Like many unions, the National Union of students did not serve it membership very well at all over recent decades and finally paid for that arrogance.

It had lost the confidence of its constituency long before the neo-conservatives bayoneted it.

Students needed representation on campus in their interests, not for the seflish purposes of lesbains, radical feminists, Marxists or whatever.

Sure, students' unions could get involved in broader issues but not at the expense of issues local to the university, mundane as many of those issues might have been.

Similarly the government found it easy to disrupt and largely destroy unionism in the federal public service, but again only because those unions had stuffed around for decades running plebicites on plebicites on abortion and similar issues.

Student unions may remember the heady days of Vietnam demonstrations, however the peaceful effectiveness of those protests was always at risk where the ratbag element of the Left was involved.

Negus is right in saying that students should be involved in politics but he is wrong if he thinks that other students should pay for it.

As regards universities and university services, these days students are more likely to vote with their feet.

As a current Uni student myself, I spent my first year being completely oblivious to the arena of student politics. I see value in the argument naming a lack of unifying causes as a major contributing factor to this common situation; it is hard to unite over grey areas.

From my experience, I feel the student union (in Adelaide, at least) could make itself much more accessible. Most people arrive at Uni with very little historical and political knowledge.

Rather than become frusterated at this "ignorance", as is the natural response, student activists need to respond to this situation creatively to stimulate interest. A globalising world makes assembly of ragamuffin young adults complicated -- not impossible. Student politics can be resuscitated.