University Volume 22 | Issue Nine | Tuesday 12th March 2019
Express UCCExpress.ie
position has been raised within the Student’s Union and is more or less seen as being on-par with full time sabbatical roles within the committee. The pay awarded to the Ents Officer had also been raised to be more comparable with other colleagues. The referendum was therefore all but a formality and this was evidently supported by the polls. 75% of students indicated prior to the elections that they were in favour of allocating a full time role to Entertainments Officer and this turned out to be an extremely accurate poll. Official results showed that 76% of students backed the referendum with just 22.4% voting no.
UCC Votes ‘Yes’ to Five Referenda
L
ast Thursday following a long day of counting in the Student Centre, it was discovered that UCC students had voted for ‘yes’ votes in all five referenda during this year’s week of Students’ Union elections. Earlier last week, the University Express’ ‘Straw Poll’ indicated that all five questions posed to students would pass, but it was later revealed that there was some deviation in the margin of victory in a view cases.
sought for the increase to the capitation fee in order to establish and equip more common rooms around campus, while resources to student media in the University would also improve. This would see the current sum paid by all students of €165 increase by €5 to a total of €170. Of the respondents to the ‘straw poll’, 65% of students supported the referendum, while just under 8% of voters were undecided. The actual The first item on the ballot paper results showed that while there
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was still a relatively strong vote in favour of ‘yes’, this dropped to 60% approval, with 38% voting against. The passing of this now means that student capitation fees will rise to €170 from September 2019. The second round of counting involved analysing results in relation to the position of the Entertainments Officer. Students were asked whether they believed that the role of Ents Officer should be made full time. In recent years the status of the
The closest of all the referenda was seen in the third stage of counting, which referred to gender neutrality. Students were asked if they supported a change to the UCC SU’s Constitution which would see the use of he/she replaced by the gender neutral pronoun of ‘they’. It was argued that replacing the wording to ‘they’ would be more inclusive for students who do not identify as male or female. It was thought that a ‘yes’ vote would romp home to victory and that the ‘straw poll’ results were underselling the margin of victory. The poll showed that 58% of students supported the change, Story Continued on page 4
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Student SPECIAL 14” LARGE CHEESE PIZZA + 3 TOPPINGS
€10
T&C: *UP to 3 toppings. please mention offer when ordering. only valid with student id. not vaild with any other offer. valid for a limited time only and at participating stores.
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Page 39 Sport