Emphasising their use of the word "transformation" ULU officers said the plan would mean a change of focus for ULU; influencing the democratic structure as well as the proposed building developments. The plans are still in the outline stage at the moment since consultation of students and bodies such as the Colleges, HEFCE and the GLA over the coming months with a view to making firmer decisions in December of this year.
Building work, which will follow swiftly in the footsteps of currently ongoing work that has seen the foyer and Union shop refitted, will focus around the development of the "University of London Student Centre". The ULSC will not be merely a rebranding of the ULU building, but a major reconsideration of the use of space and the development of new facilities. Current ideas include (amongst others) a music centre, sports centre, postgraduate centre, equality centre, citizenship centre and student unions' development centre. In addition, urgently needed and overdue maintenance work will be carried out. The University of London have agreed to contribute £2-3M to the project and commercial partnerships and sponsorships will be sought to help finance individual facilities. It's also been agreed that the University of London will rent space within the ULSC for their careers service, accommodation office and jobshop.
Changes to the democratic structure of ULU were also talked about but no ideas or proposals were put forward for what form these might take. The only clue given was ULU President Chris Piper's opinion that it may not necessarily be appropriate for ULU's democratic structure to mimic that of its affiliate college unions, clumsily stating that "ULU is not a students union". He went on to clarify that the aim is to avoid replicating the services that college unions provide but rather to extend and support those services.
In light of this, it does seem slightly odd that the bulk of the transformation plans involve the provision of physical facilities, some of which will be similar to college union facilities, at one central location intended to serve the geographically scattered student populous of ULU. Mr Piper explained that the aim was to provide facilities that surpassed those provided by the colleges that students would want to travel in to use. That said, there is currently an astonishing amount of unused space in the ULU building and if funding can be secured to create useful facilities for its members within this space then this can only be a significant improvement on the current situation.
A particular mention was made with respect to outlying colleges and campuses such as Imperial College's very own Wye and Silwood campuses since they would derive least benefit from such centrally located facilities. It was argued that the student unions' development centre would serve the smaller colleges and campuses by helping them start up (where necessary) and develop their own unions.
ULU has come under attack in the recent past, being viewed by many as an ineffectual cliquey talking shop. Chris Piper responded directly to this admitting that ULU at present is 'a hack club' and expressing that this situation needs to change, although how he hopes to instigate such changes is unclear. The current ULU officers clearly expressed the opinion that a change is much needed expressing; "We're not serving students as successfully as we should be". Further motivation for the change came from the fact that ULU are in financial difficulties. Running costs are increasing whilst subscriptions from colleges are decreasing and income from commercial operations is merely remaining stable whilst there is a large backlog of maintenance work due on the building. This means that within the next few years ULU will be in major financial difficulties unless the situation changes significantly.
Imperial College Union President and the ICU representative on ULU council last academic year, Mustafa Arif, reacted positively to the plans saying "It's about time". However he also added that "ULU needs to recognise that its future is completely intertwined with that of the University of London and this must to be taken into account in any future plans". This clearly followed on from comments made by Mr Arif during the meeting that should, in light of their newly gained degree awarding powers, any large institutions decide to leave the University of London then this would have obvious repercussions its and ULU's financial security and also the number of students they would be aiming to serve. Imperial College's affiliation to the University of London and with it ICU's affiliation to ULU will be up for discussion later this year. Mr Piper responded to Mr Arif's comments saying that he hoped that the ULSC would become a centre for all London students. He also explained that the University of London's new Vice Chancellor, Sir Graeme Davies's has similar ideas for the future of the University of London. Tying in with this idea, partnerships with students unions outside of ULU may also be considered for the development of the centre.
It appears from the ideas discussed yesterday evening, that ULU will indeed be undergoing drastic change over the next couple of years. The discussions that take place and the decisions that are made over the next few months will almost certainly shape ULU's future for many years to come.
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