January 2018: Following a meeting of the Board of Trustees, the following update to this Idea has been released:
The Board have decided to reject this Student Idea in line with the original decision for the move based on the core responsibilities of the Board of Trustees.
Legal Compliance
The number and voracity of complaints of noise and anti-social behaviour linked to the Tuesday night event received by the SU and university as well as the local community mobilising to record and report activity posed a current and realistic threat to the licence held by the SU.
In addition, the university as our landlords (The SU is leased from the university) were also concerned of the rise in anti-social behaviour linked to a Tuesday night and were concerned that without action they would not be able to support our licence should any challenge be made.
Financial Management
The Board note that one of the key income and funding streams for the Union is the trade through the bar, catering and retail in the U Block Building, projected at £1.4m. The risk to the organisation if the licence was revoked was too significant to not take proactive action to move the night.
The risk to the Union of the loss of trade was strongly considered and the Union were able to come to an agreement with the university that there would be no financial impact to the SU as a result of the move from Tuesday to a weekend.
Reputation Management
The Board are aware that the complaints and negative publicity linked to the Tuesday night event had the potential to have a significant impact on the reputation and standing of the SU both locally and nationally.
In addition the hosting of a regular midweek student night which is heavily focussed and promoted around the drinks offers could be seen to be irresponsible when ultimately the students at the university are here to fulfil their academic potential and offering a night when it won’t impact with the academic timetabling would be more suitable
The Board felt that to not act proactively would risk further impacting the reputation and damaging the overall experience of being a UWE student.
The Board does want to work with the student body to look at ways in which a weekend event can meet the needs of students and as such will task the team to look at whether a Friday or Saturday night or investigating any further amendments best meets the needs of the students. This will be done during the summer term when all activity is reviewed as part of the planning process. Any students wishing to feed into this process is asked to email Jamie Jordon vpeducation@uwe.ac.uk