Class Reps Handbook

HANDBOOK

Class Rep Handbook - 1

IntroductionHi all!

Conor Stitt here! I’m your Vice President / Education Officer here in the Students’ Union for the year! I’m here to help with all academic related issues that students may have throughout the year but I also help organise the Class Reps and SU Council!

A key part of my job is to run the SU Council, which is the most important part of the Students’ Union. It’s the Class Reps that decide on Union policy, that mandate the SU officers like myself to do certain things or adopt policies, and that form the grassroots of the Union. In short, you guys act as a watchdog on the officers, making sure they do the work they were elected to do.

You guys are our people on the ground who can give us an insight into what’s going on in the lives of the 17,000 students we represent here in NUI Galway. You’re our eyes and ears, and act as the link between the elected SU officers and the ordinary students.

Without you, we wouldn’t know about the problems you and your classmates might be having around campus.

I believe the Class Rep has 3 main roles:

1. Helping your Class with issues.

2. Representing your Class’ views in SU Council.

3. Organising cool social events for your Class

This handbook is designed to explain to you the what, where, who, where and how of the above!

If you were a class rep last year, I welcome you back and hope to continue to work with you this year. If you are a first year who has decided to become a class rep- good for you! You’ve made a good choice and you won’t regret it. Don’t forget that your schedule of meetings for the year ahead is enclosed in the back pages.

If you do have any questions, please don’t hesitate to send me an email or call me maybe?

All the best,

Conor Stitt.Mobile: 0863853658 Email: [email protected]

WHO ARE YOUR CONVENORS?Each of the 5 College Convenors act as chairperson for their College Class Representatives Council. They represent their Colleges Class Reps and students on the Executive committee. They work with the SU Council Chairperson to make sure every class has a Class Representative.

The object of the College Class Rep Councils is to discuss individual faculty issues whilst Students’ Union Council discusses University wide issues.

The Convenors are the ‘Go-to Guys (and Girl)’ for you to help you in your class and help you with experience of your School and Department.

Convenor of the College of Arts Social Sciences & Celtic Studies

Patrick ClancyPh: 085 8182973 [email protected]

Convenor of the College of Science

Phelim KellyPh: 086 2530540 [email protected]

Convenor of the College of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences

Molly SmithPh: 087 7849060 [email protected]

Convenor of the College of Engineering & Informatics

Alan CalleryPh: 086 [email protected]

Convenor of the College of Business, Public Policy & Law

Conor NolanPh: 085 7812079 [email protected]

2 - Class Rep Handbook


The work of a Class RepThe most important part of your job is to represent your classmates. You are the voice of your class and it’s up to you to make us Executive officers aware of problems you’re facing, and bring us ideas for how to make the Students’ Union more effective for ordinary students.

Another key part of your job is communication. If you are made aware of problems by your classmates, you should take the issue up with the appropriate person (for example, a lecturer or course convenor) if the issue is fairly small. If the issue is more serious, contact the SU officers either by email or at the next Class Reps meeting.

It’s also vital that you introduce yourself to your class as soon as you can after you’re elected. There’s no point in being a Class Rep is no one knows who you are, so be sure to stand up in front of your class, tell them your name and give out some contact details, either a phone number or email will do fine. You might want to set up a Facebook Group instead for ease of communication and for organising social events (e.g. ‘NUIG First Year History 2012-13’). Also, be sure to give them the gist of what your job is and make sure they know that you’re the guy/girl to go to if they have any problems. Class Reps also organise class parties. These are a great way of getting to know your classmates, especially if you’re in 1st year, whether as an Undergraduate or a Postgraduate. The College Bar can usually arrange concessions, free hot food and more, depending on how many people you’re bringing. The best thing for you to do is contact Cormac O’Donoghue, the bar manager, at [email protected] You can also contact the Executive Officers or other Class Reps for advice on how to organise a really good class party.

Of course, it’s really important that you actually attend Class Reps meetings. The full list of meetings for 2012/13 is listed at the back of this handbook, and I’d recommend you highlight the ones you’re supposed to attend (which will be your Faculty Councils and the Full SU Councils at least) and keep this handbook for the year ahead.

Depending on your enthusiasm for the job (which we hope is high), you can also organise social events for your class. Some examples include trips around Ireland and abroad (Dublin and Edinburgh are popular), paintballing, bowling, an amateur sports event for them (girls vs. boys tag rugby for example), or a charity event to raise money for College Week. There’s always the traditional nights out in town, but why not use your imagination and make your time in college more memorable? Don’t forget to give serious thought to ordering class rep hoodies aswell.

Your role, in depth . . .Representation You are the voice of your class. If all class reps actively get involved in the class reps meetings, and propose new ideas and raise issues, the Union can be very effective at bringing about positive changes that will help all students here at NUI Galway. It can’t be taken for granted that the full-time officers will know about all the issues that affect ordinary students unless you tell us. We simply don’t have the time or the resources to be checking up on every class to make sure things are going okay, and that’s the whole reason we have class reps, so you can bring the issues to us.

It’s important to realise you are representing your class, and not yourself, when you’re in a class rep meeting. So if you know your classmates are opposed to an idea that’s being discussed, you must reflect that in your vote at the meeting, regardless of your own personal views. Try to get the support of your classmates if there’s a contentious issue up for discussion at a later class rep meeting (such as the Facebook ban or parking issues).

As well as having a representative role between your class and the Students’ Union, you also have a role between your class and your lecturers, School, College and the University as a whole. Get involved in the staff-student liaison meetings if your School organises them, and if they don’t, why not meet up with the Head of School to have them set up. This is a great way of getting your classmates views put across to the people who can best address problems with courses, whatever they may be (timetabling, tutorials, individual lecturers, exams etc.)

Consultation You must introduce yourself to your class at the earliest opportunity, and to as many as your classmates as possible (so a 9am Friday lecture is not ideal!). Tell them who you are, what your job involves, how you are linked to the Students’ Union, and what you want to do for them for the year ahead.



Research student reps should let the relevant student in their discipline know who they are. It is probably a good idea to let the discipline secretary know who they are. This way the secretary can let new students know who the rep is.

Here’s an example of an Undergraduate introduction, but most of it can apply to any class, whether Undergraduate or Postgraduate.

‘Hi, I’m John Smith, I’m from Athenry and I’ll be your class rep for the year ahead. I’ve just set up a Facebook Group under ‘NUIG First Year History 2012-13’ where I’ve put up my contact details and I’ll be inviting you all to join that. I’d like to organise a class party in the College Bar for you all sometime next week, so if you can all leave a comment on the page, or email me, about what days are good or bad for you, we can work something out from there. If you have any other ideas about events we should organise or trips away you think we should run, just leave a comment or email or just talk to me in person. My role as class rep is basically to act as the go-to person when you have a problem with the course, or with the University as a whole, or if you have any complaints or ideas you want passed on to the Students’ Union. I’m one of a couple hundred class reps in the University, and our job is to collectively tell the Union officers what to do, whether that involves new campaigns or events, or to do something about our courses or facilities on campus. I’ll be attending three class rep meetings this semester where I can raise any issues you have with the full-time Students’ Union officers, so don’t hesitate to let me know of any issues, whatever they are, in person, by email, or on the Facebook Group, or by phone or email. Anyway, I hope to have a date set for the class party by the end of this week, and if you want to suggest another social event, I’m all ears. If you’ve any questions about the Students’ Union, you can check out their website at www.su.nuigalway.ie My own email address [email protected] and I’ll be checking it regularly. Thanks’.

As an aside, it’s important to realise that you should try to arrange chats or lecture addresses about upcoming events, meetings or class parties, either at the very beginning of a lecture or at the very end, and always with the lecturers’ permission. If you have to get their opinion on an idea, you can try a quick show of hand vote. If that’s not possible, you can arrange for them to wait around in the theatre for a few minutes while the lecture finishes and talk to them all privately. You could also arrange a meeting in the Hub in Áras na Mac Léinn or just meet up outside somewhere if weather permits.

You should also make yourself available to meet your classmates if they have ideas or problems, rather than just telling them to email or Facebook you. Don’t assume you know what your classmates’ views are!

CaseworkCasework is the name given to problems that arise from time to time from individual students, a group of students, or the class as a whole. It could involve an academic issue, such as quality of lectures, availability of notes, problems with course structure and so on. It could also involve a welfare issue, like someone who has had a medical problem or bereavement and is now under stress, or someone in financial difficulty. Issues such as these should be politely, and concisely, brought to the appropriate persons’ attention.

This may be a lecturer, a Year Head, a Head of School, the Dean of your College, or the Students’ Union. If you think you’re capable of dealing with the issue yourself, go for it. Research students should be careful not to get involved in the student-supervisor relationship. If you’re in any way unsure of what to do, contact Conor Stitt (Education issues) or Dami Adebari (Welfare issues) in the Students’ Union offices. They can advise you or take over the issue if it’s serious or too much for you to handle along with your studies.

THINK IMIGHT BE A

ZOMBIE



Social Events and Class PartiesFor all classes in all years of college, but particularly First Year undergraduates and First Year postgraduates, class parties are an important and effective way of allowing your classmates to get to know each other in a casual and relaxed way. These are the people you’ll be working and studying with for a considerable length of time, so it’s worth putting in the effort into organising good events. So what kind of events could you organise?

•Class party in the College Bar or pub/club in town (for the College Bar, just drop by and ask for Ben who can advise you about arranging a party)

•Bowling (there is a bowling alley just across the bridge in the Galway Shopping Centre in Terryland).

•Paintballing (there are usually leaflets from various companies up in the SU offices)

•Mystery tours (ask in the SU for more advice about buses and safety)

•Charity events (why not join up with the SU Crew or an off-campus charity to raise money while also undertaking a class challenge like climbing Croagh Patrick or walking from Galway to Dublin)

•Domestic trips (Cliffs of Moher, Connemara, a couple of nights on the Aran Islands, a night out in Dublin etc.)

•Foreign trips (Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Prague and Budapest are all favourites)

•Sports (five-a-side football every week, girls vs. boys sports, tag rugby and so on)

One more thing, You can’t blatantly advertise alcohol on campus as it goes against the College Alcohol Policy. So you can say ‘refreshments’ in an email to your class or on a poster, but not ‘drinks vouchers’ or ‘free pints’.

What is the Students’ Union?The SU is a representative organisation that is independent from the University and consists of all registered students at NUI Galway. Together, we are a body of some 17,000 full-time and part-time students, both undergraduate and postgraduate. As the SU is an independent body, the SU officers do not have to answer to the University authorities – we only answer to you, our members. In March each year the student body elects three full-time officers to work on their behalf for the year ahead, and twelve part-time officers to represent their views.

How does it work?

This year we will have fourteen officers (three full-time and eleven part-time) with a SU Chairperson to be added in semester one. These officers make up the SU Executive, which meets weekly and is the committee that runs the SU and decides on the plans for the year ahead. The Exec is assisted by three full-time staff who organise the administrative affairs and organise events during the year, such as the Freshers’ Fair.

What do we work on day-to-day?

On a daily basis, the officers work on the issues relevant to their individual portfolios while also helping out with the bigger, all-encompassing work. For example, the Postgraduate Officer might be dealing with various Postgrad issues such as IT facilities, while also helping out in general SU campaigns on student grants, sexual or mental health and so on.

The bread and butter work of the full-time officers is advising individual students who email, phone or call by to talk to them about their welfare or education issues. The President is tasked with the overall running of the SU, and has a particular role in dealing with the media, overseeing the SU commercial services (the SU Shop and so on), and representing students in meeting with senior management.

Some of our issues and campaigns for the year ahead. . .

Student Grants ~ Sexual Health and Guidance (SHAG) Week ~ Seachtain na Gaeilge ~ Healthy Living Week ~ Freshers’ Fortnight ~ Charity Fundraising ~ Tuition Fees ~ Mental Health ~ Road Safety Week ~ Voter Registration Drives ~ Equality Week ~ Societies Day ~ Clubs Day ~ Class Rep elections ~ Quality Assurance ~ Entertainments



What is the SU Council?The SU Council is a forum of students elected by their class to represent their interests to the Students’ Union (SU). The SU Council consists of all the Class Reps and the executive officers of the SU (the fifteen officers elected each March). Each class ordinarily elects anything between one and four reps, depending on the size of the class. Class

Reps mandate the executive officers to follow through on SU Council decisions, policies etc.

Essentially, the executive officers work for, and are accountable to, the SU Council. If we’re not doing our jobs, call us out on it.

What does the SU Council do?

•Oversee the work of the Executive officers

•Act as an open forum for student issues, where issues of concern to students can be raised and action taken

•Represent each class and College to the Students’ Union

•Communicate information between the Executive officers and the various classes and Colleges

•Elect student representatives to various university committees

The whole point of the SU Council is to give the executive officers the best possible insight into what issues are affecting the students. Issues can then be brought to the attention of the executive officers and be dealt with as quickly as possible. If we’re not made aware of issues, we can’t fix them.

The executive officers also report to the SU Council on what they’ve been up to in the course of their work, and what developments have occurred recently in the SU and the university as a whole. Each executive officer presents a report at each Class Reps meeting, which allows the Reps to question the officers on how well or not they’re performing their duties.

As I said earlier, the Class Reps can mandate the Students’ Union to undertake specific policies or do certain things. These SU Council decisions can only be reversed or changed by a Students’ Union General Meeting or referendum of the entire student body.

School CouncilsThe SU Council Councils are held regularly during the year. Each School Council meets twice a semester, with times and meeting places being sent to the Reps well in advance of each meeting. The School Councils discuss issues that affect them in particular, such as exams, problems with lecture scheduling, lecturers etc.

There are currently School Councils for the 5 schools of the University and a Postgrads Council:

•Arts Social Sciences & Celtic Studies

•Science

•Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences,

•Engineering & Informatics

•Business, Public Policy & Law

•Postgraduate Students.

Postgraduate reps can chose to sit either their particular Faculty Council or the Postgraduate Council, or both (we hope you chose both!) However, research student reps must attend the postgraduate council meetings.



NUI Galway Students’ Union EXPLORE Innovation Initiative Bring an idea to life on campus

Come up with an innovative idea

Team up with a staff member

Apply to EXPLORE for up to €1,000 funding

Put idea into action!

What is EXPLORE?The First scheme of its kind in the Irish third-level sector, EXPLORE invites students and university staff to work in equal partnership to deliver innovation on campus. Students and staff team up, devise an innovative, sustainable project, apply for €1,000 funding and, where successful, deliver this project within the academic year.

Why take part?1. See your idea come to life

2. Gain relevant professional experience to increase employability

3. Develop a peer-to-peer working relationship with a staff member

4. Have your say on campus

5. Impact the next generation of students by transforming your project into a sustainable feature at NUI Galway

For more information, contact:Amber Walsh Olesen, EXPLORE Coordinator, Students’ Union, Áras na Mac Léinn [email protected] 091 494290

Find out more and apply at www.su.nuigalway.ie/explore

EXPLORE is a joint initiative by the Students’ Union and NUI Galway. It is supported by the Bright Ideas Initiative and the Student Projects Fund.

www .su . nu iga lway . ie/exp lo re

NUI Galway Students’ Union Enterprise Awards 2012

Have you got the next big idea? Invest in your future. The business and social leaders of tomorrow are on our campus today.

The NUI Galway Students’ Union Enterprise Awards aim to unlock the potential of the students of NUI Galway to invest in their own futures today.

If you have an idea for a new business or a social enterprise then this can be the competition that can allow you to realise your goal. Students are invited to sketch out the initial proposals for their project or business and to draw up the plans they hope will make their idea a reality. Eight finalists will be given the chance to take their ideas forward and to set about implementing their projects with the assistance of a financial allowance of €500 and workshops and clinics.

The overall winner will receive a direct investment of €10,000 in their project to really help get it off the ground. In addition, they will receive further guidance and mentoring to help bring the project forward. Two runners up prizes, each valued at €2,000 of investment capital will also be awarded. The goal of the competition is that every entrant will have taken the first steps of launching their idea and that the benefits of each idea will have been allowed to flourish.

In the challenging economic times students are faced with this competition gives students the opportunity to take charge of their own future and to utilise the skills they have learned at NUI Galway to plot their own futures.

The opportunity to win an investment of €15,000 in their project, coupled with the benefits of mentoring and support from experts gives students a fantastic opportunity to kick start their careers.

DatesFriday 23rd November - Closing Date for Submissions

Friday 7th December - Announce top 3 in each category

Friday 1st March - Final Submission by Finalists

Friday 15thMarch - Awards Ceremony Bailey Allen Hall

STAGE ONEParticipants are invited to enter their submission onto one of the two categories below. We encourage groups to be original and innovative with their submissions.

Competition’s 2 Categories1) Business Category

2) Social Category

STAGE TWOThere will be 8 shortlisted finalists progressing to stage two and receiving a €500 bursary.

STAGE THREEFirst Prize: €10,000 investment capital

Runners Up: €5,000 investment capital x 2

Email: [email protected]



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SU Council Schedule 2012/2013Semester 2


Class Rep Checklist F Do a lecture shout-out

F Start a Facebook Group for your Class

F Let your department know you’re a Class Rep

F Attend Class Reps Training

F Throw a Social Event/Party for your Class in the College Bar

F Attend your School Council

F Meet your Convenor

F Liaise with your Class over about SU Council Motions

F Attend SU Council

F Vote on a motion

F Debate a motion

F Have fun!

BYE

Miss You

Class Reps Handbook

Documents

Transcript of Class Reps Handbook