UCD Students’ Union has approved the issuing of two referenda set to coincide with the Executive Elections that will be held between April 2nd and April 4th.
During these dates, students will be invited to vote ‘FOR’ or ‘AGAINST’ on two amendments presented during the UCDSU emergency council held on Tuesday March 19th at 6pm.
The emergency council was held in the UCD Village auditorium and was called to tackle three issues under the same referendum umbrella. An emergency council was called last Friday to approve one referendum to cover three tenants. The latter proved to be contentious at council and the referendum was severed into three distinct chapters with one part notably removed. Indeed, the proposed constitutional change was to reduce the number of nominations required to be an eligible candidate for a sabbatical and college officer race. Specifically, if approved, the change would see a sabbatical officer gather a maximum number of 50 signatures and a college officer gather a strict maximum of 25 nominations.
If approved, the change would see a sabbatical officer gather a maximum number of 50 signatures and a college officer gather a strict maximum of 25 nominations.
Speaking to The University Observer, non-alcoholic events officer and candidate for Welfare Shauna Young said: “This is an engagement issue. A lot of the points I’ve developed in my manifesto have come from speaking to students about issues that were relevant to them while I was collecting signatures”. She continued on to say: “The idea of lowering signatures is just poor. I mean, we have a college of approximately thirty-eight thousand students, there really is no reason for signatures to be this low”. The lowering of the standard number of nominations also raised comparisons with other Irish colleges: “In Cork for example, you need five-hundred signatures to be nominated on a Sabbatical Officer ballot. If anything, the only quota that should be lowered should be for college officer races, and even then, twenty-five should be the minimum”.
"The idea of lowering signatures is just poor. I mean, we have a college of approximately thirty-eight thousand students, there really is no reason for signatures to be this low."
Asked about whether this motion would be brought to the council to be held Monday March 25th, she confirmed the motion was rejected and the amendment was removed entirely by the proposer and therefore unlikely to be mentioned again given the response it previously garnered.
The first amendment presented during council saw an amendment to article 6.71 of the UCD Students’ Union constitution which seeks to lower the quota for Constitutional referendums from 12.5% to 10%. This would mean that for a Constitutional referendum vote to pass, a voter turnout made up of 10% of eligible voters within UCD’s constituency.
Based on the fraught success recent constitutional referenda have had during Executive Elections races, this amendment was likely presented as a short-term solution to the ongoing engagement crisis the SU has been facing which has manifested itself as poor voter turnout. Indeed, last year’s referendum to rejoin USI did not pass as it did not reach the number of votes needed for the vote to carry. Similarly, the referendum on constitutional review does not carry as it did not reach the number of votes needed to carry.
Based on the fraught success recent constitutional referenda have had during Executive Elections races, this amendment was likely presented as a short-term solution to the ongoing engagement crisis the SU has been facing which has manifested itself as poor voter turnout.
The second amendment discussed at council, which is an amendment to Article 20.1 of the UCD Students’ Union Constitution, would see elections of Class Representatives for the upcoming year to take place in the final four weeks of term. This means that if approved by the student body, this amendment would see students voting for Class Representatives for the academic year 2024-2025 in April 2024 rather than October 2024.
In order to pass, these referendums need a simple majority of 50%+1 and a valid turnout of 12.5%.