Ronan Costello
SS Law
Communications Officer
Ronan Costello comes into the Communications race as the odds-on favourite. The newspaper and media junkie has been lining up a run at the job since his second year. Now in his fourth year, Costello reckons he has built up the experience necessary to tackle the position.
In his four years, the Carlow man has been heavily involved in student journalism and society-level communications. As News Editor for The University Times he has overseen a news team staffed by Rónán Burtenshaw and Barra Roantree that has broken stories which were picked up by the national media, including an article outing College Board appointment Jackie Gallagher as a former special adviser to Bertie Ahern and publishing a leaked survey of academics that showed academic dissatisfaction with the restructuring process.
Prior to holding this position, Costello had also acted as Deputy Editor and Opinion Editor for the old “University Record” in his second year. He’s been elected class rep twice and sat on the SU Communications Committee, creating strategies for SU campaigns.
Costello was also elected PRO of the DU Law Soc. In that position he produced the first Law Shock magazine that was sent out to all incoming Freshers. This raised the profile of the society and helped it almost double its membership that year.
“If elected I intend to ensure that The University Times continues to unearth stories that help students hold College to account. We’ve had a great team this year, next year I want to build on our successes,” said Costello.
Aware of the disconnect between SU policy making and the general student body, Costello wants to organise “SU Town Hall meetings, held in the GMB and open to all students. These will be public meetings, where guest speakers will inform students about the issues we face. Any students in attendance who want to have their say can do so. These meetings will hopefully become an instrumental part in formulating SU policy that is truly representative of the student body.”
“I also want to increase the video output of the SU. Students will watch a video far quicker than they would read a report,” said a passionate Costello. “I want to ensure that the SU Facebook page is regularly updated with video reports on stories that matter as well as video interviews with the Sabbats and other Union officials, so that students know that their representatives are doing what they’re being paid to do.”
