The SU elections in Trinity College produced some interesting results with one of the presidential candidates forced to pull out on election day due to some unsavoury Snapchats which he allegedly sent emerging. Whether or not he sent the sexist and at one point racist messages is not for me to say but what I will say is blaming student media and denying everything is something we’ve all seen before. Maybe Trinity College should learn from what already happened in UCD.
Alas the nominations for UCDSU Executive Elections have opened and a vast majority of UCD students probably don’t care. If Katie Ascough’s impeachment taught us anything, it’s that we love a good impeachment but please don’t make us elect someone else.
While this Editor cannot say who is running for election as nominations haven’t closed yet, I would appeal to anyone in the SU corridor who may be thinking of re-running to stop what you’re doing and back away from the nomination form.
UCDSU needs to move on from what has been a turbulent year. While some good work has been done, this will be the year of the impeachment even if the SU single handedly managed to repeal the 8th Amendment. Legacy and image are overstated in a number of circumstances and we should not let either of them cloud our judgement.
Many, many UCD students won’t care either about this editorial or about the elections in general. The SU is ineffective to them and I can understand where that viewpoint comes from.
A radical change in image is needed for the SU and so perhaps a candidate with an outside perspective is a better move than the usual SU hack. That being said Barry Murphy and Katie Ascough had no SU experience before being elected so who am I to say what works.
Maybe the Tribune should run as a protest vote. They seem to be popular at the moment so it might be worth a shot.
I’d vote for us anyway.
Rachel O’Neill – Editor
