FREE STUDENT NEWSPAPER
VOL 14, ISSUE 11
18 MAR 2013
Higgins for Welfare, Breslin for Education and Kearns for President in recent SU Elections By Jessica Thompson The recent Students’ Union elections saw three students elected to office for next year’s SU on Friday 8 March. Catherine Breslin was the first to be elected and will be taking up the position of Vice President for Education. “I’m elated. I definitely can’t believe it; it’s a total shock,” she said after being elected. She added; “It was the friendliest election ever. I don’t think there were any bad
feelings between anybody. It came down so close in the end but I couldn’t be happier.” Recalling the tension of the count, Catherine referred to the experience as “horrific” and said she was shaking, and didn’t want to know how it was going until the results were announced. Speaking about her campaign team, she said; “I owe every single thing to them. There was 198 in my campaign team and every single person did something for me. They were out in their red t-shirts absolutely covering the
place. I couldn’t have done it without them. It was a very well-run campaign.” There were three counts in total for the VicePresident for Education position. RON and Conor Nolan were eliminated in the first count, followed by Mark Kelly and Kevin Kennedy in the second count. This left Catherine Breslin and Thomas McConigley in the final count, though Catherine had been ahead in the race from the beginning. In the end Catherine won with a total of 1,637 votes – only 87 votes ahead of Thomas.
After the count, Thomas McConigley said that he was delighted he got so far, considering very few people had known who he was a few days earlier. Later that day, Declan Higgins was elected VicePresident for Welfare, following a tense count. After the first count, RON and J.D. Kiely were eliminated, followed by Patrick Clancy in the second count. Saoirse Nic A’Bhaird was eliminated in count number three, followed by Claire McCallion in the fourth count. This left Cathal O’Hagan and Declan Higgins,
Win tickets to the Galway Arts Festival.
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Trinity students roam globe for Jailbreak fundraiser.
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Are student elections a farce?
What does your lipstick 18 say about you? The Whales
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A Portrait of the Artist
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Film Reviews
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Healthy Recipe
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Carter knocks out Higgins on day of shocks in Galway
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though Declan was the clear favourite to win. The end result was 1,602 votes to Declan and 1,435 to Cathal, deeming Declan the new Welfare Officer. “I’m absolutely de lighted; it’s been such an experience with all my friends and campaign
Your 2013/2014 Students’ Union full-time Officers are Catherine Breslin for Education, Sean Kearns for President, and Declan Higgins for Welfare.
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team and the other candidates over the course of the week. It’s been tiring and difficult, but thank god I got through in the end,” Declan said after the results were a nnounced. Continued on Page 2…
Student raises €905 for Student Assistance Fund By Joyce Fahy An NUI Galway student has recently had his hair dyed and shaved to raise money for the Student Assistance Fund. With increasing fees and decreasing part-time job opportunities, the Student Assistance Fund is a huge help to many student’s lives. The SAF provides a further source of funding for students in addition to the
grant and to post-graduate students who are no longer eligible for the maintenance grant. Patrick Clancy, a final year arts student was often asked by friends to grow an afro so he decided to go for it this year and said to himself; ‘”why not put it to good use?” He grew his afro for the “first time ever” this year, bleached it and then shaved it. He raised €905 in total, all of which will go
to students availing of the Student Assistance Fund. His fundraising campaign began a few weeks ago. It modestly consisted of one bucket and stall located at Smokey’s café and in Árqs na Mac Léinn, on the Tuesday and Thursday of two weeks. The dying event took place on Monday February 25 in the college bar. The student who donated the most was allowed to choose the colour of his hair.
“It was supposed to go white blonde but it went ginger,” he chuckled, adding that he even bought an afro comb to manage his hair. This was followed by a shaving event on Tuesday March 5. “Nobody around me thought I’d raise more than €300. To raise treble that amount was definitely brilliant,” he said. Continued on page 2…
The SU Charity Skydive raised more than €8,000 for Pieta House and Age Action, the two charities the Students’ Union chose to support.