What is going on with UCDSU??

steddyeddy · 29-01-2012 06:26PM

Fad wrote: »

I agree with with you. There's a full audit of the accounts going to be published soon. We'll see what happened then hopefully.

Cool Ill also add that Im not the type of person to berate the su with despicable personal comments like some people do. All im saying is if some members of the su were engaged in whatever it would be for the benifit of the hardworking members of the su for it to come out.

Mycroft H · 29-01-2012 06:59PM

steddyeddy wrote: »

Cool Ill also add that Im not the type of person to berate the su with despicable personal comments like some people do. All im saying is if some members of the su were engaged in whatever it would be for the benifit of the hardworking members of the su for it to come out.

Hardworking? Ahhh here now....

steddyeddy · 29-01-2012 07:20PM

BX 19 wrote: »

Hardworking? Ahhh here now....

Well as I commented earlier the welfare officer is a star and I hear good things about pat de brun.

gradlife · 30-01-2012 09:52AM

I feel bad for Pat de Brun, I feel like he's stuck in a horrible situation and is handling it much better than previous presidents.

GoldFour4 · 30-01-2012 01:07PM

gradlife wrote: »

I feel bad for Pat de Brun, I feel like he's stuck in a horrible situation and is handling it much better than previous presidents.

Yup completely agree. Hes had to make some tough decisions and people are acting as if hes been in charge for 10 years and gotten the union in the mess its in.

steddyeddy · 30-01-2012 04:32PM

malachyscott wrote: »

gradlife wrote: »

I feel bad for Pat de Brun, I feel like he's stuck in a horrible situation and is handling it much better than previous presidents.

Yup completely agree. Hes had to make some tough decisions and people are acting as if hes been in charge for 10 years and gotten the union in the mess its in.

+10

Oasis_Dublin · 30-01-2012 07:30PM

I like Pat. But let's not be so disingenuous as to suggest that he got into the Union, and UCD politics in general, safe in the knowledge that they were making loads of money. Come on lads, get real!

Oasis_Dublin · 31-01-2012 01:35AM

They get paid between 20k and 22k, which I still think is a bit high.

Raphael · 31-01-2012 02:17AM

Oasis_Dublin wrote: »

They get paid between 20k and 22k, which I still think is a bit high.

As a PhD student getting 18k funding a year, I'm inclined to agree.

Oasis_Dublin · 31-01-2012 02:42AM

I'm open to correction on this but I think the Ents sabbat is paid 20k and the rest are paid 22k.

errlloyd · 31-01-2012 02:43AM

Oasis_Dublin wrote: »

I'm open to correction on this but I think the Ents sabbat is paid 20k and the rest are paid 22k.

Consider yourself corrected. All on around 20

Oasis_Dublin · 31-01-2012 02:56AM

errlloyd wrote: »

Consider yourself corrected. All on around 20

20,800 if we want to be correct. However, I have reason to believe that the figure for all, bar the Ents officer, is about 1k more than that.

Fad · 31-01-2012 08:37AM

Oasis_Dublin wrote: »

I'm open to correction on this but I think the Ents sabbat is paid 20k and the rest are paid 22k.

If the ents sabbat is only taking his base salary away at the end of the month I'll eat my hat

Blut2 · 31-01-2012 02:36PM

Fad wrote: »

If the ents sabbat is only taking his base salary away at the end of the month I'll eat my hat

The Ents officer (if hes not completely incompetent) is probably taking home something close to his salary again in promotional kickbacks. Not to mention the fact that it also sets them up for a few years of doing so in future.

The Ents salary could easily be slashed by 50% and people would still be queing up to do it for the networking (not to mention social status) it provides.

Oasis_Dublin · 31-01-2012 03:07PM

Blut2 wrote: »

The Ents officer (if hes not completely incompetent) is probably taking home something close to his salary again in promotional kickbacks. Not to mention the fact that it also sets them up for a few years of doing so in future.

The Ents salary could easily be slashed by 50% and people would still be queing up to do it for the networking (not to mention social status) it provides.

+ 1

Come on lads, the Ents management is going over to a company, which the present Ents Sabbat is involved with, next year. That position is all about networking.

On an aside, have all the sabbats completed degrees? I know Gary Redmond's degree is no longer available, due to the fact that the classes have changed during his (prolonged) absence.

Fad · 31-01-2012 04:07PM

Oasis_Dublin wrote: »

On an aside, have all the sabbats completed degrees? I know Gary Redmond's degree is no longer available, due to the fact that the classes have changed during his (prolonged) absence.

Dont think so.

School of CS are continuing to support CS through arts students afaik though. There's a few still around.

Bluefox21 · 01-02-2012 07:04PM

As much as I hate to admit it (Not because of any personal feelings towards him just because of my general anti-union stance

), I am actually quite impressed with how Pat de Brun has handled the last few weeks.

I'm not sure how much he instigated as I imagine the banks were pretty insistent that the finances get sorted but at least he seems to be taking the bull by the horns.

I've been in UCD nearly five years now and the only time I've gone near that Bureau was to get a travelcard. Clearly had to be closed although it could potentially have been handled better.

As for Ents it seems to be going quite well. Virtually impossible to prevent those involved from cashing in with various clubs although you'd like to think the money should go back to the students!

gubbie · 01-02-2012 08:19PM

Can't believe no one's even mentioned USI!

pljudge321 · 01-02-2012 09:36PM

gubbie wrote: »

Can't believe no one's even mentioned USI!

The new constitution is going to require a referendum on membership every four years. Couple this with Trinity SU pondering their withdrawal USI mightn't be around much longer.

Dwaegon · 02-02-2012 01:55AM

gubbie wrote: »

Can't believe no one's even mentioned USI!

Why? What do USI have to do with UCDSU being €1m in debt and firing staff members the week before xmas? It's an internal issue, and USI would have no power over the actual internal operations of UCDSU on a 'business operations' level.

pljudge321 wrote: »

The new constitution is going to require a referendum on membership every four years. Couple this with Trinity SU pondering their withdrawal USI mightn't be around much longer.

Why would USI cease to exist just because trinity and ucd might pull out? There are dozens of other member unions that are affiliated even if they do! It may have to downsize its operations in that instance, but it would take a lot more than that to do away with USI!

pljudge321 · 02-02-2012 08:36AM

Dwaegon wrote: »

Why? What do USI have to do with UCDSU being €1m in debt and firing staff members the week before xmas? It's an internal issue, and USI would have no power over the actual internal operations of UCDSU on a 'business operations' level.

Why would USI cease to exist just because trinity and ucd might pull out? There are dozens of other member unions that are affiliated even if they do! It may have to downsize its operations in that instance, but it would take a lot more than that to do away with USI!

Because it is €125,000 of ill spent money we can no longer afford to spend every year. If UCD and Trinity both pull out that leaves them without any of the three Dublin universities, as well as down circa €240,000 in revenue stream each year. Its easy to see other colleges pulling out of what would essentially be a lame duck union.

Dwaegon · 02-02-2012 12:15PM

pljudge321 wrote: »

Because it is €125,000 of ill spent money we can no longer afford to spend every year. If UCD and Trinity both pull out that leaves them without any of the three Dublin universities, as well as down circa €240,000 in revenue stream each year. Its easy to see other colleges pulling out of what would essentially be a lame duck union.

I don't think it's ill spent! I think it's vastly important that I, as a student, am represented by a large organisation on a national level! I think that without USI in this country, there would be no remotely united student movement!

And I'll tell you one thing that's assured! As soon as there's wind of a new budget, or any government decision coming that will harm students, those colleges that may have chosen to disaffiliate will be crashing every USI demonstration they can, in order to get media attention, because they as an individual union will have found themselves wholly incompetent on a national scale!

shofukan · 02-02-2012 10:02PM

http://www.collegetribune.ie/index.php/2012/02/proposed-ucd-su-constitution/
New consitution just released..
Also Trib editor Ryan Cullen got the comeback of the year on Lacey earlier on facebok

Jazzmatazz90 · 03-02-2012 01:17AM

https://www.facebook.com/thecollege.tribune/posts/290820244312944?notif_t=like

Lacey served

beardedmaster · 03-02-2012 02:22AM

That put-down is just heroic.

pljudge321 · 03-02-2012 10:32AM

Dwaegon wrote: »

incompetent on a national scale!

That should be USI's slogan. The entire organisation has an extremely tenuous mandate to do what it does. It doesn't represent my views on fees or third level funding at all, I never voted for any of them and instead of engaging the government with any sort of reasonable level of debate they seem to prefer the childish approach of pulling stunts like this.

delta_bravo · 03-02-2012 04:51PM

Students’ Union Returning Officer Morgan Shelley today confirmed that an SU General Meeting would be held next Monday, at 7pm, in the Astra Hall. The motion to be put to the Union concerns “whether to overturn the decision made by the Union to close the Print Bureau”, says Shelley, continuing, “I understand [the last time such a general meeting took place] was in 1988 … There certainly hasn’t been one in UCD in my time, which is since 2001.”

In order for the motion to pass, a quorum of five per cent of the UCD’s student body must vote for the meeting to be valid. Shelley explains, “Five per cent of the members of the Union have to vote at the meeting. Hopefully, I’ll be able to ascertain on Monday the exact number that that is. So, it’s not the attendance of the meeting, it’s the number of people who vote. So you could have a situation where a quorum of people attend the meeting, but not enough of them vote.”

While a total cost of the Meeting is yet to be confirmed, eight stewards and four security guards will need to be hired, as well the cost incurred from a minimum of 1,200 ballot papers being printed. UCD SU Campaigns and Communications Officer Brendan Lacey commented “I think we have tried to clear up with the student body the facts, as opposed to misinformation, surrounding this issue. We will continue to do so at the UGM, my only hope is that it doesn’t prove to be too large a further cost to the Union.”

Regarding the cost, the motion’s proposer, Karl Gill, stated “I just discussed it with the returning officer – he was saying it could easily be three thousand euro, considering for staff and ballot papers and stuff like that … I know that is a big cost, in particular with the climate of the Union, but in the grand scheme of things it isn’t actually that big of a deal considering that we’re saving the only educational service provided by the Union.”

Should the vote pass, the Union decision to close the Copy Bureau will be overturned, subject only to a referendum. A campus-wide referendum may be called to supercede a decision made at a Union General Meeting.

Security measures will be in place to ensure that only UCD students can participate in the Meeting, with Lacey stating, “Student cards will be checked on the way into the venue, it’s important to uphold the democratic nature of a UGM by ensuring only UCD students are in attendance.”

I think this is going to end badly. Firstly its more expense the union cannot afford. Then you have the whole issue of quorum. My understanding is that there is about 22k students in UCD so 5% would be about 1100. I cannot imagine the activists organising this managing to get 1100 students to attend a meeting on a monday night so essentially the union could have spent 5 grand for nothing.

Even if it is overturns what happens then? The college has survived this semester without the copi-print service and I think this may be giving the old staff false hope. The union is financially screwed, there should be a general meeting about that - not this issue though.

Raphael · 03-02-2012 05:12PM

Hm, that's awkward. Not sure if I should go along and vote against or stay clear to help that motion fail...

Also, Copi-print != Copy Bureau. Is an important distinction, as Copi-Print is still around, and is actually an extremely useful service to the entire college.

Edit: Also, only 5% of members needed to overturn a decision made by the objective. What a bull**** system.

Bluefox21 · 03-02-2012 05:56PM

What a complete waste of time

Raphael · 03-02-2012 10:19PM

Oh, also, just realised something - Astra Halls capacity is 600 people. As in HALF THE ****ING QUORUM. ARGH!

What is going on with UCDSU??

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