The Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) will hold its sabbatical officer elections over a 10 day period in July, with campaigning beginning on July 5th and results announced on July 15th.
Constitutionally, newly elected GSU sabbatical officers are expected to take office on Monday, July 4th, the day before the election period is set to begin.
An email from the GSU Executive sent out to postgraduate students yesterday said the timing of the election period took “on board both academic and student advice, GSU Board consultation and input from students on deadlines”.
The GSU previously told this newspaper that the elections would be held in June, despite a constitutional requirement that the elections take place during Hilary term, which ended on April 24th.
The GSU constitution states: “The date for this election shall be decided by the Executive Committee, and shall be in Hillary [sic] term of each academic year save in extraordinary circumstances.”
The GSU President Gisèle Scanlon did not respond to queries about any extraordinary circumstances which would have prevented the election being held during that term.
Nominations for the roles of president and vice-president are to open this week and will close at “the end of June”.
Voting through the online elections company Mi-Voice will take place on July 13th and 14th, with results announced the following day.
Scanlon and her Vice-President Abhisweta Bhattacharjee were both re-elected to their respective roles last year. Scanlon has also previously served as GSU vice-president. The constitution – which was adopted by vote last year after a contentious meeting of GSU members – states that no member of the GSU executive, which includes the two sabbatical officers, “shall hold the same Officer position within the Union for more than two terms of office”.
This means that Scanlon and Bhattacharjee are not eligible to seek re-election to their current positions.
Previously, officers in the union could not hold the same position for more than three years.
Scanlon this year ran in the bye-election for the University of Dublin Seanad panel, but was eliminated after the third count. The GSU courted controversy when it endorsed her on social media without consulting members.
The GSU did not consult members about which candidate, if any, it should back in the bye election, and the three candidates who are ordinary GSU members have said they were not approached by the executive.
