Galway march against fees

Lockstep

NUIG will be having a march against student fee hikes next Thursday, 18th of November.
Students will be meeting in the Áras na Mac Léinn at 13:00 and marching to the Spanish Arch from there.

Swing by if you're around.

Facebook event can be found here here

Ficheall

From Aras na MacLeinn to the Sparch?
What route are they taking that will ensure that the march will strengthen the protesters' case, and distinguish it from a glorified drinking session?

brianthebard

Why are they going From the campus to the Arch? If you have to go through town surely the sensible place to arrive is the uni?

Why are they going to the Arch? It's not going to accomplish anything whatsoever and, like another poster has said, will likely end up as drinking session. This is not what will get our voice heard.

PomBear

Well Eyre Square is taken up by the Xmas Market. I'd imagine we'll be marching through town, maybe O'Cuiv's office

Zillah

Show that arch who's boss.

The poster on the Facebook page says, "Tell your local TD"- then surely it would make more sense for the protest to finish up outside of the County Hall or the City Hall?

Ending at the Arch will just be wiped off as another drinking session by everyone else.

brianthebard

PomBear wrote: »

Well Eyre Square is taken up by the Xmas Market. I'd imagine we'll be marching through town, maybe O'Cuiv's office

Again why finish it in town at all? To finish at O'Cuiv's office makes some sense but otherwise I don't understand why you would want to finish outside the university its exactly what the administration would like to see.

Ficheall

Because it's much easier to encourage students to leave college and go Sparching than to stop Sparching and go to college?

aperture_nuig

Due to the fact that it's ending a the sparch, it's a wasted effort.

Shame, as a lot of students(myself included) that couldnt go to dublin would have liked to show their opposition to a fees increase. Would agree with the notion of ending it at o'cuivs office.

Ficheall

The organisers seem to share NUIG's belief in 'quantity over quality'.

PauricTheLodger

At least all they can 'occupy' down there is McDonaghs... and maybe Harvest...

Ficheall

Well, O Cuiv's office is just across the road from the sparch...

PauricTheLodger

Really? ****e. Well I can only hope there is no drama, but knowing some of the malcontents who will go along it's unlikely.

Ficheall

So the country seems set to be bailed out (speculatively) to the tune of 80000000000? Which is about 16000 per person (grossly oversimplified) of extra debt per capita?
And students are complaining that they have to shoulder 1500 of this extra debt?

(I know that's not how the thing works - but a little perspective is always nice.)

Zillah

Ficheall wrote: »

And students are complaining that they have to shoulder 1500 of this extra debt?

Yes. Expecting the one group of adults in society who are guaranteed to have little to no income to shoulder any of the burden is absolutely ridiculous.

Well, not the only one if you count homeless drug addicts. What percentage do you think the homeless should pay?

StupidLikeAFox

Well when you have the likes of the head of Horse Racing Ireland earning €313,000 to organise the Horse Racing industry, i would say students have every right to protest. I think he should be shouldering €313,000 of the burden tbh. Why does the government even need to pay him this, shouldnt the industry be able to organise itself?

Pat Kenny earns €600,000 a year, if RTE cuts his wages in half overnight, whats he going to do? Its not like he's going to be in high demand, TV3 are the only other TV station and theyre not gonna pay him close to that

And the thing is, there are plenty of heads of quangos and public sector workers in high up positions getting paid ridiculous money that they arent worth. If there were going to be serious reforms to this section of society as well as students fair enough, but students are just an easy target

Ficheall

ColHol wrote: »

Well when you have the likes of the head of Horse Racing Ireland earning €313,000 to organise the Horse Racing industry, i would say students have every right to protest. I think he should be shouldering €313,000 of the burden tbh. Why does the government even need to pay him this, shouldnt the industry be able to organise itself?

Pat Kenny earns €600,000 a year, if RTE cuts his wages in half overnight, whats he going to do? Its not like he's going to be in high demand, TV3 are the only other TV station and theyre not gonna pay him close to that

And the thing is, there are plenty of heads of quangos and public sector workers in high up positions getting paid ridiculous money that they arent worth. If there were going to be serious reforms to this section of society as well as students fair enough, but students are just an easy target

I agree completely with you on that - there are definitely plenty of people who should only be being paid a fraction of what they're getting. There'd be no harm in taking a stance like that at all - Jim McDaid's 230k golden handshake a couple of weeks back was certainly undeserved, to cite a recent example.
But that doesn't seem to be the banner students are marching under, as far as I can tell, for the most part. They're not out to rid us of societal injustice altogether, or help the country forge its way out of the ****hole we're in.
They (generalisation) just don't want their booze money taken from them, and don't really seem too bothered about who has to stump up, just so long as it's not themselves.

And I wouldn't say that students are an "easy target" - moreso that they're largely useless, aren't contributing much to society as it stands, and in the event they threatened to strike or leave or whatever, no one would really give a toss.

brianthebard

Ficheall, Zillah, don't post in this thread again. If you can't come up with anything better than comparing students to drug addicts or saying their useless you don't deserve or need to post here. Mod.

LowOdour

if ye were smart enough then instead of marching against fees, ye should save money by not wearing out the soles on yer shoes cus i dont see any way fees wont be introduced

PomBear

Ficheall wrote: »

And I wouldn't say that students are an "easy target" - moreso that they're largely useless, aren't contributing much to society as it stands, and in the event they threatened to strike or leave or whatever, no one would really give a toss.

100% Wrong.

You don't think industry comes here for our educated workforce?
Students contributed a hell of alot once educated. Once you take away the means to be educated, you take away the attractiveness to industry
have a read of this http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1115/barrettc.html

Students are an easy target in retrospect to pensioners when you take for example, if the government touched the pension like they touched education the government would be slaughtered. It's time the government realise what kind of voice we have.

Ficheall

PomBear wrote: »

100% Wrong.

You don't think industry comes here for our educated workforce?
Students contributed a hell of alot once educated. Once you take away the means to be educated, you take away the attractiveness to industry
have a read of this http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1115/barrettc.html

Interesting read indeed.
"Craig Barrett said that if that meant raising university fees to keep a stream of investment in education at universities, he would hold that among his topmost priorities."

"He also said Ireland's educational advantage had diminished because countries like India and China are educating hundreds of thousands of engineers."

Also - our degrees have been considerably dumbed down in the last twenty years - as evidenced, say, by yon nonsense with GMIT at the moment, or the fact that NUIG seems to be setting quotas for itself as regards to the number of phds they want to produce every year. Never mind the quality - feel the width, eh?

Sure, some students might contribute something to some of the scientific/engineering fields through what they've learned in college - but the majority of students don't learn squat that might be worthwhile to "industry" in college.

Ficheall

brianthebard wrote: »

Ficheall, Zillah, don't post in this thread again. If you can't come up with anything better than comparing students to drug addicts or saying their useless you don't deserve or need to post here. Mod.

To be fair, I think Zillah was using the drug addicts example to illustrate that not everyone in society can be expected to shoulder an equal share of the burden, as opposed to saying that students were all drug addicts...

Skrankio-X

ColHol wrote: »

Pat Kenny earns €600,000 a year, if RTE cuts his wages in half overnight, whats he going to do? Its not like he's going to be in high demand, TV3 are the only other TV station and theyre not gonna pay him close to that

"Maybe that man on the telly has money! He looks rich!" Pat Kenny is not the answer. The problem is bigger than Pat Kenny. Calling to snatch money from public figures is reactionary hysteria.

Ficheall wrote: »

Sure, some students might contribute something to some of the scientific/engineering fields through what they've learned in college - but the majority of students don't learn squat that might be worthwhile to "industry" in college.

So education is pointless? People shouldn't study literature in this country, is that it? Industry isn't everything.

As an aside, I don't believe this thread needs any modding. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

brianthebard

Skrankio-X wrote: »

As an aside, I don't believe this thread needs any modding. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

That's not up to you. Welcome to boards. Please read the charter, specifically the parts about mod decisions in thread.

StupidLikeAFox

Skrankio-X wrote: »

"Maybe that man on the telly has money! He looks rich!" Pat Kenny is not the answer. The problem is bigger than Pat Kenny. Calling to snatch money from public figures is reactionary hysteria.

Well if you read the rest of my post, not just that one sentence in the middle (?), you would see thats not what Im saying. I was taking two examples of waste in the public sector, where people are getting ridiculously overpaid for what they were worth.

I was also pointing out the fact that the government cut backs more than likely wont have as much of an impact on these areas, compared to the impact which will be suffered by thousands of students. There is very little talk of reform by the government, it all just seems to be either taxes or cutbacks.

Basically what I was saying was students have every right to stand up for themselves and make themselves heard, because if they take it lying down well they're just gonna keep getting battered. At least if they make a stand the government may start looking at other areas (two such examples above) and it would be mission accomplished.

Dan_Solo

Ficheall wrote: »

Interesting read indeed.
"Craig Barrett said that if that meant raising university fees to keep a stream of investment in education at universities, he would hold that among his topmost priorities."

It won't keep investment in universities up if the student's can't afford to go.

Dan_Solo

Skrankio-X wrote: »

"Maybe that man on the telly has money! He looks rich!" Pat Kenny is not the answer. The problem is bigger than Pat Kenny. Calling to snatch money from public figures is reactionary hysteria.

But it's a start surely? The simple fact is that we're paying a vast raft of public servants, from the €300k quango bosses to the €600k TV presenters to the €250k consultants and HSE managers FAR FAR MORE than is required to keep them. It's the only game in town, so all of these salaries can be absolutely rock-bottom and they still take them.
How many students fees could be paid if the public service salary was capped at, say, €150,000? All of them? These sorts of cases have to be made by the protesting students, as the money simply isn't there any more unless it is taken from another sector who can well afford to pay it.

Ficheall

But who will bell the cat?

Dan_Solo

Ficheall wrote: »

But who will bell the cat?

Sinn Fein? Er, Labour? Er...

mrsmidas

Plenty of paddy wagons parked on Flood Street. Be careful out there kids!

rivalius13

brianthebard wrote: »

That's not up to you. Welcome to the internet. Please read the charter, specifically the parts about mod decisions in thread.

Nothing worse than someone saying "Actually, we don't need you mods, run along" when CLEARLY they're ****in' around.

Pinturicchio

How'd it go?

Lukker-

Pinturicchio wrote: »

How'd it go?

At least 1,000 turned up and marched peacefully with no disturbances or incidents, so a success I'd say.

Will be completely be over-shadowed in the media though, probably because of the fact that we are being bailed out today.

cr0bar

I didn't march due to missing out on some important lectures, but I got my face painted (still painted now) in support.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Fairly poor turnout I reckon. Fair enough if you important lectures on, or if you dont agree with the march but a lot of people just dont bother. Those same people will be complaining about the increased fee next year.

WesternNight

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

Fairly poor turnout I reckon. Fair enough if you important lectures on, or if you dont agree with the march but a lot of people just dont bother. Those same people will be complaining about the increased fee next year.

So, having an opinion on the increased fees is reserved for those to walked from the college to the Spanish Arch on a Thursday afternoon 2 weeks before exams, when lectures are still going on, when essay deadlines are around the corner etc? Good to know.

outwest

Lukker- wrote: »

At least 1,000 turned up and marched peacefully with no disturbances or incidents, so a success I'd say.

Will be completely be over-shadowed in the media though, probably because of the fact that we are being bailed out today.

a poor turnout, students must of went to the pub, because there were a few drunks walking around town.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

WesternNight wrote: »

So, having an opinion on the increased fees is reserved for those to walked from the college to the Spanish Arch on a Thursday afternoon 2 weeks before exams, when lectures are still going on, when essay deadlines are around the corner etc? Good to know.

I said that if you don't agree with the protest or were unable to attend due to college work then thats understandable. What will piss me off is people who don't want the increase in fees and would have been able to attend but were too lazy to go to the march will be complaining about the increase next year when it finally sinks in.

Lukker-

outwest wrote: »

a poor turnout, students must of went to the pub, because there were a few drunks walking around town.

Just bitter tbh, if 3000 showed up you'd have said ''don't those students have exams''.

No point posting in this if you're just looking for a rise.

Turn-out was exactly as predicted given it's exam time and let's face it you probably would have critisized it regardless of the outcome.

Dan_Solo

outwest wrote: »

a poor turnout, students must of went to the pub, because there were a few drunks walking around town.

Drunks in Galway city? Get the hell outta here!

dapto1

Lukker- wrote: »

Turn-out was exactly as predicted given it's exam time

Exams are weeks away aren't they?

Ficheall

Well yeah, but you know how hard all the NUIGers study...

Lockstep

dapto1 wrote: »

Exams are weeks away aren't they?

They start in 2 and a half weeks.

rivalius13

How is 1000 a poor turnout? That's 1 in 15, isn't it? That's a better ratio than most lectures.

Ficheall

1000... really? It didn't look it from the vid.

Also - the pool is more than 15000 as the GMIT heads were there too..

dapto1

Yeah it definitely didn't look like 1000 from the video. Couple of hundred at best.

Lockstep

dapto1 wrote: »

Yeah it definitely didn't look like 1000 from the video. Couple of hundred at best.

That only looks like a few hundred to you?

Keep in mind that's only the NUIG group, GMIT arrived later on.

I'm suspicious of those who say 2k but a couple of hundred is even worse off the mark.

Zillah

kickoutthejams wrote: »

Fixed.

dapto1

kickoutthejams wrote: »

That only looks like a few hundred to you?

Keep in mind that's only the NUIG group, GMIT arrived later on.

I'm suspicious of those who say 2k but a couple of hundred is even worse off the mark.

At no point in that video did I see about a thousand. How far into it? When they are gathered at the stage the camera doesn't show the whole crowd, just those at the front. And when they are leaving NUIG/walking down Shop St it's nowhere near a thousand.

Lockstep

dapto1 wrote: »

At no point in that video did I see about a thousand. How far into it? When they are gathered at the stage the camera doesn't show the whole crowd, just those at the front. And when they are leaving NUIG/walking down Shop St it's nowhere near a thousand.

RE th stage: mainly as they're videoing it at an angle. I was in the crowd and couldn't see how many people were there, as there were too many people around me (I'm 6' so I'm not tall enough to get a birds eye view)

How's about the opening section of the video where the students are walking towards the camera. Does that look like only a couple of hundred students to you? Keep in mind that's purely NUIG and doesn't include the GMIT students at all.

It's probably not a thousand leaving NUIG but for it to be only a couple of hundred is even more ridiculous.