I don’t like Thursdays. How the student vote has been silenced. by John Geraghty
The Government’s decision to stage the General Election on a Thursday had been much promoted, yet little debated. An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern cites a relatively low turnout for the 2002 General Election, which was held on a Friday, as the reason for this proposed date. The Government’s argument in favor of a Thursday ballot centre’s around the theory that many living in Ireland’s cities leave their home county on Friday evenings for weekend breaks and other excursions. By ensuring that the wealthier members of society, who can afford a rural holiday home or frequent breaks, are able to vote has a knock on effect of disenfranchising a far larger group of voters, Irish students living outside of their constituency. There are thousands of students attending Universities in counties other than their own, indeed Maynooth has students from as far a field as Donegal and Cork. As we well know, the May 24th Election occurs straight in the middle of summer examinations, the most crucial part of the College year. If one is aspiring to excel at their studies, it may well come to a decision between their academic record and their right to democratic participation. It is simply not an option for students to sit an examination, travel to their home county and return for another exam.
By holding the election on the 24th of May the Government have ensured a low youth turnout, thus furthering the political apathy of students and proving that the youth of this country are cut out of the democratic and decision making processes. Some would say that students tend not to vote, I say that they should at least be given the chance.
For those more conspiratorially minded among you, this could be seen as an intentional ploy by Fianna Fáil, who have not exactly endeared themselves to the student populace. Historically speaking, students tend to be a more radical demographic, giving their support to the Labour and Green Parties. The Green party were indeed the only party to make some noise about this issue, probably because they thought it likely that they would pick up a high proportion of the student vote. Bertie Ahern visited Maynooth last Friday, stopping off at the Manor Mills shopping centre, but he failed to stop into the largest point of congregation in Maynooth, the University. Obviously Mr.Ahern was wary of a hostile reception from disgruntled students, in fact several groups were trying to locate the Taoiseach to question him on his support for the proposed M3 motorway beside the Tara-Skryne valley following the find of what is described as a ‘national monument’.
The reaction from various students Unions and organisations has hardly been exemplary. The NUIM students Union circulated an email to all students last week informing them how to place themselves on the electoral register and how to use a postal vote. There was no mention of the Thursday poll in the Union of Students of Ireland’s 2006/2007 report, making membership of the body even less desirable. The argument could be made that the announcement of the election came too close to exams to mount any resistance, but it is a lack of foresight on behalf of student leadership that made it difficult to counteract the ballot date. Bertie Ahern’s contention that a Thursday ballot would be favorable to him has been well known since early March. Even though the average student at this point has little time to protest, it is incumbent upon those elected to represent students full time to take action. Most that were elected by the students of Ireland were seemingly unconcerned or unaware of the severity of the situation.
If you think that a minority of students will be affected by Thursday voting, here are the departments with exams on the 24th of May, Ancient Classics, Biology, Chemistry, Economics, English, Geography, Mathematical Physics, Mathematics, Music and Sociology, totaling 17 exams in all. On Friday 25th of May there are another 17 exams, affecting 11 departments, many of whom had exams the previous day. This is a huge amount of students who will be unable to vote.
Fianna Fáil were not alone in this neglect of the student vote, both Fine Gael and, surprisingly, Labour (they tend to pick up a large amount of student votes) were remarkably silent. If they do not want student votes then they shall not receive them. I feel fortunate that I have no exam on the 24th and that I live in my own constituency.
Through an abortive combination of Government disregard and the inaction of student groups we have ourselves a mountain to climb without a leadership that exerts any control or will to break with the status quo and do more than simply send a letter or petition. With the weather so fine and the political blood up, why was there no call to arms in late March or early April? The answer is that there is no body to coordinate all of these students unions, the USI being largely an ineffective body. There is unity of students within College boundaries, but no further. Is t not the idea of a Union to draw all members with common aims together to petition with feet and action? It will be another five years or so before students will be given the choice to choose their Government again, will it be a different scenario next time around? Only if there is a shift in student politics away from business and towards united activism.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Union fail to send award winners to BICS
NUI Maynooth came close to being unrepresented at the biggest national society event this year, it was revealed to the Advocate. The BICS (Board of Irish College Societies) awards are held at the end of every academic year. This year they were hosted by NUI Galway. Every college in Ireland is given the chance to send their best in each category to the awards to compete on a national level. The members this year included Trinity College Dublin; Dublin City University; National University of Ireland Galway; Universtiy College Cork; Queens University Belfast; National College Ireland; Dublin Institute of Technology; Cork IT; IT Tralee; Dundalk IT; IT Tallaght; Mary Immaculate College Limerick; University College Limerick and National University of Ireland Maynooth. The awards, according to this years Chairperson of BICS Ríona Hughes (NUIG), are about “bringing colleges together to celebrate the contribution that societies make to their institutions”. The catagories are the same as here in Maynooth: Best Poster; Best Website; Best Fresher; Best New Society; Best Individual; Most Improved Society; Best Event and Best Society, each category divided between Large and Small colleges. In previous years, the winner of each category here in Maynooth went on to represent the college in these awards and had gained a great reputation for their extra-curriclur activities. This reputation had been mentioned throughout many of the speeches given at the NUIM Clubs and Socs awards, and was linked to being the cause of the huge rise in CAO applications by Student Activities Officer, Ian Russell among others.
This year the Student’s Union of Maynooth did not intend to send any representatives from NUI Maynooth to these prestigious awards. The President of the Best Society 2007, Leona Nally, was taken aside after recieving the award and told very discretely that the application had not been sent by the Union and so they were not able to go on to the National Awards. This applied for all the societies here in Maynooth and so there would be no representatives for the college at the awards. A committee member of the DramaSoc who is highly involved in intervarsity events through ISDA contacted the societies officer at NUI Galway at midnight on Tuesday to get him to “pull some strings”. No other winner of an award was able to make this call and so three members of the Drama Society were the only representatives for Maynooth this year, compared to the large crowds who showed up to support the likes of DCU and DIT etc.
The three Maynooth Students received a very warm welcome at BICS. They spent two hours of the bus journey to Galway on the phone to the webmaster Paul Killoran, who assisted them in filling out the application form. ‘Their story’ was told to the room by the Chief Adjuicator Brian Gormley after the dinner and the entire room gave a cheer of support. One of the representatives remarked “It’s just such a shame we couldn’t get this level of support from our own Union”. Another disgruntled union member told the Advocate that they felt “the amount of hard work and dedication that many members of the student body put into their societies has been belittled by the bad organisation of the Union resulting in them not being able to compete on a national level.”
“Maynooth has a great name nationwide for its extra-curricular activities. Having three Maynooth Students at the BICS awards this year was a shock to many of the other colleges as they are used to seeing a much higher level of representation of our college.” For such a small college, the size of our clubs and societies goes to show that the majority of students do get involved on some level, and many who do take their involvement very seriously. For these people, to have their opportunity to represent their college taken away is very disheartening and would certainly not encourage such dedication and enthusiasm in the future.
A complaint was brought up at Clubs and Socs council last week and Ian Russell explained to the room that the venue was booked for the Maynooth Clubs and Socs Awards before they were told of the date for BICS, and it was not possible to change the date. He apologised to the winners for this major mistake, which he accepted as being most definitely not the first this year. He claimed that the best he could do, was to promise there would be better systems in place to prevent such a disaster in the future.
This year the Student’s Union of Maynooth did not intend to send any representatives from NUI Maynooth to these prestigious awards. The President of the Best Society 2007, Leona Nally, was taken aside after recieving the award and told very discretely that the application had not been sent by the Union and so they were not able to go on to the National Awards. This applied for all the societies here in Maynooth and so there would be no representatives for the college at the awards. A committee member of the DramaSoc who is highly involved in intervarsity events through ISDA contacted the societies officer at NUI Galway at midnight on Tuesday to get him to “pull some strings”. No other winner of an award was able to make this call and so three members of the Drama Society were the only representatives for Maynooth this year, compared to the large crowds who showed up to support the likes of DCU and DIT etc.
The three Maynooth Students received a very warm welcome at BICS. They spent two hours of the bus journey to Galway on the phone to the webmaster Paul Killoran, who assisted them in filling out the application form. ‘Their story’ was told to the room by the Chief Adjuicator Brian Gormley after the dinner and the entire room gave a cheer of support. One of the representatives remarked “It’s just such a shame we couldn’t get this level of support from our own Union”. Another disgruntled union member told the Advocate that they felt “the amount of hard work and dedication that many members of the student body put into their societies has been belittled by the bad organisation of the Union resulting in them not being able to compete on a national level.”
“Maynooth has a great name nationwide for its extra-curricular activities. Having three Maynooth Students at the BICS awards this year was a shock to many of the other colleges as they are used to seeing a much higher level of representation of our college.” For such a small college, the size of our clubs and societies goes to show that the majority of students do get involved on some level, and many who do take their involvement very seriously. For these people, to have their opportunity to represent their college taken away is very disheartening and would certainly not encourage such dedication and enthusiasm in the future.
A complaint was brought up at Clubs and Socs council last week and Ian Russell explained to the room that the venue was booked for the Maynooth Clubs and Socs Awards before they were told of the date for BICS, and it was not possible to change the date. He apologised to the winners for this major mistake, which he accepted as being most definitely not the first this year. He claimed that the best he could do, was to promise there would be better systems in place to prevent such a disaster in the future.
Changes to Constitution overturned
by Margaret O'Reilly
The Students Union Constitution went to referendum during the recent student elections. The constitution was overturned under Article 15.1 of the document. Article 15.1 states that "All amendments to the constitution shall require a) At least ten days notice on University noticeboards
b) Notice at a minimum of one Union Council meeting of both the intention and form of the amendments.
c) Notification of the same to be conveyed in writing to the Guardianship of the Constitution."
The Constitution details the aims and objectives of the Students Union in Maynooth and how these aims and objectives are to be achieved. The Union Executive Officer board, the structure of the Union Counci, membership of the Union and the rights and obligations of staff and members are also detailed in the document.
The Student Union Constitution was to become effective after 12:01 pm on the day following confirmation of the March 8th referendum and would supercede and revoke all previous constitutions of the Students Union. The fact that the referendum was overturned means that the voters were not properly informed of what was going to referendum. A copy of the proposed referendum has been made available on the Student Union website http://www.nuimsu.com but perhaps these results show that this was not enough. Perhaps copies of the drafted Constitution should have been made more readily available to students of the university so that the voters would be better informed on the day of the election.
If the student body had been more aware of what they were voting for, perhaps the outcome would have been different. These results show taht a copy of the constitution posted on the website obviously isn't enough to inform the body of students of the constitution and what it contains.
The Students Union Constitution went to referendum during the recent student elections. The constitution was overturned under Article 15.1 of the document. Article 15.1 states that "All amendments to the constitution shall require a) At least ten days notice on University noticeboards
b) Notice at a minimum of one Union Council meeting of both the intention and form of the amendments.
c) Notification of the same to be conveyed in writing to the Guardianship of the Constitution."
The Constitution details the aims and objectives of the Students Union in Maynooth and how these aims and objectives are to be achieved. The Union Executive Officer board, the structure of the Union Counci, membership of the Union and the rights and obligations of staff and members are also detailed in the document.
The Student Union Constitution was to become effective after 12:01 pm on the day following confirmation of the March 8th referendum and would supercede and revoke all previous constitutions of the Students Union. The fact that the referendum was overturned means that the voters were not properly informed of what was going to referendum. A copy of the proposed referendum has been made available on the Student Union website http://www.nuimsu.com but perhaps these results show that this was not enough. Perhaps copies of the drafted Constitution should have been made more readily available to students of the university so that the voters would be better informed on the day of the election.
If the student body had been more aware of what they were voting for, perhaps the outcome would have been different. These results show taht a copy of the constitution posted on the website obviously isn't enough to inform the body of students of the constitution and what it contains.
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