Jack Leahy
Elections Editor
After a long week of either repeating or paraphrasing the same spiels, most of the candidates took a bit of a rest on Friday and didn’t arrive until – God forbid – after 9:30am.
I like to explain the kind of day Friday is in Trinity with reference to an SF French grammar lecture that I attended a few weeks ago at 3pm on a Friday: of the ~150 European Studies and French students registered for the class, fewer than 15 were in attendance.
Safe to say it’s somewhat of a lazy day on campus. Very little has happened and while I’m still committed to the blog, I’ll be padding it out with retrospect and a bit of a round-up. Because hey, it’s lazy Friday.
Ents
Former UCD ents officer and general decent lad Jonny Cosgrove joined Trinity FM Ents officer Claire McCabe and sole Ents candidate David Whelan in the TFM studio for an excellent discussion moderated by Shauna Watson.
When questioned as to whether a successful implementation of the proposed constitutional changes to the role of Ents officer in UCD would force TCDSU to reconsider how it operates its Ents branch, Whelan was insistent that the current way in which Ents is run offers students what they want. He did, however, admit that he would like to meet and talk to all applicants for positions on the Ents executive so as to stamp out suggestions that Ents is cliquey. Cosgrove agreed, speaking of Ents as the gateway into engagement with the Union for many students.
When asked whether he had researched the possibility of the Trinity Warehouse Project, Whelan responded that while he was sure that it could be realised in Dublin, it would require a lot of organisation that he felt he could manage if elected to a sabbatical position. He stressed that there was a difference between this large-scale operation and the easier business of rolling out Ents deals as part of his campaign, with a few set to be unveiled next week. He promised a Valentine-themed deal for Tuesday, but did not mention whether the deal would cater for the happily coupled or those seeking alternative plans as individuals.
The whole discussion will be available from the UT Facebook in the morning – even for entertainment, it’s a good listen, combining Ents-related banter and some serious questions, with which Whelan coped well. Feedback also suggests that this week has gone in his favour – ‘Dave Whelan for Ents’ was regularly the first thing I was told having asked students for whom they were voting.
If David can get campaigners out and catch the eye with his deals of the week, then he’ll be sitting very pretty ahead of voting next week.
President
All three candidates have now responded to our questions blog (https://universitytimes.ie/?p=8226) – have a look at what they say.
Otherwise, president correspondent Ronan Richardson reports that while student appreciate John Tighe’s non-aggressive style of canvassing, it has ultimately led to students not knowing who he is or what his policies are. Shame, that. Ronan also offers the verdict that while left-wing activism is not high on the agenda of large numbers of Trinity students, another institution might have happily embraced Tighe as their president.
Ronan’s canvassing returned a number of divergent verdicts on the candidates: Kelly is really loved by those who love him and not too popular with those who don’t, Dunne as the middle-of-the-road character with a less-polarised but ever-so-slightly smaller backing, and Tighe as the marooned activist.
Finally, with both Kelly and Dunne focussing on micro issues of student politics over the macro, an interesting clash between internship plans is emerging. Dunne has shown to this publication that he has the backing of academics and businesses for a Trinity-exclusive scheme of internships, while Kelly maintains that a course-integrated internship scheme can be implemented for large numbers of courses within Trinity’s academic system, questioning the benefit of involving big names at this stage and denying that such a scheme would lengthen a degree in which placement, fieldwork etc., are not already required.
Welfare
Andy Haughey yesterday unleased his Arts block ‘shiftmob’, which saw six or seven couples… well, shift to ‘Feel so Close’ by Calvin Harris. The move was meant to advocate a better SHAG Week and seems to have gone down fairly well. It was a brave stunt to pull off in the middle of peak traffic in the Arts block but that it has been featured on Trinity’s newest meme-related distraction site is testament enough.
Haughey did find himself in an awkward position while addressing an SF BESS lecture when a student accused him of falsifying information when he asked how many people in the class knew where the new counselling service was and gave a ball-park figure for the percent of students who had previously answered in the affirmative.
In response, he explained that class by class informal polling makes it difficult for him to keep real numeric figures for everything but the trend towards poor awareness has been consistent throughout college and is worrying. The class, according to BESS student and welfare correspondent Emma Tobin, was more sympathetic towards Haughey than the questioner.
Otherwise it was another day of campaign offensive in the arts block and Hamilton, with Haughey, Emma Walker, and the increasingly popular Aisling Ní Chonaire all happy with how their weeks have gone. The latter in particular seems to have copped on to the fantastic response Haughey had received for his one-to-one style and has benefited from her willingness to do so too. Walker’s ‘WALKER4WELFARE banner’ and business cards advertising welfare services also remain popular.
However, Walker has received criticism for her recent campaign video. The video addresses the issues of depression and mental health awareness. While largely inoffensive, one of the final shots in the video features the line, “Mental Health is a silent killer”. Clearly Walker meant that mental health is an issue which needs to be discussed if depression is to be tackled successfully, but the clumsy wording of the line has lead some students to send letters to UT, saying that they believe the video to show a lack of understanding in regard to mental health problems.
Generally, students to whom we have talked have wanted to discuss welfare before any other race. Not only does that tell me that this is the least clear-cut race, but it also indicates the huge level of campaign activity in this race.
Education & Communications
Dan Ferrick went to St. James’ and was well-received, bringing to an end a long week of lecture addresses, one-to-one campaigning and consistent Team Ferrick presence. This race has been unremarkable in terms of headlines and I’d imagine that Ferrick will be quite happy with that.
Just a quiet day campaigning for Hannah Cogan, Owen Bennett, and James Hagan today, with all three presumably exhausted from the all-out offensive of rhetoric launched in the earlier stages of the week. I may have seen more Cogan campaigners today than I have so far this week, but I also thought I saw the same girl campaigning in two places so perhaps this week is just getting to me. With little separating the three in terms of feedback sent our way, this energy-sapping communications crusade will have to continue right up until 4pm on Thursday.
President section by Ronan Richardson and Jack Leahy
