Hello all, welcome to class rep council today, the 12th of December. This week we have a Christmas themed CRC with wine, mince pies and cheesy Christmas tunes.
Ciara Moore @xciaramoorex and I @BlondeEimear will be here all night. Tweet us if you have any questions or anything you want to put to CRC
18:05: Kicking off. It looks like we have enough attendee for quorum, about 50. Also Defend the University is coming in, something not included on the agenda, academic callander change, proposed by Ian Kavanagh has been moved up.
18:07: Congrats to the sustainability campaign last week.
18:08: Minutes accepted as read, by all.
18:09: Audrey Brown brings up the lack of outdoor seating in DCU. Conor, looks for clarification on the type of seating asked for. Ian Kavanagh brings up the issue of cost, so suggests a fundraiser. Aaron brings up suggestions to Campus Development plan of concrete block seating etc. The time plan for which is 213-2023.
“Im not asking for gold seats, literally anything.” Audrey
Benches suggested. Could name them after deceased students, Nicola Furlong was suggested.
Motion to ask university to purchase benches and name them after deceased students.
18:15: Class rep Hoodies. Motion deferred til end. They will cost €15 for students. Money collected at the end.
18:16: Provision for microwaves and hot water provision in the restaurant. The motion was to ask the resturaunt. Aaron asked in passing but a formal request was not made. The decision was to get a formal response and then act on it.
Sam asked could we not put them in the Mezz. Issue about manning it came up again.
18:17: Provisions for more routers in the Hub. “Its an ongoing issue” from ISS. Will take time.
18:19: Spar rep didn’t attend again. Wasn’t available. Ciaran talked to him and they said suggestions would be gratefully received in store.
Suggestions fro an online form.
Lorna suggests a company who delivers fruit and veg around campus. Lorna plans to work more with them next semester.
Sean Cassidy mentions the Hub Development fun and use it for this. Aaron disagrees. Says that fund is for student activities.
By next year, will have reusable water bottles, Lorna in touch with sustainability person.
18:25: On issue of nails in seats. Complaints need to be logged to maintenance. Individual incidents need to be logged.
18:27: Get prices for sauces- will label ketchup and mayonnaise. Have reduced the cost of Ketchup to 15c and will reduce mayonnaise also.
18:27: Motion to investigate cheaper delivery options from Tesco. Doesn’t look like the issue was followed up on. Suggestion to add a DCU address to Domino’s website. Lorna to follow up on that.
18:30: All exec reports have been sent out on time this week except one. Kenneth Brown. Had an event on . Delivers it in CRC. 24 hour sleep out to be organised in the next week. Each soc have a slot to help out for an hour or so. Suggestions for everyone to get involved. Mostly working on grant apps this year. Still sorting issues. €5000 raised by MPS at the 24 hour broadcast.
18:33: Reports are handy as they show the work the officers are doing. And how stuff is going. Rónán highlights the importance of them. Asks for someone to get in contact with Tesco and improve the relationship and see if you can get delivery. Theresa suggestions introducing competition and contacting other stores.
18:36: Aaron updates his report. A report on their trip to america last month. Aaron, Ciaran and Una Redmond went to 6 universities last month. Third year in a row the sabbaticals have gone. other reps from Irish Universities also went. Student interactions were a focus. No student union present, there was a lack of student representation there and it doesn’t seem to be as effective. Getting students active, getting them involved was another issue looked at. They also looked very enviously at the student centers there and got ideas.
Practical implications: saw the was student centers there, very non-commercial. “Open, social” and “Student services focused”. Alumni is very important and seems to be a bit more of a focus this year. The money side of having Alumni was mentioned.
Gender neutral bathrooms mentioned. Feelers put out on campus apparently.
18:44: Thinking of having lunchtime sessions if people want it. Suggestions welcome.
18:44: No objections to passing the officers reports. Passed
18:45: Defend the University is a campaign run by DCU staff. Professor Ronnie Mony and louise O’Reilly both from SIPTU and reps of DCU staff.
“A university should be a place for decent employment, for everybody.” Strong links with the “we are not leaving campaign” and Young Workers Network.
“We think it is important a university is a place where people learn to question.”
“learn in an environment where work and workers are respected.”
“We are looking to draw out a debate.”
“The campaign started here and has gone global.”
Ronnie monk, a lecture here and head of civic engagement.
“It seems universities without much debate at all to hitch themselves to the world of business.”
One of the issues he mentions is the casualisation of teaching staff and the lowering of teaching standard that encourages.
He continues to read out some excerpts from the charter and encourages students to check it out and engage in debate. “What is it you would like to see. What would you like us to do.”
They want the council to sign up to the charter. Asks us as students to ask the president to support it. Also asks us to ask the National Student Council to support them.
18:57: A long question from a class rep, about commercialization. “This is not about pay. just to be clear” We are not anti business, there should be a relationship with a university and business because of the nature of the business.
Issue of money raised. Any other suggestions of potential funding streams. Answer: Less funding as politicians make the decisions. University presidents have significant political clout.
19:02: Sean Cassidy has proposed an emergency motion which seeks for the council to recognize the positive impact Defend the University has had on opening public discourse on the issue of Universities and funding.
19:07: The council has decided to review the charter for Defend the University which can be found here http://defendtheuniversity.ie/ before they decide to accept the emergency motion.
19:15: Questions were asked of the charter. It does cover IT’s and the charter is a closed charter. The council has voted to pass the motion by clear majority.
19:17: Motion on the change to the academic calender has been deferred till next council as Ian has had to leave.
19:18: The next motion, on the nullification of the USI referendum. Sean Cassidy is the proposer and introduces himself and highlights his role in drafting the students union constitution. the motion has been formally proposed and Ronan gives a bit of the background to the USI referendum.
19:21: The motion is to reverse the nullification of the USI referendum decision made by Paul, SU president last year.
19:23: Sean makes it clear that he has no plans to make students vote again. “Its not an issue for me.”
19:26: Kenneth, “on the issue of the cost, if we are to reverse this decision as it says there, the money would be coming out of SU money” The money involved is Roughly €60,000.
19:26 the issue revolves around the fact that the extra cost associated with joining USI was not present on the ballot and therefore the students werent duly informed. The argument is very complicated and legalistic.
19:28: Sean Rooney joins the debate, as one of the drafters of the referendum. Sean mentions that is unfair for the council to turn around and nulnlify the motion because the cost implication wasnt mentioned as the cost mentioned was taken out of the motion at the request of the executive. It was taken out because there was debate around the actual cost per student.
19:32: On why this is important “I believe a slight has been made to democracy”- Sean Cassidy
19:32: Ciaran suggests “to draw a line under this a move on and start again next semester.”
19:34: Jerry has called procedural motion 4a, which forces a vote immediately. Other people have continued to make points.
19:36: Passing this motion means the council agree with the decision to nullify the yes vote in the USI referendum last year. This would mean “in principle” we would become members of USI. A rejection of the motion means the decision is upheld.
19:38 The issue of increasing a lack of interest and engagment by the student body if we do Ciarans suggestion. “It doesnt make a difference how I vote, they will just run it again.”
19:40: Sean cassidys closing remarks mention the five emails sent by SU president to the all student mailing list and remarks made by the the SU president about wanting to put the vote to “informed students”
19:42: Roughly 11 for and 20 against. Aaron thanks sean for the motion
19:43: Sean proposes an emergency motion. Basically if the union proposes the referendum it can be questioned. Council is the highest body so the motion proposed by the council cannot be challenged. So he proposes to strike down the motion and re-proposes it as the council proposes running a referendum.
19:47: There is also a stipulation on e-voting included. And that has to voted on by council as the constitution mentions voting by other means.
19:48: Motion 7. A motion about a book on condolence for Nelson Mandela to be given to the South African embassy on Friday. Sean Cassady “only right and proper that we pass a motion like this”. Unanimous for motion.
19:51: Next motion, also proposed by Sean Cassidy. Motion to remove the Bank of Ireland Banner. “Its a bit bizarre to have THAT big of a banner in one of the student spaces on campus.” Sean believes its been “Its been up long and enough”. Clear majority passes the motion.
19:54: Proposal for a shelter to be put up outside the library “for smokers”. Sean Cassidy mentions to take out the words “smokers” so we “can get stuff done.” Mention of athsma and concerns for health issues, so a note that it be away from the door.
19:57: Motion to reduce the price of clubs and Socs. “Could help improve student involvement.” Other comments mention that Clubs and Socs are really well funded and its actually well funded. Ronan mentions that the OSL is where the majority of the funding the funding comes from. Someone else mentions that a decrease could really impact societies who get very little in grant apps. The amount it is reduced by is not specified so it is up to OSL to specify the amout it is possible to be reduced. The motion is rejected.
20:02 Gym membership pricing. An option for cheaper semester 2 joining fees.
20:04 Lorna has gotten onto them and their reply was January to May membership was quoted at €160
20.07 Ronan proposes a change to the motion to propose that the gym lowers the price for second semester €100. “half the time, half the price.” Unanimously passed.
20:08 Back to USI referendum. Class rep questions the need to vote on it now “its been sprung on us” But Ronan mentions that people will have to be educated about the referendum anyway. Seems to satisfy.
20:11 Now 2 tickets are being raffled off to the class reps for the Christmas ball.
20:12 Back to Sean Cassedys motion. Two changes made, referendum proposed by council and student levy added in.
20:14 Unanimously passed.
20:14 questions on changing e voting to online voting. No objections. Motion to do online voting passed
20:16 The exec has decided to take a neutral stance on the USI referendum.
20:17 Congratulations all round, to the SU, to the class reps and to the Council heads. And that’s it folks. Enjoy your christmas. We are going to eat mince pies now 🙂
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