WHY DO PEOPLE want Honorary Life Membership so much? Perhaps it makes up for deficiencies in other areas; famed genius and master of diplomacy Steven Healer nearly exploded when deprived of the legitimate right to one – which he never got back. The rules for HLM state quite clearly that ‘examples of high levels of dedication to the student community of UCL over at least three years must be shown’. This is usually observed – except when it comes to sabbatical officers.
No-one has yet managed to give a satisfactory explanation, or anything approaching a satisfactory explanation, as to why sabbs get HLM with deathly inevitability, regardless of whether they have even been a UCL student for three years or not (Alex Coles and Nigel Harris being examples). The fact that a sabb runs the Social Colours process doesn’t help. And those who have been around for long enough haven’t all served the Union for three years. Even Ben Williamson had a bit of a strugle pretending that Alan Gardner fitted this description when it came up for discussion.
None of this would matter if the contribution of sabbs was truly extraordinary. But it generally isn’t. HLM guidelines also state that “only individuals who can demonstrate commitment over and above any specified job description will be considered.” Not only do sabbs often have trouble even meeting their job description (see previous CGs and below ad nauseam); not only do they get paid for doing their jobs, unlike people who slave away part-time for many years; but as CG readers know, it is the official line of Williamson, as the chair of Social Colours Committee (SCC), that sabbs should get HLM automatically, no matter what – in flagrant defiance of the rule above. Never mind that the likes of David Renton can get away with doing fuck-all. Never mind that Alexandra Walsh could barely write her own name, never mind edit Pi. And never mind that Mary-Beth Young’s broken the constitution with infantile abandon (see below).