S.U. Finances: The Facts An Open Letter to the Students of UCD: In light of the recent campaign to reopen the S.U. copy bureau and the misinformation surrounding it, I felt that it was appropriate to write to all Union members directly, in order to outline the facts about our financial situation. When we took office in June, I was not satisfied with how accountable the Union’s finances had been in the past and had serious concerns regarding our current situation. I then undertook a comprehensive investigation of the Union accounts, with the support of the Union Executive. Since then, it has become clear that we are in significant debt, and that our services are operating at a significant loss. This is a time of unprecedented crisis and difficulty for the SU, but I am confident that we will emerge as a much stronger organisation than we were before. As such I wanted to make you aware of some facts.
What about SU spending? Do you guys spend a fortune of our money? - Our very first move as a team was to ensure that while we investigated the accounts that we slashed our own spending. The sabbatical team have taken a completely no frills approach to governing the SU this year, with each budget taking a huge cut, equal to around 40% of spending. Spending has only been sanctioned where necessary.
You mentioned that we have a debt/deficit, what is it? The process of accounts is not yet fully complete, but it is looking like it will be roughly €1 million. That means that we must make back over a million euro to get the SU afloat and safe again. The Union will be applying for a bank loan to repay this debt. Why don’t you go to the University and ask them for the money? We are an independent Union. A huge element of our strength is our ability to represent you against the University, to take different stances when we need to and to fight wholly and without restraint for the interests of students. To be bailed out would cripple the Union and still would not solve the issue of our services operating at an annual loss. Even if we were bailed out - the cutbacks would have to occur.
What is the difference between a deficit and on-going losses? Why is that important? The deficit is the total debt that has added up over time, i.e. the amount the Union is currently in the red. On going losses refer to services that are spending more money than they are taking in. This is important because it means that even if the Union’s debt was cleared tomorrow, these cutbacks and savings would still have to be made, in order to avoid another situation like this in a few years time. Why did the SU Copy Bureau close down? The decision to close the copy bureau was an extremely painful one and not one which was taken lightly. It had to be closed as a complete last resort due to the unsustainable losses it was making. The independent accountants’ report has shown that the bureau was suffering losses of 30k - 40k per annum on average for the past number of years. While this has been a long-standing and valued service, trade has suffered successively for the past number of years and the levels of loss can no longer be supported.
So what are you doing to fix all this?
- Cutting officer budgets by 40% - Forming a limited company so that the SU has legal & financial obligations. - Introducing a new SU constitution, with provisions such as: -Tight financial controls. -Requirement for audited accounts to be published annually. -Professionalisation of ‘Ents’. -Less sabbatical officers. -More officer accountability.
Is mise le meas,
Pat de Brún Students’ Union President