Aoife Bennett Elected TCDSU Welfare and Equality Officer

Adam Potterton Junior Editor

Aoife Bennett has been elected Welfare and Equality Officer of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) on the first count.

Bennett received 1,342 votes from a total valid poll of 1,511, amounting to 89 per cent of the vote. There were 169 votes to re-open nominations.

Bennett’s successful campaign was founded on a wealth of knowledge and experience, having served previously as Welfare Officer with JCR and on the welfare committee with the TCDSU.

In her campaign, Bennett managed to strike a balance between both parts of the role, saying that she would be there to assist in individual student welfare, while also striving to improve the college experience for all students.

This desire to work for all students was encapsulated in her emphasis on off-campus locations. Bennett wants to see more events run in locations such as James’s and Trinity Hall, and to increase the SU’s presence there to make sure that students know that the Union works for everyone. Sexual health was another of Bennett’s key manifesto points. It is her goal to expand the free product period initiative, and to lobby for it as a national policy. She also aims to re-establish consent workshop, as well as improve sex ed during Fresher’s Week.

Over the course of her campaign, Bennett always greatly emphasised collaboration as the best way to make positive change. It is clear that in this role, she intends to be a voice for all students.

Catherine Arnold Elected TCDSU Education Officer

Adam Potterton

Junior Editor

Catherine Arnold has been elected Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Education Officer for the 2023/24 academic year.

They were elected on the first count and received some 1,254 votes out of a possible 1,526, making up 82 per cent of the vote. Some 272 students voted to reopen nominations (RON).

Running uncontested for the race, Arnold saw a very quiet campaign and succesfully held her own in Hustings across the campaign period.

Speaking on the announcement of their vic - tory, Arnold said: “Thank you to the EC for all their hard work and to my wonderful campaign team, it’s been really fantastic”. They joked about not being prepared, saying “I really didn’t expect this, I wish I’d planned this better” and then gave a “shout out to [their] parents who are sitting in the corner”.

Introducing themselves at the Dining Hall Hustings as someone who enjoys “baking, crochet and long-term policy”, they described the Education Officer as “the memory and foresight of the union”.

Long-term policy quickly became a theme of their campaign, with a strong

Ailbhe Noonan Editor

László Molnárfi has been elected as President of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) for the 2023/24 academic year.

Molnárfi was elected on the first count and received a staggering 1,059 votes out of a possible 1,867 – a total of 57 per cent of the vote. Tilly Schaaf and Zöe Cummins, the other two candidates, received 431 and 279 votes respectively.

Speaking after the announcement, Molnárfi said: “Thank you so much to everybody and my campaign team, I would like to give a special shout out to my campaign managers and everyone who voted for me”.

“This is only the beginning of the process”, Molnárfi continued. “Now we will begin the process to bring the union back to grass roots.”

A third-year PPES student and the current Social Sciences and Philosophy (SSP) Convenor for TCDSU, Molnárfi focused his campaign on a return to grassroots initiatives and radical action on behalf of students. Introducing himself from the beginning as wanting “a movement that recognises that change doesn’t come from individuals on committees but from collective action on the ground”, he continued to press home this message across campaigning and Hustings.

Speaking to this newspaper on why he decided to run, Molnárfi stated that he had “seen countless times when students were let down by the Union but our Union simply refused to engage, instead focusing on performativity and posturing”.

“What we can do is turn the Union back and bring it back to the grassroots. That’s my style of working that I adopted in my dealings as SSP convenor and equally as chairperson of students4change where we ran many campaigns”, he explained.

Molnárfi added at the time that his main goal, if elected, would be to set up a food bank. “I can talk to you about campaigns, and that’s what I will do, but what I want is a practical idea.”

“We have a duty to support students and their wellbeing and when we are constantly under attack, we only have ourselves. Setting up a food bank is an act of mutual aid and through it we can alleviate the cost of living crisis”, he explained focus on decolonising the curriculum and efforts to pursue and implement fair postgraduate representation across college and better working rights for postgraduate researchers.

When asked about the possible relationship between the Postgraduate Workers’ Organisation (PWO) and TCDSU, they said: “I don’t want to integrate the PWO into the Union, the plan is to integrate two part-time officers on a sabbatical level”.

Constitutional reform also shaped a major part of their campaign, with Arnold describing it as their favourite point on their manifesto at Welfare and Equality Hustings