Vision exclusively reveal a sneak preview of YUSUs Financial Statements for 2012 ahead of this term’s AGM.
In a year where the Students’ Union contributed £500,000 towards the redevelopment of the Student Centre from YUSUs reserves – an amount paid to the University, who also provided YUSU with much of their income for their year through the block grant of £899,160.
YUSU also saw an increase in students employed as staff, the number of ratified societies and sports clubs. Freshers events drew much of YUSUs outgoing costs this year, although ultimately resulted in £12,267 profit which marked a huge increase on the 2011 figures.
The Summer Ball, headlined by Feeder, drew a record crowd of 2,202 – but continued to make a small loss to the union. YUSU state that they aim to break even on the Summer showcase event, but have now made losses in the last two years, having posted a loss of £10,029 when The Subways headlined in 2011.
YUSU President Kallum Taylor told Vision: “Freshers events and activity as a whole in 2012 ran at a profit after all freshers marketing sponsorship and the full range of freshers events are taken into account. Freshers weeks attract a range of sponsorship and marketing income, which allow us to offset some of the costs of events we put on for our members and keep prices down.
“Summer Ball 2012, before my time in office, did operate at a loss. The event was planned on an assumption that all VAT was recoverable since the event was being operated by YUSU charity. Unfortunately this is not the case and there are aspects of unrecoverable VAT that meant the event operated at a loss. This year we are working on a full cost recovery basis and we are confident the event will break even despite keeping ticket prices at the same cost.”
YourShop saw an increase in takings compared to the previous year and the overall commercial profit was boosted by the improved performance of YUSUs campus bars – a figure that was boosted by last year’s introduction of The Lounge at James College. The drinking habits of students here and at The Courtyard brought in a profit of £15,555. Overall, the commercial aspects of YUSU, including YourShop, the bars, printing and catering produced a profit of £95,975, helping to increase YUSU’s net incoming resources to £3,684,908 from £3,659,849 last year.
Including the five Sabbatical Officers, YUSU pays a total of £714,166 in staff salaries, national insurance and pension costs, which is an increase of £13,862 on last year. This figure is split between an equivalent of 30.14 full-time staff.
The full Financial Statements will be announced at Wednesday’s AGM.
Comment: Dave Washington
YUSU may be making an increased loss on freshers’ week and major events at the University; however, as a student I would prefer to see the student union spending their money on instances such as these which actually benefit our student experience.
Of course a loss may be made, but by investing in such areas, YUSU are properly perpetrating their role in representing the student body and making a contribution to student life.
In truth when we leave university it is unlikely to be minor things such as whether YUSU lobby to introduce new vending machines or spend their money on improving commercial services that we remember; instead many of our fondest memories will be of events such as freshers’ week and the Summer Ball.
By investing their money to improve such highlights of the year and bringing in reputable headline acts, YUSU are making improvements which actually do impact the majority of the student body, rather than changing something simply since it is what a few people desire.
It is also impressive that despite a half-a-million investment on the redevelopment of the student centre, that the University have still managed to keep their expenditure in check and have been capable of revealing highly respectable figures. Indeed the significant outlay seems to be justified, as the new student centre is a major improvement on the previous structure, and provides an excellently functioning hub for the student body, which hopefully will be exploited further in the future.
Furthermore the fact that revenue from services such as Your Shop, The Lounge, and Courtyard have increased once more provides an overwhelmingly positive message. The notion that people are spending more of their money and time at these venues suggests that they are improving as services for students, and indeed both the aforementioned bars are favourites with students across campus.
Over the years accusations could have been labelled against YUSU as being a body whose role has been marginalised, and whose impact upon student life was minimal. However, in its current incarnation YUSU appears to be playing a more substantial role and being pro-active in student life. Its reputation as a Union is improving, and even though people may not agree with some of their policies and expenditure, they are turning into an institution which impacts all echelons of student life; a move that can only be labelled as progressive and beneficial to us as students.