The hardest time of year for a subset of students has arrived. Eighteen hopeful Trinity College Dublin Student Union (TCDSU) Sabbatical Officers will campaign for six jobs. Who will win? We don’t know, but I’d recommend adding an extra five minutes to your commute to college to avoid enthusiastic students that are vying for your vote.
Last year a little over 2,000 votes were cast in the Students’ Union election out of approximately 22,000 students – a marginal turnout.
Engagement has been a critical component of the current TCDSU Sabbatical Officers’ nine months in office. This effort saw an unprecedented number of over 2,000 students voting for class representatives (reps) at the beginning of the academic term. However, on Friday February 7, 838 votes were cast in the TCDSU constitutional referendum – resulting in a voter turnout of approximately 3.8% of students. Constitutional referendums can generate apathy amongst the general student population, which likely contributed to the poor turnout. Hopefully, the Sabbatical Officer elections will be able to generate a tad more interest. Otherwise the Union has a huge problem on its hands – but it wouldn’t be the first time. Who here remembers Linda Doyle emailing the student body to discourage participation in the encampment?
Previous Student Union Presidents include current Senator Lynn Ruane, radio host and agony Aunt Joe Duffy and the left’s darling and College’s administrative nuisance László Molnárfi. Despite the mark that some of the former Presidents have left, the majority of them however go off into obscurity – or worse, a civil service and / or a corporate job.
What is to come in terms of outreach, tactics, and future for Sabbatical Officer candidates remains to be seen. The election cycle goes on, my job will be gone, and Trinity will still be Trinity.
