Lorna Fitzpatrick has been elected President of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) for the coming year, after defeating Oisín Hassan to the position.
Fitzpatrick, who this year served as USI’s Vice-President for the Southern Region, will serve as USI’s president for the year 2019/20. She won with 121 votes, meeting quota. Hassan, USI’s Vice-President for Academic Affairs for the last two years and the union’s Deputy President this year, received 88 votes.
In a tweet, Fitzpatrick said she was “thrilled” to have been elected. She said she was looking forward to taking over the position from incumbent Síona Cahill, who Fitzpatrick described as a “powerhouse”.
In a press statement released by USI, Fitzpatrick said: “I am absolutely delighted that the students have put their trust in me to lead this movement. I have said all throughout my campaign that we need to be strong and connected to win the fight that we face this year.”
We are facing issues such as accommodation, access to higher education, higher education funding, ending direct provision, climate change, social justice issues in Northern Ireland alongside Irish language rights” she said.
“I thank everyone who supported my campaign and am ecstatic to be the next President for the Union of Students in Ireland.”
Votes were counted this afternoon at the union’s national congress, which is taking place in Castlebar, Co Mayo.
In an interview with The University Times last month, Fitzpatrick listed higher education funding among her key priorities: “I do think that we need to have a stronger focus on it at the very beginning of the year, and I think there’s ways that we can do that.”
Michelle Byrne, running for a second year as Vice-President for Campaigns, narrowly defeated Lion Diop to the position in a very tight race. Diop served this year as President of Maynooth University Students’ Union and lost out to Byrne by just eight votes.
In the race for USI Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Kevin McStravock defeated Marie Sheedy, while Róisín O’Donovan, who ran uncontested for Vice-President for Welfare, was also elected.
Megan Reilly was elected Vice-President for Equality and Citizenship, taking over from Aisling Cusack in the role.
Marie Lyons was elected uncontested to the role of Vice-President for the Border, Midlands and Western Region, with Darren Malone saw off the challenge of Jessica Malone in the race to take over from Fitzpatrick as Vice-President for the Southern Region.
Craig McHugh will serve as USI’s Vice-President for the Dublin region after running uncontested for the role.
Sara Dowling secured the position of Vice-President for Postgraduate Affairs after defeating Jason Kavanagh to the position.
Clíodhna Ní Dhufaigh was elected uncontested to the role of Leas-Uachtarán don Gaeilge.
USI’s national congress takes place each spring and sees all member unions send delegations who vote for their preferred candidates.
Before the congress, candidates travel to campuses around the country for hustings, with some students’ unions mandating their delegates to vote for the candidates as decided by their council.
This year, USI came under scrutiny from some of its larger unions, with both Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) and Dublin City University Students’ Union (DCUSU) publicly airing grievances about the national union.
In October, TCDSU President Shane De Rís launched a scathing attack on USI for its response to the government’s 2019 budget. In an open letter, De Rís said USI’s response was “extremely and disappointingly weak”.
“Higher Ed funding has been an afterthought for USI, with members of officer-board saying it’s not important since loans aren’t being introduced”, he said. “This isn’t good enough and we cannot settle for the status quo.”
Last month, DCUSU also found itself embroiled in USI-related controversy, with student societies condemned the union for showing a “a clear disregard for democracy and transparency” after the union executive voted to support disaffiliation from USI without consulting class representatives.
At the time, DCUSU President Vito Moloney Burke said: “I personally think that the DCU Students’ Union and the DCU student body would benefit from a disaffiliation.”
