The first council of the academic year was held on Wednesday, 9th October, a week later than is constitutionally mandated. The first council of the year is often more of an introduction for the new class reps, and no major decisions were made, nor were any meaningful votes taken. As of the first council, no secretary had been appointed, nor were minutes from the last council available, and as such they could not be approved.
Healthy UCD gave a brief speech at the beginning, asking class reps and college officers to be proactive in getting the message of healthy eating into each school.
Each of the sabbatical officers gave their reports. The reports mainly consisted of work the sabbatical officers had done over the summer period. All reports were approved by the council.
President - Joanna Siewierska
- Belfast trip with University of Limerick sabbatical team.
- Linking up with other Dublin based students unions to deal with issues such as Direct Provision.
- Working with the Access Centre on students in Direct Provision.
- The ‘Rent a Room’ scheme and student housing in general.
Education- Brian Treacy
- Designated office hours to meet with students, which is constitutionally mandated.
- Class rep recruitment in coordination with Katie O’Dea.
- Posting new jobs listings on the UCD Jobs page.
- Sitting on various boards such as Governing Authority.
Graduate - Conor Anderson
- Working with UCD anti-casualisation, a group aimed at addressing the poor pay and working conditions of tutors and PhD students.
- Announced that there would be a new UCD staff member (Anderson could not reveal what this position is at the present moment).
- Working on the Graduate conference fund.
- Anderson was questioned on his expenses (€103 on taxis to and from Smurfit). He responded that it was the most efficient way to bring large amounts of materials between the two campuses.
Welfare- Úna Carroll
- Casework, which she has streamlined with reception to ensure students leave with an appointment or relevant materials.
- Met and coordinated with Welfare team.
- Sitting on various boards such as Governing Authority.
Campaigns and Engagement- Katie O’Dea
- Pride and Trans Pride organising.
- Winging It handbooks and wall planners for Fresh Fest and Freshers’ Week.
- Organising environmentalism campaigns.
- Met with Newman Users Group.
- Looking into a fossil fuel company, which has ties to UCD
Entertainments- Thomas Monaghan
- Enstagram Instagram account, which has amassed 4,000 followers.
- Ents Card including discounts for nightclubs etc.
- Pretty Little Thing sale was questioned, Monaghan encouraged further conversation to be had during ‘Any Other Business’ later in council.
- Blindboy podcast to be held in Astra Hall next week.
Each college officer took their reports as read and encouraged their class reps to add them on Facebook. They also all encouraged the class representatives to attend training this weekend. There was some confusion around whether attendance to this was compulsory, which was clarified by Graduate Officer Conor Anderson who confirmed that while it was not compulsory, it was strongly recommended.
In ‘Any Other Business’, Jack McNicholl, a Stage 4 Class Rep for Science proposed that a subgroup be established to review how UCDSU deal with hosting events that may be in conflict with campaigns they are running. This was in reference to the controversy surrounding the Pretty Little Thing sample sale. This was ultimately not voted on after some amount of confusion as to the nature of this subgroup, and McNichols withdrew the proposal, stating that he did not want it to be rushed.