Welcome, welcome, to the very last DITSU student council ever. Now that the Christmas break has passed and exams are more or less over, it’s time ot see what happened at the last DITSU student council. That’s right, as of January, these will technically be TUDSU student councils. Of course, as you probably know by now, nothing fundamental will actually change. So with that being said, let’s get into it!
So, an update on the microwave situation. There was a meeting set to take place on the 17th to discuss the possibilities of them being set up once more. The current hope is that they will start rolling out in semester 2 however there will be a further update at the first student council back in the new year.
Next, an update on the Erasmus situation. You may recall that previously an issue was brought up to council, voicing a concern that there is discrimination against students who did not get in to their course through the CAO, for Erasmus opportunities. The VP for Education contacted the Erasmus office in relation to this and a piece of correspondence was read out to council. In the letter, the Erasmus office assures that there is no discrimination against those who did not enter DIT through the CAO. They are in full support of this and student mode of entry should never come into question with Erasmus. In DIT policy, this does not occur, should never occur and DIT does not agree with it. Therefore, students who are fearful of this happening, should be at ease.
A further update regarding TUD and TUDSU. A governing body is being made for January, for Techonological University for Dublin, and it will have 5 members. Elections are planned to be held in March regarding TUDSU, for new sabbatical officers. In the new student’s union, there will only be 1 president, not 3 seperate ones. However to be able to hold these elections, a referendum on the new constitution needs to be approved by February. The new consitutition, which is still in the process of being drafted so as you can see, there is still a lot to do. Pierre Yimbog has said that an outside facilitator has been very positive with helping the process, between the three student’s unions. You should keep in mind though, that all of this is work to be able to have a student’s unions ready to be up and running by the new academic year, September 2019/2020. Nothing big will come into effect during the remainder of this year.
For Grangegorman and Broombridge, another project team is the works to be put together. This is to help facilitate gathering ideas for the progress of these two locations, the idea is to try to get as many opinions and ideas as possible to make it a good use of space for everyone. For Broombridge, the hope is to add features that cannot be added to Grangegorman.
Socities gave an update- they were just in the progress of wrapping up the Christmas appeal, but at the current time there was no known total yet. The important thing at the time was to continue to push the giving tree and the Christmas raffle, which had a variety of prizes up for grabs.
There was only one motion which was heavily discussed amongst council. A motion around The EU’s new Article 13 proposition was put forward, which proposed Pierre Yimbog take action to raising awareness around this and letting students know what was at stake if this was put into place. However there were many council members who disagreed with this motion, some stating that Article 13 was not a bad thing and aims to protect artists and other creators alike online. Others felt that this was not a priority and the President’s time should be spent with more important issues. Or that the Article itself had not even been passed yet so there was nothing to do as of right now. For these reasons, the motion in the end was not passed.
Finally, there has been an update on the filming/recording of student council. You might remember this has come up previously and the verdict around it was rather mixed. However it has been decided that it will go ahead, with ways to work around those who may not be so comfortable with being recorded. For the time being, the idea is that it will be not be broadcasted live but instead pre-recorded and edited. It is not a way for people to stop attending student council, but a way to make it more open and transparent for other students who do not sit on council. A trial run will begin in January.
And that was it! I hope you all enjoy your Christmas break, happy new year!
Visual Artist, student at DIT, and writer for DITSU.tv
I've been writing for DITSU.tv for 2+ years now, still ongoing
I mainly cover events but also like to write a few helpful, lifestyle pieces and here and there
