The vast majority of students probably are as numb to Union politics as I was when I was a student. 
I didn’t care what the elected officers were up to and I didn’t care what they did on a day to day basis. This was all based on the fact that I was highly ignorant about the Union. I had no idea that it represented me as a student to the University, Cardiff and even national government. I had no idea that it was the elected officers who had that job, and thus what they thought, believed and did actually did matter. Neither did I know that it was my tuition fees that paid their wages. SHOCK HORROR!
Now I know all these things, and now that I am an Elected Officer, I am truly grateful that we have a brand new scrutiny committee which exists to examine, probe and investigate what we are actually do in our Union. It’s their job to make sure we actually represent what students believe, to make sure we’re fighting on behalf of students and to ensure the projects we pursue are actually in the interest of students. The importance of this group cannot be underestimated for without them there is little accountability and I could spend my days surfing facebook, pursing my own agenda and wasting students’ money (the more I write, the more I realise what a nice easy life I would have if this Scrutiny committee didn’t exist).
After being scrutinised…
…Meg is going to chase up Dragon Taxis and finalise the safe taxi scheme.
…Cari is going to get in touch with Sport Wales to finalise the ‘Out in Sport’ scheme.
…Hannah is going to improve her report system.
…Beth is going to engage with more academic reps.
…Adam is now going to ensure that we give equal support to all religious groups in celebrating their festivals and not just the mainstream ones.
…Kieran is going to evaluate how we promote future referendums.
…Chris is going to carry on and increase looking after the welfare of the students involved in Cardiff Student Media (the average editor spends 17 hours a week working on the paper).
…Harry is going to write to the Welsh NUS and ask them to employ a Welsh translator for all Welsh institutions to use.
Posted by Adam Curtis, Societies Officer