GMIT Students’ Union
End of Year Review 2010/11
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Just a quick look at some of the highlights of the Students’ Union for 2010-11. Thanks to everyone for getting involved and we look forward to another eventful year in 2011-12!
SU REVIEW 2010-11
Scholarships & Bursaries At the start of the year, the Students’ Union awarded students who have excelled in an area of sport or culture with a Bursary, whilst the Institute awarded scholarships based on the highest leaving certificate points in each school/campus. There was also one scholarship for a first year mature student.
Fresher Inductions Day
For the first time, GMITSU provided an evening of on-campus entertainment for the incoming First Year students on their first day in GMIT back in September. I102104 were broadcasting live on campus throughout the day, and there were performances from UNSTABLE, The Vibes, DJ Fergal Darcy, DJ Ozz and a Christy Moore tribute act. There was also free candy floss, popcorn, slush puppies and pizza for GMIT’s newest students!!
Freshers Week 2010
Freshers Week was highlighted by the Arthurs Day Party in the Library Bar, which was headlined by Delerentos. The black stuff was flowing as a lineup of 5 great bands and 2 DJ’s entertained GMIT til late! Jon Kenny also made an appearance in the Library Bar over the course of the week with his own unique style of comedy, while the GMIT campus and grounds by day played host to paintballing, an Inflatable City, and “I’m a Student Get Me Out of Here!” over the course of the week!
Clubs & Societies Exhibition
October’s Clubs and Societies Exhibition saw a whole host of our staple clubs recruiting new members amidst a great atmosphere in Union Square, along with the setting up of several new clubs, including GMIT’s first-ever SurfSoc and AnimeSoc, which proved to be great successes. Clubs which were previously active but had faded in recent years were newly invigorated, such as EngSoc and the Darts Society.
Graduations
Congratulations on behalf of the Students Union to all who graduated from their programmes this year, and all the best in the future!
RTE 2FM GMIT v NUIG Challenge
Class Rep Training
This year’s Class Rep Training was one of the bestattended in recent years, with over 200 reps gathering in the Oranmore Lodge Hotel for a day-long event, which included speeches from GMITSU and USI officers, GMIT lecturer and former USI President Ivan McPhillips, and Colm McGivern, Head of the British Council, UK, formerly their Northern Ireland director, and expert in conflict resolution.
GMIT @ Halloween
Club K was once again the host to GMITSU’s annual Halloween Fancy Dress party!
On Monday 4th of October, GMIT took on NUIG in a light-hearted “University Challenge” quiz, hosted by Ryan Tubridy on his show. Thankfully, the GMIT team came through victorious by 11 points to 8. The GMIT team was Colin Canny, Joe O’Connor and Martin Rooney. The NUI Galway team was made up of Peter Mannion, Emmet Connolly and Emma Conway.
Christmas at GMIT
GMITSU once again celebrated Christmas in style with the annual Christmas Day event! After enjoying a hearty Christmas dinner, the Elastic Band performed in a very snowy Bodkins Librarybar! Even ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Santa made an appearance! The Students’ Union also held the anual Kids Christmas Party in conjunction with the Chaplaincy, supported by the Galway Lions Club.
National/ Regional Protest Marches November saw over 1,000 GMIT students from all campuses travelling to Dublin to take part in what turned out to be the largest student protest in over 40 years, in opposition to Government intentions to double the student registration fee to 3,000 euro, and as part of the “Education, not Emigration” campaign. Towards the end of the month, a regional march also took place in Galway with students from both GMIT and NUIG turning out in large numbers to make their voices heard.
National IT Factor Finals Mylo’s success in the local heat of the competition translated well to the National Finals, where he turned in a note-perfect rendition of the Adele hit “Someone Like You” to bag the National Prize for Best Cover Song. Daithi Jordan also represented GMIT to a very high level in the Original Song category, and fair play to both lads once again!
Welfare Campaigns 2010-11 was a very busy year of welfare campaigns. We saw the relaunch of the successful Sshh!! Campaign, Don’t Walk Home Alone returned for another year with Cara Cabs, Road Safety Week, Positive Mental Health Week, the Heart Day Walk with the Irish Heart Foundation, Your Future week in conjunction with the Careers Office, Careers Workshops, SHAG Week, LGBT Rainbow Week, and two Less Stress More Success information weeks. thanks to everyone who helped out during the year!
Raise & Give Week A hugely-successful RAG Week 2011 was accentuated by the success that was the first-ever MOXEGEN festival in Gleann na Ri! Several tribute bands performed throughout the day in an open-air venue to form an event that was not only the first of it’s kind for GMIT, but for any IT in the country. It all got started with the Launch Party in the Library Bar on the Sunday night, as UNSTABLE, The Danger Mice, i102104 DJ Fergal Darcy and DJ Rodge all played their part in a memorable night of entertainment to kick the week off! High-profile acts also performed throughout the week, as fresh off their smash-hit single ‘Horse Outside’, the Republic of Telly’s Rubberbandits rocked the Library Bar on the Monday night, while Ireland’s top DJ John O’Callaghan performed after MOXEGEN in Club K to top off a phenomenal Wednesday of entertainment!! Of course the central aspect of the week was to raise as much money as possible for charity, while enjoying some high-quality entertainment along the way. GMIT SU succeeded in raising over 10,000 euro for our chosen charities, SERVE, AWARE, Special Olympics West and the Irish Heart Foundation. A number of different activities took place throughout the week as part of this fundraising effort, including the Bungee Jump in Gleann na Ri, and the chance for students to soak members of the Students Union with the ‘Dunk Tank’ in Union Square! The week was topped off with the most-successful ever heat of the IT Factor on Thursday night in the Library Bar, with Hector joining a judging panel also featuring Ronan Scully from Operation Transformation, TG4’s Gemma Hayes, and our very own Joe O’Connor! The standard of competition was the highest it’s ever been, with Daithi Jordan ending up as the winner of the Best Original Song category, and Myles Kelly winning the hotly-competed category of Best Cover Song! Here’s to Raise & Give Week 2012!!!
GMIT Sports Darts The winners of the ‘Best New Club’ award at the Student Achievement Awards due to their high level of activity and commitment and outstanding national performances, our darts team were also involved in one of the most enjoyable nights of the year - The first leg of the first ever NUIG VS GMIT Darts challenge! The Library Bar played host to a great atmosphere as a large number of GMIT students turned out to cheer on our team against their city rivals, and although the night itself ended in defeat for GMIT Darts, the team went from strength to strength over the remainder of the year. Ladies Basketball Team They were going through the league campaign with just one loss out of 6. Unluckily to draw second due to points difference and battled hard against Tallaght I.T in a narrow defeat in the ALL-Ireland Semi-final.
Rugby The team had a busy season, travelling to the likes of Derry, Belfast, and Sligo for games. They reached the semi-final of the Colleges cup in Division 2 and were very unlucky to lose to CIT with CIT going on to beat Carlow in the final.
Archery Team The Archery team have taken part in 7 “Fours” throughout the country successfully held their own “Four”. The team uphold great team spirit has brought our confidence & skills in all members, regarding team jobs & medals. Cricket: National Intervarsity Winners Particularly in a year when the Irish Cricket team achieved so much success at the world cup in India (including that win over England), it is fantastic to see the GMIT Cricket team come on in leaps in bounds, with the team growing in numbers and confidence. The season was a resounding success for the team, culminating in victory in the national inter-varsity tournament held at NUI Galway, beating teams such as University of Ulster Jordanstown in the final. GMIT Cricket takes great pride in having gone through this entire tournament unbeaten, and to do this against players who are in the current Irish international U-19 cricket team is an achievement to be applauded. Soccer The GMIT soccer team, getting stronger with every passng year, made it all the way to the national Umbro Cup final, where they were unlucky to lose out to DIT. GAA This year seen both our Sigerson and Fitzgibbon teams fall to the hands of UCC (University College Cork) at the Quarter- final stage. Our Freshers football team bowed out at the quarter final stage to St. Mary’s in the championship after enjoying a fine league run, while our Fresher’s Hurlers were eventually knocked out of the championship by a strong DIT outfit. Our ladies football team had an eventful year which seen them make the quarter-finals of the championship only to be beaten by Sligo IT while the ladies Camogie team exited the Purcell cup following defeat to Trinity.
Proximity Exhibition A lot of hard work, determination, fundraising – and not to mention CREATIVITY - went into the Proximity show this year. Well done to all the students who contributed to the exhibition, with a special mention to Brendan Flynn, Steven McGovern, Matthew Sutton - the committee members who organised the show.
Voter Registration Campaign Before and after the Christmas break, GMITSU conducted voter registration campaigns with a general election looming. “Politicians Decide Your Future, Now You Decide Theirs” was the slogan for the campaign, and we succeeded in getting almost 1,000 students registered to vote, as part of a nation-wide USI campaign which saw over 15,000 students added to the live register. This surely played a huge part in the huge young voter turnout in the general election.
SU Elections
However, it wasn’t the massive gains made by Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore’s parties to bring about a change of government which attracted the most attention around the GMIT campus, with April’s SU elections taking place shortly after. 2 candidates for President and 5 for Vice-President & Welfare Officer ensured yet another intensive and hotly-contested campaign. When the dust had settled, Alan Doherty had been elected the new VP & Welfare Officer by a close margin over second-placed Mairead Campbell, and incumbent VP Joe O’Connor had stormed to a record victory in the Presidential elections, pulling in over 81% of the vote.
End of Year Ball This year’s GMIT End of Year Ball proved a huge success, with tickets selling out in remarkably quick time prior to the event, and with good reason. The Coronas became the biggest headline act ever to grace the End of Year Ball, and the event, held in the Clayton Hotel, came equipped with red carpet, a professional photographer, dual music venues and a chill-out room to boot! Here’s to next year...
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Student Achievement Awards The Student Achievement Awards, also held in the Clayton, gave us a chance to recognise our most successful sports teams and players over the course of the year, along with our most gifted and creative students, most dedicated societies, and students most committed to serving and representing others. The awards presentations were capped off with a drinks reception and finger food for the winners and staff members in attendance.
See www.gmitsu.ie and our Facebook profile for all photographs from the Student Achievement Awards. You can also email brendan.kenny@gmit.ie for photographs.
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