Ciarán's Blog
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Your SU Team
Ciarán Nevin
President DIT Students' Union
Click here to contact Ciarán by e-mail...
17th August 2010
A Lot Done... Still At It!
Well it’s been a busy few weeks, and they tell me this is the quiet period. In the past two weeks we have created a lovely glossy magazine FRESH TOAST for all you. We have also recorded a few nice videos which will be on a Campus Life CD. The good news is that you will get both of these delivered to your door. An envelope wedged with information, competitions, pictures and crazy-ness will be causing many a postman great distress as they wrestle it through your letterbox in the coming weeks.
Any of you who have been watching the news or read the odd newspaper, will have seen me boarding a famine ship last week. Don’t be alarmed, this was not an attempt to get away before the real work starts in September. Many students from across the country came to the Jeanie Johnson Famine Ship in Dublin, as part of a Union of Students in Ireland, USI, campaign on graduate unemployment. We were dressed in the stereotypical clothing of our profession, so as to highlight the plight of graduates as they face into an uncertain future, and the possible necessity to emigrate.
Your Students’ Union has a responsibility to protect you whether you are a first year living away from home for the first time or a final year facing into the big bad world. This campaign will grow throughout the year, and we will need your support on the ground, if we are to achieve anything for the over 4000 DIT graduates every year.
On another finance related note, as you may have seen, we held a grant information evening in conjunction with USI this Saturday the 14th of August in DIT Aungier st. If you are a first year, and are unsure about the grant, or perhaps a returning student whose financial circumstances have changed, be sure to call in to us.
Look after the pennies and all that...
Ciarán
03 August 2010
All trained up .....Ready to go
I’m just back from a week in the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, where Clare, Eric and myself were attending a national training event organised by the Union of Students in Ireland. It was hectic week, packed with useful tips and thoughts on how to make the year ahead as good as possible for each of you. It was a great opportunity to meet the presidents and vice-president from many of the other students’ unions around the country. We spent many an evening swapping ideas on how we can make our organisations more effective for you, our members.
We had many training seminars including marketing and PR, organising entertainments, finances, communications, negotiations, lobbying and formulating academic policy. It was interesting to find out what some colleges do very well - somethings we can learn from, and also how lucky we are to be in DIT in so many other respects. One very noticable benefit of being a DIT student is the Student Charter. Many of my counterparts across the country were amazed at how student friendly this is. For those of you that do not know, the Student Charter is a document which outlines what you as students can and should expect from your time here in DIT. This has been in existance since 2003, and is currently being revised.
Your Students’ Union has representation at every level in DIT. In fact Clare and I had to travel back from Galway on wednesday to attend the DIT Governing Body. This is the highest level of the organisation, and you have two representative there to ensure that your voice is heard. The next time you have a problem, suggestion or question about something in YOUR college, remember that you have a voice in every debate, so let us know what you want. I won’t bore you with the details of every meeting, but rest assured that there is a channel for your voice to be heard on every issue.
When you do have something to say, you contact me by email at president@ditsu.ie, or by phone on 086 60 31 213. We’re all here to serve you, so make the order!
02 July 2010
Failte,
Having used fifty percent of my Irish vocabulary already, its English from here on in. This, my first of many blogs over the coming year, has a plain and simple mission - to welcome you all. If you were here before, welcome again. If you’re about to become a DIT student in September, welcome too!
The good news is that every single student in DIT, whether full-time, part-time, mature, international, apprentice etc, are all members of DIT Students’ Union. Over the next year we will be all about helping you. Helping you with academic issues, helping you with welfare issues, helping you have a good time and just making sure your college experience is as pleasant as possible.
If you are interested in helping out,
have any issues you need advice or help with, drop down to your local
SU office, or just pop us an email. We are always looking for more
volunteers, more class representatives, and more input.
Each year we nominate a charity, and
raise as much money as possible for them, and we need your help there
too. This year we have chosen the Citywise organization. Find out more
on www.citywise.ie
We are involved in every walk of
student life, and I look forward to serving you as your Students’ Union
President for the year ahead. I will be ensuring that your voice is
heard within DIT, and nationally on all major issues facing students.
Before I leave you, I’d like to introduce two more members of our 20000
strong team. Clare Cullen - Vice President for Academic and Student
Affairs is here to help you with all academic or welfare issues. Eric
Fitzgerald - Vice President for Services and Trading is responsible for
helping with all your facilities issues, and very importantly, events
and entertainments.
You can contact reach me by email at president@ditsu.ie or by
phone on 08660312130.
Have a great year, and enjoy the rest of the summer.
Ciarán
