A group of York students has won the opportunity to have their very own I-phone application developed after winning The App Challenge final, held at the Ron Cooke Hub on Wednesday, January 18.
YUSU Welfare officer Bob Hughes has warned students to be vigilant after a student loans phishing scam has been revealed.
Her Majesty the Queen will be visiting York on Maundy Thursday, 5th April, as part of the 800th anniversary of York’s Charter for the traditional “Royal Maundy” ceremony.
A flood caused by a heating system “failure” forced the university IT services to shut down many essential systems on Sunday night, causing problems for many students on the eve of their exams and assignment due-dates.
Week 6 will see a series of events to help students decide, with voting open until Friday midnight when results will be announced.
Last night saw a panel debate made up of both ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ co-ordinators as well as NUS President Gemma Tumelty and representatives from a non-affiliated union of Dundee University.
Question time opened in a tempestuous manner, with one audience member taking to the microphone to criticise Fletcher-Hall and Tumelty: "It’s ridiculous to see Gemma Tumelty and Grace Fletcher-Hall sitting at the front, laughing at the speech from the 'No' campaign."
The debate spanned four main areas. Here’s how panelists dealt with the key issues of finances, training and discounts.
Adam Thorn, ex-Vision editor and 'No' campaign panellist, attacked the financial postion of the NUS, saying they were in ‘financial turmoil'. He criticised the cost of the NUS conference: "They spent ₤300,000 on a National Conference that was effectively a piss up at the seaside." Something Tumelty responded to, saying: "I want to spend less on conference."
Tumelty was keen to contradict Thorn’s issue of reported losses of ₤1.1million. She said: "There’s a difference between budget and estimate." She said funds which newspaper reports claimed to have been spent on a single business development manager were actually invested in a development unit. She said it has since raised an income of ₤740,000, calling claims otherwise ‘a load of tosh'.
Do you really want to be part of a union which shows flagrant incompetence with finance?
She was also forced to defend accusations that she had avoided accountability. "I’ve been accountable," she said, and added that "there was no overspend, there was a projected deficit which has been reduced".
Alan Yonge, 'No' campaign co-ordinator said in his opening speech: "Extra was brought in to partly fund NUS debt, totaling £1.1million. Do you really want to be part of a union which shows flagrant incompetence with finance?"
Tumetly said charges were introduced to "make sure students get more discounts, on a stable card". She said after its successful trial run in the Northwest the card was made nationwide after "80% of northwestern students wanted it back" and that the charges were not financial, as "₤4 goes to the students union, and most of the rest goes on admin charges, and about ₤2.50 per card goes to NUS".
She also announced that a new store discount was to be added, that of a supermarket: "We have a supermarket, people, and there’s one in York!"
The ‘No’ campaign hit back saying: "It’s an incredible coincidence that NUS Extra cards came in during financial difficulties."
₤36,000 is paid to the union by the university as part of a block grant, which the union then in turn pays to the NUS. One of the main financial arguments raised was whether the university would continue to supply this money if students voted against affiliation.
Yonge said: "36,000 grand is a great deal of money to say we receive very little." Tom Langrish, Co-ordinator of the 'Yes' campaign, urged students to look further: "It is time to look for the value of NUS, the cost of affiliation to each student is 0 pounds, 0 pence." Tumetly added that it costs "9p per student, per week and the university pays for it".
There were no guarantees that if students should choose to disaffiliate the university would still supply the grant. "If you vote no, it’ll be an irresponsible vote" saying that "we’re not going to follow an irresponsible line of organisation".
YUSU President Anne-Marie Canning said: "If we disaffiliated we’d have to safeguard money and prove to finance committee that the money would be spent on something worthwhile."
Yonge said: "Valuable training can be got competively outside the NUS." He then provoked the debate and opposing speaker, saying: "I for one wouldn’t want finance training from NUS."
The NUS was once seen as a key campaigning body, something that has somewhat decreased in recent years. Tumetly took the opportunity to list recent campaigns which had successful NUS backing, including the HSBC graduate overdraft crisis and an increase in grants to universities. She said: "This is a debate about choices." Yonge said that the NUS is now viewed by the media as "halfwit has-beens". He then questioned their influence in last years lecturers' strike.
The ‘No’ campaign were keen to show that the average York student did not know of Gemma Tumetly: after a survey of 100 students, they said, 99% of them could not name her.
Fletcher-Hall said: "YUSU doesn’t have a national voice, NUS does." In a passionate plea, she said: ‘Unity is our strength, vote yes to NUS.’
Ex-YUSU officers were amongst those who attended, including 03/04 president Chris Jones. He said: "Because we don’t have a central bar or venue, there’s a lot of benefits we don’t get, like alcohol deals, so we do get slightly less for our money." He went on to say: "The ‘No’ campaign are remarkably ill-informed."
Tumetly said affiliation is "a question of collectivism" and if unions began to pull out it "weakens the national voice".
Replying to the issue that not having a central venue limits York’s benefits, she said: "NSSL are branching out to look at shops etc. YUSU had a massive cut in affiliation costs to reflect that."
After the debate The Yorker spoke to Gemma Tumelty, who said she felt that York was "definitely more tub-thumping and if this debate is shown across campus it’s sure to be a lively week". She did however warn: "If you’re interested in finances you need to look into it as there’s been a lot of misrepresentation."
Further events are planned and can be found on www.yusu.org and will be covered in full by The Yorker.
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