Student Council | November

Welcome back, to the second student council of the year, this time held in Aungier St. campus. The agenda this time was short but there was still a pretty hot topic to talk about and council got straight into it, with DITSU President Pierre Yimbog giving us a TU Dublin update.

If you did not attend the last meeting, or you didn’t read the article about last month’s meeting (if not, pardon you, you can find it here!) Then I will sum you up briefly; There has been trouble drafting up a new constitution for future TUDSU, which as you know by now, comes into effect as of 1st January 2019. Council passed a motion declaring that if this was to continue, by the deadline of the new constitution, DITSU president would have permission to move ahead without ITT and ITB to draft up a new constitution. The spirit of this motion, however, seems to have been widely misunderstood by the other two student unions. Due to these events, the date for the new constitution to be submitted has been moved from 12th December to February.

Of course, this news has upset many of the student councillors, some even citing it as being “disgraceful” that they are choosing not to get properly involved in meetings concerning the future TUDSU. Councillors are concerned about the 28,000 students who potentially face remaining without a constitution for a month and a half.

The Chairperson of council offered to send am email to the other two councils to voice the concerns DITSU council has. It is the hope that this way, they can hopefully begin to understand the importance of the issue and that the spirit of the original motion was not to disinclude but to make sure that TUDSU does not remain without constitution. The letter will also wish them luck with the facilitation and stress the importance of a united front.

USI officier Oisin Hassan came by to give an update, as per usual, with the Dublin Regional Officer not being able to attend. However his update did not end without councillors directing their concerns about TUDSU to him as well. The question was put, as to what USI is doing to help the TUDSU situation. They do try to provide resources that can help but at the endo f the day they do represent all three institutions.

We were also given a update on the Grangegorman/Broombridge sites. A meeting was held where the plans for the interm student center have been modified (yet again) however, Pierre assured council that the concerns brought up before have been addressed and they are much happier with the plans. More canteen space has been added however there is less leisure space to accomodate the capacity of students it will need to house. These concerns were echoed and will be brought up at the next meeting.

There was a wide confusion over the policy manuals at the October meeting however since then, council members have had time to review the motion as well as the proposed amendments and at this meeting, those policies were approved by council.

Finally, the officier gave their respective reports however there were no significant questions posed.

And really, that was all. See, didn’t I tell you that this agenda was short? Doesn’t happen that often!

The next meeting is scheduled to take place on the 12th of December in Bolton Street. Even if you aren’t a member of council, you can, and are more than welcome, to come along to the meeting. It’s a great way to stay informed about what’s going on and you can see what your councillors are doing for you.