Hundreds of students filled Trinity Business School’s Dargan Theatre yesterday evening for the first meeting of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Council of the academic year.
Following class rep training in Carlow at the weekend, new members maintained an unusually enthusiastic energy throughout the nearly three-hour meeting which was dominated by elections to union committees.
In the first election of the evening Student Jamie Brennan was elected unopposed to the role of LGBT Rights Officer, replacing Reuben O’Neill who was originally elected to the role in April.
Elections to the union’s education committee began with second year pharmacy class rep Conor Cashell being elected representative for students on placement.
Deputy STEM Convenor Eve Martin was elected unopposed as representative for students with wet-lab-based learning.
Craig Daly was elected to represent students with disabilities, in a five-way contest for the position.
Final-year European studies student Chloe McGing was elected student representative who has gone on Erasmus, defeating Aryana Neillan and Ana Puirséil.
Laetitia Nouaha was elected representative students who entered college through an access programme
Anad Shukla-Parekh was elected as representative for students on the dual BA programme.
Postgraduate law class rep Tara Kerins Aylmer was elected to the committee as postgraduate representative in a three-way contest, while Jared James Carrol was elected mature students’ representative.
Ose Okosun was elected as representative for students who commute a long distance to college.
The election of 12 OCMs wrapped up appointments to the education committee.
Education Officer Eoghan Gilroy called an emergency motion to increase the number of ordinary committee members on the Education Committee from three to 10. Gilroy explained that more assistance will be needed in developing a generative AI policy which is currently in progress.
12 students were automatically deemed elected as OCMs to the campaigns committee to the 12 available spaces after one student dropped out upon realising that their campaign would trigger a competitive election process.
Elections to the welfare and equality committee were briefer with Haneen Ahmad elected first-year rep, alongside Paige McCracken, Anja Merwe and Marie-Louise Schaller as OCMs.
Finn O’Hanlon was first to be elected to the communications and marketing committee as sponsorship officer, followed by Deana Bounoua and Connor Brennan Batory as photography and videography officers.
Second-year BESS student Maria was elected unopposed as social media officer.
Aran Banner and Tara Recinella were elected as representatives to the joint honours committee. Gilroy emphasised the importance of the committee in supporting the development of coherent inter-department policies on issues such as AI.
Despite a planned 9pm guillotine, a motion to extend the meeting by “10-15 minutes” was passed at the last minute in order to complete elections to committees. The meeting ultimately concluded at 9.21pm with a number of roles left unannounced or elections not held.
Elections for positions on the oversight commission and electoral commission were not held in time despite nominations being opened, and a motion on the agenda to create a new technical officer, as well as two items for discussion, were not held.
The evening also saw the passing of a motion to make funds available to student parents to subsidise the cost of childcare.
The next meeting of Council is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, November 5.
