NUS Conference - social gathering or worthwhile trip?
The 15 delegates to travel to Blackpool for the NUS Conference this year have been announced. The all-expenses paid trip is hoped to allow Queen's to be represented at the major student gathering and to air the views and opinions of our student body. Michael Forde and Colin Caughey among others will be present to discuss and debate the issues which are of most relevance to those studying at Queen's.
The DUA makes up half of those travelling to England and, judging by their press release they seem fairly clear in their objectives - concentrating on the treatment of Christian Unions throughout Britain. Is this money well spent by Queen's Union? Aren't there more serious issues out there which need brought to attention?
Exactly what is discussed and any resolutions to the problems addressed will be followed closely by The Gown. After all, if the Union is prepared to fund 15 people to enjoy a few days away in sunny Blackpool I'm sure everyone would like to think the money spent is worthwhile...
The DUA makes up half of those travelling to England and, judging by their press release they seem fairly clear in their objectives - concentrating on the treatment of Christian Unions throughout Britain. Is this money well spent by Queen's Union? Aren't there more serious issues out there which need brought to attention?
Exactly what is discussed and any resolutions to the problems addressed will be followed closely by The Gown. After all, if the Union is prepared to fund 15 people to enjoy a few days away in sunny Blackpool I'm sure everyone would like to think the money spent is worthwhile...
posted by Gown Team at
5:37 pm
11 Comments:
Of course this trip is worth while these 15 people are representing the 25,000 students at QUB and giving them a voice at the NUS conference. So does it really matter what organisation they belong to so long as they represent the students?
Those who applied to go to blackpool did so to represent the 25000 students and to make Queens students concerns heard. The fact that over half of them know eachother is irrelevant and will not detract from the reason they are there. These trips are expensive for the students union but it is important to have representitives at such events and i think it is money well spent
Oddly enough the previous two posts seem to ignore the distinction the DUA makes itself almost every month at council. They talk about their 'community'and their communities interest. Can the DUA really, in all honesty, claim that it will be also representing the views of those which it lables 'sinn Féin Ira'-How to they even know what their views are (After all big Ian says that they shouldn't be talking). 'Those who applied Did so to represent the 25, 000 students' - thats lies. They did it to facilitate their egos. How will they know the opinion of the 25,000 are they goign to conduct surgeries? or are they going to guess? or, as i suspect, are they going to push a DUA agenda with little or no resepct for every one else... would that be unlike them?
anon,
If a member of sinn fein/IRA wanted their views heard then they should have applied to go to the conference- they didn’t.
I certainly wouldn't expect any member of the DUA to be representing terrorist views at this conference. Republicans are an embarrassment to the rest of the civilised population here. We do not want their warped opinions giving a bad reflection on our University, as in previous years.
I am confident that the DUA representatives will make an excellent contribution to the conference.
Sparrow,
How then can the delegation be representing the 25, 000 studenst of queens if the exclude the majority who would be of a nationlaist/Republican persuasion. My point is simply that the first two comments seem to imply that the DUA is goign to represent all the students of Queens when it is clear they are not.
I fully agree with sparrow, an email was sent to all members of council, if u wanted sinn feins views to be heard at the conference why didnt you apply to go... Also you may delegates chosen wanted to boost their egos but going to such a conference does look good on a CV and im surprised more people didnt apply to go.
The Gown:The DUA...seem fairly clear in their objectives - concentrating on the treatment of Christian Unions throughout Britain. Is this money well spent by Queen's Union? Aren't there more serious issues out there which need brought to attention?
More serious issues? I would have thought that people's right to freely associate and to freely practice their religion without fear of persecution is a fairly important issue.
Anon: Their are 16 people going to the NUS conference, any student was free to apply, 17 did. One agreed to stand aside to save the Union the expense of an election. Nobody was excluded. Indeed there are nationalists attending the conference.
Now if you'd like to point me to a time on council when anyone from the DUA said that we're only here to represent our community??? As far as I'm concerned, as elected representatives we do our best to represent everyone.
what does it matter what organisation 7 of representatives are from? It just shows that they have an interest in student issues.
Everyone on council had the opportunity to apply but there was clearly a lack of interest and motivation which the DUA clearly possess both!!
kevin mc gourty made his first show at council tonight.
There Is not a Queen's delegation of 15 attending NUS.
There is a delegation of 15 people attending.
14 elected reps + 1 predident ex-officio = 15
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home