Geoghegan ran unopposed last March as the only candidate for the position of Education Officer, citing previous experience in areas such as 2nd and 3rd year Economics Class Rep and UCDSU Council Vice-Secretary. Throughout his campaign he made many promises and pledges to the student body but, halfway through his term in office, what has he achieved so far?
One of his main campaign promises was to “oppose any cuts to Library services including the book purchasing budget”. With a ban currently in place to prevent the Library from purchasing any new books, one has to ask just what Geoghegan is doing to oppose these cuts and whether we will see any real results before the end of this academic year.
He was, however, successful in increasing library opening hours and also in providing a 24-hour study area in the run up to exams. Unfortunately this is not a permanent solution and, as the new student centre has yet to open, students are left wondering what alternative plans exist to implement a 24-hour study area for semester two.
Perhaps Geoghegan’s most controversial and talked about pledge was his proposal to “implement an activity based module whereby time spent in clubs and societies will be a five credit module and will count towards your degree”. This provoked much discussion among students as to whether this was a viable and fair system; should students who participate in clubs and societies be rewarded above those who don’t? Is it fair that they should be allocated credits that other students will have earned through hard work and hours spent studying? And, should this plan be successful, how is the students’ work to be evaluated or graded?
These are all questions that were raised by students at election time last year. These questions have become rather irrelevant since then, as no plan seems to exist to have credits allocated for participation in clubs and societies. When asked how these plans were progressing Geoghegan did not to reply to the College Tribune’s queries.
On a related matter concerning elective modules, Geoghegan promised to run an electives expo during the first two weeks of term while registration was still open: “This expo will involve lecturers, tutors and past students who will offer advice, guidance and expertise on the electives that would work best with your degree”. No such expo took place in either semester one or two, begging the question; what obstacles prevented this proposal from coming to fruition? Was it that the first two weeks of term was too late to hold such an exposition when most electives would already have been full, as registration opened several weeks before term began?
Geoghegan stated in his report of 10/11/11 that he had been in contact with IT Services regarding an app alert system for cancelled lectures etc., a campaign promise that many students felt would be extremely useful. Geoghegan was unavailable for comment when asked if he thought that this service would be in place for this semester. In addition, the proposed text messages service was changed to an app, a move which may be considered unfair to students who do not own smartphones. The reason for this change can currently only be guessed at as Sam Geoghegan was unavailable for comment.
With some campaign promises already delivered and many more still to accomplish, students are faced with the question: would Sam Geoghegan be re-elected to the role of Education Officer if he decided to run for office again?
Aoife Harrison
