Convenor's comments
From John Marsh, Convenor of the General Council Business Committee
This edition of Avenue is all about communities. Perhaps many of us have forgotten that as alumni we automatically belong to what is, by a wide margin, the largest community in the University, General Council – a community of 156,000 individuals around the world.
Our community may be the largest, but we are not very active in the University. You will probably have received invitations to University events, but how many of us take advantage of them? Events such as Commemoration Day, when honorary graduations take place in an atmosphere of perhaps medieval ceremony; the annual Christmas Dinner, which included a ceilidh this year, and was a sell-out; or one of the graduate functions in far-flung places.
The University is required by statute to consult with the General Council, one component of the governance structure, which through its relationship with the University Court thus holds the University to account. Through its Business Committee, the General Council is the link between the University and its alumni, and its half-yearly meetings give an opportunity to hear from the Principal and his senior management what the University is doing, and to ask questions or express concerns.
The last General Council meeting was held in the world-leading Imaging Centre of Excellence at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. It included a tour round the 7 Tesla magnetic resonance scanner, the largest research scanner in Europe. I am delighted to say that this attracted one of the largest attendances we have had.
Our next meeting on 19 June will be a joint meeting with the University Court, the University’s governing body, to which two Assessors are elected by the General Council. All alumni are entitled to take part in these meetings, and this will be an opportunity to learn how both bodies, as constituent parts of the governance structure of the University, have been exercising oversight of the University.
If you are interested in discovering what the University is doing about current issues, if you have a concern about the University or higher education generally, if you just want to find out what is happening on the Western Infirmary site, come along to this meeting and take part. Better still, why not take an active part and stand for election to the Business Committee?
