Students can expect a longer Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) election period and the return of Dining Hall hustings, after reforms drawn up by the union’s Electoral Commission were brought before TCDSU’s council this evening.
The changes will return TCDSU’s elections to the two-week span of previous years. However, it will introduce strict start and end times to campaigning, as well as maintaining last year’s one-hour lunch period for candidates.
The decision was made at a meeting of the Electoral Commission and was brought to TCDSU council this evening, as required under the union’s constitution.
Speaking to The University Times, the Education Officer of TCDSU, Alice MacPherson, said the reforms were designed to “relieve pressure on candidates”, but would also be best for students.
MacPherson questioned the decision to launch TCDSU elections at council last year. The launch, she said, made elections feel more “closed”. The return of Dining Hall hustings as the first proper showcase of candidates will make it “more open with the hope of increasing engagement”, she said.
Dining Hall hustings will mark the start of the campaign period on February 12th, 2018. The campaign period will end on February 22nd.
Screenshots, seen by The University Times, show that TCDSU election candidates last year discussed organising “guerilla” Dining Hall hustings. MacPherson, one of the candidates involved in the discussion, said: “I think the candidates wanted students to have a chance to engage”. They wanted students to “ask us those tough questions”, she said.
This year’s election period will also maintain the Electoral Commission’s “strike” system that was in place last year to regulate the behaviour of candidates.
