Shane Collins has been re-elected President of Trinity’s Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) on the first count, receiving 326 first preference votes. He will serve his second year in the GSU after he obtained 127 votes more than his only rival, Sibeal Conway.
Collins, who studied for a master’s in politics and public policy, focused on the lack of engagement with the student body, sustainable funding of the union and the need for continued work with Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) during his campaign. In an interview with The University Times during the election period, he noted that he ran again for the position partly due to the work that was left to do in making sure that postgraduate issues were discussed on a national level.
The newly re-elected president has extensive experience in Trinity: he was President of the GSU last year and was the founding president of the Trinity-affiliated Marino Institute of Technology Students’ Union.
Throughout his term, Collins plans to encourage communication between the union and the students it represents by starting with bringing the election period back to March and making resources for class reps more clear and accessible. He also spoke about the importance of working with other student unions during the upcoming year, saying that he will work “very closely” with Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) and will work towards ensuring that the the Union of Students in Ireland’s (USI) commitment to establishing a full-time postgraduate officer role is lived up to.
Collins said that he identified the increase in fees and the need to support international students as particularly large issues facing Trinity’s postgraduate community. Referencing the fact that international students are four times more likely to use the College’s support services compared to domestic students, the president-elect said that “appropriate” services must be put in place to ensure the integration of these students into the College.
For Collins, “looking at education the way I do, everything is interlinked”. “If you have a student coming in looking for the postgraduate hardship fund, and they would have qualified for a postgraduate maintenance grant back in 2011, well the reason why they’re having to come to you for that money is because that external money is no longer there.”
Collins also highlighted work left to be done on campus, such as the ongoing overhaul of the union’s representative structures and work on the 1937 Reading Room.
Speaking to The University Times after today’s results were announced, Collins congratulated Conway and her campaign team, thanking both his team and the postgraduate community. He noted that the “big takeaway” was the increased voter turnout, stating the almost doubling of voters compared to last year was “one of the metrics of the union’s effectiveness”.
“Come Monday morning, we’ll be working on those issues”, he stated, adding that he was looking forward to working with Madhav.
Madhav Bhargav was elected Vice-President, with 242 first-preference votes. In an interview with The University Times, Bhargav said that he would focus on integrating the bodies that are already available to the students, making them easier to contact and utilise.
Bhargav also highlighted the extreme difficulties faced by international student in securing visa appointments with the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB): “We need to start from scratch and just make it more better for the incoming and students who are already there.”
He also pledged to keep an open door policy to help postgraduates to “understand that the GSU is us”.
“What my aim would be just to break that wall … it’s not some people, it’s everyone so promoting those greater inclusion for postgrads.”
Speaking to The University Times after the election, Bhargav stated that the role as “lot of responsibility” and that he was “looking forward” to working with Collins.
Sinéad Baker contributed reporting to this piece.
