Student’s Union nominees declared

The list of final nominees announced byt he Student’s Union on Monday January 25:

 Strict campaigning rules mean that what follows is a cursory glance at some of the candidates: pick up our election special next issue for the full profile of every candidate.

Nominees for the Students’ Union sabbatical elections have been announced. Sunday week will see the beginning of a 3 week-long contest for the 2010-2011 titles of Education Officer, Welfare Officer, Entertianments Officer, Communications Officer and, of course, Students’ Union President. While a number of positions have only one or two candidates, many familiar names are competing for a place in the “ivory tower” of House 6, as named by Education nominee Jennifer Fox.
As ever, presidency of the Students’ Union is a highly sought after position, giving an individual a platform on a College-wide and even national level. The incumbent Conan O’Broin has campaigned on a number of issues, including the fight against fees and reduced Library services. Nikolai Trigoub-Rotnem aims to continue in the same light. “The main issue I’m concerned with is the Trinity Library, which has one of the worst opening hours in the country- I want to bring these up to the national average”, says the student in Engineering with Management, who also expressed a concern with sports funding and problems within the USI. Final year Natural Sciences student Fearghal Hughes tells Trinity News he wants a simpler grant process and better academic services. Hughes is running for President after being an events organiser, class representative and society co-ordinator, and is currently a Students’ Union executive. Fellow candidate Declan Harmon paints himself as an “outsider” in the campaign for presidency, describing himself as “the candidate for those who want to take back the Union so it works for all of us”. Harmon is currently involved in various community and voluntary groups.
Bringing some light-hearted conservatism to the presidential campaign is self-confessed Anglophile Dan Reilly, History and Political Science SF and founder of the Trinity Intellectual Traditionalist Society (TITS). Reilly proposes a statue be erected in Front Square of Edward Carson, cross-examining a “cowering” Oscar Wilde. His election manifesto stipulates TAP candidates should be “well groomed and proficient in Medieval Latin”, and that SHAG week should be replaced with “Courtship with her Father’s Permission’ week.
Competition for Entertainments is similarly fierce, as fellow JS BESS students Darragh Genockey and Keith Florea announce their nominations. Genockey describes himself as Mick Birmingham’s “second in command”, and has worked with Birmingham’s Ents team, along with being Social Secretary in DUBES and the Cancer Society. Florea has worked as a club promoter in Noize, Decadance, the Twisted Pepper and Warehouse Raves, and says “we need students getting a choice in music acts, outside of the Trinity Ball and Freshers’ Ball”. The second-year Engineer Conor O’Toole also intends to run, stating that his “main selling point is that he doesn’t do BESS”. O’Toole is a Sports Writer for The University Times, and is a fan of “free ents” and “an on-campus tea room”.
In a surprise nomination, current Welfare Officer Cormac Cashman decided to re-run for the same position. This is the first time a Students’ Union Officer has decided to run again in 6 years. At the time of going to print, it seems prospective nominees Ann-Maria McCarthy, Margaret Donnelly and Stephanie Fleming have dropped out in the face of the competition.
Tom Lowe is also in a one-horse race for Communications Officer, previously named Deputy President. He hopes to become editor of The University Times, the newspaper of the Students’ Union, and has worked as a Copy Editor and is currently Web Editor for Trinity News.
The position of Education Officer is going relatively unopposed, between Genetics student Jennifer Fox and Dave Preston, who ran as ‘joke’ candidate for the elections last year. Fox says her first years at Trinity were spent outside the “SU bubble”, and as such wishes to make the Students’ Union “accessible, approachable and accountable”. In a more radical campaign, Preston is insisting on “putting the Protestant back in Trinity”, arguing the College is a “bastion of Anglo-Saxonism”. He plans to introduce fees (“we are not Maynooth”), demolish the “paddy” Engineering building and create “more essays, uglier lecturers and more uncomfortable seats”.