It's tricky thinking of titles for these posts

Anyhow...what have I been at....Well I'm actually off today, but I completely forgot to do the blog on Wednesday again when the BlackBerry told me to.

I'm just back from having a bit of craic in Galway with the NUIMSU President Brian and a few friends. There were some very well dressed ladies about for Ladies' Day at the races (which I missed because I didn't leave on time.).

We met with Jono, The Southern Area Officer from USI last week and had a bit of a chat about student issues and the thorny subject of Fees. USI still doesn't have a solution, but then again, neither do we.

Our good friend Batt O'Keefe hasn't increased the grant for the coming year, but more of you should be able to get what of it is there...which is always a good thing. Find out more on www.studentfinance.ie. Essentially those of you whose households earn less than €51,360 won't have to pay the €1,500 Student Service Charge. I still reckon more needs to be done with the grant, but Rome wasn't built in a day and all that jazz.

I've been chasing a few issues for a number of students around fees and accommodation.

FEES
If you repeat a year, you normally have to pay fees, the same if you are a non-EU student. Ignoring the letters the University sends won't make the issue go away. If you owe fees, try and pay them every year, otherwise you're going to end up seriously stressed when the University tells you you can't graduate (which you can't if you owe them fees). I can only do my best to have decisions around this dealt with consistently, after all it's not fair for those who have paid their fees, if someone else doesn't have to...so in essence....keep on top of your fees.

ACCOMMODATION
Don't sign anything if you are unsure. Our student solicitor has told us this week that students sign away a whole load of rights simply through not reading leases. He is available to check them out for you if you have any questions. Give myself or Ruán a shout for his contact details.

I have looked into a query on on campus accommodation pricing. Cappavilla was the particular query. The cost has not increased this year, but did increase last year to provide an extra Resident Assistant, extend opening hours and provide more security. I will still be requesting Campus Life Services to review its pricing strategy as soon as I have figures for national trends in rental, but the fact remains that there is an abundance of accommodation in various price ranges from approx €40 per week to €110 per week depending on quality and service. On campus is obviously at the higher end of that scale due to the services provided that are not provided off campus.

I am now referring all deposit issues with individual landlords directly to the PRTB. You can get one of the dispute resolution forms from me and I will go through the process with you, however calling landlords is heavily time consuming. One case can take upwards of 2 hours over the course of the dispute, whereas explaining the PRTB procedure takes less than 10 minutes, so I am discontinuing the practice of phoning landlords in order to be able to represent all students more efficiently.

For students living in places like Troy, Groody, Brookfield, Parkview and Courtyard it is quite easy to deal with issues in these villages as they are easily identifiable companies who do not want to gain a bad reputation and will speak with me and move to resolve issues quickly, whereas landlords are pretty much anonymous and have no great desire to follow my advice or listen to complaints from me.

Long story short......have leases checked by a solicitor before you sign them!

We met with the Student Representaiton Solicitor during the week to review the service....it's all pretty mundane, but we'll be hanging on to him. He has lots of experience in dealing with student cases and we're considering expanding the service to incldue one evening a month on campus to start with and that might become more frequent if it gets used.

Condoms for next year should be ordered next week after some (ahem) investigation.

There's lots more mundane boring stuff that isn't all that noteworthy.

All the best

D

And the time flew by like a train in the night

It's well over a week since I did the last update, and that time just flew.

Well all of us have been to Belfast visiting the SU there. It's an absolutely mammoth building and we picked up a few ideas there as well as realising we see a whole lot of students in comparison...we stopped into DCUSU, TCDSU and UCDSU on the way back to grab a look. Trinity's SU President Cónán O'Broin is the younger brother of former ULSU President Eoin O'Brion who served 2 terms from 2002-2004.

I'm still getting feedback from landlords on the group scheme we're getting together, many bringing good ideas as well as expressing interest. I've met a good number of suppliers on their behalf and it's looking godd for the year from those who have responded.

Myself, Aoife F and Paul Lee have been liaising with Aidan Healy on the President's Award, which is still undergoing consultation in the University. Gaisce is one model being discussed that will see students get formal recognition for volunteer work. I'm working with KBS to see if they will be able to facilitate students volunteering to give grinds to Leaving Certs. This system is already in place in for Science and has great scope for expansion.

There are some operation reviews around my Office ongoing, and I'll let you know where that goes.

Myself and Aoife Ní met Tracey from ITD who explained the new email system to us (which you will need to adopt as your own by the end of September.)

An ongoing process is finding a 4x4 for Clubs and Societies, which I was working on on the Clubs and Socs Exec over the last 2 years, hopefully that will be complete soon, and a review of vehicle operations should give us some new rules to govern the fleet usage.

What else....the Accommodation Leaflet is in motion and there's a bit of the regular case work around Childcare Bursary and Hardship Loan as well as other stuff.

Fried Brain and A Battered Cod

This week has just flown. I didn't manage to update this yesterday because I was having some down time watching Top Gear when I got the reminder.

Anywho...hectic week...kind of. Some people would just fry your brain/confuse the planet/drive you nuts altogether. So fried is my brain in fact that I've just looked at my calendar which says it's Monday!! Must fix that!

This week has seen meetings on the progression of the Boathouse Opening (make a note for your diaries - 30th September), A Creche Committee meeting (which I asked for but put in my diary wrong so didn't make it at the right time - SORRY), a quick chat with the Library today to look for space for exam stressbusters.

We're probably gonna be having Please Talk branding on all posters and stuff for ents and whatnot. Barry from Please Talk visited us last week which was definitely worthwhile. He is a former Welfare Officer and President of UCD Students' Union

The letters to landlords went out this week with only about 50 of 850 still left to go. It reminds them that they need a BER Cert (this is the first academic year for this) and offering a package deal if enough of them are interested in getting new windows, attics insulated and boilers replaced.

I'm now in the process of contacting the various companies to see how low they'll go for business!!

I *hope* to ge emails out to the villages around campus tomorrow, but at the latest Monday to set up meetings with the managers. I've already met Frank from Brookfield, so any issues with Brookfield, talk to Frank, any issues with Frank (not that I can see that happening), talk to me.

Myself and Michael sat down to discuss alcohol related issues, we're really putting an effort in to not telling you how to live your lives this year...just offering some advice and encouraging low alcohol alternatives.

All of us went to the South Court to check out the Grad Ball stuff (29th August) The food....it was good, and kept me unhungry for the rest of the day....the stuffing in th chicken was my favourite!! One less profitorole would have been enough though, and we have asked them to hold the salt...I hate a pre-salted dinner. Tickets €50 available online or on 061-331519....Afters tickets are available at €25 a head; also online or on 061-331519. I look forward to it!!

The Financial Aid Committee met and decided that the fund is now categorically closed. It will re-open during semester weeks and close once exams are done. The form will be redesigned to take into account some changes that we want to make to the applications process

I met Donal Dineen with Aoife 1, Ruán and Michael. I will be your KBS Faculty Board Sabbat this year.

Oh on the non-work side of the house...I won a holiday at a debate last weekend...YAY for holidays...now to find time to take them.

FUSU will be taking place in UL on the 6th of August and we'll discuss issues with the other Universities and DIT.

That's all (I think...I'm sure I forgot loads)

D

The ones I was meant to post last week but got distracted

BOTH OF THESE ARE FROM 26TH OF MAY 2009

Housing You Well
I met a member of staff at PCC for an hour and a half this afternoon. Even though I’m not officially in handover yet, I want to get around to as many people as possible before all the madness starts next week.
He was extremely helpful and a mind of information. We discussed various issues from my manifesto and the complete feasability of them. Much of what would be involved is well within reach, but needs a bit of focus from me.
I did get one word of warning, that PCC will be adopting a ZERO-TOLERANCE approach in the on-campus villages next year after some of the "goodbye presents" they were left. Some of the damage caused to bedrooms and whole houses was a complete disgrace and looking at it I couldn’t imagine even trying to justify such damage.
I will also be making an effort to have an accommodation scholarship made available to one student every year through the offices of the Students’ Union President and DP/Welfare. This is in addition to a number of ACCESS Accommodation scholarships available directly from PCC.
We discussed a number of issues raised by students while I was on the campaign trail all those weeks ago and I will continue to work with PCC, who will be very supportive of all students this year.
The Campus Villages Council pilot can be rolled out this September, but given that PCC has its own quality review process the focus of this will be on Civic Engagement. So if you don’t want to be a class rep or join a club/soc, or even if you do, we’ll be encouraging ideas like a village soccer team etc that can culminate in a league final during RAG Week. It was suggested to me that a Student Residents Council in each of the off campus estates may prove to leverage more power against landlords acting the bollox, problem student houses dragging everyone down with them, and act as a a support to community relations.
Laundry prices are intended to be standardised across campus from September, which was an issue raised by some international students during both the Presidential and Deputy Presedential election campaigns.
An accommodation advice leaflet will be sent to all first year students this year, but I hope to get this online too. PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT SIGN A LEASE YOU HAVE NOT READ. If you want me to have a look over it, then contact me -> suwelfare@ul.ie
If you experience ANY difficulties with your landlord during the year, please contact me and I will work with you to resolve the issue. I will be reminding you of this later in the year closer to the start of semester.
PCC will have a specific postgrad block this year. This was raised as a concern to me during the course of meeting you all when campaigning for election. The issue seemed to be that noise from undergrads whose academic work stacks up at a different time of the year was affecting postgrads doing their thesis or other assignments in September and after exams in particular.
PCC is going to accommodate me by sending landlords information on deals I’m working on for them over the next few weeks and inviting them to come and meet as a group.
The issue of broadband in Brookfield is something I intend to work on over the summer too.

D
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Governing Authority - Take 1
So today I went with Caitríona to GA to get a grasp on what goes on. It was a very interesting meeting and there was plenty of discussion. It gave me a good insight into what exactly happens at the top.
GA is a 32 member body chaired by UL Chancellor Peter Malone and is effectively the University’s executive, where all decisions are approved or questioned.
I met a good few of the members of GA and made a good few notes for next time, considering I was only observing today and didn’t want to speak over the person currenty in the job.
As well as having me and Ruán on your side at this meeting, I get a really good first impression that there is nobody here out to get you and look forward to representing you with them this year.

June down - 11 months to go!

Hello blogland,

Okay so we're essentially 2 weeks on our own now after having handover with last year's lads. It's a steep learning curve but I woldn't have it any other way. I'm really enjoying the challenge of the job so far.

I did have a blog started elsewhere, but this is going to be that main Deputy Pres and Welfare blog from now on.

I've met with people from the Accommodation Office, Brookfield, Student Affairs, Counselling, Connect and more. I've met builders, energy raters, officers from CIT, DIT and Mary I, Barry from the Please Talk campaign and even more importantly I'm constantly meeting all the other Union officers. We want to ensure you have the best Union and I hope to get some of you involved in that experience.

I'm in the middle of sussing out condoms for next year, there's SOOOOOO many considerations that wouldn't even cross your mind when you just think "I need a condom".

Myself and Ruán have been to Governing Authority with Burky (Postgrad President) where I was settling in asking loads of questions. GA is our monthly suit day where we sit with the University and external members to represent students. There's lots of boring reasons why we have to sit there, but lets just say it's the law, and it works to your benefit to have us there.

Other stuff I've done is opened the RAG Week Charities suggestions. Anyone with ideas of Limerick charities can email me. I've been meeting a good few students regarding Financial Aid for the coming year as well as on Discipline Committee advice. I've been to 2 conferences that have been a great help already and I've been talking to Limerick Mental Health Association on some ideas for UrLife - Positive Mental Health which will be on in October. There's also an entire committee in the University whose task is to enhance the student experience, I've sat on that and will be going back on your behalf. Promoting healthy living in terms of eating, alcohol consumption and mental health are currently topping the agenda.

All you Business Students out there will be delighted to know that I'll be your Sabbatical Rep on the KBS Faculty Board.

I'll post my other 2 blogs up to now in just a little bit.

Any questions, just call, email or drop in.

Back soon,

Derek.