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
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