Read Beth’s Manifesto
Beth for USI President
For the unabridged plain text manifesto with more action points and detail – see here.
Supporting Students’ Unions:
- Create open lines of communication between all Coiste Gnó officers and MO Officers.
- Commit to providing a USI Calendar at the beginning of the year
- Centralise sabbatical communications to increase officer engagement.
- Ensure that I am in regular communication with all officers.
- Provide SU’s with a database of industry contacts and diverse trainings.
- Create a centralised location for Comhairle Náisiúnta (CN) documentation.
- Provide information for officers on how to engage with working groups and CN.
Engaging with Students
- Re-establish the focus groups for students in minority groups and establish similar focus groups for policy remits.
- Establish regional student activist groups.
- Ensure that all USI events are advertised a minimum of one month in advance.
- Increased communication with student societies.
- Produce a social media strategy review.
Team Management
- Ensure that plans of work are completed as a team.
- Provide Comhairle Náisiúnta with an overall team plan of work.
- Include “Plan of Work Updates” in the agenda of our weekly Monday Morning Meetings.
- Change the culture of needing presidential oversight on every decision
- Give the Coiste Gnó the confidence to be creative in their work
- Ensure that a procedures manual is brought before Comhairle Náisiúnta.
- Begin the process of role reviews for the Regional VPs and the VPPGA.
- Ensure the Coiste Gnó are sitting on committees relevant to their remits
- Ensure that Coiste Gnó officers are not being used for their expertise by other organisations at the expense of their ability to engage with students.
SU Autonomy
- Ensure that the USI has information in relation to the structures and funding of every Member organisation through data collection.
- Develop a long term strategy for a task force composed of SU representatives and SU staff dedicated to the issue of SU autonomy.
- Continue to advocate for SU funding to come from a centralised body such as the HEA.
Publicly Funded HE
- Work with the VP Campaigns and NUS-USI President to develop a long term strategy for achieving publicly funded higher education inclusive of students in the North
- Strengthen connections with trade unions
- Establish a designated portal for student feedback on all campaign actions.
- Empower students by educating them on what the Cassell’s Report is and why it is so important to the future of higher education.
- Work with the VP for Campaigns to ensure that there are strong actions allowing students to productively engage with the issue of the Cassell’s Report.
- Ensure that updates are provided following any conversations with the DFHERIS.
- Support students’ unions in their work lobbying for the reduction of international students’ fees
- Establish an International Student Focus Group.
- Ensure that the unique struggles faced by students in creative arts courses are highlighted.
- Ensure that we establish formal partnerships with trade unions such as Praxis, that represent students in the Creative Arts sector.
Accommodation.
- Highlight the need for cross-departmental meetings to discuss the issue of the student accommodation crisis.
- Fight for TU’s and to have access to borrow funds to build affordable PBSA.
- Demand increased rental protections for students and fight for an immediate rent freeze for all students.
- Advocate for an updated version of the Student Accommodation Strategy.
- Support the development of student co-operative housing.
- Assist Students’ Unions and students with the coordination of rent strikes where needed.
- Update the USI Student Accommodation Position Paper.
- Submit planning applications against any unaffordable PBSA
Political Engagement
- Highlight the benefits of divestment and ensure that MO’s are provided with educational resources surrounding this work.
- Lobby the government to ensure that any additional protections offered to Ukrainian student asylum seekers are extended to all student asylum seekers.
- Develop a strategic paper outlining what to do when a student is given a deportation order.
- Lobby for the extension of domestic fee status to all students who are asylum seekers.
Postgraduate Students
- Update the USI Postgraduate Workers Rights Charter and lobby for it to be formally recognised.
- Ensure that all officers are engaged and informed on postgraduate issues.
- Utilise the data compiled from the Postgraduate Student Survey to lobby for an end to stipend disparity across all HEI’s.
- Ensure that a postgrad specific mental health campaign is developed to be rolled out annually.
- Compile data on the postgraduate specific supports offered by all of our MO’s
- Ensure that the VP Welfare and VPAA co-ordinate postgraduate specific training.
- Assist our MO’s with the development of further postgraduate representative positions.
- Establish connections with postgraduate student societies in the event of an MO having no formally recognised postgraduate representative.
Gaeilge
- Ensure that the work of the LUdG is no longer filled with translational duties and instead USI’s translational work is sent out of house.
- An increase in all campaign materials as Gaeilge to be provided to MO’s.
- Ensure all MO officers are able to attend Gaeilge Working Group.
- USI support for grassroots organisations fighting to promote the Irish language.
- The development of an Irish language strategy paper.
- Irish language lessons for Coiste Gnó members who would like to learn Gaeilge.
NUS-USI
- Ensuring that USI Officers attend all large scale NUS-USI events and protests
- Ensuring policy officers visit campuses in the NUS-USI region
- Investigate the possibility of reducing Comhdháil fees for MO’s in the NUS-USI region to facilitate their attendance at Comhdháil.
- Ensure that there is at least one collaborative USI and NUS-USI campaign aimed specifically at FE engagement in USI.
- Link all campaigns that are applicable to both regions.
Technological Universities
- Facilitating the Mergers Working Group at Comhairle Náisiúnta and ensuring that we come up with monthly action items
- Lobbying the DFHERIS for increased funding to ensure that support services are available to all students, no matter which campus they are studying on.
- Continuing the fight for TU’s to have access to the same funding for accommodation building as their university counterparts.
- Provide a constitutional toolkit for Students’ Unions who are undertaking constitutional referenda to facilitate the merging of their unions.
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