£750,000 Union deficit

The Students’ Union is heading for a record deficit of three quarters of a million pounds this year.

According to Andy Glyde, the current Students’ Union Governance and Finance officer, the fault for the recent deficit has been laid at the feet of declining bar trends, and the current lack of access to the union buildings for the rebuild. With ongoing construction works now limiting access to only half of Union South, the Union claims that the loss of half of its outlets is having a drastic negative effect on the fiscal status of the Union.

However, the Union’s Sabbatical team have been keen to emphasise that the deficit was “planned”. Mr Glyde said: “While the Union should always look to budget for a surplus, this deficit has not come out of the blue. We anticipated several years ago that declining bar sales and an inefficient Union South would eventually put us in a difficult financial position.”

Despite the construction of the Temporary Events Structure and Tempo, the Union still expects to lose key income. Yet, since the loss of the former Union South outlets such as the lucrative Graduate Bar and Club which has now been reduced to “Graduate@Cholo”, is temporary, the Sabbatical team are confident that this year’s deficit will be short-lived.

Mr Glyde said: “The new Union South will ensure the financial sustainability of the organisation for years to come. Our current forecasts for the next year are extremely positive with the Union looking to make its first surplus in a number of years”

Indeed, the Finance Officer can confide in the fact the Vice Chancellor of the University retains confidence in the Students’ Union. Speaking to Boar during his annual interview, Nigel Thrift said that he believed the Union would not need bailing out. Whilst he would not comment on what the University would do if the Union ever hit financial difficulties, he thought that it was “professionally run “.

Yet, this is the third deficit faced by the Students’ Union and there are fears that it could be sustained. It has grown from the £100,000 mark in 2007, to approximately £300,000 at the end of the last academic year, and is now set to soar to £750,000 by the end of July, 2009.

Even though the University agreed to give a grant of £5.5 million for the rebuild, the Union was also loaned an additional £5.5 million which will require repayment within the next twenty years.

These additional outgoings and the current ambitious plans by the Students’ Union President to raise £500,000 for the construction of a new media centre are expected to place pressures on this year’s Sabbatical team and managers of the Union. As part of their tenure, they are seeking to better the record of last year, when the predicted deficit of £340,000 was beaten by £41,000 in efforts by the Union to cut costs.

Students involved in societies and sports clubs are not to worry according to Sports and Societies Officers Terry Marshall and Lucy Reynolds, since they will not be affected, with some grants even growing this year.