The first Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Council of the 2022/23 academic year tonight held 23 elections, including an Undergraduate Studies Committee representative and the Education Committee.
Class Representatives filled the Stanley Queck lecture theatre in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI) for two hours to put themselves forward for empty positions on the various committees within the Union.
Emma Gallagher, Chair of the Electoral Commission (EC), welcomed the Class Reps for a night of “fun” with pronoun badges available to those who wanted them and lollipops handed out about halfway through.
Proceedings began with two annual member positions on the EC for which two students put themselves forward and were elected in an uncontested race. An Ordinary Committee Member (OCM) was also elected to the Oversight Commission (OC).
Nominations opened for the position of Student Parents’ Officer but were postponed to next Council due to a lack of nominees.
The first contested election of the evening saw László Molnárfi, the School of Social Sciences and Philosophy Convenor, and Yannick Gloster, last year’s Chair of TCDSU Council, put themselves forward to be the Undergraduate Studies Committee (USC) representative. The USC reviews “quality assurance” of undergraduate programmes and advises the Senior Lecturer on the “admission, progression and examination” of undergraduates, amongst other duties.
Molnárfi spoke first, stating that he wanted to address issues surrounding hybrid learning, alternative assessments and “broken” IT. He believed that teaching staff were trying their best, focussing the blame on staff at “the level of Senior Lecturer and Faculty Deans”. He promised that he would be “a pain in the ass” if elected to the role.
Yannick Gloster, the USC representative from last year, drew on his experience to promote his election. Gloster was subsequently elected to the position.
Zöe Cummins, the Education Officer, then advertised positions for the Education Committee, hoping to draw students in with offers of “tea” and “sweet treats” at future meetings.
Jade Schanen, the student elected to be Wet Lab representative on the Education Committee, stated in her proposal that “I hope you vote for me, I guess”.
Eve Fitzgerald revealed that she went on Erasmus to Italy as a Geography student, and ended up studying Marine Biology. She stated that wanting to make sure this does not happen to others was the reason she would be the best choice for Erasmus/Exchange representative on the Education Committee, to which she was eventually elected.
Other highlights from the elections included the proposal by Peter Walsh to be an Ordinary Committee Member (OCM) on the Communications & Marketing Committee. Imploring voters to “throw me down if you want me”, a resounding cheer went up and he was subsequently elected to the position.
