President:
Aisling Curtis & Edmund Heaphy| Senior Staff Writer & Creative Director
The second week of the Leadership Race opened with the usual campaigning from the presidential teams at various on- and off-campus locations. Voting began today in Halls, and Tallaght and St. James’s Hospitals, with both candidates looking forward to the upcoming week.
Domhnall McGlacken-Byrne spent the morning speaking to students and addressing lectures, before casting his own vote when polls opened in St. James’ Hospital. Cormac Shine, campaign manager, stated that McGlacken-Byrne “is particularly keen to encourage a big Health Science turnout considering the issues facing young doctors and nurses now.”
Jasper Pickersgill campaigned in Goldsmith and the Hamilton for the majority of the day, travelling to Halls at 5pm to continue speaking to students there. Sebastian McAteer, campaign manager, said that Pickersgill is “very excited that voting has begun”.
The primary event of the day was the Trinity Hall Hustings, the final Hustings event of the electoral campaigns. Both Pickersgill and McGlacken-Byrne reiterated their manifesto points, with Pickersgill emphasising his support for smoking areas of campus rather than a complete ban. McGlacken-Byrne also spoke about the concept of modules which would allow students credits for extracurricular activities, such as attending Trinity Access Program (TAP) schools. According to him, the Senior Lecturer was open to the idea. Both candidates were asked about the precedence for giving a percentage of their pay, if elected, to the Student Hardship Fund. Both candidates committed to giving a percentage to the fund.
The candidates will carry on campaigning in various locations as voting continues over the coming week. Both have stated that they are looking forward to the results of the University Times poll, to be published tomorrow.
The main focus for the two candidates throughout the week will be on encouraging students to vote, with Shine asserting that “a large voter turnout is in everyone’s interest”. Both candidates are pleased at the continued positive responses to their campaigns, with over 1,200 hits for their respective campaign videos, released on Friday.
Communications:
Clare Droney | Staff Writer
The two Communications candidates, Samuel Riggs and P.J. Moloney, were both confident as students at Tallaght Hospital and St. James’ Hospital went to the polls today. Voting opened at 12 noon at St. James’ and later in Tallaght. Riggs, who was present in St. James’ for the opening of the voting, commented, “I got a really excellent response from Health Science students, who all seemed excited about the prospect of a UT Health Sciences Correspondent.”
Both candidates were present at the main event of the day, the Halls Hustings & Voting. Riggs told UT this evening that the event “went very well.” By contrast, fellow candidate P.J. Moloney commented, “Maybe the most disappointing experience of the day was the Hustings in halls. Almost no students from Halls turned out. This is the real problem we all have to tackle. Exciting Communications are critical to getting students engaged.”
However, Moloney was pleased today that his second campaign video has received hundreds of hits online. He is hoping for one last push in the next few days to win over voters, commenting, “It’s clear this is neck-and-neck between me and Sam. My analysis is a low turn-out in the election will suit him and a high turn-out will suit me.” Moloney, seeing himself as an SU ‘outsider’, told UT that the Communications race “has become a battle between the clique and the outsider…When someone like me comes along to try to improve things, they end up seeing me as a blow-in…For me it’s a matter of getting the students to vote who normally vote RON or not at all. Everything depends on that,” he added.
Speaking to UT this evening, Riggs commented, “I really believe I’m the best guy for the job, I’ve got the experience, the ideas and the drive. I spent most of this week really talking to people, collecting their ideas and turning them into truly workable ideas and solutions to student problems.” Riggs emphasised the importance of interaction and communication, elements which have been central to his campaign so far and which he said are “key to a strong Communications Officer.” He added that “the crux of [his] campaign” has been communication as “a forum of discussion rather than a dictation, where everyone has their say, and know that their SU is listening to them.”
Voting opens tomorrow morning in the Arts Building and the Hamilton.
Welfare:
Fiona Gribben & Charlotte Ryan | Staff Writers
The first day of Ian Mooney’s second campaign week was very successful, his lecture addresses continuing as before and a visit to James’ Hospital being met with people “eager to chat”.
The Trinity Halls Hustings followed a busy day campaigning on campus. The audience was predominated by campaigners; Mooney said: “I would be very surprised if there were more than three first-year non-campaigners there.” Regardless the crowd were responsive and some engaging questions were posed. An audience member mentioned Dan McFadden’s pledge to better organise lines with the Health Centre, then asking what Mooney would do. His proposed solution was to move the emergency appointments to 10 am and 3 pm rather than 9 am and 2 pm, so that “people would be able to wait inside for emergency appointments while regular appointments would go on for the first hour”. Mooney was pleased with the challenge presented to him, stating “It was nice to actually be asked for my opinion on that!”
Dan’s second week of campaigning had a busy start also. He visited St James’ Hospital again today where voting commenced at twelve and later returned to the Arts Block in the evening. He is still very much enjoying campaign and says his team “continues to work very hard” to promote his welfare message to students. Dan was Welfare Officer for the JCR in 2012-13 and said it “felt great” to be back at the Halls Hustings tonight. His welfare blog, “Sharing to Help” continues to be updated this week and is proving very topical on social media, the latest upload chronicling a student’s battle to overcome depression.
Education:
Sarah Ledden | Staff Writer
After weeks of preparation, days of lobbying around campus, building a profile and watching many manifestos fly from hand to bin, it has all been leading up to this. The dubious climax that would accompany the start of voting was further extended as delays caused poll opening to be postponed slightly. Sole Education candidate, Katie Byrne, spent the opening day of polling talking to students in St. James’ hospital, D’Olier Street and using the last day of full campaign presence in the Arts Block and Hamilton also. Byrne commented that there seemed more apprehension among candidates today with the beginning of voting.
Byrne spent the evening in Halls participating in the last Hustings event of the Leadership Race. Her address focused primarily on the key aspects from her manifesto, including increased accessibility to resources, more information and interaction in exploring life after college, minimising exam timetabling issues and improving the appeals process and creating more cost-efficient class rep training.
Byrne said it was “a bit disappointing that more Halls residence weren’t there [at Halls hustings], but it was good all the same”. She has been “very pleased” with her general reception at Halls saying people were very “open and receptive” to her.
Speaking to The University Times about her position as the only uncontested candidate in the Leadership Race, Byrne expressed surprise that the Education role was not challenged as it is usually more competitive. Despite the misconception that she should be “delighted to be uncontested” she says that “while I’m certainly not under the same pressure as the other candidates, I do feel it means I’ll have to prove my worth a bit more if elected to reassure students that I am up to the job and haven’t got there purely by default.”
Ents:
Emer Gerrard | Staff Writer
With voting beginning in some polling stations today, the competition is certainly heating up between the Ents candidates.
When asked how confident he feels about coming out on top, Finn gave the most self-assured reply, answering: “I don’t want to jinx anything…but I feel…we…have a good chance.” He added, “I think our campaign is really showing the difference in experience levels between myself, Alex and Ben.”
With the publication of The University Times’ poll results tomorrow, the candidates are reflecting upon their performance so far and hoping it will be enough. Ben stated “we’ll all be watching the poll eagerly!” Meanwhile, Alex appeared somewhat anxious regarding the poll saying, “Personally I don’t feel polls reflect accurately the overall result of the elections.” However, she claimed to be fearless about the results stating, “no matter how they turn out I still have another 3 years ahead of me.”
The principal event of the day was the Halls Hustings. Ben was first up; he emphasised his four years’ experience organising nights out in Dublin and promised the audience cross-course nights out if elected. After stating that “Ents is all about the craic”, Ben ended with a double refrain of his slogan, “Ben for ents, bentertainment”.
Finn was next to speak. He quickly attempted to take a dig at Ben as he claimed, “Ents is so much more than nightclub promotion”. He proceeded to promote his new idea of a Trinity Film Festival, as well as his plan to organise a huge group holiday abroad after the exams.
Unfortunately Alex was unwell so could not attend. A friend explained her four main manifesto points.
