Hello Good Citizens,

As some of the more eagle eyed amongst you have no doubt noticed, there was a Union Council meeting Two weeks ago, for which no report was forthcoming. This was because of an unfortunate clash with the Redbrick AGM which I decided to intend instead.

So, by way of compensation, here are the minutes of the Union Council meeting from two weeks, which Will then be followed by a report of tonight's meeting. Alles klar ?

Minutes of Union Council.

[these were included in the original report, and have been snipped, but can be found by looking at my page for the previous Council Meeting.]

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All right campers ?

Now, here goes the report for tonight's meeting.

Bar Update

Unfortunately none of the eight shortlisted candidates were deemed suitable for the position. The Bar Management Committee felt that it would be worse to hire an incompetent and have to sort out another mess next year, than it would to wait and find the right option. So several things are taking place to try to get the bar shipshape again… 1) Re-advertising the position ( if you know anyone suitable, get her to apply, 'cause if they find one good candidate it's all over J 2) Possible head hunting of someone working elsewhere. 3) Leasing. 4) Conferring with the nice folks at Maynooth Bar Management.

It is hoped to have the bar open for at least the exam period.

By-elections

By elections are to take place for those exec positions which were unfilled after the last general elections. Ie. Womens Rights Officer, Gay Lesbian & Bisexual Rights Officer, Welfare Officer and Services Officer. If you're interested you need only go up to the SU offices and collect one of the slips tagged to outside of the doors, but nominations are closing at 5.00 tomorrow, so get your skates on.

Canteen.

Martin Conroy had the good grace to finally meet with us, and he's sticking to the university line. They will admit that the Canteen kitchen isn't really up to scratch, but OTOH, won't agree on what's to be done about it. Third level institutions get money from the HEA, the Higher Education Authority, which was the buffer organisation set up to smooth the cracks between government and the individual Universities etc., and of course to maintain some notion of Institutional Independence. Anyway, it's HEA policy not to grant extra funding for such things as canteens so where does that leave us ? Well, the college are using the prices in the Canteen to accrue the necessary money for a proper kitchen. They need £250k approx. and they've so far accrued roughly 100k. We don't think this is acceptable, and so it'll really be the job of the incoming exec to decide what should happen about the canteen next year. I'm interested to know if people would support an all out blanket boycott ? That would mean boycotting the Can teen, boycotting Megabytes, and doing so on a continuous basis. There's no point in complaining about the canteen if you're not willing to suggest or support action Let me know what you think.

Student Centre.

Negotiations have been under way now for some time to decide on the proposal to build a new Student Centre. Most of the substantive issues are agreed, and it's shaping up as follows. 1) The Management Committee would have 50 / 50 representation. We'll have four members, they'll have four and the Chair won't have a casting vote. So that will mean that we can't be screwed over like we were with the old Bar Management Committee, on which the college had a veto. 2) Also, the old Bar is probably going to be subsumed into this new Management structure, so we'll be equal partners there too. 3) Construction should, at best, take 12 to 18 months, but there may well be hassle with planning permission etc. 4) The funding for the construction is also to be on an equal footing.

In regards to our half of the funding it is proposed to gather this in the form of a £30.00 capitation levy over a period of 10-15 years. This would, of course, require a referendum so that we could give our consent to paying such money. The motion to be put at referendum would be… "That DCU Students approve the introduction of a special capitation fee of £30.00 per annum to initiate and provide 50% of funding for the construction of a student centre" The following conditions would also apply to the release of the funding… 1. This is subject to agreement of all negotiating parties on the heads of agreement. 2. These funds be applied solely to the construction costs of the Student Centre. 3. That this special Capitation Fee remain in place only for as long as necessary to complete the capital funding of the project.

The first condition is our get out clause. As I say, most of the substantive points are agreed, but this would allow us to withdraw our commitment should agreement fail to be reached.

Also, the profits are to be split three ways. 1/3 will go to the SFC, 1/3 Will go to Campus Property as a Reserve Fund, and the final 1/3 will to designated Capital Projects, to be at the discretion of the Management Committee, upon which we will hold 50% of the votes anyway, so there's no danger of us being hung out to dry on that one either.

Academic Council.

It's harder for most of us to see, since we rode into DCU on the wave of Semesterisation, but people feel that there has been a downturn in Socs activity on campus, and a general increase of pressure when exams come so quickly. At the moment though this is just hearsay and so Academic Council are going to carry out an impact study into the effects of Semesterisation / Modularisation on campus life here in DCU. There was a suggestion that the start of the Academic Year be moved forward three weeks, but this was quickly shot down, because, as we know, there's already a disparity between school weeks and grant payments, and changing the starting line would seriously mess up an already malfunctioning system. However, there are other proposals like having the first set of exams before Christmas, or weighting the Summer Exams. Nothing is decided yet, but I though I'd just let you know what they're talking about. The SU Vice President is handling this one AFAIK, so more information could be obtained from him.. Also, Jane Horgan is on the council, so she probably knows a bit about it, if you want to risk a conversation.

Well that's all from me for now. The next, and last, Union Council meeting of the year will take place on Tuesday 28th at 6pm.

Yours,

Jonathan Walsh.