Summer blogs

Ok so officially a month into the job, little taken aback by how quickly that's flown past. Hopefully the rest of the year won't be as quick! And sorry again for the blog being late, I need to start getting on top of them!

Pretty busy week this week on the corridor what with the Rainbow Wedding outside the Department of the Taoiseach on Tuesday. The rain would not bugger off but we prevailed. It got great press coverage and really helkped to raise the profile of the issue of Marriage Equality. Fariplay to Paddy for the idea, he's really taken a keen interest in this campaign and good on him for it!

Right time for my own shtuff. Well I've manged to work alongside the Careers Office and preliminary dates of the various careers fairs are sorted! You'll find out when they are once we get started again in September. I'm also really happy to say that there will be an Internship fair this year! I'm really pleased at this development as it's one of the main things I wanted to see put in place for the coming year!!

I've said it in nearly every blog I've done but I can't stress enough about applying for your grant ASAP. If you're renewing go to your local awarding authority but if you're a nube log onto www.grantsonline.ie. Applications close on August 30th so get it done! Keep an eye out on Monday August 13th as that's when I'll be launcing our information/reminder campaign about applying for the grant. We've something a bit different in the pipeline so like I said, keep an eye out!

With finances the major issue for students at the moment when it comes to finances. With this in mind I've been doing research into the supports that Universities themselves put in place and I've found some interesting things in Scottish Universities and also in England & Wales. Some Universities have things called Fee Waiver policies for the most extreme of cases so as I said it's something I'm looking into and doing research into.

While speaking about finances, I want to give a bit of a warning. You know the way Bank of Ireland stated that they are rolling out a loan scheme in 23 various 3rd level institutions around the country, including UCD. I can tell you that many Unions across the country, including ourselves, have not been consulted in relation to this loan scheme. It may seem like a brilliant idea but be shrewd when looking at it, if at all. Students have not been consulted on this issue so please bear this in mind if you are looking at this as an option. Click here to see an article from the University Times on the issue, it's well worth a read.

That's all from me this week and sorry again for it being so shagging late!!

Go dtí an céad ceann eile a cháirde!

Shane