"vote of no confidence" class rep

jen88

hi all,

my entire class is having some serious issues with our class rep. unfortunately they don't do anything and miss their faculty meetings. i would like to get a vote of no confidence and have a election to elect a new rep. can somebody advise me how to do this?

thanks a mill
jen

Thirdfox

Maybe ask the Student Union education officer?

godtabh

Do class reps actually do anything? In my 5 years on college I havent seen or heard of any actions taken by the class rep that has had any influence on the day to day running of the courses I've done.

They always seemed pointless to me

Boston

I was very active as a rep. That said I had nothing to do with the SU.

kearnsr

kearnsr wrote: »

Do class reps actually do anything? In my 5 years on college I havent seen or heard of any actions taken by the class rep that has had any influence on the day to day running of the courses I've done.

They always seemed pointless to me

You must have had pretty crap class reps so!

Crash

I was very active as one as both, to be honest. not that hard to do. but then again I know your feelings about the SU so it kinda depends on personal views etc.

Stargal

Lol @ the whole 'vote of no confidence' thing. Get over it. You're not talking about the Taoiseach here, it's some idiot who is obviously so crap that they can't even be a decent class rep. Tell them to PFO and vote in a new one. End of.

JC 2K3

Our class rep attended about 3 weeks of lectures at the start of the year, then went AWOL from lectures, yet still attended council meetings and participated in SU things. He's resigned now and as it stands, the first person to apply will get to be class rep. It's been two months and no one's bothered. Many of my classmates and I would echo the sentiments of kearnsr, what do class reps actually do besides going to seemingly pointless meetings?

Crash

Ideally, your class rep will do the following things:

1)attend to issues pertaining to the class and the course - coursework issues, lecturer issues etc.
2)Organise social events for your class - social events etc.
3)attend and interact with the Students Union on behalf of your class.

If you've got a rep who is doing 2/3 of those things correctly, you're doing well. hell, sometimes even getting 1 right is rare.

Boston

JC 2K3 wrote: »

Our class rep attended about 3 weeks of lectures at the start of the year, then went AWOL from lectures, yet still attended council meetings and participated in SU things. He's resigned now and as it stands, the first person to apply will get to be class rep. It's been two months and no one's bothered. Many of my classmates and I would echo the sentiments of kearnsr, what do class reps actually do besides going to seemingly pointless meetings?

When lecturers start rearranging course timetables or you need project deadlines extended, or theres some problem dealing with management, you need some who can "speak on behalf of the class". Thats what your rep is meant to do. Organising piss ups and doing SU bollix are besides the point.

PHB

Class reps get those eddie rockets vouchers. But they are rife with corruption, never an equal distribution I tell ya!

Crash

I ate in eddies every day for a month in 2nd year on those. felt terrible by the end of it, but it was so cheap.

PHB

PHB wrote: »

Class reps get those eddie rockets vouchers. But they are rife with corruption, never an equal distribution I tell ya!

you can download them now!

Bartron Prime

The duties of a Class Rep in the SU Consitution:

Class representatives shall be elected for constituencies as laid down in
Schedule 1, by and from amongst the students of those constituencies.
The duties of a class representative shall be to:
(a) Represent the interests of their constituencies to the College, including
Faculty and School committees, and at Departmental level where specified in Schedule 1, and to individual staff members.
(b) Represent the interests of their constituencies to the Union, including at the Union Council where specified in Schedule 1.
(c) Be available for consultation by individual students in their
constituencies, and present any complaints or suggestions to the College or the Union.
(d) Inform their constituents of and encourage involvement in Union
activities.

The removal/impeachment/resignation of a Class Rep:

20. Resignations, Removal from Office and Motions of Censure

(iii) Class Representatives
1) Any class representative shall be removed from such position on the passing of a motion to remove said person by a two-thirds majority of their constituents present and voting at a constituency meeting, provided that a week's notice of the motion is given by the proposers to the Education Officer and the representative whose removal is sought and that at least one third of the constituents are present.
2) Any class representative who is a member of Council under the terms of Schedule 1 who fails to attend two consecutive or any three meetings of Council without offering an excuse acceptable to Council shall be deemed to have resigned.
3) Any class representative who is a Faculty or School member under the terms of Schedule 1 who fails to attend two meetings of the Faculty or School without apologies shall be deemed to have resigned.
4) A class representative who is deemed to have resigned under this
Section must be informed five days before a meeting of council and given
leave for appeal to the electoral commission if requested.

Just to clarify, when it says 'without apologies' for School and Faculty meetings I would have to make sure that was the case via the School/Faculty Executive Officer. Also, for 'excuse acceptable to Council, that is generally interpreted as having to be provided to the Education Officer as the Secretary to Council.

Yup, I can do technical. Not just a pretty face and great eyes me

ilovemybrick

çrash_000 wrote: »

I ate in eddies every day for a month in 2nd year on those. felt terrible by the end of it, but it was so cheap.

i think myself and captain useless pant were there for most of that

Gileadi

Where can you download said vouchers PBH?

godtabh

Myth wrote: »

You must have had pretty crap class reps so!

Why would would you expect from them?

Ron DMC

ilovemybrick wrote: »

i think myself and captain useless pant were there for most of that

I actually found one of those vouchers under my desk the other day. Mmmmm Eddie's...

Thirdfox

Gileadi wrote: »

Where can you download said vouchers PBH?

I'm not PBH but...

http://www.eddierockets.ie/iopen24/defaultarticle.php?cArticlePath=180_234

JavaBear

lol at class reps.

kearnsr

kearnsr wrote: »

Why would would you expect from them?

To do a decent job really. To ask the class if they have any issues that need raising, and/or to lobby on their behalf. To bring things to their attention which they might need to know. To make changes (no matter how small) for the benefit of the class... that type of (ideological) stuff.

tolosenc

JC 2K3 wrote: »

He's resigned now

Like **** he has, Jimmy. Still wears the Class Rep hoody. Still all over campus.

My mate who's a class rep from another class asked me to confirm his name after running into him. I said I didn't know, to which my friend was surprised because "he's in some of your classes".

ilovemybrick

obl wrote: »

Like **** he has, Jimmy. Still wears the Class Rep hoody. Still all over campus.

My mate who's a class rep from another class asked me to confirm his name after running into him. I said I didn't know, to which my friend was surprised because "he's in some of your classes".

which class?

oh an i snaffled myself one of them there hoodie even though my SU involvement was not as a rep.
a cos they're warm
b they were 8 euro

JC 2K3

1st Year Computer Science.

obl wrote: »

Like **** he has, Jimmy. Still wears the Class Rep hoody. Still all over campus.

My mate who's a class rep from another class asked me to confirm his name after running into him. I said I didn't know, to which my friend was surprised because "he's in some of your classes".

He resigned in January, we got an email about it saying whoever applied for the position of class rep first would get it. However, he's now School's Convenor for Computer Science and Statistics..... It's such a joke. How can someone be a school's convenor having only ever attended a handful of lectures in a course in that school?

I'm not overtly concerned about it tbh, but I think that if the SU wants to have some credibility it should be a requirement that Class Reps/School's Convenors should have to be regularly attending lectures and meeting face to face with the students of the class/school they're representing. I also can't believe how someone could justify being a class rep for so long and currently justifies being schools convenor when it's so clearly absurd. They're only allowed hold this position due to what is in my eyes a constitutional loophole.

godtabh

Myth wrote: »

To do a decent job really. To ask the class if they have any issues that need raising, and/or to lobby on their behalf. To bring things to their attention which they might need to know. To make changes (no matter how small) for the benefit of the class... that type of (ideological) stuff.

Havent you hit the nail on the head there? Whats actually done? Nothing as far as I could tell

kearnsr

kearnsr wrote: »

Havent you hit the nail on the head there? Whats actually done? Nothing as far as I could tell

I was kinda hoping that I wouldn't end up droning on in this thread about 'I did this' or 'I did that' but to elaborate further I suppose I'll have to. When I was a rep I went to meetings, organised additional tutorials, revision lectures, obtained additional examples from lecturers and also arranged additional classes for students wishing to do Schols. I got additional access to the CS computer labs which, although the CS students hated it, meant that Engineering students had labs to work on, and when CS started to charge Civil (amongst others) for the use of the labs, there was an outcry by students which lead to more computers being bought by Civil. I got the (sniff) Engineering & System Sciences Faculty to send around the e-mails informing people of when the exam timetables are up (something I think is still happening) since it was a pain not knowing when they are up. I organised a mystery bus tour (Kilkenny) for when we finished our exams. I scanned in all the exam papers from the summer so that people doing repeats would have them (since they aren't put online until after the repeats). I scanned in tutorials which the lecturers had given us and sent them around to all the class. I got study space put in place for students coming up to the end of the year in the Museum Building, something that I got a guarantee would be in place for other students in future years.

A good rep is one that is proactive in everything to do with the class. I'm sure I did things that were lousy, but a good deal of reps do put a large amount of time into helping their class, often for little or no reward. And yes, there are ones who do sweet **** all. The bull**** which is often mentioned about how people are only using it for their CVs - yeah, that might be true but those people are usually the ones who do nothing, but there are people who do it just because they enjoy helping people, even in an obscure and often miniscule way. Did I change anything in my year as a rep? Nothing major, just some small stuff, but I helped my class.

/rant.

tolosenc

According to my friend (1st year TP rep), the "1st year CS rep" was present with a voting card at the last council...

Bartron Prime

The "JF CS Class Rep" is not, in fact, a Class Rep but a School Convenor and is thus entitled to a vote and voting card at Council. As for any other issues surrounding attendance at class or anything else to do with suitability in this situation, there are a number of strong mitigating personal factors which it is not appropriate to discuss on this forum. I'd therefore respectfully ask that this person's situation not be discussd here.

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

Bartron Prime wrote: »

As for any other issues surrounding attendance at class or anything else to do with suitability in this situation, there are a number of strong mitigating personal factors which it is not appropriate to discuss on this forum. I'd therefore respectfully ask that this person's situation not be discussd here.

Why do you feel you have a right to tell us what we can or can't discuss here? I didn't realise the SU Education Officer's mandate extended over to boards.ie forums. It seems the JF Computer Science students are having very serious issues with their class rep, and it's reasonable that such concerns can be vocalised and discussed on a public forum like this. When you run for class rep there's an expectation that you will do your job properly, and you're putting yourself in a position where it would also be expected that people would talk about you (in your capacity as a clas rep) in a public manner, which I think is fair and reasonable. Just as if were it an SU Officer not attending SU Council meetings, and not doing his job,we'd be discussing it on here.

So like, don't tell us what to do.

Thirdfox

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI wrote: »

Why do you feel you have a right to tell us what we can or can't discuss here? I didn't realise the SU Education Officer's mandate extended over to boards.ie forums. It seems the JF Computer Science students are having very serious issues with their class rep, and it's reasonable that such concerns can be vocalised and discussed on a public forum like this. When you run for class rep there's an expectation that you will do your job properly, and you're putting yourself in a position where it would also be expected that people would talk about you (in your capacity as a clas rep) in a public manner, which I think is fair and reasonable. Just as if were it an SU Officer not attending SU Council meetings, and not doing his job,we'd be discussing it on here.

So like, don't tell us what to do.

To me there is a difference between "respectfully asking" and "telling". People can choose to ignore the request but they are in no way obliged to stop - seems like Bartron was just making a point that some people may want to take into consideration.

No need to be so antagonistic over a simple request.

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI wrote: »

Why do you feel you have a right to tell us what we can or can't discuss here? I didn't realise the SU Education Officer's mandate extended over to boards.ie forums. It seems the JF Computer Science students are having very serious issues with their class rep, and it's reasonable that such concerns can be vocalised and discussed on a public forum like this. When you run for class rep there's an expectation that you will do your job properly, and you're putting yourself in a position where it would also be expected that people would talk about you (in your capacity as a clas rep) in a public manner, which I think is fair and reasonable. Just as if were it an SU Officer not attending SU Council meetings, and not doing his job,we'd be discussing it on here.

So like, don't tell us what to do.

For once, I agree with you

exiztone

Wait a second, our school convenor.... that science dropout... isn't attending lectures? Wouldn't it be absolutely crucial for our school convenor to have some idea of what's going on in the world of Computer Science & Statistics? Especially for the fact that he's a first year, he's not going to have a clue about how things are and how things get done in the school. I don't think him being a student of another discipline before plays a role in whatever his excuse is.

Also, isn't it incredibly irresponsible to run for a class rep (with the intention of representing a new generation of students) and then ditching the position for something 'trendier'?

Personally I don't like how this guy is coming off....

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

exiztone wrote: »

Wait a second, our school convenor.... that science dropout... isn't attending lectures? Wouldn't it be absolutely crucial for our school convenor to have some idea of what's going on in the world of Computer Science & Statistics? Especially for the fact that he's a first year, he's not going to have a clue about how things are and how things get done in the school. I don't think him being a student of another discipline before plays a role in whatever his excuse is.

Also, isn't it incredibly irresponsible to run for a class rep (with the intention of representing a new generation of students) and then ditching the position for something 'trendier'?

Personally I don't like how this guy is coming off....

Absolutely!

Thirdfox wrote: »

To me there is a difference between "respectfully asking" and "telling". People can choose to ignore the request but they are in no way obliged to stop - seems like Bartron was just making a point that some people may want to take into consideration.

No need to be so antagonistic over a simple request.

I disagree, on the basis that Bartley's position in the SU means that "respectfully asking" can come across as something more than a "simple request", it's a bit like the US respectfully asking that Iran stop with its nuclear program...

Ron DMC

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI wrote: »

I disagree, on the basis that Bartley's position in the SU means that "respectfully asking" can come across as something more than a "simple request", it's a bit like the US respectfully asking that Iran stop with its nuclear program...

Bartley would love that kind of power!! (and definitely shouldn't be given it).

And as for the 'CS rep issue', there are always problems with reps from time to time, but it's nearly Trinity Term, why didn't this pop up as a problem before. It doesn't sound like anyone else in the class is bothered their arse doing anything about it either. Whoever has a problem should just go into the Education Office and get this discussed face to face. The internet is very public altogether.

dan719

obl wrote: »

According to my friend (1st year TP rep), the "1st year CS rep" was present with a voting card at the last council...

Interesting you should mention 1st year tp rep.....definately should be in inverted commas(IMHO of course)

tolosenc

dan719 wrote: »

Interesting you should mention 1st year tp rep.....definately should be in inverted commas(IMHO of course)

I'll tell him you said so.

shay_562

Your ability to achieve actual change as class rep is limited entirely by your department, and how much they're willing to listen to you. Given that my department's response to me when I brought the valid concerns of my class to them this year can be accurately summarised as "Yeah...**** off", I don't think it's unrealistic to say that class reps often don't get much done, but equally I don't think it's fair to say that that's always entirely the rep's fault - I've now brought our concerns to the Education Officer (heya Bartley!) and, as far as I know, he's trying to get something done about them. That's the nature of things sometimes; people will only deal with the top rungs of the ladder, not the lower ones. That said, if you have a truly **** class rep, just bitch them out 'til they start doing stuff you like.

paperclip

shay_562 wrote: »

if you have a truly **** class rep, just bitch them out 'til they start doing stuff you like.

Just 'stuff I like' in general? Hmm, well, I just ran out of cinnamon rolls and coffee..... and where's your class rep when you need him? See, truly useless

shay_562

paperclip wrote:

Just 'stuff I like' in general? Hmm, well, I just ran out of cinnamon rolls and coffee..... and where's your class rep when you need him? See, truly useless

Now you're getting the picture! I recommend bringing a motion of no confidence against your rep, maybe even a full-on protest with placards and chanting. "We won't ROLL over", or some such. Fun times!

JC 2K3

Ronny Mitchell wrote: »

And as for the 'CS rep issue', there are always problems with reps from time to time, but it's nearly Trinity Term, why didn't this pop up as a problem before.

Because we've such a small class that we can communicate with our lecturers on a personal level and organise class nights out ourselves. We don't need a class rep and we don't really see the relevance of the SU. So there is no problem as such, I just think the situation's a bit ridiculous.

Ron DMC

JC 2K3 wrote: »

Because we've such a small class that we can communicate with our lecturers on a personal level and organise class nights out ourselves. We don't need a class rep and we don't really see the relevance of the SU. So there is no problem as such, I just think the situation's a bit ridiculous.

That's definitely true. The CS department are very approachable so I know what you mean. As for the size of the class, I realise it's small in the grand scheme of things when you compare to Engineering or BESS, but I'd still consider 30ish students fairly massive, but that's cos I'm a weirdo.

JC 2K3

Only 20ish actually....

godtabh

Myth wrote: »

I was kinda hoping that I wouldn't end up droning on in this thread about 'I did this' or 'I did that' but to elaborate further I suppose I'll have to. When I was a rep I went to meetings, organised additional tutorials, revision lectures, obtained additional examples from lecturers and also arranged additional classes for students wishing to do Schols. I got additional access to the CS computer labs which, although the CS students hated it, meant that Engineering students had labs to work on, and when CS started to charge Civil (amongst others) for the use of the labs, there was an outcry by students which lead to more computers being bought by Civil. I got the (sniff) Engineering & System Sciences Faculty to send around the e-mails informing people of when the exam timetables are up (something I think is still happening) since it was a pain not knowing when they are up. I organised a mystery bus tour (Kilkenny) for when we finished our exams. I scanned in all the exam papers from the summer so that people doing repeats would have them (since they aren't put online until after the repeats). I scanned in tutorials which the lecturers had given us and sent them around to all the class. I got study space put in place for students coming up to the end of the year in the Museum Building, something that I got a guarantee would be in place for other students in future years.

A good rep is one that is proactive in everything to do with the class. I'm sure I did things that were lousy, but a good deal of reps do put a large amount of time into helping their class, often for little or no reward. And yes, there are ones who do sweet **** all. The bull**** which is often mentioned about how people are only using it for their CVs - yeah, that might be true but those people are usually the ones who do nothing, but there are people who do it just because they enjoy helping people, even in an obscure and often miniscule way. Did I change anything in my year as a rep? Nothing major, just some small stuff, but I helped my class.

/rant.

I know for a fact that nothing like that was done in the 4 years of under grad. The only thing I noticed this year was that our class rep emailed people to see if they ad any issues. Not sure if any one did or if any off these issues were brought to the attention of the monkeys in charge.

Fair play to you though with the stuff you did. I that had of happened in my year who knows I might not have dropped out of schols exams after the first test!

M450

Well I have to say the SF Engineering class reps did a brilliant job last year... They even got the format of one of our exams changed, due to the completely irrelevant lecturing by a now infamous professor, which meant we didnt have to answer any of his questions!!

Thats quite a feat!

He ended up just telling us the questions that would be on the paper because there was such uproar but I still didnt attempt them... crazy stuff!

dan719

obl wrote: »

I'll tell him you said so.

Feel free, I believe I've told him myself a couple of times.:D

Jonathan

M450 wrote: »

Well I have to say the SF Engineering class reps did a brilliant job last year... They even got the format of one of our exams changed, due to the completely irrelevant lecturing by a now infamous professor, which meant we didnt have to answer any of his questions!!

What subject would this be? Does he still still teach JF engineers?

godtabh

jmccrohan wrote: »

What subject would this be? Does he still still teach JF engineers?

Yeah I'd like to know that as well.

BrenC

I'm a little curious if anyone has actually talked to this rep instead of bitching and moaning constantly, which as I should know, some computer scientists love to do.

Have any of the first years actually emailed their rep with any problems?

M450

kearnsr wrote: »

Yeah I'd like to know that as well.

Prof Coffey of course... waffling on about the probability of an atom being at a particular location in a material and what velocity it has... using maxwell and bolzman stuff etc etc...

We were supposed to be doing semiconductor materials and p-n junctions, and one of the questions ended up being write an essay on the life of Bolzman!!!

I ended up choosing Computer Eng and Martin Burke had to squeeze everything Coffey was supposed to teach us into a few weeks before he started his own material.

All thaid said you have to love that Coffey fella.. we had him this year again for a few weeks and he was a lot sounder.

deeringc

Unlucky!! We didnt have Coffee till 3rd year!

Boston

Coffey is a great researcher with a brilliant mind but shouldn't be lecturing 180 engineering students half of whom can't and never will grasp the basics of electronics let alone the fundamentals (which is all coffey is trying to cover). I had him in third year and tbh most of what he was on about went straight over my head and out window. Thats not the man's fault though.