students


demonstrations for student newspapers and other publications who have been challenged by the police – the NUJ has been able to step in and help.” Mary Fagioli is a student journalist and photographer who had been a member of another trade union but joined the NUJ after realising she needed more protection. Fagioli, now based in Italy, says she appreciates the regular emails. She says “the most important” part of membership is that the union “acts to uphold free information”. But information about the union still fails to reach or influence many student journalists Even large journalism courses rarely have their own chapels. A fourth-year journalism student at Robert Gordon


University, Finlay Jack, says he has “never once seen any advertisement for the NUJ, anywhere, be it in university or on social media”. Jack says that throughout his time as a journalism student, no one asked him to join the union. He adds that he was put off by the cost, not knowing rates are considerably lower for students (£36 for the duration of a course). Within the NUJ, student members have raised issues


including voting rights and the amount of support. Some members think that because students’ subs are so low, it is not worth allocating too many’resources to them. However, Professor Chris Frost, NEC member and former


NUJ president, says the union’s rules already do a lot for students and were revised at this year’s delegate meeting. Frost, who is emeritus professor of journalism at Liverpool


John Moores University and chair of the union’s finance committee, adds that the NUJ regularly campaigns on issues directly or indirectly linked to student journalists and, while


Opposite page: Noelle Vaughn, LFB student rep; above left Victoria Rosenthal, also a LFB rep; above right Harry Williamson, who found the NUJ ‘invaluable’; and Mary Fagioli who joined for ‘more protection’


he “would prefer that [students] could vote as well” at meetings, he does not see it as a major issue. Though students cannot vote because they are associate members, many are still keen to make their voices heard in the union and improve their and their colleagues’ rights. “The NUJ should remember to include student members’ needs, concerns, opinions, and rights in their decision- making for industry-wide initiatives and ones specifically for student members,” says Victoria Rosenthal, one of two student representatives on the NUJ’s London freelance branch (LFB) committee. She says that, while student members value the support they do receive, they often find themselves in desperate situations and “would benefit from some form of financial support, like NUJ Extra, or links to services or charities that provide financial support or resources for basic needs”. She and fellow student LFB representative Noelle Vaughn


are gathering student feedback on improving NUJ support. Attitudes towards students are already “very supportive and


welcoming”, says Vaughn: “There is a lot of proactivity in terms of providing advice to students who will be starting out to help avoid exploitation and to encourage whistleblowing. Having this kind of protection is invaluable when starting out.”


theJournalist | 15


IAIN MCLEAN


PAT STOCKLEY


MARY FAGIOLI


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