ULSU Sabbat Elections 2016

wnolan1992

So nominations close today I believe, with campaign week next week, Hustings Wednesday and election on Thursday.

Anyone know of anyone who's running this year?

iLaura

wnolan1992 wrote: »

So nominations close today I believe, with campaign week next week, Hustings Wednesday and election on Thursday.

Anyone know of anyone who's running this year?

Actually haven't heard anything first hand about elections this year. I know a friend of mine was considering running for a Sabbat position, but don't know if they decided to go ahead with it.

A person I know that sits on exec did tell me that there's a few 'big' SU names going for it.

wnolan1992

I'm a bit surprised that an announcement of the candidates hasn't been made yet... Doesn't it usually come on the Friday of RAG Week?

I know one person running for President, but other than that I've heard nothing. I miss the days when this forum would have had a thread with like 10 pages of rumours by now. :pac:

I wonder will John Cambridge run this time? :P

iLaura

wnolan1992 wrote: »

I'm a bit surprised that an announcement of the candidates hasn't been made yet... Doesn't it usually come on the Friday of RAG Week?

I know one person running for President, but other than that I've heard nothing. I miss the days when this forum would have had a thread with like 10 pages of rumours by now. :pac:

I wonder will John Cambridge run this time? :P

I know that the deadline was 5pm today to hand in everything, and then Liz has to go through each and every signature to make sure that the signature holder is actually a member of UL. So, depending on how long that takes it could be awhile yet before the announcment is made.

Haha, I like how it was suggested last year that I was a possible person running for election :pac: After all the hassle he got before, I doubt it!

iLaura

Nominees are up! Cant say I'm surprised there's an education student up for each position!

wnolan1992

President
Sarah Dunphy, 4th Yr, Physical Education and Irish
Stephen Egan O’Neill, 4th Yr, Marketing & Entrepreneurship
Joe Kearney, 3rd Yr, Politics & Public Admin
DP Welfare
Lydia Doody, 4th Yr, Languages Education
Tessa Kingston, 4th Yr, Psychology & Sociology
Vincent Marrinan, 4th Yr, BA Joint Honours
Caolan O’Donnell, 4th Yr, Business
Eoghan Stafford, 4th Yr, Physical Education
VP Academic
Donal Foley, 4th Yr, Mechanical Engineering
Micheál O’Shea, 4th Yr, Physical Education
Aaron Young, 4th Yr, Applied Physics

Well, I know none of them. :pac:

louloumc89

Very surprised there's not more chat around this yet! I'm on one of the campaign teams, that person is the only one I know on the whole list though! Graduated a few weeks ago myself officially, kind of wish I'd ran for PSU myself! Should be a fun week, never been involved in a campaign before

Why are you not surprised about the Education students, are there always some going for sabbats?

The Moldy Gowl

wnolan1992 wrote: »

I'm a bit surprised that an announcement of the candidates hasn't been made yet... Doesn't it usually come on the Friday of RAG Week?

I know one person running for President, but other than that I've heard nothing. I miss the days when this forum would have had a thread with like 10 pages of rumours by now. :pac:

I wonder will John Cambridge run this time? :P

Rumours and shills and trolls.

The good ol days. The reason I joined boards.

iLaura

louloumc89 wrote: »

Why are you not surprised about the Education students, are there always some going for sabbats?

A lot of past sabbats have been education students.

See that Colin is appealing?

wnolan1992

iLaura wrote: »

A lot of past sabbats have been education students.

See that Colin is appealing?

Saw that alright. I wish him the best, if it comes down to a simple missing signature I really don't see the problem in letting him run tbh.

As I said on his status on FB, it's the SU, not the EU, people need to calm down a bit about bureaucratic stuff like this IMO.

Can't see it being over-turned though, most people involved in the SU seem to think it's way more important than it actually is (and I include my 2nd year self in that cohort, before I realised life was too short :P)

iLaura

wnolan1992 wrote: »

Saw that alright. I wish him the best, if it comes down to a simple missing signature I really don't see the problem in letting him run tbh.

As I said on his status on FB, it's the SU, not the EU, people need to calm down a bit about bureaucratic stuff like this IMO.

Can't see it being over-turned though, most people involved in the SU seem to think it's way more important than it actually is (and I include my 2nd year self in that cohort, before I realised life was too short :P)

From what I've heard from people on the ERB there was a page not filled in. I think it was the declaration page or something

wnolan1992

iLaura wrote: »

From what I've heard from people on the ERB there was a page not filled in. I think it was the declaration page or something

Mhm. To me, that should be something that they could just have said "Ah here, he clearly just overlooked this, we'll get him in to sign it and before we announce the candidates, be grand." It'd be different if not enough people had signed it, or he'd missed the deadline to submit or whatever...

It does raise a different point though, why does it always seem to be the Friday when the candidates submit forms? In past years there's always been a few doing a mad rush getting signatures on the Friday. I'd just have it ready to go on the Monday tbh. :P

andanotherthing

Best of luck to all involved. I know it takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there. Look forward to reading the manifestos

Midkemia

Some of the manifestos state that they're going to introduce consent classes, do people feel like this is an issue around UL?

MrAndyCapp

Midkemia wrote: »

Some of the manifestos state that they're going to introduce consent classes, do people feel like this is an issue around UL?

Consent has become a viral media topic recently and that's the only reason I can guess that they'd suggest classes. I've yet to hear of any consent issues around UL and this is my 5th year here.

Maybe a simple 15 minute talk during orientation would do the job instead of classes though ?

wnolan1992

Shameless Plug 1/3

ULFM are doing debates between the candidates this week. Today was Welfare, you can listen back to it here

Tomorrow at 1 is the Academic candidates.
Wednesday at 2 is Presidential candidates.
Wednesday at 6 will be a live broadcast of Hustings for anyone who can't be there in person.

iLaura

From going around Raisins today and talking to the candidates, there's a few points that really stand out to me.

I completely agree with Joe's stance on the parking issue, and something like a monthly pass would work really well, imo, but only if it guaranteed you parking. Love the idea of training students up in waiting tables and bar tending. It's a surprisingly difficult thing to get into if you have no experience.

Apparently Sarah Dunphy's campaign wasn't passed by the ERB which is why she hasn't really been around much today. Though she did make a little speech at the start of our education lecture today to get her name out.

Aaron, who is going for academic, has a really good team behind him, from talking to them today. His main points are lower repeat fees, more punctual buses, better IT support (which is badly needed in some cases), and more additional classes from support centres. If he can promise to get support tutorials during college hours instead of after 6pm he'd definitely be getting my vote anyways!

I'm a bit stuck on who to vote for for welfare. Lydia's team are really informative and charasmatic, but I'd be stuck between her and Eoghan Stafford

Cadroc

From looking at the campaigns thus far, there's a lot of commonly used buzz words from over the years.

On Welfare, Kelly O'Brien ran her campaign with the idea of bringing in the Niteline that Caolan wants to bring in. I remember there being difficulties around it at the time, and DCU had their issues but it's something I'd like to see looked at.

The idea of quality food services.. Was that not one of Shane McCormacks plans from a few years back that was ready to implement. Healthy fresh food delivered a week, and recipes on how to cook it? I know the idea is about eating out on busy days, but in the real world you will most likely have to learn to manage your time better. Working 6 hours a day is actually less than people work the following year. The idea seems to be quite poorly thought out with regards to cost. Mark rightly pointed it out on ULFM's interview. Eoghan seemed to be flaffing in his responses.

A frequent argument is regarding the poor campaigns. Surely something that could be looked into would be bringing back a campaigns & services officer? Someone whose job is to promote these services, and run these campaigns.

Lydia's argument about being on Erasmus isn't something I've heard of before. They were fantastic when I was on Erasmus, and I know that others would have the same view of them. It's just a matter of getting in contact with them. The CoOp office though... They've notoriously been poor.

Tessa seems to have some great ideas to be fair, love the idea with LOVE festival, and the idea of the mindfulness walks etc. Her ideas seem to be most likely to be implemented, and understand the limitations of the position.

She'd have my number 1 I reckon, but have yet to read Lydia, and Vincent's manifestos. Haven't seen them online.

I'll probably comment on the Academic or Presidents seperately once I listen to the debates.

wnolan1992

Cadroc wrote: »

A frequent argument is regarding the poor campaigns. Surely something that could be looked into would be bringing back a campaigns & services officer? Someone whose job is to promote these services, and run these campaigns.

Ssshhh! Don't mention CSO or Communications Officer. There was absolutely no detrimental affect to the SU when those positions were removed. After all, they were redundant positions, and were NOT removed to save money, it was just they weren't required.

wnolan1992

Shameless Plug 2/3

ULFM's Academic Debate: https://www.mixcloud.com/ULFM/ulsu-elections-2016-academic-candidates/

Jester252

So is anyone running with the old chestnut of.

"Vote for me I was never involved in the union, therefore I am not part of the problem".

louloumc89

Cadroc wrote: »

From looking at the campaigns thus far, there's a lot of commonly used buzz words from over the years.

On Welfare, Kelly O'Brien ran her campaign with the idea of bringing in the Niteline that Caolan wants to bring in. I remember there being difficulties around it at the time, and DCU had their issues but it's something I'd like to see looked at.

The idea of quality food services.. Was that not one of Shane McCormacks plans from a few years back that was ready to implement. Healthy fresh food delivered a week, and recipes on how to cook it? I know the idea is about eating out on busy days, but in the real world you will most likely have to learn to manage your time better. Working 6 hours a day is actually less than people work the following year. The idea seems to be quite poorly thought out with regards to cost. Mark rightly pointed it out on ULFM's interview. Eoghan seemed to be flaffing in his responses.

A frequent argument is regarding the poor campaigns. Surely something that could be looked into would be bringing back a campaigns & services officer? Someone whose job is to promote these services, and run these campaigns.

Lydia's argument about being on Erasmus isn't something I've heard of before. They were fantastic when I was on Erasmus, and I know that others would have the same view of them. It's just a matter of getting in contact with them. The CoOp office though... They've notoriously been poor.

Tessa seems to have some great ideas to be fair, love the idea with LOVE festival, and the idea of the mindfulness walks etc. Her ideas seem to be most likely to be implemented, and understand the limitations of the position.

She'd have my number 1 I reckon, but have yet to read Lydia, and Vincent's manifestos. Haven't seen them online.

I'll probably comment on the Academic or Presidents seperately once I listen to the debates.

Good insight! Nice to see that you've done so much research. I'm on one of the campaign teams, and we made the executive decision to stay away from all social medias discussing nominations, but I heard today that boards was actually really nice this year. Which is so nice to hear.

I think that the same issues come up again and again. People rarely follow through on their promises. But those promises, as I've been telling people, are only a portion of the job. There's still a full time job in place that they have to be able to do, on top of the promises. I hope people see that and vote for the person that they think can do the job, not just the biscuit that the candidates promise if you get me.

wnolan1992

Final Shameless Plug

Our Hustings recordings (features a cameo from me, woo!) split up by position because it lasted for about six years.

Academic: https://www.mixcloud.com/ULFM/ulsu-elections-2016-hustings-academic-candidates/
Welfare: https://www.mixcloud.com/ULFM/ulsu-elections-2016-hustings-welfare-candidates/
President: https://www.mixcloud.com/ULFM/ulsu-elections-2016-hustings-president-candidates/

OPINION: I'd highly recommend the Presidential husts. I think it reveals a lot about the suitability of the candidates, or lack thereof.

Thankfully only two more days of this election grind for me... :P

Jester252

Voting is today. Damn the ULSU page has been quite

dcfc91

Hustings last night was very...interesting.

Shameless plug here, Vincent is a good buddy of mine, really nice guy, lots of experience volunteering for the Samaritans, brought a Samartians listening service to UL this year, he is a Mature Student (the only one running for sabats) heavily involved in getting the Mature Studebts Society off the ground, sits on the student council as the Mature Students rep. Consider him when ye are voting today, his campaign wasn't as big as some of the others but he really would be great for the job.

As for president for me it's a toss up between Joe and Sarah, have to feel for Colin Clarke, was talking to him yesterday, poor guy is gutted.

Academic, toss up between Micheál and Aaron.

Right now I think it's going to be Joe, Micheál and of course Vincent. Will have a good read of the manifestos before I vote though.

wnolan1992

Jester252 wrote: »

Voting is today. Damn the ULSU page has been quite

Hustings weren't promoted either. As far as I can see, no email was sent out about it, no posts on the Students' Union page, nothing.

There still hasn't been an all student email about the actual election and polls have been open for an hour.

Bit of a joke to be quite honest. I mean seriously, what's the point of Hustings if it's not being promoted? Most of the people there were already decided on who they were voting for because they were just there as the cheering gallery for the candidate they were campaigning for. I'm not saying emails or posts on the SU FB would've made hundreds of neutrals turn up, I'm not that naive, but it just seems like they're not even trying this year.

As I said at hustings last night, in a few weeks they're asking us to pass a motion to spend millions on a new student centre, yet the average student doesn't give a tuppenny **** about the SU. More and more it just feels to me that the SU only cares about C&S.


Who I Think Should Get In
Academic: Aaron / Micheal
Welfare: Vincent / Caolan
President: RON / Sarah

Who I Think Will Get In
Academic: Donal
Welfare: Eoghan / Caolan
President: Joe / Stephen

jwcurtin

wnolan1992 wrote: »

Hustings weren't promoted either. As far as I can see, no email was sent out about it, no posts on the Students' Union page, nothing.

There still hasn't been an all student email about the actual election and polls have been open for an hour.

Bit of a joke to be quite honest. I mean seriously, what's the point of Hustings if it's not being promoted? Most of the people there were already decided on who they were voting for because they were just there as the cheering gallery for the candidate they were campaigning for. I'm not saying emails or posts on the SU FB would've made hundreds of neutrals turn up, I'm not that naive, but it just seems like they're not even trying this year.

As I said at hustings last night, in a few weeks they're asking us to pass a motion to spend millions on a new student centre, yet the average student doesn't give a tuppenny **** about the SU. More and more it just feels to me that the SU only cares about C&S.


Who I Think Should Get In
Academic: Aaron / Micheal
Welfare: Vincent / Caolan
President: RON / Sarah

Who I Think Will Get In
Academic: Donal
Welfare: Eoghan / Caolan
President: Joe / Stephen

I think the illusion that the SU only care about C&S is there because C&S are naturally the most engaged students.

If the SU didn't exist, you wouldn't have Charity Week, Fresher's Week which is realistically where the students are most engaged, and the average students does not know that. The chair summed it up last night at the end of the hustings where he stated what exactly the union has done for students of UL. It's not promoted well enough, and this comes down to the Union at the end of the day.

wnolan1992

jwcurtin wrote: »

I think the illusion that the SU only care about C&S is there because C&S are naturally the most engaged students.

If the SU didn't exist, you wouldn't have Charity Week, Fresher's Week which is realistically where the students are most engaged, and the average students does not know that. The chair summed it up last night at the end of the hustings where he stated what exactly the union has done for students of UL. It's not promoted well enough, and this comes down to the Union at the end of the day.

Precisely. I know the good the Union can do. It just frustrates me to see them more or less be content with only appealing to the C&S crowd, and not making concerted efforts to try and get people who don't care about C&S involved. There're about 4,500 C&S members, that's ~1/3 of the student population, yet they have a disproportionate impact on any decision made by the SU simply because they are more engaged. Plus there also seems to be an attitude amongst SU/C&S people that C&S is THE most important thing on campus, with disregard to basically everything else in the University (prime example being first Student Centre referendum that wanted to take CSIS building. When asked "Where are the computer labs going to be relocated?" the response was "That's not our problem.")

jwcurtin

wnolan1992 wrote: »

Precisely. I know the good the Union can do. It just frustrates me to see them more or less be content with only appealing to the C&S crowd, and not making concerted efforts to try and get people who don't care about C&S involved. There're about 4,500 C&S members, that's ~1/3 of the student population, yet they have a disproportionate impact on any decision made by the SU simply because they are more engaged. Plus there also seems to be an attitude amongst SU/C&S people that C&S is THE most important thing on campus, with disregard to basically everything else in the University (prime example being first Student Centre referendum that wanted to take CSIS building. When asked "Where are the computer labs going to be relocated?" the response was "That's not our problem.")

I wasn't around for the last two referenda so I really can't comment on that. However the consultation process has taken into account the views of 'all students', with Council members bring concerns that of students through Department Reps, along with the open process with the architect. That said you're still dealing with a niche population of rather engaged students...

Anonymagician

I found out about the hustings on yik yak a half hour before they were on!

I was voting for RON but listening back to the candidates I'm surprisingly impressed by Joe, so I'm undecided now. I'd like to reopen the nominations and get people who seem more serious though, I'd also like to give Colin a chance again to be honest.

Jester252

jwcurtin wrote: »

I think the illusion that the SU only care about C&S is there because C&S are naturally the most engaged students.

If the SU didn't exist, you wouldn't have Charity Week, Fresher's Week which is realistically where the students are most engaged, and the average students does not know that. The chair summed it up last night at the end of the hustings where he stated what exactly the union has done for students of UL. It's not promoted well enough, and this comes down to the Union at the end of the day.

Students are well aware who runs Charity week and Fresher week, however the average student doesn't care about the union and in term the union doesn't reach out as they should. The election turnout was always low in my time in UL. Given the lack of advertisement of the election this year by the union, I wouldn't be surprised if it is also low.

There is little hope for the referendum to pass at this rate. You'll need
66% of those that voted to agree. While C&S and Class reps will boost this number, the average student might not be willing to pay more money in already high fees to fund a building for a union that is viewed as a click.

The union has a lot on it plate to get the student willing to fund a new centre and seen as this has been voted down before, a massive task in front of them.

Also the bitterness of the union and C&S after the loss really confirmed to many student, on both sides, an us vs. them mentality.