TES a “real asset” to Union

TES will be taken down in Week Five following the end of One World Week, but its financial effect on the Students’ Union remains uncertain.

Union events will be moved to Tempo and the Grad in a joint capactiy. The question of the TES finances has been an important issue, especially with regards to how the Union will fare without the income it generated.

“The TES was always planned to break even for the time it was up,” said Andy Glyde, Governance and Finance Officer for the Union, “However, it is very difficult to determine exactly how the TES has done financially due to the fact that it is near impossible to decipher how much income on the bars and entertainments it has raised compared to if we did not have the TES at all.”

Glyde further explained the construction and demolition costs of the TES are shared between the University and the Union. If any deficits occur, the load will be shared by the University, helping the Union at a time of costly reconstructions.

Nevertheless, Glyde claimed the TES has been “a real asset” to the Union in its short service time because it allowed the Union to “continue offering the same levels of service in a potentially difficult year.”

He further stressed the importance of TES in providing an essential venue for events like Top Banana, Score and Skool Dayz, allowing the Union “to offer the usual level of entertainment [they] always offer.”

Drawing on statistics from previous years, attendance at Union events are expected to “tail off a little” at the second term and so less space is needed.

Despite their smaller size, Glyde is confident that Tempo and Grad will be sufficient to hold all the Union’s biggest event – Top B.

On the question of closing TES before the Union South has been fully built, Glyde explained that there are “a number of planning issues” that would arise had the temporary fixture become permanent.

“The University also has a long-standing conference contract with a large national organisation every Easter… they require the space on Tocil field and the TES takes about a month to take down so they need to start work on it by Week Five.”

“The Union never looked to make a profit when it decided to go ahead with the TES,” concluded Glyde. “The whole point of it was to provide enough space for the Union to continue offering all it usually does while Union South was being redeveloped.”

In such case, Glyde noted that the TES has served its purpose and that students can look forward to parts of the new Union being opened in Term Three.