A Defining Week?

Well this week looks like its shaping up to being one of the defining weeks of USI 2009 - 2010.

Two major events this week, the NUIM Affiliation Referendum and the Lobby of the Oireachtas. Details of each can be found on www.usi.ie.

The NUIM Referendum is on Wednesday 24th and here the students of Maynooth are being asked two questions, whether they want to re-join USI and whether they wish to have another referendum in three years to decide whether they want to stay in USI, should they choose yes for the first question.

Dan has been on the ground in Maynooth for almost a week now and we also have a cohort of Maynooth students helping out. USI officerboard will be taking to the campus on Monday, Tuesday and a big push on the Wednesday.

Here is hoping it goes well!

The second big event this week is the Lobby. This lobby, the second of our term so far, will focus solely on the grant and back to education allowance. It is 24 months since the student support bill was published. It is unnacceptable that there has been such a delay and that is why, as part of our campaign to get it back on track, we are hosting this lobby.

The thousands of students affected this year should send warning signals to policy makers and politicians as this will only get worse over the coming years unless we address the meltdown in the grant system.

We also have to ask why those on the back to education allowance will no longer be able to recieve the grant. A cut that only affects mature students.

I will be going to the department of education on monday for discussions on the bill and this will kick off - what I hope is our final big push - for the student support bill and reform in the grant system.

So another big week for us in USI and its also my birthday this week so sounds like a hectic week already!