NEWS: Anti-SUTV Facebook group formed

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A Facebook group has been set up, opposing plans to spend almost £30,000 on SUTV.

BY BRENDAN HUGHES

The Facebook group, called “QUB SUTV why waste £30,000?”, created by Niall Corry, has gathered a strong following of both supporters and some detractors in its short few days of existence.

SUTV (Students’ Union Television) is the much-mooted communication tool being proposed by the Student’s Union. The project aims to provide students with a high quality filming and editing suite in the Union building from which students may gain broadcasting experience.

However, scepticism of SUTV has been mounting, with the revelation that the plan would cost almost £30,000 to complete. Queen’s Annual Fund, a student contact centre which gives graduate donations towards student projects, have pledged £20,000. The remainder will be directly funded by the Students’ Union if other sources cannot be found.

Early last week, an opinion piece heavily criticising SUTV was published on The Gown website, sparking a surge of debate on the issue. VP Campaigns and President-elect, Gareth McGreevy, who has spear-headed the development of the scheme, expressed a knee-jerk aggravation to the criticisms via his Facebook page.

“Gareth McGreevy thinks you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t but maybe are better not doing and therefore just get an easy ride! On the other hand looking forward to writing a response piece and showing some people up!” He said.

McGreevy has not submitted a response to the criticisms but, in a slight change of tact, has instead welcomed students to speak to him privately about the issue.

Creator of the Facebook group, Niall Corry, a prominent member of the Queen’s Fencing Club, has encouraged discussion on the topic.

One person said, “Some of the money for the project is being taken from a trust fund I believe donated by former graduates…however even they can’t reach the £30,000 figure then the rest is going to come from student pockets!”

VP Paul Lilly questioned the ethics of the group members.

“Seems like some Raggies can’t handle the fact that SUTV made a successful bid to the Annual Fund. Honestly,” he said.

Another student said, “Queen’s Radio, the SU-Mag, the Verdict and the RAG magazine are all highly undersubscribed…Is the evidence really there to suggest SUTV wouldn’t follow in the same footsteps?”

“By creating SUTV (at huge expense), you are just spreading existing information around more thinly,” he added.

Link to Facebook Group

OPINION: SUTV just doesn’t add up

Tags: brendan hughes, Facebook, Gown, newspaper, qub, QUBSU, Queen's, queen's university, student, students, su, SUTV, The Gown

This entry was posted on Friday, April 2nd, 2010 at 12:34 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.