UCD Students’ Union Council met for its seventh regular meeting of this academic year at 6pm today, March 2nd. Two motions were passed, and a discussion was held on how the Union can seek to combat sexual violence in UCD.
This article contains discussion of sexual violence.
UCD Students’ Union Council met for its seventh regular meeting of this academic year at 6pm today, March 2nd. Two motions were passed, and a discussion was held on how the Union can seek to combat sexual violence in UCD.
Council began with a presentation from Access and Lifelong Learning (ALL), outlining the function of ALL and how it supports students in UCD, especially regarding disability supports. Daniel Elliot and Lucia Venturi, two members of ALL staff, hosted the presentation. It was noted that dyslexic screening will be available through ALL from this month onwards.
Two motions passed
A motion was passed regarding the availability of handovers for College Officers. Aisling Murphy, current Law College Officer, presented the motion, noting that there is currently “a lot of disparity between the handovers college officers get,” and that the processing of handing over the roles currently isn’t standardised. The motion passed with no speakers against.
A motion regarding the Union’s commitment to anti-racism and standing against the far-right passed. The Union’s current anti-racism motion, which passed in 2023, had expired, and thus an updated version of the motion was brought forward by Law College Officer Aisling Murphy.
The motion argues that ‘racist rhetoric and narratives are deliberately designed to capitalise on, and redirect legitimate frustration about housing and cost-of-living pressures towards marginalised communities. The housing crisis has been ongoing for over a decade and is not the fault of immigrants. We should be enraged by government inaction on these issues, but this frustration must not be directed at minorities who are not responsible for it.’ The motion mandates the President and Campaigns & Engagement Officer to ‘engage with relevant political parties and anti-racist groups,’ and to ‘ensure that housing campaigns are centred around policy failures and issues of affordability and supply while explicitly rejecting narratives that blame migrants or refugees for the housing crisis’.
The motion passed with no speakers against. Chair Cillian Murphy noted that it was the, “fastest I’ve ever seen Council pass two motions.”
Discussion on combatting sexual violence
Éabha Hughes, Stage 4 History Class Rep, brought forward an item for discussion regarding the combatting of sexual violence in UCD. This discussion comes in response to recent media coverage regarding a UCD medical student who experienced sexual violence and image-based sexual abuse, and the University’s response to the case. A protest is being held by UCDSU this Wednesday, March 4th, outside O’Reilly Hall at 12.30pm in response to the case, with the key demands being for UCD to ‘waive costs,’ ‘apologise to students,’ ‘take accountability,’ ‘meet the demands’ given by UCDSU, and ‘respect victims’.
The discussion centred around a potential motion to form a committee aimed at combatting sexual violence. Hughes noted her intention to “make sure sexual violence organisations have a distinct presence on campus,” referencing the Too Into You campaign and Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC), UCDSU’s charity partner. Jessica Klein, Arts & Humanities College Officer, expressed her support the the idea of a committee, noting that, “it’s important to make sure that what we do is actually useful” in tackling sexual violence. In response to a question on the proposed group’s function, Hughes responded that she believes that the purpose of the group would be to “ensure that there’s structurally embedded supports for victims of sexual violence,” noting that students want to get involving in a campaign to regarding the topic, and the group’s goal would be to “consolidate that support and attempt to tackle something.” Hughes further noted that potential projects the committee could work on would be active consent workshops and bystander training.
UCDSU President Michael Roche noted that there has been a large “loss of trust” felt by students towards UCD. He further highlighted that the University’s Dignity & Respect (D&R) service is under review, and has been following the coverage given to a case of a student being stalked at UCD, and UCD’s response to it, in November. Roche further commented, “The fact that these conversations are happening is a confidence builder.”
Hughes closed the discussion with a reminder for any students who wish to discuss the potential of a forming a group to combat sexual violence to contact her, further noting that the group will be survior-focused, victim-centred, and trauma-informed.
Bilingual Social Media Posts & New Irish Language Policy
A question was raised by Callan Ó Cléirigh, Oifigeach na Gaeilge. Ó Cléirigh stated, “Despite accepting a new Irish Language Policy which mandates the Union to make all publications bilingual, there have been a large number of posts which have been put on the SU's Instagram with no accompanying translation. As for the posts that have been posted bilingually, there are a number of translation errors.” He concluded, “Can the President therefore give an account as to why the Union did not comply with the new policy in the case of the monolingual posts and also answer to what progress is actually being done to comply with the new Irish Language Policy?”
UCDSU President Michael Roche responded to the criticisms, accepting that the Union is currently in the process of transitioning to the new Irish Language Policy. Roche noted that the next goal of the Union is to have the next SU student email sent out to be bilingual. Following that, their goal will be to have reports, surveys, and other communications available as Gaeilge. He concluded his response with a further acknowledgement of Ó Cléirigh’s question, stating that the Union is “working to get there.”
The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre is available via its national 24-hour helpline at 1800 77 8888.
Women’s Aid helpline is available at 1800 341 900.