This year’s election for President of the UCD Students Union will be the most contested election in years, viagra with four potential candidates competing for the position. Michael Foley is one of the hopefully candidates. He is a final year Business and Law Student whose experience comes from time spent as the Treasurer of the L&H society, working as an intern at KPMG, and participation in a number of other college societies and events.
Foley’s manifesto focuses on the areas of Transportation, Entertainment, and Education, however he also has some interesting polices regarding Welfare and Student Representation.
Foley supports an expansion of the transport networks that link UCD to wider transport routes. Foley would see that the dart shuttle bus route moved to Blackrock dart station. This would be of “great benefit” to students on Blackrock Campus while also connecting the Dart line to UCD. He believes that improved transport links will help to “alleviate some of the accommodation crisis. Foley proposes that the SU Accommodation Officer position be expanded to better facilitate the transfer of information to students.
There are two major Ents ideas that Foley would like to observe during his term. He would like to see the expansion of the Student Bar smoking area to include an enclosed stage area. He believes that creating a sheltered and heated smoking/stage area won’t encourage smoking. Instead it will “make the space viable to be used all year around”, specifically as a venue for gigs that will encourage home-grown UCD and Irish acts. Although the project hasn’t been fully costed, he mentioned that the “Student Bar are willing to support” the idea.
Foley would like to see the return of the UCD Ball to the campus. It is still unclear as to whether the UCD Ball will be held on campus this year, however Foley did say that “if they’re not successful this year it would be unviable to expect a 4000 person Ball next year.” Foley believes that there are other options for the ball to exist on campus on a smaller scale. It may be possible to hold the UCD Ball in a tent on the quad but limited to 3000 people.
Part of Foley’s Education policy focuses on the reduction on re-sit and repeat fees. Foley makes the economic argument that by the university forcing students to drop out through high repeat fees, they are actually losing out on thousands of Euro in HEA funding.
Foley’s Welfare policies support work that has been done this year and would see the established part-time counselor program continued next year. Foley also wants to see Halal meats reintroduced to campus arguing that it is commercially viable if kept on a small scale.
When asked about UCDSU isolationism and what the Union should be doing on a national level, Foley said that “ultimately UCDSU is responsible for representing UCD students.”
