Minutes of Meeting of College Students on Sat. 27th July in Conway's.

Attendance: Finghin Kelly, Noel Hogan (Deputy President of USI), Brendan Meskill, Rebecca Moynihan, Daithi Mac Seilbh, Ross Higgins (Deputy President of UCD SU), Donal Lyons, James Redmond, Connor McGowan, Mark Grehan, Colm Jordan (President of USI), Paul Dillon, Dan Finn, Paul Murphy

Purpose of Meeting: To discuss building opposition to the increase in
college registration fees.

Agreed:

1. To organise a united campaign of as many students as possible around the
central demand of ?No fees?, with a secondary demand of ?A living grant? ?
there should be no financial barrier to attending third level education.

2. The campaign should be a proper campaign in that it should run over a
period of time with a number of actions, escalating at all times. The key
point of the campaign is clearly when the students are back in college,
before that events should be designed simply to maximise publicity and
attempt to raise student consciousness about the issue.

3. A campaign of mass non-payment, whilst ideal, is unrealistic and
unachievable given the current mood of students, and would simply result in
the isolation and victimisation of a number of students.

4. Despite some initial disagreements from Colm Jordan and Noel Hogan, it
was agreed to set up a broad campaigning group called ?Campaign for Free
Education?, open to all who agree with the key demands, to act as an
umbrella group for the campaign. This body would be open to USI, affiliated
and non-affiliated local Students? Unions, and other organizations,
including political ones. To this end, it was agreed that James Redmond
would collect email addresses of all present and set up a Yahoo Group called
the ?Campaign for Free Education?, to enable us to discuss it further and
send an email to the British CFE to announce our presence and ask for more
information about their organisation. We should also look into setting up a
website. Structures of the organisation will be discussed later.

5. To approach other students around the country to make this a true
national campaign. Agreed to contact any sister political societies in
colleges around the country, and to get in touch with the Galway students
who met on July 24th about the same issue.

6. To attend the USI protest against the increase in the fees taking place
at 1.45 p.m. on the Boardwalk beside the Liffey on Tues. 30th July.

7. To meet again in a fortnight, on Sat. 10th August at 3pm upstairs in
Conway?s and to try to get some of the Galway students along.

8. Paul Murphy (Chair) to write up the minutes and distribute them via the
internet.

Ideas for the campaign were also discussed. Some of the suggestions were:

1. To organise a situation whereby the Education Minister was followed
around the country in an effort to be present wherever there was media focus
on him.

2. To organise some action on the day the Leaving Cert. Results come out
given that there would be massive media publicity. It's also very relevant
because we will gain support not by moaning about how poor students are but
by making points about access to education. CJ raised some difficulty with
the idea, in that it an opportunity for USI to encourage people to go to
college, rather than perhaps scaring them away with stories of how expensive
college is. It was also suggested that the day the offers come out might be
a better day, given that it has more to do with access to education than the
results.