The Students’ Union have announced that they will once again take over control of their own employee’s contracts from the university.
SU President Kayleigh Tayor announced they aim to take control of the contracts, currently held by the University, on April 1st 2012.
The decision for the SU to become accountable for their own staff comes as a result of an ongoing internal review involving the Students’ Union and the university.
Kayleigh Taylor says: “Lincoln Students’ Union has been at odds with other students’ unions for several years now after a temporary arrangement for the university to employ our staff at a time of difficulty in 2000 lasted longer than originally intended.”
“We now feel that the union is in a sufficiently sound position to, once again, directly employ those who work for us on behalf of students. We are confident this will lead to a more productive situation where everybody who works for the students’ union, officers and staff alike, works towards common goals.”
Taylor says that the change will help “enhance the students’ union’s role to scrutinise” the university, especially when it increases its tuition fees to £9,000 next year.
She said: “Following these changes, the elected students’ union leadership team will be better placed to evaluate the effectiveness and suitability of our staff support, in order to make sure we are delivering the best outcomes for students.”
In a general update to students at the meeting SU Activities Officer, Andreas Zacharia, announced that 3,333 students at the university are currently members of sports or societies.
Zacharia praised members of the 44 sports teams and 47 societies for attracting the “excellent number of students to group activities”.
Last month’s Housing Fayre was described as the “best one to date according to the Activities Officer, telling students how “a lot of landlords left before the end of the day” after loaning all their properties.
After a more disappointing turnout, Zacharia said that last month’s Refreshers’ Fayre was “not as good as last year” but he was using feedback to work on making next year’s even better.
Unconfirmed plans for a Health Campus week to take place from the 5th-9th March were announced, with a number of activities including the Sports Centre and cooking classes being planned.
Zacharia also said that he hoped that this year’s annual Varsity competition will take place on the 28th March, but said that he was having difficulty arranging the date with the University of Derby.
The SU also promised to arrange transport to those who wanted to support future NUS demos in London after student Dan Derricott raised criticism over their “last minute organisation” of previous protests.
The next meeting of the student council will take place in the Platform bar on the 12th of March at 5pm, where the topic will be creating a more environmentally friendly campus.