Shane Kelly elected as president of USI

Sully

Congratulations to Shane Kelly (current WITSU President) on his appointment as President of the Union of Students in Ireland for 07/08. Shane was nominated at the USI's 49th annual congress in Bettystown at the end of March, and will takeover the office of outoing President Hamidreza Khodabakhshi for the coming academic year..

Congrats Shane!

Paddy@CIRL

Fair play Shane !!!

Minto

That's great news. Shane is very passionate about the student cause, so we can all be expecting a top notch job from him. Hopefully, with a former WIT student (I assume) as head of the USI, the need for a University will be further highlighted.

Congrats again, Shane!

CantGetNoSleep

USI doesnt do much anyway, i'd love to know how much students money those 2 or 3 day p*ss ups in hotels cost us

ec18

it doesn't cost students anything... the subscription to USI is paid from the local students union budget.....

Sully

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

USI doesnt do much anyway, i'd love to know how much students money those 2 or 3 day p*ss ups in hotels cost us

Out of curiosity, please tell me how much you paid to the Students Union or the USI each year in WIT or whatever college you went to? IIRC, the most I paid in a year was like €3. I was unaware there was a union subscription that students signed up to!

fiannafaller

Congratulations to Shane Kelly on his election to the position to USI President elect. It is good to see a WIT man being elected whoever he may be.

ec18 wrote: »

it doesn't cost students anything... the subscription to USI is paid from the local students union budget.....

WITSU gets a % of the student decapatation fee. Its a relatively considerable %. As always Im open to correction on this one, but Im almost sure this to be the case.... So it is the students that pay the USI subscription fee.

fiannafaller

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

USI doesnt do much anyway, i'd love to know how much students money those 2 or 3 day p*ss ups in hotels cost us

Reply to ec18,

I think CantGetNoSleep was asking how much did the week at the USI conference cost WITSU. WITSU did cover the full costs I take it?? or were they subsidised by USI??

Sully

fiannafaller wrote: »

Reply to ec18,

I think CantGetNoSleep was asking how much did the week at the USI conference cost WITSU. WITSU did cover the full costs I take it?? or were they subsidised by USI??

Did you read this quote? Hes complaining that his money is being spent on pissups by the SU.

Now unless im mistaken, you dont have a yearly or any subscription to SU to give them any money.

CantGetNoSleep

I go to UCC at the moment, but I would imagine it is the same in all colleges

A former UCC SU president was elected as president of USI last year, but was removed fairly early in the year. The college newspaper had several letters and articles debating the point of us remaining part of USI, i'll try to post them up here but as its a student newspaper I don't know if they put articles online.

Each student pays a capitation fee (ours is currently around €150 or so I think) - some of this goes towards the running of the students union. They pay towards the running of USI. We had a referendum lately (it was defeated) to increase the capitation fee to cover the running of USI, so it wouldn't come out of the SU budget - this could then be spent solely on UCC issues.

I'm not sure how much I pay but I know for certain some of my contribution goes towards the running of USI. Where elso would they get funding from other than from the colleges that are members?

There was one particular article, I think it was a congress in Kilarney, where one particular college's representatives didn't even make it as they were still feeling the effects of the night before. The cost of transport and accomodation for a weekend like this in a nice hotel would be very high.

And all for what? Does anyone actually see the function of USI? All colleges have students unions, who are fairly hard working in my experiences

Sully

WIT Students dont pay the SU anything..

ec18

The USI looks after the country's third level issues.... They have a seat on different boards that make decisions about third level education including the HEA... Without the USI there would be nobody representing students views and concerns on these boards...thats just one of their functions

CantGetNoSleep

Sully wrote: »

WIT Students dont pay the SU anything..

Ok sorry, different in some colleges, but how is WIT SU funded?
From the college itself? If so it still means that it is your money (registration & capitation fees) indirectly funding the SU and hence USI

CantGetNoSleep

ec18 wrote: »

The USI looks after the country's third level issues.... They have a seat on different boards that make decisions about third level education including the HEA... Without the USI there would be nobody representing students views and concerns on these boards...thats just one of their functions

But does that really necessitate a sizeable delegation from each college meeting a couple of times a year in a fancy hotel, all expenses paid

Time Magazine

Sully wrote: »

WIT Students dont pay the SU anything..

I love when money grows on trees.

If the students aren't paying for the union directly, it's coming from an another interested party such as the university institution itself, who could put that money to other uses to the benefit of students. So the cost of affiliation to USI is not having those additional facilities.

Sully

I cant remember but I dont think the college provide funding to the Union either. Could be wrong tho.

Sully

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

But does that really necessitate a sizeable delegation from each college meeting a couple of times a year in a fancy hotel, all expenses paid

I always thought the meetings that students went to was once a year? At least, I only recall them offering it once this year...

(My memory is getting shakey )

CantGetNoSleep

Sully wrote: »

I cant remember but I dont think the college provide funding to the Union either. Could be wrong tho.

How is the Union funded then?

CantGetNoSleep

Sully wrote: »

I always thought the meetings that students went to was once a year? At least, I only recall them offering it once this year...

(My memory is getting shakey )

I thought it was at least twice, but still at one a year it is still many thousands of euro we're talking about

Sully

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

How is the Union funded then?

I thought it was the USI, but I assume im wrong.

Whats wrong with going up the USI meetings? I know after it there might be a piss up or watever but still the meetings go ahead and from a previous conversation they vote on different matters which to me would be pretty important. Iv never went (dont like sitting on buses for long journeys!) myself so I cant say its from personal experience!

CantGetNoSleep

Afaik USI receive no state funding, individual SU's fund it.

Edit: just considering the logic of your last post, USI is the students quivalent of a trade union, can you imageine the state funding one of these

The problem I have with meetings is that they are held in nice hotels where it seems colleges are just going for the p*ss up as they have expenses paid

Sully

Okay, I got the answers your looking for.

WITSu is funded by the capitation fee which is included in your college fees. This fee is divided up between different sectors within WIT including Clubs & Socs. The money that they receive is used to run WITSu including events such as RAG and SHAG week which I think we can safely say this years RAG week was a lot better then previous years!

With regards to the USI, I dont know very much about it but ec18 knows much more about it then myself. However, WITSu go up to these meetings (which are considered to be very beneficial) to discuss various different student issues at national level. They get advise from other unions such as UCDs & UCCs which they develop on how they run. Without these meetings in the USI, it would not be possible to get the advise and suggestions from other unions which are vital for the day to day running of a Students Union.

I personally have always felt that if the Students Union have a good team, that they can achieve many great things and also work hard to address students issues both within the college but also on a national scale. I fully support the idea based on personal experience myself and hearing the story's from other students who have gone to the Union for help.

At the end of the day, this topic was created to wish Shane Kelly congratulations in his new position of president of USI. As many people know, Shane has done a lot for WITSu and has been an excellent president. His role in WITSu was brilliant so I do believe that him stepping up the ladder into a higher role as president as USI will benefit USI members.

At this time, I think that all further conversations with regards to how USI is run, or how WITSu is run etc. should be taken to a new thread to avoid spoiling this one anymore.

Oh and sorry for all the confusion with my previous posts, I hope this sets the issue straight and there is no confusion as a result of my previous comments which were not very accurate at all!

Cheers!

CantGetNoSleep

Yeah congrats to him, maybe he will change the way these meetings operate, perhaps hold them in colleges themselves with delegates returning home or else staying in a hostel or budget hotel rather than 3 day events in 4 star hotels where some colleges can't even make the meetings after the previous night's shenanigans - what is the point of a meeting if all colleges aren't going to be present and represented properly