Vice-Chancellor pay rise a slap in the face to students and staff

Vice-Chancellor Richard Davies recieved a 14% pay increase between 2007/08 and 2008/09, according to figures released by Swansea University and revealed in the Western Mail.

The increase worth 28 thousand pounds was the joint second highest in Wales in percentage terms - click here for the full list.


Pay rise: Swansea Vice-Chancellor Richard Davies

This increase comes after a year where the Students' Union rallied students to protest outside a meeting which decided the futures of several staff in the School of Society and Environment - the jobs eventually being saved.



General Secretary of the University College Union has called the pay rise "unfortunate and perhaps a little distateful" and crucially added "It should not come as a surprise that staff are sometimes sceptical when their 'leaders' ask for belts to be tightened."

We, as students, should therefor be equally as sceptical next time we are told there isn't the money to fund things crucial to our education and experience we pay thousands of pounds for each year.

For example we now have:

- Lectures starting at 8am and going on until 8pm
- Saturday exams
- University plans to use Wednesday afternoons for lectures
- Room for massive improvement in feedback
- A lack of computers on campus

And those are just a few things amongst others where, as students, we are not recieving value for money.

So how then does Swansea University and Richard Davies justify a 28 thousand pound pay rise?

That is a question for myself and fellow Students' Union representatives to get answers for as soon as possible.

The Stock Exchange

Anyone remember classic Divas night The Stock Exchange?

Well apparently nobody else does because the worlds premier news agency Reuters have excitedly been building up the hype around a new New York bar called the Exchange Bar and Grill.



The new bar which opens on April 1 promises "prices for food and beverages will fluctuate like stock prices in increments according to demand."

Sound familier? I am pretty sure the world famous Swansea Ents didn't invent the idea but maybe just to be sure the union should start sending out a press release to all the major news agencies everytime Ents come up with a new event.

Carnage: the beginning of the end?

Spare a thought for the poor person in charge of Carnage UK's public and media relations this year.

At the start of the academic year they found themselves on the end of a almighty public outcry after Sheffield student Philip Laing urinated on a war memorial.



Now they are finishing in equally fine form - a Carnage manager faces prison after assualting a man during a Carnage event in Bangor.

Carnage has always attracted a lot of media attention but now they find themselves under attack from MP's.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson said in the House of Commons this week: "these disreputable organisations need to be tackled and indeed in most places across the country there is a very realistic and very meaningful partnership between local police and licensees to ensure that licensees do not have their own reputation undermined by organisations such as that which you mentioned.”

Public opinion has ammassed against Carnage and as a result the politicians are chasing the scent of an easy crowd pleaser, getting rid of Carnage.

It would take a PR miracle to turn back the tide now so if you're a Carnage fan enjoy the next one because it might just be the last.

Swansea NUJ students gaining recognition

I was flicking through the National Union of Journalists magazine this evening when the headline'Students form chapel' caught my eye.


Above: A piece from the NUJ magazine on the conference I and other student journalists covered last year.

Suprisingly the NUJ magazine has featured the NUJ chapel we are trying to establish at the university in their magazine.

It's only a small piece but nice to see our efforts in Swansea have been recognised.

I look forward to forming a strong NUJ group at the university next year to ensure once myself and other key activists are gone students will continue to reap the rewards from being NUJ members.

Gen Sec's unofficial minutes

So we're ten minutes in, flown through stand in chair Raechel Mattey's welcome, no one's spotted any hideous errors in the minutes and Ross has congratulated and commiserated sabbatical candidates in the space where he was suppose to give a report of what he’s been doing as education officer.

We’re onto the sticky subject of banning chewing gum and I’ve just recycled opinions from Tuesdays Exec meeting for which I received, what I would call a second hand round of applause, due to the fact I was merely summarising points made by other exec members on Tuesday.

They all count though.

Just as we’re coming to a consensus that the Uni can shove their solidar….in walks two suited gentleman who proceed to have a stare off with societies and services Queen Raechel Mattey before explaining they have booked the room and want us out.

Thankfully the ever tactful Steve Cushen was on hand to ascertain our guests names by asking in his soothing Merthyr valley tone: “who are yooo?”.

Which gave the game away as to why Cush didn’t run for sabb – he has nailed a job with the world renowned North Korean Diplomatic Service.

It turns out they were lecturers from the Engineering Department. Not in Faraday surely.

Anyway long and short of it we have to tramp downstairs to finish the debate and decide the students’ union will be facilitating chewing for a while yet.

Onto the Emergency Motion – a review of part-time officers positions which will cut the number of positions to 13.

Simon Darvill proposes, gets a good reaction and the exec members present Tuesday have already agreed with the motion. I reckon this will fly through and I might catch the end of the Fulham game.

After ten minutes of clarifications on the motions have been given the forward defensive by Darvill we move on to a vote if there is no one to speak against…

Not likely! Up steps the ever present Tom Lake of SGM fame to level some good arguments and ask people to vote against.

So six speeches in three rounds of two minutes each later and were ready for a vote.

Gilman asks for all in favour – a decent 17 hands, not a clear majority. Gilman asks for all those against – after a thorough count, a close 12, but no cigar.

There were some pretty notable abstentions too.

So the best SGM in recent memory leaves you minus an accommodation officer, communications officer, Ents officers, Erasmus rep, Department of Adult Continuing Education rep, village rep, library rep, two non-portfolio officers, race relations officers and undergraduate rep.

But in my view with a more workable executive…only time will tell who is right.

MORE OF THE SAME NEXT TIME PLEASE!

Big Questions

How does Raechel Mattey make her hair so nice? Will somebody defend me in court if I react badly to Ross Gilman inviting me to another group with a guinea pig as the profile picture?

OR

Isn't it about time we had more computers on campus? You sounded serious about taking action in a recent Waterfront article but have you actually done anything about it?

At the end of every SGM anyone can ask the sabbatical and executive officers a question about absolutely anything and get an answer.

BUT even better if you don't fancy asking the questions yourself there will be a big box as you come in to the SGM for you to drop in a questions which I, General Secretary, will ask the officers on your behalf.

It's really easy so please so get your questions ready and let's leave no stone unturned comrades!

You can even email your question to exec@swansea-union.co.uk and I will ask it on your behalf on Thursday.