First Student Council Meeting of the Year | October

Hello everyone, and welcome to the first student council meeting recap! If you’re new then welcome and you’re returning then woop, thank you for tuning in again.If you are new and you don’t really know what this is about; basically I attend every student council meeting each month and I recap on all of the important things that happened/were discussed. If you don’t know what student council is, you can find more information on it here.

Now enough of me babbling, let’s get straight into it. It being the first meeting, there was a lot to go through but the main even surrounded the Broombridge site.

The meeting began with a presentation from the Director of Estates and the Head of Architecture on the new Broombridge site. The intention of the site is to be used for sport, recreation and societies. Once built, the site will be open not only 9-5 but also in the evenings and on weekends to allow for all different types of activities at all times. The aim of their presentation was to bring their current ideas forward and to encourage the students for their input. There are a lot of different possibilities for this site. One feature it will most certainly have is another sports area.

Considering that this is the first meeting of the year, council members were already very active, asking questions.

Many council members questioned whether or not a swimming pool could be installed instead of more sports pitches. The answer? There will be a swimming pool on the main campus, rather than Broombridge. This is tied into the Student Levy; the student contribution will be paying for the swimming pool, and it will be open to the entire community, not just the students of DIT.

Other questions/concerns council members raised was the question as to why the site was purchased when it is will be 3 LUAS stops away, and the current aim of Grangegorman was to have everything on one site, and not make students have to travel. Unfortunately the entire process of this site was done back in 2010, part of a different student council, and the only reason why we have not heard about it sooner was because it took this long to open the site in the first place.

Some council members asked if it would not be more benefitial to have the Broombridge site hold more accomodation buildings for future students. However this is not possible as it has already been agreed that it will solely be used for recreational and educational purposes.

If you want to know more about the Broombridge site, if you have any questions or if you have any suggestions as to what it could include, then get in contact with one of your DITSU team members!

As last year, a member from USI attended the meeting; the VP of Dublion Region for USI (this is a new position). She will be attending all the meetings to always provide updates as to what USI had been up to during the month.

Here are some of her updates

• USI has been working on the development of a Post Grad Network, which would be the first of its kind
• There will be an Irish language conference in Belfast, in April
• In regards to the upcoming referendum, there will be registration drives across as many campuses as possbile, so make sure you register to vote
• There will be a Mental Healthy First Aid Service training at the end of October – you are encouraged to attend!

A council member asked how one could get a campaign started (in the Dublin region)? The VP responded that all one needs to do is to get in contact with a DITSU member, and they will get in contact with her. It can always be arranged and she welcomes any ideas you may have.

Another asked about the affiliation fee, which has increased to 85,700 euros. This increased due to certain numbers, and financial reports can be accessed through the National Council.

The final important thing for you guys to know about is regarding each Sabbatical and Officers’ updates.

VP of Events

• The TedX event if finally happening (you may remember from last year’s reports that this has been going on for a while now). The event will be on the 1st of December and applications are being accepted for speakers. In regards to tickets, students will get priority.

• Nap rooms are something she hopes to install soon. It will be an area where students can lie down if they need to ie. if they have insomnia, panic/anxiety attacks, for 15-20 minutes and then allow them to continue to get through their day
• Mini SHAG will be happening from the 13th-16th of November and, taking into account a council member’s earlier suggestion, she will work to make it more gender inclusive
• Safe Spaces will be happening. The LGBT society will be holding workshops in collaboration and it is open to everyone

• A student ombudsman will now be put in place to expand the procedure when it comes to problems with a lecturer and wanting to put forward a complaint. The idea is to create a complaints procedure that will make solving problems with lecturers, easier for class reps.

• The Student Levy- this can only be brought in via a referendum. It cannot be brought in without the student council’s approval. The Levy is said to last 20 years, and the idea is to add it onto the registration fee. DIT want this to be used to build the future student center and sports facilities. How would it work? Via a roll-out system. First it would only go towards incoming first years, and then the next first years (and the second years who were first years the year prior to them) and so on and so forth (therefore 4th or 3rd years would not need to worry about contributing to something they will never see/use).

And that is it for the first meeting of the year, at least the important stuff anyways. There are many more to come so keep an eye out. Remember that even if you are not a member of the student council, you can still attend the meetings. You can’t vote on any motions put forward, however you can still ask questions to get involved with the discussions and overall, it’s a great way to stay informed about what’s going on and what your council members are doing to help improve student life. They are long meetings, but you don’t have to stay for the whole thing if you aren’t a council member. I encourage you to go; there is a lot I would not be aware of if I did not attend them and it’s also a great way to see all of the hard work DITSU Sabbaticals, Officiers and your student councilers do for you guys!

Until next time!