Day 2 started bright and early at 9am where the delegates from across the country got to review the financial expense report from the year ending 30th of June 2019The delegates from TUDSU also got the opportunity to ask the USI executive board and unions accounted about any discrepancies or financial statements. It gives you a great deal of information into how USI functions and keeps track of the membership you contribute last year as a member of the union.
It was a really product day where in 6 hours there were close to 60 motions were discussed, debated, referred back to national council and passed by the delegates from every part of the country stretching from Queens University Belfast in the north all the way to the bottom of the South from the National University of Galway.
The highlights from the day including Luke Daly the president of the Blanchardstown Campus and Padraic ‘Spud’ Keane the Vice President for Entertainments work together to propose a motion to review the eligibility of the SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland) grant because according to their motion which states:
That students have been excluded by the criteria of SUSI. Many aspects of the application restrain students from receiving adequate financial support. The criteria is outdated and does not reflect the reality of struggling students.
This motion was passed by an overall 95% majority of delegates from across the country which will mandate the Union of Students in Ireland to lobby for the eligibility criteria for the grant to be changed to better suit students and lobby for radical reform with the support of the member student union members.
Amy Keating the Student union president of the TUD Tallaght campus and Megan O’Neill the Vice-President of Welfare proposed the Regional Leadership and Personal Development Training motion. The opening of the motion states;
‘That leadership roles have become a staple demand of job seeking, role pursuing and many other aspects of advancing your personal/professional development. The trials and tribulations associated with this can have quite the heavy toll on people’s work/life balance as well as stress management’’.
This motion would mandate for the executive officers of USI to organize small scale trainings for the student union officers and students alike who are interested in taking up a leadership role in a club or soc or the student union because it can be difficult for the national union to organize a large scale event that could be expensive for some college and universities.
‘’ That Regional Officers organize regional leadership training focused on leadership and personal development. Such an event would encourage students from that region to engage, and also have a huge focus on minding yourself when going for leadership roles as well as maintaining healthy boundaries while dealing with the trials and tribulations of leadership.”
This motion was voted down but will be sent back to the national council for review and to be discussed further by the student union officers from each affiliated member college.
We finished just after the guillotine allotted time of 2.30pm before the voting opened to elect the new executive team for the academic year of 2020/2021.
We wish the mandated candidates up for election chosen by the TUDSU the best of luck!
Day 2 of USI congress link here
