VOLUME xViI ISSUE 7
Ne quid false dicere audeat ne quid veri non audeat
18th January 2011
IRELAND’S AWARD-WINNING STUDENT NEWSPAPER
FEATURES
COMMENT
SCIENCE
The first in our series on mental health depression
Debate: Do your Students’ Union properly represent you?
A personal account of swine flu amid the new pandemic afflicting ireland
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Release of academic transcripts delayed amid backlog KATIE HUGHES
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lumni and students in UCD have recently experienced a delay in receiving their grade transcripts for postgraduate applications due to what appears to be a backlog in requests at the UCD registry. A final-year student who wishes to remain anonymous told The University Observer that when they phoned to obtain their transcripts in early December, were informed that it would be January at the earliest before their application would be processed. However, when they made further inquiries at the beginning of January, they were instructed to download a form that they would not be processed for at least three weeks. The student said: “This delay in the issuing of transcripts could have serious implications for my Masters application and I think the university could have been more prepared for it as it is well known that these transcripts are necessary for postgraduate courses.” Students who post on the popular internet forum site, boards.ie, appear to have encountered the same problem back in June. One student posted that the Student Desk said the process “would take 14 days, but that was over three weeks ago, so I presume there is a delay”. The final-year student insists “no communication was provided to final years as to how to obtain these transcripts – I just took a chance on the Student Desk and I was lucky”. Due to this lack of communication, students were unaware that transcripts could be obtained directly from the Services Desk, despite the possibility of waiting over an hour in the queue. There was widespread frustration as a result of these delays. According to one student: “It is all that is left to be submitted for my Masters applications for a course I desperately want in another university.” A UCD spokesperson stated: “Due to the volume of requests for transcripts, UCD Registry asks applicants to allow at least 14 working days for their request to be processed. The time taken to process an application is dependent on the number of requests pending at any one time.”
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Williamson receives death threats following exam cancellation
UCD DramSoc stage their annual Shakespeare Leaving Certificate play Hamlet. Photo: Catherine Gundry-Beck.
Amy Bracken News Editor
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tudents’ Union Education VicePresident James Williamson has spoken of how he received death threats in the aftermath of the decision to cancel the remaining exams from December 21st onwards due to heavy snow and dangerous transport conditions. Williamson received a backlash from students who were angry at the decision taken. Williamson told The University Observer: “I got a few death threats as well saying that I shouldn’t have cancelled them; that I shouldn’t have been in favour of cancelling the exams. I got close to 500 emails again say-
ing that I’d ruined people’s Christmas.” Having received in the region of 800 emails requesting cancellation on the evening of December 20th, Williamson called Registrar Dr Philip Nolan and informed him that the Students’ Union was wholly in support of cancellation. This decision was agreed upon in meeting between Dr Nolan, Head of Registry, Mr Kevin Griffin, and the Head of Assessment, Ms Jill O’ Mahoney, to postpone the remainder of the exams until after Christmas. The exam postponement was not the first time that the academic calendar had been hit by the bad weather. In the first week of December, UCD was shut down for over four days due to unusually heavy levels of snow
and treacherous driving conditions, as well as the cancellation of many major transport routes. An email circulated on the morning of Wednesday, December 1st specified that all buildings were to close at 12pm and that the campus should be evacuated by 2pm. Williamson explained that the decision was taken to create a contingency plan for the upcoming exams, in the case that they might be forced into cancellation: “When it snowed first, in late November, around that time that there were a few meetings held to discuss the possibility of having a contingency plan in place for exams.” Williamson also explained that the selected dates were necessary, as any further delay in rescheduling would result in the academic calendar being completely in
disarray. A small number of students missed or arrived late to exams on the morning of December 21st, but the number began to gradually increase as the day went on and the weather failed to improve. Williamson spoke of how he worked to answer students individually when the drama ensued: “By the end of the night I had about 800 emails and I stayed up all night to answer all emails. They were all emails saying I had to cancel the exams.” Despite the backlash that followed, Williamson stands firm by his decision: “It’s very clear in my mind that you couldn’t ask a student to go to an exam in those weather conditions so I was 100 per cent in favour of cancelling them.”
Ó’Broin steps down from USI U Bridget Fitzsimons
SI’s Deputy President Cónán Ó’Broin has announced that he will step down from his position within the Union of Students in Ireland. The decision is due to a job offer made to Ó’Broin over the Christmas period that would have led to “a very serious conflict of interest,” according to USI President Gary Redmond. Ó Broin confirmed on Sunday that he would be joining the campaign team of La-
bour party councillor Robert Dowds, who is standing in the general election in the Dublin Mid-West constituency. Redmond also stated: “It would be unacceptable for Cónán to continue in his current position given that he has been made an offer by a political party.” In a speech to USI National Council on Saturday January 15th, Ó’Broin stated “this was not an easy decision for me to make,” and that it was “in order to allow USI to conduct an unquestionably impartial General Election campaign which is entirely transparent”. He added that he has “very much en-
joyed my time in USI and that I am, and will continue to be, on the very best of terms with everyone who I have worked with in USI”. Redmond praised Ó’Broin, a former Trinity Students’ Union President, for his work within USI, saying “Cónán has been a great servant to the student movement over the past 18 months, particularly for USI.” He added: “From an officer board perspective, we wish Cónán the best of luck in his future endeavours and obviously we’ll be sad to see him go.” In light of Ó’Broin’s resignation, there
are no plans for a by-election. The reasons for this are, according to Redmond: “The convention is that if you’re more than half way through the year, the position won’t be refilled.” USI Officer Board will take over Ó’Broin’s responsibilities, with Redmond appointing an officer to act as deputy in the coming days: “In the interim, I will be taking over Cónán’s campaigning brief and later this week I will appoint one member of officer board to deputise.” In his speech, Ó’Broin praised Redmond, TCDSU President Nikolai Trigoub-Rotnem,
as well as the members of National Council “for creating what has so far been one of the most active years which the student movement in Ireland has ever had”. Redmond was keen to emphasise the workload ahead for USI, in light of the upcoming general election. He said: “USI will be having a huge campaign to represent the interests of our members encouraging our members and the general public to vote on education issues.” Ó’Broin will step down from his position this Friday, January 21st.