Access Campus

The Tuesday meeting of GA Access & Student Affairs took place at the UL Access Campus near to Southill on the southside of the city. Members of the committee include; me, the Vice President Academic and Registrar, The Access Manager, the Director of Student Affairs, members of faculty and staff, as well as 2 external members.

We were first given a tour of the building, which houses both commercial and training activity. Chorus UPC is the biggest operator with over 450 staff there on a full time basis. Fáilte Ireland, FÁS and the AK Ilen project provide training opportunities and the Access Campus strives to gain community involvement.

The site is 16 acres and was left without purpose in 1999 following the closure of a manufacturing operation. The work being done out there is amazing, from study groups for Junior and Leaving Certificate students, to Irish classes for foreign national parents of primary school children to assist with homework, and social activities for the avtive retired in the area.

The University's involvement is to encourage participation in third level, though not necessarily in UL. By assisting this regeneration community (and others who come to it) the University is providing positive re-enforcement for a community and individuals who would not otherwise seek to set goals for themselves, be they to pursue an apprenticeship, take on a training course, or to go to university.

One striking thing is the individuality applied to each and every person who comes to use the resources. Their needs will be discussed with them one-on-one and considered.

There is so much more going on out there than I could possibly convey by blogging, but I just wanted to tell you all about the amazing work they do.

There are over 60 kids from 15 schools taking part in after-school study groups getting help from students. There is a waiting list of 40 more, so if you would like to volunteer, let me know and I'll get contact details for you.

Week 1 - Still Firefighting

So now we're back in week one and you might wonder what we've been at over ths Christmas holidays. Well for a start I headed away over New Years to Stockholm, but was back at my desk on the 4th.

A lot of that week was spent on operational stuff, but I had the odd meeting here and there.
Practically the whole of last week was taken up with Winter Conferrings, which I have to say were a great success, though I'm constantly amazed at how sitting down can be so tiring

As well as the day to day stuff, we have been talking a lot, in house, about how we can reconfigure to represent students better.

There's a great volunteer that I'll be working with on the Raising and Giving side of things for Charity Week (Week 9) who's going to help organise a lot of the fundraisingin events during the week as I was informed this week that I have a full day meeting on Tuesday Week 9 :(

A new Equality and Diversity Policy has been drafted by the committee of the same name. It will be the same policy for staff and students

Along with Ruán, I'm now putting pressure on in various different parts of the University in terms of the Student Experience, and put the question quite bluntly to the last committee meeting: Why did the Party on the Plaza and official opening of the Living Bridge take place while students were on holidays.

I know there's much more and I'll have a report next week on my manifesto progress, but for now, arreviderci