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PROBLEMS CONTINUE FOR HOPE STUDENT UNION

Are religion and financial difficulties getting in the way of student representation?

Liverpool Hope University is under fire from students who claim they have increasing control over Hope Student Union. A second year Hope student claims that “It’s not managed to the standard I would expect of a student union.”

The criticism comes after a difficult time for the Hope SU. It was announced in February that it had accumulated £600,000 debt and the University had decided on a review of the Union’s commercial operations in order to limit its outgoings. These included the snack shop in Derwent House and some other facilities within the Union. A demonstration was organised at the time, and some members of the SU claimed the religious views of Hope’s Vice Chancellor Gerard Pillay were the reason for the review. Liverpool Hope University’s status as an ecumenical University has been a source of controversy for some time.

One unnamed source within the SU states, “the review has had a dramatic effect on the operation of the Student Union. The University is now in control, the shop has closed, as has the nursery; it is open very few hours and the facilities are not good”. One of the measures included within the review was a cutback of most of its staff. Among the staff made redundant are all but two of the fulltime officers whose job it is to represent the students. Critics of the cutbacks have questioned how efficiently the SU can operate as an accountable body with so few staff to represent students.

Most recently Hope University came under criticism from students that it still advertised its nursery to prospective students, despite it being due to close. A spokesman for the University said, “anyone ordering a prospectus will receive a note telling them about the nursery”, but prospective students failed to find any such information. The SU has also been criticised in the past by students based at the University’s Hope at Everton campus, as no social facilities are provided and no transport is available between the two campuses.

Despite the cutbacks, the University has recently spent £47,000 refurbishing the bars within the SU, and has stressed that they will remain open, albeit on a limited time schedule. The University stated, “Hope recognises the importance of the services the union offers to students, and we would like to reassure them those services will continue so long as the students want them”.

Alice Brennan, a member of the bar staff at the SU said, “The student union is a good place to go, it has good events and the drinks are cheap. I’m a member of a few societies and I feel well represented”.

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