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ELECTRIC SIX & ARDAL O’HANLON
Government retracts financial backing of Sutherland School of Law
Ents Officer causes disturbance during SU-funded hotel stay BY JON HOZIER-BYRNE · EDITOR
UCD Students’ Union Ents Officer Stephen Darcy caused a disturbance in the Radisson Blu St. Helen’s Hotel after vacating the LMFAO performance in the Student Bar on November 7th. According to invoices from the hotel in the possession of the University Observer, the two rooms Mr. Darcy and an SU associate stayed in were booked under the names of Darcy and SU Events and Logistics Coordinator, Paul Kilgallon, and both rooms were billed to the Students’ Union. According to the Radisson’s Night Duty Manager’s report from the night in question, Darcy was found by the Night Duty Manager after causing a disturbance in the hotel’s corridors. The Night Duty Manager approached Darcy, who was initially hostile, before being led back to his room. According to the hotel, a number of minor complaints were made by clients of the hotel the next morning regarding the disturbance. Both rooms were booked with an SU credit card on the day of the performance, under the names of Darcy and Kilgallon. According to Kilgallon, “two rooms were booked for LMFAO, to use at their discretion. They used them for shower purposes before the gig. These two rooms were paid for and would have been left idle on the night. I decided to reward one of my staff members who lived two hours away with a room to ensure that he got a good night’s sleep – otherwise he was sleeping in a car. There were no other cases like that of the working crew on the day, and if there were, they would have been staying in the second room. Because no-one else needed the second room, it was agreed upon that Stephen would use it, as he had worked a long day as well.” According to Kilgallon, the rooms were booked in his and Darcy’s name due to the Radisson’s internal policies; “The Radisson, whenever
we’re booking rooms in the past, insist on one name per room ... I’ve tried to book two rooms under my name, they wouldn’t accept it.” When asked why the rooms were booked on the day, SU President Pat de Brún remarked, “Their manager requested it in the afternoon ... At the request of the band, they wanted shower and changing facilities. We provided them in the Radisson Hotel. They hadn’t intended on staying there, because they had to go to Wales immediately after the gig, but we had to make the rooms available for them. They used them, they were there for several hours. As far as I’m aware, Stephen and someone else stayed there afterwards, but the room was empty, it was free and it was legitimately booked and paid for by the Union.” De Brún added; “I’m hugely disappointed to hear any disturbance was caused by an SU representitive, especially when it was an SU booking ... I think the whole incident was very regrettable, and I’ll be taking steps to make sure nothing like this could happen again.” Darcy remarked on the incident, “If people think I set a bad example, I’m really sorry. I do apologise for that – I just didn’t really think at the time that [staying in the rooms] was an issue. I wouldn’t have accepted a room if it was paid for the SU for me, not a chance, I wouldn’t do it. I wasn’t taking advantage, the room was there and paid for, and maybe it was naïve on my part.” With regards to the disturbance caused on the night, Darcy concluded, “Maybe a few drinks mixed with a hard day’s work and no sleep for the previous forty-eight hours might have led us to be a little bit noisy, which may have warranted a noise complaint ... I hope it doesn’t set a bad example, and it’s certainly not in my character to put myself in situations like that.”
BY KATIE HUGHES · NEWS EDITOR
A photo from the PleaseTalk candlelit vigil which took place on Tuesday 8th November in remembrance of students who died by suicide. For the full news story see page two. Photographer: David Nowak
The UCD Sutherland School of Law, which is currently under construction, the Confucius Institute and the Graduate Medical School project will no longer be receiving state support after a scaling back of exchequer funding was announced last week. The anticipated state funding for these developments was approximately €15 million. A UCD spokesperson expressed disappointment at the news from the Department of Education, “while this announcement is disappointing, particularly in relation to the UCD Sutherland School of Law, where substantial private donations have already been pledged, the University is committed to doing everything possible to ensure the project goes ahead – despite the difficult circumstances”. Dean of Law, Prof. Colin Scott, stated that despite the dissatisfying news from the Government, “UCD Sutherland School of Law is an excellent project and the University is fully committed to proceeding with it”. The Government has also withdrawn state support from the DIT Grangegorman project, which aimed to relocate the thirtynine buildings DIT currently utilise to one seventy-three-acre campus. Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn told the Irish Times that “unfortunately, in relation to DIT’s Grangegorman campus development, exchequer infrastructure investment will be postponed for the lifetime of the investment framework and planning will take place towards an initial public private partnership project, for possible completion in 2017”. The Department of Education was allocated a yearly sum of €440 million for capital projects over the next five years. According to Mr. Quinn, the cuts were made due to the increase in birth rates, which put a high demand on schools, the building of which would have to be prioritised. The Government confirmed its €60 million commitment to the UCD Science Centre, NUI Maynooth’s library project, the University of Limerick Medical School and the new campus development at St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra on the basis that “legally binding contractual commitments exist”.
Fees and grants campaign costs estimated at €10,000 BY KATE ROTHWELL · DEPUTY EDITOR
UCD Students’ Union Campaigns and Communications Officer Brendan Lacey has indicated that this year’s fees and grants campaign will cost approximately half of what was allocated to the 2010/2011 campaign. Twenty thousand euro was allocated to the campaign in last year’s SU budget, and while Lacey could not confirm “if they ever spent that much or not” he estimates that this year’s campaign should cost “probably half that”. A ‘town hall’ meeting held as part of the campaign on the 3rd November
drew the attendance of “around a hundred and sixty to two hundred” people. Lacey admitted that the turnout “wasn’t what I wanted it to be” and commented that the timing of the meeting, which was held on a Thursday evening, might have affected the numbers, but maintained that he was “still happy with it … it just gives us that little motivation, that we have to step it up again”. Lacey also spoke of how one response to the ‘Tell Your TD’ campaign, from Fine Gael TD Eoghan Murphy, “confirms that the Government are planning to put up fees and to drop the
maintenance grant”. Lacey explained how Murphy described the governmental financial situation regarding funding for third level education. “In plain terms, he said we can’t afford a loan or graduate scheme at the moment and that’s why the alternative or the interim solution is the increase in the student contribution fee and due to our finances we will also have to cut the maintenance grant budget.” Despite this, Lacey remains confident about the outcome of both tomorrow’s march and the overall campaign. “I really do think the campaign’s going to pay off and I’m
really hopeful about the result we’re going to get out of it”. Further cuts to third level education were confirmed this weekend, as a government proposal to abolish all maintenance grants for postgraduate students was revealed in the Sunday Business Post. The proposal was described by Union of Students in Ireland (USI) President Gary Redmond as a move that Education Minister Ruairi Quinn “simply must re-consider”. Both Redmond and Lacey anticipate a large turnout at tomorrow’s ‘Stop Fees, Save the Grant’ protest, with Redmond
predicting that over one hundred and fifty buses will bring protesters from all over the country to Dublin on the day. Lacey remarked that he expects a larger turnout of UCD students than were present at last year’s march; “I think we could get more numbers out than we did last year, which I didn’t think would happen when we first sat down to plan this campaign”. Regarding the sleepout, which is due to take place at Molesworth Street after the march, he emphasised that it would be a “strictly no alcohol event”, and stated that both the Gardai and an event management company would be on-site.