Originally published March 1 2011

Former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger once stated “student politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.” Replace the word vicious with worthless and you get an effective summary of Tom Hasler’s opinion piece in last week’s issue.

He couldn’t be more wrong. These elections matter now, more than ever. This is the single most important year for education in Scotland’s history. With tuition fees increasing to up to £9000 a year in England, now is the time for Scotland to react. Scottish universities are already dangerously underfunded and to ensure quality and international competitiveness, we’ll need a new funding system - maintaining the status quo is not an option. The students you elect this week will be at the very forefront of this debate.

At a university level – we’re facing cuts. Cuts to your courses, cuts to your teaching time, cuts to your study materials. Two years ago, EUSA stopped the university closing down key language departments. Now languages are thriving more than ever.

I understand that there is a natural cynicism around student politics; about the reasons people get involved and about whether, after all the electioneering and manifesto promises, students see real change in their university experience.

This year, at a university level, we’ve opened a new societies and volunteering centre, secured free language classes for students – resulting in a 70% increase in language participation at the university, designed a new online booking system for societies, achieved longer opening hours in the Pollock shop, set-up an international buddy scheme to help students from overseas settle into Edinburgh life and successfully stopped the university from turning the fourth floor of the main library from study space into staff offices, to name but a few key initiatives.

At a national level, we brought the largest number of students fromScotland to the NUS National Demonstration in London against tuition fees, and successfully lobbied local Liberal Democrat MP Mike Crockart to vote against the fee increases. To do so, he had to resign from his government job. Every MP in Edinburgh voted against the UK government’s regressive fee proposals.

The campaigns and services we run do make a difference to students. Moreover, the priorities of EUSA are absolutely determined by the people you vote for. To take one example, Stevie Wise, our Vice-President for Academic Affairs had to drop out of university in her third year because the financial support wasn’t available to her at a time of hardship. She only returned after a last-minute phone conversation with a fantastic Director of Studies. That’s why she ran for the job; because success at university shouldn’t be determined by how rich you are, or on a Director of Studies system which is effectively a lottery. Stevie’s priorities have been shaped by her experience and she’s set up a Scotland’s first student-run widening access scheme, as well as taking vital steps forward to ensure Director of Studies are trained properly and only those lecturers who have an active interest in their students become DoS’s in the first place. Every candidate has a motivation for running and their manifestos will tell you not only what they’d like to improve at the university, but what their values are – what drives them. In my experience in student politics, this is seldom a desire for a job or a career in politics, but a fundamental belief that things should change.

I recognise that as the university needs to change, so does EUSA. Hasler’s comments come from legitimate concerns about perceptions of the work we do and the effect it has on students’ lives. We must do better at communicating when we’re successful and make it easier for people to get involved. We’re working on this and my advice to anyone who feels strongly about what we could do better is to run for election. I ran for President in my fourth year – I’d never been on student council, I’d never been to a meeting. If you genuinely want to change the university and students’ lives, or to change EUSA, you can.

EUSA isn’t about a clique or a career - it’s about so much more. EUSA should be about a highly active and engaged membership of 28 000 students determining what the priorities for students are in a crucial year for higher education in Scotland. This week on Wednesday and Thursday, you have the chance to prove this. Do so. Vote.