena Cornaro, spoke about the benefits they had received from being able to access cross-college support and training.

They raised concerns, however, about the quality of condoms which they had received from CUSU, with Cornaro saying that they had received a “very large number of complaints that they've broken.”

CUSU offers a number of varieties of condoms, which welfare officers and regular students can collect from the student union’s headquarters on 17 Mill Lane.

Cornaro added that she doesn’t feel “comfortable” giving out condoms “that are likely to break”, but echoed Goldin by saying that she would fully support CUSU if they could guarantee a supply “good condoms”.

It is not the first condom-related controversy to strike Selwyn, after earlier this term Senior Tutors blocked the JCR from including the contraceptives in freshers’ packs.

Three representatives for disaffiliated colleges came to answer question about their experience with disaffiliation, whilst Doku tackled questions challenging CUSU’s record on representation. Paige Walker and Caitlin Pley, president and vice-president of Gonville & Caius Students’ Union (GCSU) respectively, were criticised for their JCR’s “selfish” stance on affiliation, but said that the money saved from not paying an fee to CUSU had allowed them to spend more money on welfare and sports teams.

Walker said that GCSU “function fine” without being affiliated to CUSU, but also acknowledged that this was in part because individuals Caians could still access many of the services provided by the central union.

“We can function without being affiliated because everyone else is affiliated,” said Walker.

She was criticised by Goldin, who said that, while he understood the logic behind GCSU’s position, he felt it made Gonville & Caius appear to be a “selfish college”.

Several anonymous students, both from Selwyn and other colleges, submitted questions which were read out by Selwyn JCR president Lee Robertson, who chaired the meeting.

Several of them were highly critical, including repeating allegations made by members of the infamous ‘Peterhouse Seventeen’, that CUSU has failed to properly represent student opinion when cuts were made to student union paper The Cambridge Student last term.

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Doku stood up for CUSU Council as a representative body, but said that an important factor was student engagement. He said that in order to effect change, JCRs had to be “plugged into the network”.

Several of those who argued in favour of continued affiliation, including former Selwyn BME Officer Lola Olufemi, spoke of CUSU in terms of a “post-Priscilla” era, reffering to former CUSU resident Priscilla Mensah. They said that since last year CUSU had become more open, representative and helpful, with Olufemi saying that there is a “big disparity between colleges which are affiliated and ones which aren't”.

One student present cited the recent referendum on Class Lists as proof that CUSU Council isn’t representative, saying that there was no point remaining affiliated to sit on “failing committees”. Doku countered that the best way to improve how the committees work is to continue sitting on them, and indicated that he will shortly be announcing some changes to Council procedure. He acknowledged problems however, saying there is a “lot more [CUSU] can do.”

One of the strongest advocates of continued affiliation was Selwyn access officer Gaia Lambert, who said that a good relationship with CUSU was “absolutely fundamental”. She said that the number of students participating in “shadowing” scheme, in which prospective applicants spend time with current students, had increased massively, from 2 last year to 36 this year, as a result of CUSU support.

Lambert said that affiliation allows JCR to work together “across the University”, saying that CUSU-organised Facebook groups for access officers allowed her to quickly gain information about procedures and schemes at other colleges.

Voting opens at midnight tonight, and will run for 48 hours.