Tuesday, March 15th 2016 | uccexpress.ie | Volume 19 | Issue 11
Cork’s Enterprise Ecosystem Pg. 5 - News
ROCK N’ROLLIN WITH EOLANN: SU President-elect Eolann Sheehan is held up by his campaign team at Results Night
(PHOTO: Emmet Curtin)
Controversial President Elected for DITSU Bryan Danielson - News Writer
Controversy gripped the recent DIT Students’ Union elections, particularly surrounding Presidential candidate Boni Odoemene. Toryn Glavin, a leading Irish Trans* Rights activist & former President of the DITSU LGBT* Society, detailed a personal account of an encounter with the candidate on a bus many months before the election on her personal Facebook page. In this post Ms.Glavin talked about how she had overheard a conversation between Mr. Odoemene & a friend who
discussed whether Ms.Glavin “was a man, a woman or an it. They decided I was a man in a dress.” This reportedly followed a discussion on why they would be voting No to the Marriage Equality referendum. Ms.Glavin also stated that she had received many complaints about Mr.Odeomene during her time as DIT LGBT Society Chair. In response to these allegations Mr.Odoemene denied these claims, posting a photo of him with a ‘Yes Equality’ sign and pointing out that no complaint was brought when he was
elected as a College Officer for the Aungier St. campus. However, a former member of the DIT Students’ Union corroborated these reports, that the incident was known to them at the time but that no one had made a formal complaint. Ms.Glavin made it very clear in her statement that this wasn’t a political move, asking people in DIT to vote for RON (ReOpen Nominations) or the other candidate running, just not Mr.Odoemene. Ms.Glavin’s statement was shared by members of the DIT Students’ Union Executive, including its
Accountability Checklist Pg. 8 - Features
Postgraduate Officer & current VP for Education. On March 11th the votes were counted & Boni Odoemene was elected on the 2nd count. Mr.Odemene received 99 votes more than his nearest opposition. Speaking to Ms.Glavin following this result, they said that the support they received following their statement has been fantastic and “even though the outcome was disappointing the support shows that DIT will protect its queer students and [of that] I’m very proud.”
Interview: The Sunshine Factory
BYLINE Magazine