ULSU Elections 2011 (Voting Thursday March 24)

freyners

Skyrim wrote: »

I'd give my absolute support to anyone who could abolish academic literacies, it is so painful. No wait, it is almost over, why would we want to deprive future students of such a wonderful subject.
Have not decied yet, will people still be canvassing tomorrow?

Compared to the last 3 days...the canvassing will be looking on overdrive tomorrow i reckon ..especially with the absence of the i voted stamp this year

enjoyed the husting ,some good banter

whinger1234

DJCR wrote: »

I'm just saddened by this - I knew there was a reason I didn't know him. Taking credit for doing things he didn't do, bad form.

Eamonn was a class rep and ULSU shop board member. So how is he taking credit for things he didn't do?
Probably the reason you don't know him is not because of the fact that he is unreliable as the original quote is trying to imply but because he is an outsider and not part of the usual clique of su heads.
You obviously don't know the man. Anyone that does, knows him to be reliable, trustworthy and genuine.
I'm not voting in this election but to be honest if I was, I would vote for Eamonn. He would be a welcomed change to the SU, a break away from the typical mould of the same crowd that dominates it.

bambismom

NotMoose wrote: »

Aoife is kind of a black horse in the Welfare race but I think she could pull off depending on how she does with Hustings.

Just to clarify, Aoife Kenny is seeking election to the Education Office.

I also thought she rocked the house at hustings!

Dee Wilson, Campaign Manager for Aoife Kenny.

canned_ulkc

whinger1234 wrote: »

You obviously don't know the man. Anyone that does, knows him to be reliable, trustworthy and genuine.

Wait a minute - I was just at the hustings and unless I'm thinking of the wrong person this is the guy who by his own admission was involuntarily resigned from being a class rep because he didn't show up to meetings.

Now I'm not looking to badmouth the guy and I have already stated that I'll be voting for Thomas Cranley so maybe it might be wise for someone to offer an explaination on this? It doesn't seem to fit with someone who is reliable.

sinaydk

Nagoh wrote: »

Cant say I'm too happy with some questions, obviously being asked by supporters of one side to snipe at the other by highlighting weaknesses etc. Probably common practice enough but comes off as dirty politics in my opinion

I would just like to say my questions werent aimed at anyone

Gael23

I didnt have time to go to the hustings but would have liked to have been there. People Like Eamonn Boland are the kind of people deserve to be rooted out for what they have, or as the case may be, haven't done. Its clear that his campaign slogan has been entirely discredited by his time as class rep as has been discussed.
I had never intended voting for him anyway but these facts would certainly make me not vote for him

SarahBeep!

Uber sad panda I missed hustings :(:(:( Damn you TP!

whinger1234 wrote: »

Eamonn was a class rep and ULSU shop board member. So how is he taking credit for things he didn't do?
Probably the reason you don't know him is not because of the fact that he is unreliable as the original quote is trying to imply but because he is an outsider and not part of the usual clique of su heads.
You obviously don't know the man. Anyone that does, knows him to be reliable, trustworthy and genuine.
I'm not voting in this election but to be honest if I was, I would vote for Eamonn. He would be a welcomed change to the SU, a break away from the typical mould of the same crowd that dominates it.

usual clique of su heads?? Bullsh*t

When a new person signs up to be a rep we try our very best to be friendly to them, every year new reps come on boards and why shouldnt we all try befriend them??

Would you join a club/society and go to meetings and sit on your own and talk to no one just coz you don't wanna be labeled a C&S head?? (although I'm not saying this clique exists, cliques only exist in Lindsay Lohan films)

No one dominates the SU. EVERY students is given a vote. I don't get any extra votes just coz I help out in the union and have friends there.

It's posts like yours that give the union a bad name.

parii lynn

As someone who was at the hustings tonight, I would like to agree with Paddy Rockett's statement that "cliques" exist in the SU!
Isn't the SU meant to represent the students? So where were they tonight?
All anyone had to do tonight at the hustings was look around the room and see it was half empty. Clearly the students don't feel the SU and it's representatives are NOT approachable, which suggests that "cliques" do exist and will continue to exist unless things start to change. In my opinion we need new faces who haven't been class reps and played previous roles in the SU already. We as a student body need people to represent the students who are not involved in every club and society and SU event that is going on in UL! lets face it most students are'nt. We need people who can relate to the majority of students at UL and start to make the SU more approachable overall.
What I want to know is how the SU representatives plan doing this?

yuppy700

SarahBeep! wrote: »

Uber sad panda I missed hustings :(:(:( Damn you TP!

Meh, you didnt miss much.

Poor enough turn out with a guess at a few over a hundred, Half of which in campaigning gear so their minds were already made up. I will put up some photos later tonight or tomorrow or they might be on www.ulsuelect.com at some stage.

Suprised that there wasnt any real attempt to record the event, besides ULTV with a camcorder sitting down the front and me luckily having my SLR on hand.

The best attempts of any kind of live feed were down to people posting here and Mark Brennan updating his blog...

Thanks to everyone for crediting me for the pics by the way. It is really appreciated

lorcanthrope

parii lynn wrote: »

As someone who was at the hustings tonight, I would like to agree with Paddy Rockett's statement that "cliques" exist in the SU!
Isn't the SU meant to represent the students? So where were they tonight?
All anyone had to do tonight at the hustings was look around the room and see it was half empty. Clearly the students don't feel the SU and it's representatives are NOT approachable, which suggests that "cliques" do exist and will continue to exist unless things start to change. In my opinion we need new faces who haven't been class reps and played previous roles in the SU already. We as a student body need people to represent the students who are not involved in every club and society and SU event that is going on in UL! lets face it most students are'nt. We need people who can relate to the majority of students at UL and start to make the SU more approachable overall.
What I want to know is how the SU representatives plan doing this?

... were we at the same hustings? Paddy said tonight that he thought the idea of cliques were bull****. And I agree with him. I'm not supporting him in this election, but credit where credits due: he was right.

There are plenty of candidates tomorrow who've spent time in the Students' Union. There are some who haven't. If you think the electorate can't decide the difference: well... I think your cynicism might be justified but surely you don't think 2500+ voters last years were all "SU heads"?

Just because like-minded people become friends doesn't mean they live in an ivory tower. I probably would have been considered an "SU head" when I ran for election last year, but to be fair, my cross-section of friends covered nearly every demographic. I struggled with coursework. I went to the Lodge two or three nights a week at some times of the year. I loved going to gigs. I worried about money for the next day, week, month.... Do you honestly believe that people who are class reps or on committee in clubs and societies aren't real people too - who have real issues too and interact with the college campus in the same way as everyone else? Because I think that's a really narrow-minded view. Just because people take another step and try to be involved (sometimes because they just want to get to know more people in what is a big campus) doesn't make them a world apart in terms of understanding of the issues that face students on a daily basis.

Hustings having a low showing in terms of bodies can mean a few things. It could mean poor promotion of the event. It could mean apathy of the student body. It could mean that some people had their mind made up already. It could mean some people didn't even know about elections.

Hell, if you think that being interested in the SU makes you a cliquey unfriendly person - here's an offer. I'm finished in UL now but am starting a job in Dublin in less than two weeks. If you want to meet for a pint, I'd be happy to come and have a chat and show that being involved in the SU didn't damage me to the point where I can't be a "normal" student.

And now I'm going to bed. Long day tomorrow... good luck to all the teams tomorrow. Sabbatical elections are something else in terms of energy invested and you're all lovely people.

SarahBeep!

yuppy700 wrote: »

Meh, you didnt miss much.

I missed out on seeing all the candidates in the same place, at the same time answering the same question. Best part of election week IMO


EDIT:

Very well said Lorcan

Nagoh

(Poster's note: Wow, this turned out longer than I figured.)
(Note 2: Lorcanthrope types faster than me, and totally stole my thunder. I'm disappointed with myself :P)

[rant]

parii lynn wrote: »

As someone who was at the hustings tonight, I would like to agree with Paddy Rockett's statement that "cliques" exist in the SU!

What I want to know is how the SU representatives plan doing this?

Clique debate coming up again? May as well chip in my 2 cents.

Isn't the SU meant to represent the students? So where were they tonight?

The lack of attendance has nothing to do whether or not the students are being 'represented' by the union, but moreso to do with the advertisement of the hustings itself. The time was changed, which I only heard of through word of mouth, which is how many people hear of the hustings in my opinion. This is an advertisement issue which I do feel needs to be sorted. The hustings need more than rally teams for the candidates involved, it needs neutral parties to ask relevant questionis.

All anyone had to do tonight at the hustings was look around the room and see it was half empty. Clearly the students don't feel the SU and it's representatives are NOT approachable, which suggests that "cliques" do exist and will continue to exist unless things start to change.

I thought you said the reason it was empty is because the SU isn't representative?

You're making a few logical leaps here in the bolded sentence. You assume the students don't feel the SU and it's representitives are approachable. Where's your source on this? How is low turnout at a husting evidence to this fact? How does it correlate with the student body's opinion of the SU? (Which as far as I can tell is largely positive)

You then go on to say that this is evidence suggesting "cliques do exist and will continue to exist unless things start to change". Your train of thought then is Low Turnout, ergo Lack of Faith, ergo Cliques? This goes beyond comparing apples to oranges, it's more akin to comparing the price of pineapples to the effects of the potato famine.

Here's the thing. So far the word 'clique' gets tossed around by those who are 'outside the SU circle' about those they percieve to be some form of Masonic crowd scratching each other backs. The truth is they're a bunch of people who spend a lot of time together in the course of the duties they volunteer for. You can toss the 'clique' phrase at any group over 3 who hang around together outside the hours they're in class.

If you put people in a room together enough times a week you'll find friendships form through the natural course of human interaction.

In my opinion we need new faces who haven't been class reps and played previous roles in the SU already. We as a student body need people to represent the students who are not involved in every club and society and SU event that is going on in UL! lets face it most students are'nt. We need people who can relate to the majority of students at UL and start to make the SU more approachable overall.

Why are those people who were class rep for 4 years suddenly in the running for the SU? Because they took an interest in contributing early on, and it's natural that those who want to represent their class or department may want to try their hand at more responsibility.

What's important to remember is that they are still students. A 'blow in' candidate as one has been labeled in this thread may have just as much to give to the elected position as one who has contributed to other voluntary SU positions in the past.

They (the 'new faces') may have skillsets not possessed by the other party, but don't promote them as the underdog fighting for the common student against the 'same old SU' (Which is usually completely different every 2 years) because largely in that regard every candidate is exactly equal. They have all been through the lectures, awkward exam timetables, hard projects, hard budgetry situations, terrible lecturers that you and I and their opposing candidates have been.

[/rant]

As for me, I've never been involved in the SU nor the Clubs and Socs, I have socialised with the 'class rep clique' through mutual friends, and as far as I can tell if anything they're almost 'too' friendly.
It's only those in my experience who have looked from the outside and never tried to break into the mold that have a negative view of the group.

sceptre

lorcanthrope wrote: »

... were we at the same hustings? Paddy said tonight that he thought the idea of cliques were bull****. And I agree with him. I'm not supporting him in this election, but credit where credits due: he was right.

That's what I clearly heard Paddy saying as well.

NotMoose wrote: »

There hasn't been too much discussion for the position of Welfare so I’d like to get opinions on what people think. I really like Paddy Rocket for it but having read Derick Dalys manifesto he just seems like he would be better for the roll. That and his post about the condoms made me laugh.

Aoife is kind of a black horse in the Welfare race but I think she could pull off depending on how she does with Hustings.

None of those people are running for Welfare.

Paddy Rockett is running for CSO.

Derek Daly is running for President.

Aoife Kenny is running for Education.

The candidates for Welfare are listed in the first post of the thread.

sceptre

Moderator note:

There have been a few posts (ie more than one) made late tonight that are just listing preferred candidates. I've deleted them (without prejudice or penalty) as this is still a discussion forum and thread rather than a personal list top of the charts forum and thread.

If you're going to say who you're voting for, that's fine. Say why. Just making lists is a waste of space in what's a discussion thread. A series of bare lists of desired winners adds nothing useful to the discussion. You don't have to write a long essay (though, frankly, that's perfectly fine if you do and use paragraphs) but, given that you have your own reasons for voting for your preferred candidates, add something useful to the thread and outline why your vote is going in a particular way. That's useful. A bare list is not.

As always, kindly refrain from getting personal with other regular voters who've expressed their opinion - there's an element of that in at least one of the deleted posts and we don't do that here. You can express your opinion, positive or negative, without idiotic finger-pointing at others whose opinion is as valuable to the discussion as yours if you've both made an effort to explain why it's your opinion.

As usual, if anyone has an issue with this, please send either me or Peteee a PM.

/mod

FrankAmazing

i thoroughly enjoyed the hustings tonight. i thought all candidates performed well. However I was slightly annoyed that the candidates weren't afforded the full respect of the crowd. Mobile phones went off on more than one occasion and I also saw one person knitting which I thought was quite rude.

NewShoes

FrankAmazing wrote: »

i thoroughly enjoyed the hustings tonight. i thought all candidates performed well. However I was slightly annoyed that the candidates weren't afforded the full respect of the crowd. Mobile phones went off on more than one occasion and I also saw one person knitting which I thought was quite rude.

The chair did apologise for the phone ringing but it had been forgotten there by a lecturer earlier in the day I think is what he said.

As for the knitting........shameful stuff!

Polar Ice

FrankAmazing wrote: »

I also saw one person knitting which I thought was quite rude.

http://www.ulsuelect.com/?p=214

You don't happen to know what the person's username on boards.ie is? :pac:

sceptre

FrankAmazing wrote: »

I also saw one person knitting which I thought was quite rude.

That was me. I was also taking notes in a little notebook on the content of the speeches and comments by the candidates and posting some content here on boards (see up the page between 7pm and 8pm) and elsewhere for the benefit of those who weren't at the hustings. I'd rather not freeze to death next winter. Knitting a scarf is actually far quieter (pretty much silent actually) than scratching my head, which one or two candidates made me (and quite a few others I suspect) feel like doing. I was sitting near the back of the "crowd".

Phones being on is rather unfortunate but it's the job of the candidates to impress the voters, not the other way around. They probably should be off or on silent but candidates need to grab the attention of people there with the force of their convictions, their voices (more so as there was a microphone on the podium) and be convincing that they are the best people for the representative roles for which they're running, especially with what was quite a small crowd (the room was half-full at most) given the size of the room.

That's my considered view as someone who's previously been in hustings (in the Stables at that, which is far louder - try taking part in hustings on the stage inside the Stables and convincing people that you're a great candidate with people eating their lunch, ordering food, a few cheekily early drinkies and pub staff going about their regular work duties), run for a full-time position in the SU and won.

NewShoes wrote: »

As for the knitting........shameful stuff! Might be for someone who is going to campaign next year as an election gimmick! !

Not a "stunt". Been there, gave away the tee-shirts. My involvement in stunts is limited to early Sunday mornings at the city skatepark when no-one else is there to see.

sceptre

My views on the hustings and the probable results:

For CSO, both candidates came across pretty well. Stronger performance from Paddy Rockett, who was also very eager to get out of the chair and to passionately and positively engage with the crowd. Alan O'Sullivan's a likeable bloke and a good guy who, like Paddy, appears to have student interests firmly at heart but I fully expect Paddy Rockett to romp home as winner when the votes are announced tomorrow night.

Welfare was, erm, mixed. With three candidates, the strong two by far I reckon were Thomas Cranley and Tara Feeney. No appearance of the Welfare Bear anywhere near hustings, though he's addded me on facebook. We've had a conversation about Crunchy Nut. Honestly, I don't think either of these two would do a bad job. I thought Cranley was a bit stronger on the night but it's hard to tell who'll win. I think Cranley might just edge it.

Three candidates for president and none of them was especially bad. It's a two horse race for the election though as Keith Young and Derek Daly have campaign team backing and are actually making themselves visible during the week. Enda Gallery seems like a good salesman based on his appearance this evening, some good business views and if I was the sort of person who liked business meetings I'd have him on my side to sell radio parts. But he's got no campaign apart from a few expensive-looking posters, he's got no powerbase to draw from, a really short manifesto and his performance at hustings pretty much demonstrated that he unfortunately doesn't know how the SU has worked, how it should work or anything other than the business end - which isn't the main purpose of the SU (the business end exists to facilitate the representative end, representing students). He'd have been better off running for CSO as the services part of the SU is what he seems most interested in. Keith Young was a bit stronger and seemed more comfortable than Derek Daly this evening. But tomorrow, it's hard to draw a hair between the two of them at this point. I can't call this one, at least not until noon tomorrow. Personally, I'd be happy with either Keith or Derek in the job. They're both good guys and both have been dedicated to student needs and wants in their time at UL.

I've left out any commentary on the Communications and Education races. Actually I haven't included any views of mine on the Comms and Edu races in this entire thread. That's because I'm likely to be giving a help out tomorrow to Barry Kennedy and Kelly O'Brien in those two respective races (that's my declaration of interest as per the opening post rules). So it'd be unfair (I reckon) for me to offer any view at all here on those two races - obviously there will be views offered when handing out flyers or whatever.

Best of luck to all candidates (and I mean all, though some of you will get dramatically more votes than others). Most of you have raised some excellent issues, demonstrated that student well-being is important to you and win or lose, you've done your supporters proud. More to the point, pretty much every year at hustings there's someone who ends up completely lost and doe-eyed. Not this year. There can only be five winners from a total of 12 candidates but virtually everyone has raised some good points that should be taken on board by the eventual victors.

I'm guessing that the single operational blog for the campaign (ULSUElect) will continue with their updates during the day. It's a shame that there haven't been others doing likewise but it's been a good resource and open to added comments. As I mentioned a few posts above, please feel free to mention tomorrow to whom your votes are going as long as you take the time to aid discussion by saying why.

Bed, sleep.

sceptre

To vote, click here. Voting will be open between 7am and 8pm on Thursday March 24.

canned_ulkc

parii lynn wrote: »

As someone who was at the hustings tonight, I would like to agree with Paddy Rockett's statement that "cliques" exist in the SU!
Isn't the SU meant to represent the students? So where were they tonight?
All anyone had to do tonight at the hustings was look around the room and see it was half empty. Clearly the students don't feel the SU and it's representatives are NOT approachable, which suggests that "cliques" do exist and will continue to exist unless things start to change. In my opinion we need new faces who haven't been class reps and played previous roles in the SU already. We as a student body need people to represent the students who are not involved in every club and society and SU event that is going on in UL! lets face it most students are'nt. We need people who can relate to the majority of students at UL and start to make the SU more approachable overall.
What I want to know is how the SU representatives plan doing this?

I think you're interpreting the low turn out in a way that supports your argument. To me it suggests a lot of things; least of which cliques. You can choose from:
Last minute change of venue
Apathy
Decisions already made
Week 9 and deadlines to be met

It seems to me that there is a double edged sword for every candidate in every election every year. Many students will identify cliques within the SU because people have experience of the SU or will scream "no experience" but want a "fresh face"

Also, I can't remember if it's due to running unopposed or their experience speaking volumes but there are several of the outgoing positions which have been the same people for 2 years. If it's experience then people have obviously voted for that - and have obviously appreciated their experience. If it's running unopposed, where are all the people who claim to be in need of a fresh face? Why don't they run? Wait - maybe it's because that might mean they'd ACTUALLY BE ENGAGING IN THE PROCESS and be seen as an "SU head"

I can't for the life of me understand where this absolute tripe comes from - to have such strong opinions about the SU but be apparently completely blind to the workings of it. And the fact that our SU is a VERY representitive one of which pretty much every other college in the country is envious of.

If there's something wrong with the SU it's not massive and it's not unchangeable - you just have to run the risk of being called an "SU head" and engage in the process.

PS. I didn't think Paddy's comment was acknowledging any cliques - I felt he was saying that the whole cliques claims was bull****....

PPS: predictions; Ginge, Keitho, Kenny, Cranley, Rockett

Nagoh

Whelp, votes cast from my bed before getting up today, I certainly agree with this online voting malarky so far. And, I didn't get an error screen. Everything went better than expected.

I still think each vote should be printed out and hand-counted for traditions sake - ballot counting is a great moment of tension for the 'it's all come down to this' drama, and an instant tally from a computer seems a lot more clinical.
Still, efficiancy and the environment wins this way I suppose.

I had a hard time deciding CSO, Welfare and communications this year, as I liked 2 candidates in each. (which says a lot for this usually apathetic voter). If only the Communications could share the spot, we'd all benefit.
Good luck to all candidates today

ad09

As a student of UL I want to throw my head in on this one. I've done my best to stay out of this but it's gotten to the point where I'm sick of hearing about it.

I came to College here in UL in September of 2008. By January of 2009 I had made 3 new friends... All of them in my classes... (Yes I have trouble making friends) I joined Class Reps that month... We went on our Class Reps trip away to Galway in February... I came back with 20-30 of the greatest friends I've ever made. These "cliques" do not exist. "Cliques" by their very nature are closed off from everyone and very exclusive. This is total Bull**** when you are refering to UL Students Union. They were the most welcoming group of people I have ever met and did everything they possibly could to include me that weekend and ever since. As a member of the CRC for 3 college years now I can honestly say we have done everything we can to get people to join the CRC and have been very welcoming to every student of the college. In fact I spent 2 days in early September 2010 standing, with a group of other reps, in the SU meeting every first year student and telling them about class reps and asking them to get involved. We did everything we could to get every individual in the college to get involved in the union.

I am quite insuilted by anyone on here who thinks that the union or class reps are an exclusive, closed off or cliquey group. They are nothing more then a lovely group of people who try everything they cant to help and give their time to make everyone elses time in UL as fun and easygoing as possible.

In the interest of fairness I should also state that I am supporting the Kenedy and O'Sullivan campaigns and have already voted.

I would also like to point out that everything here is my personal oppinion from my personal experiences as someone who was alone in the college and found a very welcoming group of people.

Eire-Dearg

sceptre wrote: »

Turns out that Enda Gallery is in fact a real person, which may have been in doubt to people during the week as he hasn't been seen.

He visited the same Business class no less then 4 times over the last week.

Skyrim

I didn't hear of enda gallery till today. I know derek daly and young have been making it clear they were running. I have my mind made up, but it's fun getting all these canvassers coming up to you for votes.

Reiver

I've been canvassing all week in different locations, I saw this massive pole with his banner on Tuesday and I met two of his canvassers briefly yesterday. Today, in my history lecture, first time I actually met the guy! Lecturer didn't like him just barging in though.....


Ah you can't just leave us hanging Skyrim!:L G'wan, who is it? I'll be honest, its Young for me. Voted this morning.

Skyrim

Ah that would be telling but however i've maybe 3 more positions to decide for including presidency.

willielovesall

Something about Paddy Rockett though that I'm very skeptical about. Keith Young talks a good game and has a excellent manifesto. Also I have noticed himself and Tara Feeney are the most noticeable people around ul this week.

I reckon Tara Feeney, Young, O'neill.

Did't get a chance to read any other manifestos outside of pres, welfare and communication.

Also I hope they introduce something so we can give feedback on the coop office. Thats why I'm voting Young!

DJCR

willielovesall wrote: »

Also I hope they introduce something so we can give feedback on the coop office. Thats why I'm voting Young!

Thats an education issue ........

Nagoh

^Plus both education candidates have outlined their plan on Co-op feedback in their respective manifestos

3 times today I've misspoken Enda Gallery as Enda Kelly.

I feel I should make this public apology.