The Core Role and Duties of School Presidents

The following provides details of the roles of school presidents drafted by a former DUSA Vice President, Representation, Jordan Smith. These form the core of a school president's duties but these may be supplemented by other duties as agreed by mutual consent between the president, the dean and the school secretary. This document has been agreed by DUSA and the University but any suggestions for improvements on it are welcomed and should be addressed to the DUSA Deputy President (deputypresident@dusa.co.uk) who is currently Rachael Doherty.

Responsibilities of School Presidents

It is the responsibility of the school president to:

Attend the training session provided by DUSA at the start of each academic session which will provide you with an overview of your role;
Liaise regularly with the DUSA Deputy President who has the lead role in the DUSA Executive on representation issues and the relevant DUSA Sabbatical Officer who has responsibility for the School's College;
Communicate regularly with class reps and students within their school to obtain information on current issues and to raise awareness of the importance of effective student representation;
Organise meetings of class reps in your school to allow for information to be gathered and to liaise with the school secretary on business for staff/student liaison committees;
Work with the relevant school secretary to keep up to date with what is currently happening at school level;
Ensure that any problems or issues that cannot be resolved promptly at the School level are brought to the attention of student council, DUSA executive and/or the relevant school board;
Liaise, as appropriate, with the University's Director of Quality of Assurance, Dr J Weyers (j.d.b.weyers@dundee.ac.uk)

Committees to Attend

As school president, you will be expected to attend the following committee meetings. Some schools may vary slightly in this but all schools should have school presidents attending these meetings. Your school secretary will keep you informed of the relevant committees you should attend.

School Board: This will allow the school president to be aware of issues at a school level and to put forward the view of the students with regard to these. Information on the dates of these are available from the School Secretary.
Staff/Student Liaison Committee: This will ensure that the school president is aware of students' current views on key issues and will improve communication between the president and the class representatives.
DUSA Student Council (SRC): School Presidents are full members of the SRC. These meetings are held in DUSA every three weeks and allow school presidents to raise any issues which have not been resolved at school level or which they feel need to be brought to the attention of a wider audience. Information on the dates of these meetings are available on the DUSA website at http://www.dusa.co.uk

Rachael Doherty, DUSA Deputy President,