USI President Philip Madden has appealed to students' unions considering disaffiliation from the organisation to wait until an independent review is complete.

His call comes after the student union at Tralee IT, which had threatened to leave USI, decided to remain affiliated until the review process was finished. Students in DCU voted earlier this month to disaffiliate from the national union, but the poll was invalid because it did not achieve the necessary turnout of 15 per cent of the student body. USI has entered the second phase of the process in which working groups discuss consultants' proposals for the reform of the union and its constitution. "All those who want to see change should stay and work to ensure it occurs," Madden said last week. "It would be tragic for USI and the country's students if people who are committed to a reform agenda for the union decide to leave the organisation just when the change process is about to get underway in earnest."