TRINITY NEWS
Tuesday 20th January 2015
News
2
What They Said
“ “ “ “ “I’m actually a social entrepreneur” #FiveWords ToRuinADate
Jack Leahy @Jack_Leahy
Didn’t have enough money to pay for Diet Coke, peanut M&Ms *and* Hula Hoops. Sophie’s Choice wha Petah @POBherty
Can’t wait to finish my degree in Sociology and Social Policy and put it to use in the real world! (: (:
Caffeine detox, day one: maybe being chronically superunhealthy is healthier than this acute nightmare. Naoise Dolan, @NaoiseDolan
Matthew Mulligan, @_mattuna
CROWDED FIELD AS 17 SU ELECTION CANDIDATES ANNOUNCED • Hotly contested presidential and welfare races • Campaigning set to begin on February 2nd
James Wilson News Editor 17 students were announced to cheers as candidates for this year’s sabbatical elections on the steps of House Six by Electoral Oversight Committee chair, Kieran McNulty, yesterday evening.
President
Running for the position of SU president are Lynn Ruane, Conor O’Meara, Gabriel Adewusi, Adam Colton and Nessan Harpur. Junior sophister politics, philosophy, economics and social student student Lynn Ruane came to college through the Trinity Access Programme and currently works as SU’s student
Clockwise from top left panel:: Ents, UT, education, communications and marketing, and welfare candidates. Photos: Kevin O’Rourke
parent officer. She was employed as a drugs worker at the age of 17 in Killinarden, Tallaght, where she developed a programme to combat the rise of heroin use among local teenagers. In 2007, she became community development drugs worker with Bluebell Addiction Advisory Group. She has sat on local community boards, including the Canal Community Local Drugs Task Force and Policing Forum, and currently works for Vincent De Paul Ireland. Junior sophister BESS student and Galway native Conor O’Meara will be a familiar figure to those who lived in Halls in last year. A former president of Trinity Halls’ JCR committee, O’Meara has also served on the SU’s communications and campaigns committees and now acts as his year’s BESS coordinator, having previously been their class rep in first year. He was elected as Cancer Soc’s awareness officer last year and is an active member of Trinity VDP. Nessan Harpur, a senior sophister student of mechanical engineering, was elected as class rep at the beginning of the academic year and previously spent two years as an S2S mentor. He is currently works with a committee running the inaugural Trinity Film Festival and set up
a branch of Engineers Without Borders in college. He currently works as an energy analyst for CES Energy and has spent his college summers gaining work experience in Canada, America, China and India. The final two candidates in the presidential race are Adam Colton, a BESS student, and Gabriel Adewusi, a volunteer with S2S and the current SU access officer, could not be reached for interview at the time of writing.
Welfare
The race to succeed SU welfare officer Ian Mooney is also set to be contested by five students - Aoife O’Brien, Louise O’Toole, Conor Clancy, Liam Mulligan and Muireann Montague. Senior sophister chemistry student Muireann Montague, who has been involved in LGBT activism since second year, helping out with Q Soc’s campaign team as a senior freshman, before being elected two years in a row to serve as the society’s liaison officer. Her SU CV includes membership of rainbow week, welfare and campaign committees, as well as a spell as a class rep for chemistry. Senior sophister history student Conor Clancy currently holds the position of sport and exercise officer on the welfare
committee and has volunteered as an S2S peer mentor. He represented Trinity at last year’s Student Sport Ireland conference and co-founded the Lighthouse project to facilitate meetings between off-books students. Since coming to college he’s also been involved with DU Players, DUFC, DU Boxing Club, DU Snowsports and the Jazz society Senior sophister social studies student Louise O’Toole has spent three and four years respectively volunteering for S2S and Foróige, and is currently the head mentor for the BESS faculty group. As part of her course requirements, she has spent two semesters on social work placements. In addition, she has participated in numerous TCDSU campaigns, spent a year as welfare ambassador and was a Voluntary Tuition Programme tutor in her first year. Aoife O’Brien is the final candidate for the position, a junior sophister student of computer engineering, TCDSU’s inaugural gender equality officer and a previous SU disability officer. A former class rep, peer mentor and co-founder of DU Germanic Soc, she has also been involved in SciFi Soc and the DU Gender Equality Society. The final candidate, Liam Mulligan, a junior sophister student
of business and politics. He’s been involved in the welfare campaign #TCDTalks and featured in the SU’s #TCDListens video, released two weeks ago. He furthermore helped found SusLiving - a charity initiative that aims to promote the benefits of sustainable living and environmentalism amongst school children and college students. In addition, he acts as the Irish ambassador for a French crowdfunding platform, Makers and Bankers, and serves as PRO of Horse Racing Soc.
Comms
Two candidates - Aifric Ni Chriodain and Jemma O’Leary - are contesting the new position of communications and marketing officer. Ni Chriodain is a senior sophister TSM student of French and film studies. In addition to her two years on the council of the University Philosophical Society, first as pro-librarian and then librarian (public relations officer), Ni Chriodain has worked in a number of marketing positions since starting college and currently sits on committees for the Central Society’s Executive (CSC) and the Trinity Arts Festival (TAF). Junior sophister French and history student Jemma O’Leary, was this year charged with sourcing
sponsorship for DU History, and sitson the society’s publication sub-committee. She also serves as third-year representative on the Cancer Society’s committee.
Education
Molly Kenny, the unopposed candidate for education, is a long-time SU representative, having won Representative of the Year at USI Student Awards 2013 for her role as JF class rep for Engineering. Now the SU’s faculty convenor of Engineering, Maths and Science, she sits on the University Council, Faculty Executive, Education Committee and Union Forum. Formerly a member of the Welfare Committee and Constitutional Review Sub-committee, in a previous life she was also a member of the College Historical Society’s committee, helping to run the society’s annual maidens competition for novice debaters.
University Times
Also unopposed is Edmund Heaphy, standing for the position of University Times editor. The senior freshman student of German and Philosophy worked previously as the paper’s creative director, overseeing the paper’s first redesign in five years - which he credits as having helped win the paper Student
Publication of the Year at an award ceremony held by the USI last year. Now the paper’s deputy editor this year, he also serves as a coordinator for the Voluntary Tuition Programme.
Ents
Finally, there are three candidates contesting the position of entertainment officer. Law and business student David Gray works on the Ents team as events and nights manager. He is also an active member of Law Soc, DU DJ and Snowsports. Final year mathematician and economist Conor Parle, who is also contesting the position, has interned at in the Trinity Economics Department and has previously volunteered with S2S and the Voluntary Tuition Programme. Katie Cogan, the final candidate in the race, is a science student and current committee member of Trinity TV. She also acts as the secretary of DU DJ Soc and served on a Fashion Soc subcommittee. She was elected a class rep for her course at the beginning of the year and co-presents a science radio programme called still.in.sane. Campaigning begins on February 2nd and ends on February 12th, when the new officers are expected to be announced.
Town hall meeting on proposed Work to begin on long-term SU strategic plans new student fees likely Lia Flattery Senior Reporter SU president, Domhnall McGlacken Byrne, is provisionally planning to hold an SU town hall meeting to gauge the opinion of the student body on proposed new student charges. The six new charges consist of an increase in the commencement fee from ¤114 to ¤135, a ¤75 fee for diploma and certificate awards ceremonies, an increased postgraduate application fee from ¤35 to ¤50, a rise in the cost of a new student card from ¤6 to ¤20, a standard price of ¤100 for duplicate degree parchments (currently ¤116) and duplicate diploma parchments (currently ¤20) and “a flat fee of ¤250 for students sitting supplemental exams, regardless of how many papers are re-taken.” The additional charges were first presented to last year’s sabbatical officers at a meeting of the college Finance Committee
in June 2014. The reason given for the charges was “budgetary pressure.” Following objections from the SU and Graduate Students Union (GSU) to the proposals, College decided to “defer” negotiations on the charges until the 2014/15 academic year. In December 2014, McGlacken Byrne and other sabbatical officers of the SU and GSU circulated a memo to college authorities outlining their ten objections to the charges and demanding sufficient time for broader consultation of students and staff before any measures be formalized. Among their arguments were that the new charges were not included in the sources of income identified by College for the next five years, that introduction of the charges sets “an intolerable precedent” and that the revenue that would be generated by the charges “is of a magnitude comparable to major financial strategies in which major amounts of time and discussion have been invested.” They
also objected to College’s use of comparisons to other third level institutions in “justification” of the charges as “selective” and irrelevant. They stated that the absence of a system of means-testing for the charges “constitutes a glaring deviation from Trinity’s stated commitment to equity of access to education” and that the “stabilisation” of the Academic Registry is of critical importance and needs to take place before students are charged more for their engagements with it. Speaking to Trinity News, McGlacken Byrne said that at the town hall meeting “all options will be explored. Should charges be opposed out of hand, not just in and of themselves but because of what they represent… Or is it more reasonable and realistic to look for a compromise… [such as] means-testing the charges, or having a per-exam charge rather than a flat irrespective penalty?” The meeting will most likely go ahead in late January.
Fionn McGorry Deputy News Editor Work on a multiple-year strategic plan for the Students’ Union is set to begin this term, in accordance with a manifesto promise made by SU president, Domhnall McGlacken-Byrne, in last year’s sabbatical elections. Speaking to Trinity News, McGlacken-Byrne stated that former TCDSU and USI education officer Hugh Sullivan would be leading the formation of the plan.
An external review of the SU, undertaken in the term of SU president Rory Dunne, by Professor Áine Hyland of UCC, David Coghlan of TCD, and Liam Burns, then-president of the National Union of Students in England, noted a need for evidencedbased strategy and purpose in the students union, noting the diversity in purpose of the five separate sabbatical officers. This review counselled the introduction of a strategic plan of 3-5 years, noting that four years would coincide with the turnover of an undergraduate cohort. Further to that, the review advised the introduction of a board of trustees. This trustee board was introduced in the reviewed SU constitution adopted in March 2014 but the membership has not yet been appointed. McGlacken-Byrne indicated that this board of trustees would be able to provide a level of stewardship over the implementation of the plan. He intends to go to faculty assemblies and survey opinions on what the priorities of the students union should be. The final
plan would need to be ratified by the SU Council, and McGlackenByrne noted a desire to have a launch at some stage in the term, emphasising that the plan would need to be completed by the last council meeting of the term. As there are only two SU council meetings left in term, the limits on the time frame are such that the details of the plan will be one of McGlacken-Byrne’s largest activities in the final months of his term. McGlacken-Byrne indicated that the measures indicated in the plan would be sufficiently vague not to bind a particular officer in to specific actions while providing guidance over the Union’s activities. When asked about the SU Council motions which will expire before the end of the plan, McGlacken-Byrne highlighted the broad measures under which these motions could be organised, indicating that these motions could be examples which the SU could follow going forward. Furthermore, he added that even if the plan were viewed negatively in future, it would enable an assess-
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[The measures] would be sufficiently vague not to bind an officer to specific actions. ment of the measures in the plan which future presidents could use as a metric to build on. McGlacken-Byrne noted that the plan was a method for the SU to modernise, noting that in the past the union had run a bookshop and a travel service, named Dublin University Student Travel, and that the discussions around the formulation of the plan could enable the union to focus on the activities which it viewed as most important.