| Another update on what and how we've been doing in Belfast. |
| 25/10/2005 |
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In this extremely long blog I'll cover:
We've set our priorities for the year, although the Plan of Work has been severely delayed due to the fact that we've just 3 current members of the Regional Exec and want to fill as many positions as possible. Elections for these are due to take place at the next Regional Council in UUSU Coleraine on November 16th. Priorities this year include the Student Finance Campaign, with 4 strands - Undergraduates, Postgraduates, Student Teachers and Nursing Students. I've been in contact with DEL (Department for Employment and Learning) re top up fees. As much as it sickens me to say this, top up fees are due to be introduced in Sept 2006. Although we don't agree with them, students need information on how they will affect them - DEL have produced leaflets and posters, but we need more info for our members and prospective members. This doesn't mean that we are giving up - we will be calling on each political party to give a public commitment and assurance that they will fight for a review to be conducted into student finance arrangements in the future, when our Assembly is restored, so our aim is to ensure that top-up fees have a short life! As well as this, we have the Mental Wellbeing campaign, which was re-launched at QUBSU on October 10th, World Mental Health Day. We have distributed around 10,000 out of 30,000 guides to students over the past month and a half, which fits in well with how we want to run the campaign. I have also given my full support to the NEC motion on the Mental Health Bill, which, if lade law, rather than help those with a mental illness, will marginalise them, and further stigmatise mental illhealth, destroying the work already acheived by the various Mental Wellbeing lobbying groups and patients. I've attached a brief plan of the campaigns. In addition to this, our Diversity work continues to go from strength to strength. At a meeting of the Promoting and Managing Diversity in Tertiary Education Advisory Group, which is a strategic body comprised of Equality and Diversity Co-ordinators for colleges and institutions, we were given info on a particular college which has had such a substantial increase in the numbers of migrant students that a proportion of people within the local community have begun to resent and act upon their presence in the area. We are concerned by the fact that the College have admitted to us that they don't know how to deal with this issue, and have offered them help. This has created a wider problem for the region, so what we intend to do is request that each institution provides us with their Equality Scheme for the implementation of Equality Legislation - more info here: www.equalityni.org In doing this, we can gauge whether an institution is meeting its statutory obligations in relation to this legislation. We are also thinking of commissioning a Diversity Audit through the Advisory Group, again as another method of testing the institutions. We will also be visiting NUS Scotland on November 17th, for their "Stamp Out Racism, Stamp Out Sectarianism Day", as well as pushing forward our mandate to ensure the provision of a Prayer Room on Every Campus. We'll also be planning events for Human Rights Week, on December 5th-11th Our campaign to have our Assembly restored has still to get off the ground, as our main vehicle for this is the Education Alliance, which still has to meet this academic year, but due to other commitments, members have not been able to attend. A date for the meeting of the Exec has been set for Tuesday November 15th. Party Conference season is and has been interesting here - so far we've had 3 conferences, and attended 2 (didn't get invited to one of them). Of the 2, one was cancelled as the party President was arrested the night before on money laundering charges, with the prospect of being extradited to America. It is important to stress at this stage though that this individual has not been found guilty of any offence.The other Conference went well, in the sense that we made some new friends and contacts for our lobbying work, whioch is always helpful! We made some contacts at the cancelled conference too, which will also be useful. Just a few more to go, and that phase of our lobbying work will be done! We're into our FE Governors' and Part-time Officers' training season, and we're looking forward to this, as we have a number of issues within the FE Sector, in addition to the Diversity problems, that will detrimentally affect students and staff, and that we need to deal with. Through our work with the Education Alliance, with NATFHE and with the Student Services Forum, we have been working on the proposed FE mergers, EMA's, Union Development and Diversity programmes. Our Constitutional Review Group has met regularly, and is due to report back to Annual Conference in April (which reminds me - need to get that organised). Our 'Chief Facilitator', Ciarán Hanna, from Steering, has gone to Poland for a while, so Mark Mc Lean, also from Steering is now the new Chief Facilitator. Proposed dates for all members are: Oct 31st, Nov 1st (all day / pm), Nov 3rd (am and after 4pm only). We've also been proposing to move offices, based on health and safety, disability access and general operational concerns - the building we are currently in has failed an asbestos report, disability access report and there are serious health and safety concerns. Any move depends upon agreement from the Bilateral Committee (made up of the Presidents and most senior staff member of each National Union and the Convenor and Director of NUS-USI). Agreement in principle has been given, but we're trying to iron out the finances, although everyone is aware of the urgency of the situation. Watch this space for more info! Below I've outlined dates since the last blog of what I've been doing - you'll notice that I've been off ill for some time too, which I'll not go into, suffice to say that I'm back, and doing my bit in the office. September:
1st - Education cutback protest, Stormont October:
3rd - NUS NEC Mtg, London Some highlighted dates for the near future are: October:
25th - Diversity for Mutual Understanding, intercollege training programme for Student Teachers , St Mary's College, Belfast. FE Student Governors' Training Programme, Belfast. November:
2nd - National Stress Awareness Day December:
5th - 11th - Human Rights Week The Blogs on this site represent the individual views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or practices of the National Union of Students The permanent URL for this specific blog entry is: http://www.officeronline.co.uk/blogs/damienkavanagh/271545.aspx |
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| Another update on what and how we've been doing in Belfast. | ||||
| blogged on: 25/10/2005 | ||||
| NUS-USI Priority Campaigns 2005/2006 | ||||
| blogged on: 25/10/2005 | ||||
| Student human rights on and off campus | ||||
| blogged on: 31/08/2005 | ||||
| A Summer of realisations - Health is Wealth | ||||
| blogged on: 26/08/2005 | ||||
| Give us our Assembly Back! | ||||
| blogged on: 01/06/2005 | ||||
| Blogging - What's that again?! | ||||
| blogged on: 29/04/2005 | ||||
