NUACHTÁN SAOR IN AISCE VOL. 22 Issue 11. 06 APR 2021
Student Independent News
WINNER: BEST NEWSPAPER AT THE NATIONAL STUDENT MEDIA AWARDS 2019
Students’ Union moves for levy Referendum amid Kingfisher cost dispute • University Management Team claim funding cuts are inevitable if referendum passes • “It’s worrying that they are talking about opportunity costs and not the welfare of students”- Toomey calls for Students to back proposed levy reform By Conor Brummell @ConorBrummell A notice of referendum has been put forward by the NUI Galway Students’ Union aimed at reforming the student levy. The announcement was made on Wednesday March 29th, and requires 500 physical signatures to be put to the student body as a referendum. SIN understands that the proposed referendum would take place on April 22nd in conjunction with the Students’ Union Full-Time Officer elections. The €224 student levy has been at the heart of many heated debates in NUI Galway over the past fourteen years. In the academic year 2007/2008 the student levy was increased by €100 by referendum to contribute to the building of a new Sports Centre on campus, which later became known as The Kingfisher. By extension, the Sports Centre, which officially opened its doors in 2008 has also been scrutinisedas the money borrowed to build the facility is still currently being paid back by students through the student levy, almost 14 years after its establishment. When the Sports Centre was planned in the early 2000s, it was to be one aspect of a trust called ‘The Infrastructural Development Fund’ which would cost the University €40,000,000. These projects included the construction of the new Sports Centre, as well as the renovations and refurbishment to the old Sports Centre on campus, which was to become a cultural centre known as Áras na Mac Léinn. There was also a series of smaller projects included within the fund to improve basic Infrastructure on campus which included facilities such as parking, roads, site works and acquisitions, as well as other projects like the University Park and Ride scheme.
Original Budget In a budget outline dated 2003, NUI Galway committed to contributing €9,776,000 to the fund, while €4,917,000 was to be raised for the development fund through gifts to the University. Atlantic Philanthropies (AP), was also to contribute €8,500,000 to the project.
This would lead to a total investment of €23,193,000 from the University and other nonstudent contributors. The €100 sports centre charge included within the Student Levy was to account for the other €17,000,000 within the original budget outline for the Sports Centre. This was borrowed internally by the University Management Team in NUI Galway, as the money could not be fronted by the Students’ Union at the time. In 2005, the University argued that the amount to be funded by the Student Levy was outlined as €15,700,000, which was €1,300,000 less than originally intended. According to figures shared with the Students’ Union in 2014, however, the Sports Centre accounts state that the cost of the Kingfisher was €21,930,000, with funding of €6,000,700 made up of contributions by the University and the University Foundation. This resulted in a deficit of €15,900,000 to be covered by the student levy, which was lower than the original €17,000,000. In a statement to SIN, the University Management Team claimed that they raised €9,600,000 through the Galway University Foundation, an increase of €3,500,000 on what they had initially set out in the 2014 budget. The Sports Centre had been in operation for six years up until this point, and the Students’ Union maintains that the construction cost funding should have been finalised. Although the budget sat at €21,844,000, some delays and shortfalls resulted in the budget being reset to €22,711,000 at the end of 2012, which is detailed in the Capital Project Report summary of 2013. This report also states that the purpose of the levy was to create a stable flow of money for the sports centre project. “The levy was budgeted initially to create a cash inflow of €1,250,000 per annum, over an eighteenyear period, from which was to be deducted a notional interest charge to reflect the University’s payment of the construction and other costs in advance of the levy collection period,” the report states.
The Kingfisher Gym has been a bone of contention for the Students’ Union for many years. (Photo: Oisín Bradley) “The payments are currently running slightly in excess of €1,400,000, which contributes €900,000 annually after a notional interest charge of €500,000. “The students’ support for the venture and their willingness to demonstrate this support though a levy agreed by referendum gave a strong incentive for the University to ensure the delivery of the project.”
Error in Budget In October 2018, the funding total from the University had been reduced to €4,950,000 and the expenditure had increased to €22,699,000. This resulted in a much larger deficit of €17,490,000 to be paid from the student levy, which is closer to the original budget outline from 2003. The Student’s Union received an explanation from the University regarding the reconciliation in October 2018, which stated that, “these represent the reversal of previous entries funding the Sports Centre from the University Income and Expenditure account.” “The original plan to fund the Sports Centre did not envisage any financing directly from the Income and Expenditure Account, and the two entries referenced above should never have been posted to the Sports Centre account in 2008/2009 and 2009/2010. The removal of the monies was simply correcting a posting made in error.” The Students’ Union claim that this amendment of an error made ten years after the error occurred
“added an additional €1,827,000 to the Sports Centre deficit,” which students were expected to pay from the levy. The Union also states that, “it’s unclear how the costs reported in the Infrastructural Development Programme Updates presented to FRC did not account for such an outcome.” In documents seen by SIN, it can be revealed that the University in fact collected €20,800,000 from the levy in the past 14 years. This has raised questions as to why the €100 sports centre charge is still in place if the payments were running more than €1,400,000 per annum, as the €17,000,000 contribution from students would have been raised at a faster pace than the 18-year period originally set out. Furthermore, the final cost of The Kingfisher Club and infrastructural development fund came under the original budget- with the final cost of the new sports centre sitting at €22,700,000, and the final cost of upgrading the old Sports Centre in Áras na Mac Léinn resting at €6,100,000. This meant that the final budget for the infrastructure programme sat at €28,800,000, instead of the original €40,000,000 which was proposed. According to the UMT, the €40,000,000 budget was “fully utilised when the infrastructure programme was subdivided into a number of smaller projects.” Continued on page 4