Swansea University Students' Union

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Swansea University Students' Union (Welsh: Undeb Myfyrwyr Prifysgol Abertawe) is the students' union for Swansea University and is part of the part of National Union of Students of the United Kingdom. The Student Union aims to promote the interests of its students. It is currently located on the Swansea University campus in Union House ^[1], and also has offices in Fulton House- an adjacent building which the university is planing to tear down during renovation of the university. ^[2]

Contents 1 2006/07 2 Democracy 2.1 Student General Meetings 3 Services 3.1 Nightline 3.2 Swansea Accommodation Service 3.3 Woody's Bar 3.4 K2 3.5 DV8 3.6 D2 3.7 Sin City 4 Media 4.1 Xtreme Radio 4.1.1 Technical Information 4.1.2 Station Management 5 Financial Information 6 Community Work and Societies 7 See also 7.1 External links 8 Citation 9 References

[edit] 2006/07

The Student Union's main aims are to promote the Students Union and student safety, student well-being and welfare to its members and everyone at the University. The Education Officer took great interest with the NUS top up fee's march in London ^[3]. The Welfare Officer Miles Goodman dress up as a chicken all in the good name of a safe sex campaign ^[4] The International Fiestas have gone down a treat for everyone from overseas ^[5] . The Student President assisted in many projects such as Student Safety working with the Police ^[6]. The Treauser Owen Morris spent the year defending the decision to close the Green Room (now D2) [1].

[edit] Democracy

The Student's Union is a democracy governed by a constitution^[7]. All students of Swansea University are automatically enrolled into the Union at the beginning of each term (unless they choose to opt out) and then have the right to produce and vote on motions at the Student General Meetings. Representing the students are the Sabbatical officers, Executive, Standing Committees, Societies and a Course Rep assembly. There are also management staff to help with the running of the Union.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Student General Meetings

Student General Meetings (SGMs) are held every 3 weeks of term to help keep the union in contact with its members. A SGM has varying powers depending on the attendance- quoracy is 3 percent of the membership, at which point motions can be passed straight into the Union motion folder. If quoracy is not reached the business before the meeting will pass to the Union Council for determination.^{[citation needed]}.

As of May 3, 2007 Student General Meetings are recorded and publicised on the Union's website.These audio files are available for 5 years after the date of the meeting for those with an interest in exact decisions of previous meetings.^[8]

[edit] Services

The Union runs a variety of services including several general stores (Brynmill Key, Level 2, and Hendrefoilan Spar), coffee shops (Just Coffee), and student bars ( JC's, and Woody’s). They also have an Advice & Support Center and a Nursery.

[edit] Nightline

Nightline is a confidential, non-judgemental, anonymous listening service "for students, by students" at Swansea University. The Telephone Number is 0800 0131 322. The service runs from 8pm to 8am on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.^[9]

[edit] Swansea Accommodation Service

The Students' Union officially launched Swansea Accommodation Service (SAS) on 1 February 2007 in the Digital Technium. The Students' Union took the decision to create Swansea Accommodation Service because "it wanted to improve the standard of accommodation available to students, which in turn may help to reduce the high level of complaints made by students every year" ^[10]

[edit] Woody's Bar

Woody's Bar is situated in the heart of the student village. Prior to its refit in 2006 it was called "Idols Bar". The bar is known for its themed nights and end of year Carnival.

[edit] K2

K2 was known as KopyShop until 2005, at which point it was relocated from Fulton House to the third floor of Union House.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] DV8

DV8 is the student night club. Prior to renovation it was called Divas. There was a competition in the late 1990s to rename the student union bar after it moved from the top floor of the student union building to the bottom floor. While on the top floor the bar had been called the "Mandela Bar" in honour of the South African freedom campaigner (who subsequently became president of South Africa). This was won by Mr Rhys Sage (now a professional photographer) who was a guest at the opening of the bar. The opening was reported in the Student Union journal then called "Bad Press".

[edit] D2

D2 is located in the first floor of union house and currently acts as bottle bank and second music zone of the main student nightclub "DV8". During the day, the room is used by societies. Previously the room was called the Green Room and operated as a café until summer 2006 when it was closed down. Students have spoken against this action several times as they were not consulted on the matter.^[11]

[edit] Sin City

Sin City is a nightclub and live music venue, which opened December 2006 and is partly owned by Swansea University Students’ Union.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Media

Media-wise the Students' Union operates the newspaper Waterfront and the radio station Xtreme Radio.^{[citation needed]}

Xtreme Radio 1431AM
Broadcast area	Swansea, Wales, UK
Branding	Student Radio for Swansea
Frequency	1431kHz
First air date	1968
Format	Student Radio
ERP	1 Watt
Owner	Swansea University Students' Union
Website	xtremeradio.org

[edit] Xtreme Radio

Xtreme Radio is the radio station run by Swansea University Students' Union via a team of elected Executive members, and is located in Union House. Xtreme broadcasts on 1431AM and the station's website^[12], and can also be heard around the student village of Hendrefoilan, the University campus itself, and Swansea. The station is primarily designed to be a communication medium for students at Swansea University, with the station also aiming to provide experience of radio broadcasting to its student volunteers. This not only includes presenting but production and playlisting as well.

The station was opened in November 1968 (making it one of the oldest in the UK) and prior to becoming known as Xtreme Radio, the station had three previous incarnations - Action Radio, URA and C-Air.

As of 2008 Xtreme broadcasts programmes between 9am and 1am Monday to Friday and 10am to midnight on weekends, with non-stop music and hourly news updates on air at all other times. Daytime shows are generally more mainstream that those after 6pm, with new tracks from well known artists, alongside recent student favourites, songs by local bands and artists from across South Wales and past chart hits.

Xtreme also broadcasts several speech-based programmes, including two hours of Welsh-language programming on Sunday evenings; and campus, local and national sports news and results on its Saturday afternoon sport show 'The Dugout'.

The station was formerly part of The Student Broadcast Network.

[edit] Technical Information

There are two studios and a vast loft space at Xtreme Radio. Studio 1 is used as the main studio for live broadcasting, but can also be used for production purposes if needed. Studio 2 is mainly used as a production and recording studio, as well as being a backup facility in case of problems with Studio 1.

The loft area contains the audio distribution and processing units. The on-air feed is distributed via a Band I link transmitter on 52.925 MHz to the main 1431 kHz (AM) transmitter, located a couple of miles from campus at the Hendrefoilan Student Village, as well as streaming to the internet. The station feed is also distributed to speakers around the Students' Union buildings, namely the Level 2 Shop, Waterfront office, Ents office, computer room, Cafe West and other eating areas. The Ents Box Office also streams the webfeed outside their ticket-purchasing area on occasions.

[edit] Station Management

Will Ogborne: Station Manager
Ben Shaw: Programme Controller
Matt Bond: Treasurer
David Juler: Joint Head of Music
Katie Broadley: Joint Head of Music
Sarah Wilding: Head of News
Sam Petit: Head of Sport
Natasha Kapadia: Joint Head of Promotions
Sarah-Jane Maisey: Joint Head of Promotions
Will Long: Head of Creative
Oliver Head: Station Engineer
Amy Churchill: Alumni Representative
Brett Jenkins: Webmaster

[edit] Financial Information

Between 20 Mar 1967, and 19 Jun 2002, the Students' Union was a registered charity ^[13] . During 2002 the Union withdrew from the Charities commission, and has since enjoyed 'Exempt Charity' status, as set out by UK legislation .^[14]

The alteration in the Unions charitable status had the effect of forestalling the Charities Commissioners investigation into, amongst other things, the whereabouts of a missing cash sum (£14,000)^[15]. During the same year the Union experienced a crisis of liquidity (see graph). Being in a net-debt of £24,000, its position was salvaged via a loan from Swansea University and the imposition of a voluntary all-staff Wage freeze ^[16].

More recently concerns have re-ignited over an affair that many believe to be indicative of the structural difficulties that have afflicted the SUSU since 1999 (see graph). For two years there was no Finance committee. The importance of this constitutional body lies in its role as guarantor of accountability and transparency between the Unions membership and the Sabbatical Officers (in addition to those who advise them). Despite a past failure to convene this Committee the, then incoming, President (Owen Morgan) appeared to sign off the 2005-06 Audit Report on the basis that the non-existent Committee had ratified it. Since then Mr Morgan (re-elected 2007) has repeatedly stated that he has no recollection of signing the document. This matter, alongside other concerns, has prompted an ongoing investigation by Price Waterhouse Cooper. ^[17].

In relation to this investigation a Swansea University spokesman said: 'The University has received allegations of irregularities in the Student Union. No evidence was provided to justify the allegations but, as a routine precautionary measure, the university's external auditors have been asked to investigate' ^[18]. Ex Welfare Officer, Miles Goodman attempted to play down the significance of the investigation, describing it as a 'review'^[19]. This position was subsequently abandoned when the SU President Owen Morgan refused to comment on confusion pertaining to two conflicting reproductions of the 2005/06 Audit due to the existence of an “ongoing investigation”^[20].

The 2006-2007 Finance Committees (forced into being by policy passed by students, in a General Meeting) has since revealed that they have been compelled to submit Freedom of Information Requests for financial information owing to the reluctance of Mr Stuart Rice (General Manger) to provide any of material sought. Additionally, the rump of this elected body, produced a report (submitted to the June AGM) in which they outlined their continuing concerns regarding liquidity against borrowing and the general lack of transparency that, they felt, surrounded the whole issue of Union Finance. The then SU Treasurer, Owen Morris defended his involvement by stating that he does not “deal with banks because they have staff for that” ^[21].The Membership is still awaiting feedback in relation to further thefts that have occurred since the September term of 2006. It is commonly known that the first of these incidents involved the removal of a cash-sum (in excess of £5000) from a safe in Union House. This has been followed by further reports of money being stolen but this time no amounts were mentioned ^[22].

The following graph show the balances based on the SUSU Audit reports between 2006 – 2007

[edit] Community Work and Societies

The Students’ Union supports over 70 societies ranging from academic groups to shared interests, politics and conservation groups. Many of the societies are involved in local community work, fundraising and conservation activities. Recent events have included the People and Planet’s campaign to reduce the energy used by the University, the Conservation Society's clearing of the cliffs in the Gower, RAG’s £20,000 fundraising in less than 12 months and the Welsh Society's fundraising for Marie Curie Cancer Care^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] See also

• Swansea
• Swansea University

[edit] External links

• Swansea University Student Union (SUSU) website

[edit] Citation

• http://www.swansea-union.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32&Itemid=74
• http://www.swansea-union.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=50&Itemid=104

[edit] References

Coordinates: 51°36′36.00″N, 3°58′51.00″W

[Swansea Student Union] [Xtreme Radio] [Waterfront Newspaper]