student union to have "silent protest" aimed at Tony McFeely

gwanjohn

My housemate just came home saying that apparently there is a protest happening outside the tourism & leisure building on Tuesday morning over cuts to the student union budget??? Supposedly a silent protest aimed at the president for making cuts to the union budget and campus services??

Looking for students to get involved, so said id post it ere. 8.45 on tuesday! round em up and lets get the unions budget back in shape!

they had pizza and all after it - apparently thats normal at these meetings! I wanna be a class rep lol

gwan ye legs! free coke and mars bars for all USI style!!! ;p

diddles87

to be honest , not only will this protest achieve nothing at all like almost everything students unions do, but to be honest, every budget in ireland is being cut, why not witsu?

if i was the financial controller in the WIT and i saw some of the silly spending the su do , id cut their budget too, silly photo ops, staff bonding (boozing) sessions , weekends away, rose of tralee sponsorship????, pizza at meetings, class rep training(costing thousands to go to new ross , when the auditorium is free), class rep re-training????(costing thousands, or a piss up in jack meads).

maybe the spending should be done in a wise manner and the union wouldnt have to protest at all. just a theory and an opinion by the way.

shanemul

diddles87 wrote: »

to be honest , not only will this protest achieve nothing at all like almost everything students unions do, but to be honest, every budget in ireland is being cut, why not witsu?

if i was the financial controller in the WIT and i saw some of the silly spending the su do , id cut their budget too, silly photo ops, staff bonding (boozing) sessions , weekends away, rose of tralee sponsorship????, pizza at meetings, class rep training(costing thousands to go to new ross , when the auditorium is free), class rep re-training????(costing thousands, or a piss up in jack meads).

maybe the spending should be done in a wise manner and the union wouldnt have to protest at all. just a theory and an opinion by the way.

I do love how people love to comment on things when they don't have the entire facts. If you were at the meeting you would have the entire facts about why this protest is taking place

Sully

shanemul wrote: »

I do love how people love to comment on things when they don't have the entire facts. If you were at the meeting you would have the entire facts about why this protest is taking place

I heard two separate reports on the whole fiasco, so id be interested to hear your reports about the meeting? Is this a separate budget or something than the stuff listed above? Never knew that the SU were giving money for staff to go to the Rose of Tralee - that's shocking if true.

I'm a little uneasy about the whole thing as money isn't going to make savings, it would appear, and its taking money from other stuff like Clubs & Societies.

Silent protest would be the first of many actions I assume.

shanemul

At present it was felt best to keep things small and quiet as there is a good chance the issue can be resolved before the protest Tuesday. However if this fails the protest will go ahead and further things will be planned if necessary. If you wish to get more information it's best to speak with Conor and he will be able to everyone a better understanding of what exactly has happened.

Sully

shanemul wrote: »

At present it was felt best to keep things small and quiet as there is a good chance the issue can be resolved before the protest Tuesday. However if this fails the protest will go ahead and further things will be planned if necessary. If you wish to get more information it's best to speak with Conor and he will be able to everyone a better understanding of what exactly has happened.

Ill take that as a "I don't really know" :P

If you decide to inform students there will be a protest, it wont be kept quiet to be fair!

diddles87

shanemul wrote: »

I do love how people love to comment on things when they don't have the entire facts. If you were at the meeting you would have the entire facts about why this protest is taking place

with all due respect shane that meeting shouldn't have been for last yrs reps as they haven't been elected for this yr. the point is it should have been a public meeting if a protest is to happen. however, this type of protest is null and void as it will not achieve anything. furthermore, the wastage in funds as i mentioned in my earlier comment as still that, a wastage of funds. surely a compromise i.e going to the financial controller and saying we will meet you halfway e.g less silly spending like the rose of tralee for gods sake.

in relations to cuts to clubs and socs, im absolutely against it, but yet again surely a compromise can be made either way

SarkyPr!ck

So i'm not to bothered about this whole protest, but I have a really f***n boring lecture Tuesday morning,so is there anything going I can get out of this??? food,t-shirt any freebies ??

shanemul

diddles87 wrote: »

with all due respect shane that meeting shouldn't have been for last yrs reps as they haven't been elected for this yr. the point is it should have been a public meeting if a protest is to happen. however, this type of protest is null and void as it will not achieve anything. furthermore, the wastage in funds as i mentioned in my earlier comment as still that, a wastage of funds. surely a compromise i.e going to the financial controller and saying we will meet you halfway e.g less silly spending like the rose of tralee for gods sake.

in relations to cuts to clubs and socs, im absolutely against it, but yet again surely a compromise can be made either way

OK let me fill you in on a few things the figure in question affects not only the SU but all the student services in the college. So that's clubs and soc's, project spot, accommodation office etc also the funds are to do with previous years not only this year. The SU has I feel spent their budget very wisely College St wouldn't have a rec room without the SU putting in money. I take it from the Rose of Tralee you mean the SU President Conor being one of the escorts at the event? If this is the case Conor signed up for that himself. I think you should get some cold hard fact's together before you come out with wild allegations like that again or it could get you into some hot water. The reason for last years reps being consulted as far as I know is because the SU has no rep's registered yet.

diddles87

shane did witsu not sponsor the waterford rose? cold hard facts , i gave an opinion based on the spending last year , an opinion doesnt get anyone into trouble , otherwise sully would be the most troublesome person in the world haha,
as i said earlier cuts to student services is rediculous , it shouldnt happen but compromises on silly spending can happen no?
i would have liked to have been at the meeting but i wasnt a rep last year so couldnt go, which isnt really fair tbh.

brian plank

surely thats not his real name. it sounds like something off father ted, fr. tony mcfeely.

Sully

diddles87 wrote: »

i would have liked to have been at the meeting but i wasnt a rep last year so couldnt go, which isnt really fair tbh.

I'm not sure about that meeting but generally Class Rep Councils are open to any student. Its in the WITSU constitution AFAIK (open to correction). Iv often attended without being class rep and while I was asked to leave by part time staff, an apology was quickly offered and I was told to stay by Conor.

brian plank wrote: »

surely thats not his real name. it sounds like something off father ted, fr. tony mcfeely.

Yeah, was the finance controller and is now the acting president as WIT hasn't gotten around to getting anybody yet but I assume will do shortly.

Anywho, 8.45am or so for 40mins tmrow. Talks must have failed if its going this far. Tighter control over money to ensure its spent appropriately seems a fair option. I think Campus Services would deserve a bigger slice of the pie - the SU shouldn't have huge costs paid anyway.

Shane: That figure that was mentioned at the WITSU meeting. Some people are telling me its the actual SU figure as the meeting was all about the SU and barley mentioned anybody else. But others are saying its the figure for both WITSU and Campus Services. Your big into the union so you might be able to clarify?

PhilipMarlowe

Sully wrote: »

Yeah, was the finance controller and is now the acting president as WIT hasn't gotten around to getting anybody yet but I assume will do shortly.

I saw an ad in the Sunday Business Post for the President role... http://dalriada.ie/completed-assignments/publicsector/ apply before 14th October

Sully

PhilipMarlowe wrote: »

I saw an ad in the Sunday Business Post for the President role... http://dalriada.ie/completed-assignments/publicsector/ apply before 14th October

How do we know that's WIT?

I better update my CV

PhilipMarlowe

Sorry, my post wasn't clear enough.... I saw an ad in the paper (SBP) for the president role @ WIT and it's being handled by the consultants (Dalríada Executive Search & Selection) I linked to above, specifically Seán McDonagh.

Sully

Very good

Yossarian_Lives

the WIT Students Union sponsored the Waterford rose?

as someone else said budgets everywhere are been cut WITSU is not any different.

When I was in the Union Tony McFeely was one of the most supportive members of the WIT Admin staff to us. If there were another way other than cutting the budget he would have taken it. Just having a pointless protest is stupid.

Sully

Conor was an escort and one of their admin staff went for the Waterford Rose. A few from the union went up and supported her at the time. Iv heard that accusation before being posted here (not by myself despite the Conor Doyles accusation) at the start of the college year. I have no idea if its genuine or not.

BuilderPlumber

I oppose the cuts to workers, students and everyone that are being made by this and recent governments. BUT while we can rant and rave about the wrongs of governments, we can also see the student union as a form of same.

While nothing constructive has been done to alleviate our grants fiasco or indeed our increased fees, the WITSU are happy to pay themselves salary increases and expenses, cut the number of grinds tutors, go off on boozey sessions, train class reps (and end up in the pub in New Ross!) and ... sponsor the rose of tralee!! How sad. The whole current lineup in WITSU do not deserve our vote and should be ashamed of their actions.

Surely, the money for their Rose of Tralee funding, their T-shirts, their boozey training days, etc. and the money they make from Rag Week events be used to alleviate fees, give students grant topups, etc.? Apparently not.

Sully

See note here for closure reasons. Thanks.