Before we get right into it, let’s play a bit of catch up first. It’s important for you to know this so that you can understand the events of the January meeting. This technically isn’t the first meeting of 2019. On the 23rd of January, Student Council held an EGM. This was to sign a petition, that allowed the motion of changing the DITSU (now to be replaced by TUDSU) Constitution at the official January meeting. The petition in question was signed by Councillors, and here we are week later.
At the EGM, Councillors were also given hard copies of the new constitution which would be brought forward to January’s meeting. This gave them a change to see what would be brought forward, and a committee consisting of one councillor from each campus, held a meeting the day following the EGM to go through the constitution with a fine tooth comb to make sure everything made sense and also answer any questions.
So let’s get into this meeting itself.
Dublin Regional Officer Colm from USI visited as per usual, and gave a few updates:
- He thanked DITSU for hosting this year’s Women in Lead Summit
- Mature Student Conference was held and it was a big success
- USI campaigned to support the Pharmacy Student Campaign. This was also successful.
- An ‘End Direct Provision’ Student Lead Think-In will be hosted by USI on the 8th of February. This is open to anyone, so you can register online, on their Facebook event page, if you’d like to take part.
DITSU President Pierre Yimbog gave a brief update on TU Dublin. In regards to the logo, which ended up being rather controversial, Pierre had a conversation with the Head of Public Affairs. She is willing to give a presentation about the TU Dublin logo. While it is more than likely a permanent logo, given the amount of money that has gone into it, a presentation on it might help to explain to Councillors why certain decisions were made as they were. She would also be willing to answer questions around the logo. Council agreed to this proposal and it will be taking place at a future, upcoming Council meeting.
There wasn’t much of an update on Grangegorman/Broombridge this time, other than the interim Student Center will be ready for September 2020, and donors are coming through to fund the Broombridge site.
Clubs and Societies update let us know about Refresher’s Week, which is happening this week and you can find all of the details about it on Facebook. There is a beach clean up happening on the 7th of February and you can sign up for that here if you’re interested.
There was a question from a Councillor which maybe you have been wondering too:
Q: Now that we are TU Dublin, can we join societies on Tallaght and Blanchardstown campus?
A: No, for now Societies cannot be joined between institutions. It is unclear when this will be possible.
This was a document put together by your own DITSU President, which answers all kinds of FAQs regarding Grangegorman. There is also a lot of useful information about Grangegorman itself. This is available on the DITSU website as a downloadable PDF…or you can just click the link above!
Council also over viewed the DITSU 2018/2019 workplan. It was clear enough, through the overview, that Sabbaticals have primarily been focusing on the TU Dublin merger. Once again, this is available on the DITSU website in full as it is a very detailed document, but a good way to see what your Union is doing for you and what money is being spent on.
Now onto the highlight of the evening; the TUDSU Constitution. The motion to put this forward as the new TUDSU Constitution had already passed in Tallaght. Now it was DIT’s (or City Campus’) turn. Here’s how this works:
- A motion is put forward, proposing to have a referendum to change the current constitution to this one (because since we’ve merged to TU Dublin, the old DITSU constitution technically doesn’t exist anymore).
- Student Council either passes the motion or not
- If passed, it is brought to a referendum where all students across all three institutions have to vote either in favor or against the new Constitution.
- If passed, the new Constitution comes into effect on the 1st of July 2019. If not passed…well you don’t want to ask your sabbaticals that question, they might just cry.
Before the voting, questions were answered.
There were a few questions still regarding certain things in the new constitution, such as the stipulation that TUDSU will incorporate more Gaelic and encourage it more, will there be an Irish Language Officer in the future, how many members will sit on the new student council, etc?
At this motion, at least 51 yes votes needed to be reached in order to pass the motion (usually it’s just a general majority). The voting was done online as not all councillors could make it to the meeting and every vote counted.
Even though the voting was open for 24 hours, councillors voted promptly at the break that followed and the live count on the screen showed that 61 votes were reached by the end of the break – onto the referendum!
This will be pushed lots of times on social media in the coming weeks but just so you know, the referendum will take place on the 19th and 20th of February. There will be an explainer available that will explain the new Constitution and all of its changes but, listen, if you’re an eager beaver and you really want to know the whole thing, you can access the full constitution and read it for yourself.
Aside from the motion to amend the Constitution, one other motion was passed; a motion to review the current personal circumstances form. It was felt by the proposer of the motion, that the current personal circumstances form does not cater to those with long term or chronic illnesses/disorders. Therefore, the motion asked to review the current one and amend it so that it can include those with such illnesses/pain/disorders. The motion was passed.
And aside from officer reports, which didn’t prompt any major updates, everything you needed to know you can get through your local Class Rep meetings, that’s all! Keep a look out for the upcoming referendum, and have a good rest of the week!
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
