The calm before the storm

Last week I arrived back from my holidays (nowhere fancy...just Kerry. I can't afford fancy at the moment) to a pretty calm place. There were still relatively few students around so I grabbed Ms. Education for a cuppa tea and headed to Javas. Getting a catch up of what was going on in Aoife's world, out of the corner of my I spotted the front of the Irish Independent
"College fees to return and student registration to rise"
Now it won’t come as a surprise to many of you that university is already an expensive place to be, but I thought “Fuck, this one’s going to be a massive battle” The current government has a huge majority of 55. Effectively this means that for any legislation to fail, not only would 55 TDs have to not vote with the government, they would have to actively vote against it. In addition there are plenty of lobby groubs that will argue they need the money the government has more than students do, and I can guarantee that the media will take every opportunity to portray students negatively giving these people a huge advantage. One drunken student pulling up one plant in their own garden will become "Students uproot gardens after booze fuelled rampage". don't give them the ammo. Keep it civil, or it's more and more likely we'll be keeping it for fees!

So “what’s the best we can hope for if they’re gung-ho on this?” Taking to the streets in protest will be necessary, but it may not save us having “fees” (and to be straight about it the “Student Contribution” is fees anyway)

I met with Don on this last week and we had a conversation around the effects of such a plan on our students and on the University. there are concerns for all involved relating to the effect on students.

From a general standpoint the most worrying aspect is that the story printed hints at fees, but says that there won’t be any system for getting the money. That leaves empty spaces colleges all around the country, a bigger funding problem and a protracted economic crisis. Lots of countries have fees, the one thing that they all have in common is that they have a way for students to finance those fees. So even for those in favour of fees, in this case they will have to be against as there is no solution to the funding crisis in the proposals outlined in last Tuesday’s Independent, in fact it creates a deeper crisis in the sector. It will create huge problems for those struggling at the moment, there are those that can afford it, but the percentage is getting slimmer and slimmer.

Shoving more students in and making them make up the shortfall in funding is one thing, but making students pay the entirety is a little on the crazy side when they have no means to pay.

And all this from the people who proclaimed that fees were a no go area for them.

Thanks Ruairí

Your Union Needs You

This is going to be a short enough one.

I'm calling on all members to support their Union at this time.

Last week our new Group Accountant called me and the General Manager to meet him. The basic gist of it is the shops need to bring in more money to continue to operate into the future. This isn't really news to us, but the hours may have to be shortened and the shops in Cappavilla or Dromroe closed if the campus community does not use them more.

In April the new company structure was put in place that aims to bring you better value than before, deliver better levels of service than before and greater choice than before.

Where possible I am appealing to you to use the shops if you wish to keep this service.

Your Union needs you!

Borrowing from Obama - Change we Can Believe in

I'm not much of an Obama fan, never really was. There was a lot of style and hype about him, but with another election coming, very little of that style has turned into substance. Can I deliver "change you can believe in"? Well that's really up to you, because you get to vote on all change.

So this is where it gets exciting for the nerds and politicos.

During the elections in March one of my primary manifesto points was Democratic Engagement. I promised a new vision, structural reform and to make the Union about students not rules.

Notwithstanding that there are other hurdles for the Union to overcome this year the structure is extremely outdated and I'm very keen this be resolved. We've heard about change at a strategic level for the last 2 years, which is also coming soon, but the change at strategic level is pointless if the change at representative level isn't there to back it up.

Council currently has a mahoooooosive potential membership (I think I may have mentione that in last week's blog) of 566 members. What Aoife and myself have come up with is a Council of less than 80, based on the norm in a lot of the UK unions. What we haven't done is a complete copy and paste.

No two organisations are the same, and even if they were, who's to say the one being copied is doing things as best as possible.

What have we come up with so far?


Who will sit in the new Council?

1 member elected from each faculty by all students in the faculty - 4

1 3rd/4th year member elected from each department by all students with a module in the department (some students will have votes in multiple departments) - 28

3-8 Members for each of the following Special Interest Groups, elected mainly by all students.

1. Equal Opportunities


2. Postgraduate


3. Recreation


4. UL Experience


5. First Year

Operating the new Council

The new Council would meet at least 2 but no more than 4 times per semester and assume the parliamentary, oversight and policy development role of the Union.

Sub-Committees of Council would meet at regular intervals including

1. Finance



2. Academic



3. Equal Opportunities



4. Strategy



5. Recreation



6. UL Experience



7. Committees proposed by the Chair of Council and approved by Council

This, if approved, will give ULSU a more streamlined method of operating. Each committee will report to Council on its work at least once per academic year.

What about the current class rep role?

There will still be class reps, but they will not be council reps. They will carry out the functions currently carried out by reps in their classes.

Departmental reps will meet all class reps in their department regularly and the VP Education will meet with all class reps from a faculty each semester.

So whaddya think? Let me know on SUPresident@ul.ie

Slán

D