The Students’ Union executive has published minutes of their meetings for the first time since the beginning of term. The executive has the responsibility of looking after the day-to-day operation of the Union and is composed of the sabbatical officers, doctor the college conveners and the Irish language officer. Prior to the Christmas break some of the executive minutes had been sent to a College Tribune writer without being approved. These minutes have now been published in their entirety with approval.
UCDSU president, hospital Rachel Breslin, intended on having executive meetings on a weekly basis however minutes of those meetings have only been published online up to the meeting on the 30th of October 2012. Commenting on the part-publishing of the minutes, Breslin said, “the executive wanted a clarification of some things that were said at the minutes of the November meetings.”
The Union has decided to publish these minutes now because “I had time over Christmas to gather them and give everyone a chance to review them…and it’s something that we’ve discussed in the constitutional review group, to put a date on when they should be published,” remarked Breslin.
As the constitution stands there are no time limitations on when the minutes have to published and thus it’s up to the discretion of the Union.
Discrepancies have been noticed between the minutes of the executive that were sent without approval and the final minutes.
“There were a number of inaccuracies on the notes that were taken,” commented Breslin in regard to the unapproved minutes. She says that with the taking of minutes one ends up with a very “haphazard account of what actually happened.”
Breslin doesn’t foresee that the Secretary will be punished for her error because “there was no malice and when this happens on a once off basis, you’re able to move on with it and it was an honest human error.” The matter has been dealt with internally and Breslin was not willing to disclose any dealings to the public.
-Peter Hamilton
