Student Centre

Kwekubo

I wasn't expecting that. Looks like the Student Centre project is now dead in the water.

Jonathan

I think most students are in favour of a student center. People obviously don't want to pay €69 for it, in addition to the €70 for the Gym.

amacachi

Jonathan wrote: »

I think most students are in favour of a student center. People obviously don't want to pay €69 for it, in addition to the €70 for the Gym.

I think it'd be great to have but people realise there are a lot better things for them and for the college and the taxpayer to spend money on.

Delighted the vote went the way it did despite my completely forgetting it was happening. :P

timmywex

I reckon itll still go ahead eventually, just means that the students wont pay a levy for it.

This is mainly because most people saw about paying a levy and thought no, so voted no, without knowing the full details! Which to be fair, we are paying the gym already!

Tragedy

timmywex wrote: »

This is mainly because most people saw about paying a levy and thought no, so voted no, without knowing the full details! Which to be fair, we are paying the gym already!

Whose job was it to inform them of the total cost, levy cost and structure of the levy?

€22million for a small students centre was always ridiculous, especially as it didn't have to pay for land. I don't how anyone could justify that cost, but fair played to the SU for trying I guess.

JonJoeDali

Kwekubo wrote: »

I wasn't expecting that. Looks like the Student Centre project is now dead in the water.

Good. There are far more worthy areas for money to be spent.

Ahoyhoy

Unless Kearney gets elected according to his manifesto. Soooo not going to happen though.

Sucks from the Health centre & disability service point of view, I couldn't really give a toss about another bar but a nurse in the health centre last week told me they could have had late opening hours after they moved to the student centre.

blucey

Ahoyhoy wrote: »

Unless Kearney gets elected according to his manifesto. Soooo not going to happen though.

Sucks from the Health centre & disability service point of view, I couldn't really give a toss about another bar but a nurse in the health centre last week told me they could have had late opening hours after they moved to the student centre.

You think?
CK has committed to the center, and at a meeting last week reiterated that he was of the view that students should not pay an extra levy as it was a college service for which they were, in principle, already paying.
So, if you want a student center, dont forget which candidate is promising one, and that as his only promise. Just because the student vote is over doesnt mean your voice is mute: discuss issues with the lecturing staff.

BL

electrogrimey

I'm glad it got turned down. I never would have used it, like most other people I'm guessing.

Imagine what it'd be like if they pumped 22 million into the library.

Just imagine.

phlegms

I'd rather them use some of that ridiculous student center budget to stick some laptop plugs in the BLU library. Very much glad it didn't get voted in.

JonJoeDali

Ahoyhoy wrote: »

Unless Kearney gets elected according to his manifesto. Soooo not going to happen though.

Sucks from the Health centre & disability service point of view, I couldn't really give a toss about another bar but a nurse in the health centre last week told me they could have had late opening hours after they moved to the student centre.

The fact that the morning after pill is now available over the counter will help congestion considerably.

That said, when services are provided for free, demand always expands to meet the funding allocated.

JonJoeDali

electrogrimey wrote: »

Just imagine.

Just imagine if we allowed smart phones and tablets on the WiFi network.

JonJoeDali

phlegms wrote: »

I'd rather them use some of that ridiculous student center budget to stick some laptop plugs in the BLU library. Very much glad it didn't get voted in.

In fairness to the library, the Berkley library has recently had sockets for laptops installed and the Hamilton has had a good freshening up. We're lucky to have such excellent library facilities.

amacachi

JonJoeDali wrote: »

Just imagine if we allowed smart phones and tablets on the WiFi network.

Ah I remember in DCU, all one had to do was put in the proxy address in the program settings for whatever they were using and away they went.

phlegms

JonJoeDali wrote: »

In fairness to the library, the Berkley library has recently had sockets for laptops installed and the Hamilton has had a good freshening up. We're lucky to have such excellent library facilities.

I appreciate the effort they've made in the Berkley, but at the end of the day one row of desks with plugs really doesn't cut it. No reason every desk shouldn't have a plug.

brownacid

The student levy was set at €69 for the first year to increase by 2 every year afterwards for 20 years. They wanted the student contribution to be 8.8 million, at an average of 88 for the 20 years it works out as the students paying roughly 26 million through the levy. I voted no on the basis of these very rough back of the envelope calculations.

I think the SU were wrong for trying to pass off more cost onto the students under false pretences

aas

What were the false pretenses? Did you read the referendum information guide they distributed that includes the exact same figures you just posted?

Tragedy

aas wrote: »

What were the false pretenses? Did you read the referendum information guide they distributed that includes the exact same figures you just posted?

Where was the guide distributed out of interest? I was simply asked to vote yes or no for a student's centre levy, didn't see any literature around the polling booth, had no-one come in to any of my classes and didn't receive anything detailed via e-mail.

Mark200

I didn't get any sort of guide either

Jammyc

They were scattered all over the Hamilton anyway.

Tragedy

Jammyc wrote: »

They were scattered all over the Hamilton anyway.

Why am I not surprised

PurpleFistMixer

I was handed one of the information things while trying to avoid SU campaigners in the Hamilton.

An SU email on 13/2 mentioned there would be voting on the student centre, but it didn't provide any other information. A link to a PDF of the information leaflet would have been beneficial.

It seems very weird to me that the levy would increase by 2 euro each year. Why not just fix it at 88 or whatever the average was going to be? Does anyone know the rationale behind such a decision?

brownacid

aas wrote: »

What were the false pretenses? Did you read the referendum information guide they distributed that includes the exact same figures you just posted?

The false pretenses were that the SU wanted the student contribution to the centre to be 8.8 million, from my rough calculation it worked out the students were contributing roughly 26 million, where is the rest of the money going?


Doesn't matter anyway, the centre would have jut been another bull**** jcr only bigger.

almostnever

Jammyc wrote: »

They were scattered all over the Hamilton anyway.

And the Arts' Block.

Tragedy

almostnever wrote: »

And the Arts' Block.

Where? I'm in Arts block for every lecture/tutorial and didn't see a single flyer.

Lawliet

The first and last time I seen any guides was on the Friday afternoon in the Hamilton, seemed like a strange time to give them out tbh

Larianne

None in James's, surprise surprise.

almostnever

Tragedy wrote: »

Where? I'm in Arts block for every lecture/tutorial and didn't see a single flyer.

The Trinity publications stand thing mostly although once they were all gone I didn't notice them putting anymore out then. Also by the computers outside the Davis theatre and the days of the voting they were all over the place, really; the sofas, the stands, the floors. It wasn't obvious what the flyer was about though, and the fact that it was A4 meant that loads of my friends totally disregarded 'em.

Tragedy

Weird, didn't come across one and I'm always picking up random leaflets in case they turn out to be vaguely interested(they're always for clubs though )

gearoidof

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

It seems very weird to me that the levy would increase by 2 euro each year. Why not just fix it at 88 or whatever the average was going to be? Does anyone know the rationale behind such a decision?

The college would have the right to increase the levy by a maximum of €2 each year. The main reason to increase the levy is due to inflation / unexpected extra expenses / interest rate increase.

Judging off the sports centre, they'll try to milk as much of that €2 increase as they can!

Tragedy

gearoidof wrote: »

The college would have the right to increase the levy by a maximum of €2 each year. The main reason to increase the levy is due to inflation / unexpected extra expenses / interest rate increase.

Judging off the sports centre, they'll try to milk as much of that €2 increase as they can!

Maximum? I don't see "maximum" anywhere in this:

That the Levy Fee shall be set in the initial year of payment at €69.00 per student with an annual increase thereafter of €2.00 per student per annum for twenty years;

That the amount of the Levy Fee shall nevertheless be subject to review every three years and subject to adjustment on the basis of this review;

languagenerd

I got one of the information packs in the Arts Block but only because I saw them when I went to pick up a copy of the Piranha. They definitely didn't make enough of an effort to hand them out to everyone, most people I know had no idea that we were even having a referendum until they were handed the ballot paper!

Voted no because they wanted us to pay extra money for services that we already have! The centre would have had a coffee shop (we currently have four on campus), a bar (have one of those), a gig venue (we have two theatres and the Atrium as it is), student union offices (house six, anyone?), society rooms (most have them, or have use of rooms for their meetings), an SU shop (don't we already have 2?), a student common room (JCR?) and computers (there's plenty of space elsewhere on campus for more of them).

Sure, it'd be handy to have em all in one building, but for the millions they plan on spending on it, couldn't they focus on improving what we already have?! The Library could do with extra funding, as could the Health Service. Or they could use to fix the broadband that keeps crashing...

Ahoyhoy

languagenerd wrote: »

could do with extra funding, as could the Health Service

In fairness this was funding for the health service, a new location for them would be pretty epic. There was also going to be a respite room for the disability service - I know a few people who were really looking forward to that. Plus it would mean that a whole host of services would be way more accessible for any students with disabilities - that said - I'm not arsed with all this "student space" malarkey. People tend to make their own space - no-one's going to go from the arts block to Luce hall in the rain just for couch space for an hour between lectures.

aine-maire

Ahoyhoy wrote: »

In fairness this was funding for the health service, a new location for them would be pretty epic.

Honestly I'd rather if money given to the health service was spent on an extra doctor/nurse, longer opening hours or a longer walk-in period.
The location doesn't bother me very much.

Ahoyhoy

aine-maire wrote: »

Honestly I'd rather if money given to the health service was spent on an extra doctor/nurse, longer opening hours or a longer walk-in period.
The location doesn't bother me very much.

Agreed but...

Ahoyhoy wrote: »

a nurse in the health centre last week told me they could have had late opening hours after they moved to the student centre

It was something to do with security issues or something?

languagenerd

Ahoyhoy wrote: »

In fairness this was funding for the health service, a new location for them would be pretty epic. There was also going to be a respite room for the disability service - I know a few people who were really looking forward to that. Plus it would mean that a whole host of services would be way more accessible for any students with disabilities.

In that case, wouldn't it be better if they put the majority of the funding into that alone? If the referendum was for building a new Health centre, or for giving the disability service more space, then I'd have voted yes. But this was just a small part of it. I don't think that much money should go on providing facilities (shops, cafe, more couches) that are already there, covered by the reg fee.