With only a couple of weeks left of term two, we can now look forward to the Easter holidays…or can we?
The Easter break conveniently fits between term two and term three (cheers history). For me, Easter in my final year meant one thing; panic! Gone are the days when Easter represents three weeks ‘off’; rather three weeks that can offer an opportunity to reflect on the work (or lack off) that you have done throughout the year. It’s a time of revision for the summer exams (an even more stressful situation for those taking finals) and of course an opportunity to finish off the dreaded dissertation. It all seems doom and gloom, but have no fear; in between the exams, coursework and dissertations we have loads going on at the Students' Union such as Varsity, Summer Ball, Graduation and much more! As this is a reflective time, I thought it best to update you on a few things I’ve been involved with as an Elected Officer of the Students' Union, and perhaps a few things to look forward to. Best of luck to those undertaking their exams/coursework, I’m really not jealous of what you have ahead of you!
The Annual General Meeting
This year’s AGM marked the return of fierce debate, some slightly confusing discussions (that seemed never ending) and a few presentations for good measure. AGM has always confused me; why do we ‘force’ societies and sports clubs to attend a meeting that could potentially go on for three hours and bore many involved? There’s a simple answer; this is your Union, and therefore the biggest decisions that get taken to AGM are for you to make…This year made for a fairly entertaining evening it must be said! Part of my remit is to present the Students' Union’s finances from last year, which happened to be down £274,000 (don’t blame me!). There were many reasons for this; food and beverages (-£75K), entertainment (-£65K), post-grad bar (-£10K) were all down from the previous year, along with overspends on student activities (£25K) and a few other things contributing to the -£274K. You’ll be glad to know that this year we are looking much stronger, and hope to come in at a tidy profit! All that profit we generate goes straight back into student led activity (such as sports, societies, campaigns, academic representation, student media etc…) so it’s vital that we continue to use, enjoy and invest in our future as Cardiff Students’ Union.
The Ministry of Change
This year we welcomed the new system of Student Council: The Ministry of Change. The new system, overall, has been a success; generating more ideas than ever before from our student body. We’ve witnessed excellent debate and discussion over the ideas submitted to the forums, which has led to some interesting and important decisions being made. I feel comfortable in surmising that the general direction of the new ‘student council’ system is a leap in the right direction (as far as student democracy and engagement are concerned). I look forward to working on more and more ideas brought to the forums, and I urge you to submit any ideas you may have that could improve our Students' Union, the work we do in the community or how the University can improve the service they provide to us.
Things to look forward to…
Welsh Varsity 2013
As a huge fan of competitive sport and beating Swansea in everything we do, I always look forward to reminding Swansea who are the dominant and most successful sporting university in South Wales! Varsity offers the opportunity for us as Cardiff University students to represent our wonderful University in a wide range of sports. That includes all those playing, organising and most importantly; supporting! I urge all Cardiff University students to paint the town red on the 24th April by wearing the Cardiff colours and cheering on the amazing diversity of sport we have to offer! I’ll see you there.
The Dusk Till Dawn Summer Ball 2013
After the success of last year’s Summer Ball (The Dusk till Dawn Ball, spanning from 6.00pm till 6.00am) we have decided to build on thisby making it bigger and better than ever! At the moment the plans are rather secret, and will remain secret until the day…we will let you know the headline acts and general info of course, but I will say this now and you can hold me to it; you will never experience the Students’ Union like this, and once inside the building, will be pleasantly surprised by the range of exciting, weird and wonderful things we have planned. I advise getting tickets well in advance as last year’s sold out and people were buying them on Facebook for up £60!
Keep your eye open for…
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A Year Book for all those graduating this year. Everyone that graduates this year will be in it, along with sports clubs, societies, local pubs/clubs, places of interest and what happened in 12/13…don’t miss out on a little piece of history you were part of!
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Vintage Market in the Students’ Union
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Beach Break Live 2013. Get your ticket from the Box Office; it’s the best student festival going.
Best of luck with everything,
Yours in Union development, Internal Affairs and general fun and activities,
Kieran Gandhi
Union Development and Internal Affairs Officer