CUSU Council will vote on Monday on whether to remain affiliated to the National Union of Students (NUS).

The motion, submitted by CUSU President Amatey Doku, and seconded by Education Officer Roberta Huldisch, is an annual affair, as stipulated by CUSU’s constitution. Ordinarily, it is a formality; however, this year there is the potential for fireworks as Council members push back against proposed hikes to affiliation fees.

In 2015-16, CUSU paid just £250 for its membership of the NUS. Despite budgeting the same amount for this academic year, CUSU has actually paid more than twenty times that figure, forking out a total of £5,765. For 2017-2018, this looks set to almost double again to £10,527.

Minutes from the meetings of CUSU’s Board of Trustees, seen by Varsity, reveal that CUSU knew about the proposed fee hikes in November, but did not make this public knowledge until February. Doku told Varsity that the delay to inform council stemmed from a decision to wait until “it became clear that [they] were unlikely to see [the figure] revised down ahead of the budget.” In the intervening period, CUSU General Manager Mark McCormack was tasked by the Trustees with renegotiating CUSU’s affiliation fee, but by January these efforts appear to have stalled.

Monday’s affiliation vote has already been delayed once, having been pushed back in February until after the NUS Conference, which took place at the end of April. At the time, Doku told Council members that delaying the vote would avoid making a “snap decision”, allowing CUSU time to negotiate and gain clarity on the prospective fee hike.

February’s motion reassured councillors that if the NUS insisted on the increased fee, then “this will be taken into consideration at the subsequent debate on our affiliation”. Despite this promise, there is no suggestion that the failure of negotiations will have any bearing on the CUSU executive's support for continued affiliation. However, in the light of the NUS’s new affiliation fee model, Doku said to Varsity that he believed that CUSU’s budget “clearly shows that there would be grounds to request an abatement from the fee, at least in the short term.”

If there is serious resistance to affiliation on Monday, then the issue of a second referendum on CUSU’s membership of the NUS may be back on the table. In May 2016, Cambridge voted by a majority of just 303 votes (despite the unusually large turnout of 28.76 per cent, with 6,178 votes cast) to remain a member of the NUS following a year of controversy under the leadership of Malia Bouattia.

Julius Haswell, who previously campaigned for disaffiliation from the NUS, told Varsity that “The number of people that voted for disaffiliation last year shows how many Cambridge students expected it to reform, but so far we have seen no evidence that it has.” Haswell also argued that “the NUS lied to Cambridge about their affiliation fee and are now increasing it by 4900% on last year. Cambridge shouldn’t have to pay [more] money after last year’s commitment of £250.”

This year’s affiliation fee rise means that the cost of CUSU’s external affiliations with the NUS, the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA), and Cambridge Council for Voluntary Services (CCVS), including conference fees, will quadruple next year according to the proposed CUSU budget for 2017-18, which will also be debated at Council on Monday.

Despite concerns, Doku appears confident that NUS affiliation is necessary, as CUSU would lose money without it. Earlier today, he revealed that the forecasted revenue from the selling of NUS Cards would be £17,000 in 2017-18, if the strategy of “actively [promoting] NUS Extra Cards to freshers, finalists, post-docs and University staff” is successful. Taking into account a “maximum” affiliation fee of £10,500 and a further £3,000 being used in order to cover conference costs, Doku explained to Varsity that CUSU would still make a profit of £3,500 if the expected sales target was reached.  

Calls for a second vote are likely to encounter resistance from the uppermost echelons of CUSU, as incumbent president Doku is due to start his term as NUS Vice-President for Higher Education in the summer.