Hello! I was recently made vice president of my schools black student union despite having no union experience. My schools current black student union is ineffective and very few people join. We don’t really operate like a union, we kind of just join and talk about micro aggressions and feelings. The newly voted president and I are disagreeing on core issues and basically I want help n what a successful union is and how a successful union operates. The newly voted in president is concerned about unionizing for more black faculty and a stronger “black culture on campus”(whatever that means). She seems fuzzy on what her goals are. I think it would be effective if we have one main goal of decreasing tuition as not only would that help black students, but every other race, which can cause a more diversified audience for our meetings and make us more likely to get things done since union strength is in numbers. But the current voted in president is worried about losing her “safe space for black students” where we talk about micro aggressions and feelings while accomplishing nothing. We’re currently going to have a meeting with the other members of our board to vote on who’s idea is better.
Basically, which of our thought processes make more sense? What makes a union successful? What books are there or guidance is here for how to run a successful union? How do I handle this situation?