Consultation on proposals to reform the democratic structure of the Guild of Students 

February 2^nd 2012 

Introduction

This consultation is the latest step in the process of introducing democratic reform to the Guild. We kickstarted the idea back in September with the first Ideas Forum, which demonstrated a new, roundtable approach to doing democracy. This has inspired us to build on the work done by Jon Antoniazzi and Simon Cameron last year in the production of the “Guild Assembly” model, which has been circulating since November 2011.

But the new Assembly is only part of the proposal. We also want to see a massive change in how we encourage and support democracy – new structures are all very good, but if they don’t have the backing and support from the Guild, then they’re going to mean very little.

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Unbelievable!!

Only 2 weeks to go till our informative Housing Fayre on Feb 14th, and offers for returning students university accommodation just round the corner, but one letting agent in Aberystwyth manages to squeeze one more push on frightned students.

You have 7 properties and you want to get the contracts signed quick with little inspection. What do you do? You tell everyone that booking for viewing will all be released on the same day on a first come first serve basis, in the interest of 'fairness'. You engender an atmosphere similar to the first day of the January sales, and every student who comes to book a viewing will look at the cue behind them and thinks that this will be the only chance to get private accommodation for the next year. Whether they sign then and there or after the first viewing, it is undeniable that this constitutes a psychological manipulation on the part of letting agent that plays heavily on the inexperience of students to the housing market.

Please DON'T fall for it. Remember Fools Rush In.

By all means, view the property, consider it an option, but do NOT be lured into something your not completely happy with out of fear. Do all the proper checks I've been banging on about since November. And remember, that other property will come on the market throughout the year. Many good private landlords will not want to force their tenants into re-signing for the next year until March, and others just want to avoid the rush all together.

Good luck out there. And hopefully, I'll see some of you on the 14th. Join the facebook event : http://www.facebook.com/events/220927418000365/

Poncho out!

It's been a fairly quiet year for me so far as the Sustainability and Ethics Officer. Apart from the odd rant about cuts, raising tuition fees or, of course, my vocal opposition to Starbucks, I haven't said too much. One focus for me, thanks to a very enlightening piece of research conducted by Andrew Tindall (http://andrewtindall.com/2011/03/30/aberystwyth-university-arms-oil/) has been the university's investments. As the research shows, through indirect ways, the university currently invests in a number of industries that range from being deeply unsustainable to deeply unethical; from oil to arms, with more human rights abuses than Blair and Bush put together. While I find the logic fundamentally questionable, the university feels that it cannot take responsibility for this as they invest in certain companies who in turn, invest in unethical industry. In effect, the university employs a middle man to take the unethical bullet. This has to change.

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If you’re a final year undergraduate, you’ll shortly be receiving an email from Ipsos MORI inviting you to complete the National Student Survey. Ipsos MORI is the market research company conducting the survey on behalf of universities across Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It’s really important that you complete the survey as the results help prospective students make an informed decision on where to study. The University and the Guild also use the results to see what’s going well and what needs improving. It should only take a few minutes to complete the survey and your responses are completely anonymous. For every survey filled in, the University has very kindly agreed to donate £1 to the student hardship fund, which is part of the Guild’s Student Advice and Counselling Centre. To fill in the survey, follow the link in the email you’ll soon get or go to www.thestudentsurvey.com. If you have any questions about the survey, please see the FAQs on the website or email union.representation@aber.ac.uk 

Click here for SUPERTEAMS and RUGBY 7s registration..............