UCC Students’ Union would like to inform it’s members what it has been doing and what it plans to do in relation to the Graduation Fee that University Management have said they intend to charge from April 1st 2010.
Background
In September 2009, members of the Students’ Union attended a meeting with the VP for External Relations (Mr. Éamonn Sweeney), the Registrar/Deputy President of the University (Prof. Paul Giller), the VP for the Student Experience (Mr. Con O’Brien) and the head of the Media & Communications department (Mr. Dick Hogan).
The Students’ Union were not informed in advance as to the agenda or subject of the meeting and when we arrived we were told the University Management Team (UMT) had decided to introduce an €80 charge, payable by each UCC student, to attend a graduationceremony.
The Students’ Union questioned the rationale for the charge considering students already pay €1,650 per annum for student serivces. The SU also questioned what the fee would cover. We were informed that a significant portion would go towards covering catering expenses. The SU representatives suggested that this part of the ceremony be abandoned on the basis that most graduands and their families go for a meal after the ceremony. We were later informed that the elimination of catering expenses would bring the fee to €65.
Also, the Students’ Union requested that the income earned by the University from gown hire and photography should be taken into account when looking at the cost of the conferrings and that if a fee had to be charged that it should only be the shortfall between income and expenditure. The SU were later informed that income from the conferrings could not be taken into account when calculating the graduation fee because “it had already been allocated in the budget”.
The SU conveyed to University Management that the fee was unacceptable and would be a very bitter taste to students on their way out the door of the University.
Protest
The Students’ Unions of UCC and CIT held a protest through Cork City on 7 October 2010 to protest the financial burdens being placed unequally on students. Particularly highlighted was the introduction of graduation charges, as described by the following article which appeared in the Irish Examiner at the time: http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/students-protest-extra-conferring-charge-102854.html
Governing Body
The matter was also conveyed to the University’s Governing Body meeting of December 8th when the issue of conferring charges was raised by the President of the Students’ Union.
The Students’ Union President made the point that although it was a cause for celebration that the graduations would be in the 100th year for 2010, that it would be the first time in those 100 years that the students would be charged to attend them. The SU President then abstained from a vote on the budget.
Registration Fee
It became obvious during the course of informal discussions with students that the charge should realistically be coming from the registration charge, which has increased by €600 this year. The SU then initiated an investigation into how the registration fee was being spent, along with partner SU’s around the country and USI (Union of Students in Ireland).
The Students’ Union also succeeded – for the first time ever - in getting a full and itemised breakdown of what the UCC €1,500 Registration Fee is being spent on.
This culminated in a hearing by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Science and after 12 years the Students’ Union has successfully gotten the University to implement the Framework for Good Practice – which allows for formal input from the SU into how the registration fee is spent. We are hoping to subsume the conferring fee into the registration charge after we eliminate some of the costs associated with the ceremonies.
Since the Announcement
Since the official announcement of the fee the outgoing and incoming SU Presidents have appeared and featured in media reports criticising the fee including the Irish Independent, Irish Examiner, Irish Times, Evening Echo, Cork Independent, 96fm, Red FM and RTE.
The outgoing officers have also been in contact with members of senior management in relation to the fee, including a request for a full breakdown of income and expenditure relating to the Graduation Ceremonies which we have been promised and expect to receive within the next week.
We have also encouraged students to email the department of Media & Communications to voice their opposition to the fee. We cannot stress how important it is that you do this as it is the only thing that makes the UCC bureaucrats mad; when their inboxes are filled with emails from angry students.
We have also supported, and will support any other political activism on this issue, the UCC branch of Young Fine Gael who have organised a series of events in opposition to the fee including a launch, petition and march (planned for Wednesday at the Main Rest at 1pm- see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ook5nPGmHZg).
Plan of Action Going Forward
The Students’ Union held an emergency meeting to develop a strategy to eliminate the Conferring Fee.
The Students’ Union will meet with the VP responsible for the fee this week along with the head of the department charged with organising the graduation ceremonies, we will also meeting with the Student Centre General Manager and the VP for the Student Experience and the SU President will meet with the University President to discuss the fee and other issues later in the week.
We are planning to use our votes on the management board and board of directors of the Student Centre to remove any rent being charged to the University for the ceremonies (thus reducing the fee) and will also lobby the department of Media & Communications to send information relating to the graduation ceremony over email rather than sending it by post which is allegedly making up a significant portion of the €65 charge.
Our objective is to identify all costs (once provided with a breakdown) and eliminate them and thus eliminate the charge or reduce it to a level where it cannot be justified as an external charge to the registration fee.
Also included in the strategy:
- An appeal to all local representatives to voice their opposition to the fee directly to the President of the University.
- Asking every student to email a different person responsible for this fee each day through the facebook site to keep the pressure up
- We have a video giving students directions to the office of the VP responsible for introducing the charge and we would encourage meet with him
- We are planning a campaign to boycott the graduate association
- We will continue to raise the issue in the local and national media
- We have a student willing to take a test case against the university whom we will support
- Other measures which we can’t publicise because they’d ruin the surprise for the people targeted
Posted by yourunion 
