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Ents Candidate Penalised For
Publicity Stunt
One of the two Ents candidates
running in this year’s Sabbatical Election, Ms. Ciara Davey, has been
penalised for a publicity stunt she performed in Theatre L of the Arts Building
last Thursday, 12th of February during a first year Sociology lecture. Ms. Davey
had arranged for one of her campaign team, Mr. Keith Martin, a 3rd year
Sports Management student to strip down into a leopardskin thong while
performing to dance music playing on a stereo, immediately after she herself
addressed the assembled students. Ms. Davey’s rival candidate, Mr. Gearoid
Cashman, who had heard rumours that the incident was to take place, made his
presence known by climbing on top of a desk and chanting his manifesto while the
incident took place.
Students’ Union (SU)
Returning officer, Mr. Michael Clark has penalised Ms. Davey for breach of
election campaign rules, imposing a €100 fine and ordering her to remove 600
of her 4000 manifestos and 60 of her 300 posters from the UCD campus. Ms. Davey
also received a warning from the Returning Officer. Mr. Clark, who spoke to The
University Observer regarding the incident, described the publicity stunt as
“totally unacceptable” and said he imposed the severe penalties in order to
prevent such outrageous illegal behaviour occurring again and from becoming
commonplace in the election race. He stated that he feels it gives unfair
advantage to certain candidates and that candidates must have a sense of decorum
throughout their campaign. Mr. Clark also pointed out that a stunt such as this
was likely to cause offence, comparing it to the infamous incident at this
month’s American Superbowl when performer, Janet Jackson bared her breast on
live television, resulting in record numbers of complaints.
Ms. Davey told The University
Observer that she performed the publicity stunt because “stunts work” and
that “this is the start of things to come” if she is voted in as Ents
Officer. She also said that she felt it was unfair that such a severe penalty
was incurred, considering that her rival, Mr. Cashman, had been chanting his
manifesto during the incident and had not been penalised at all. Ms. Davey has
since apologised for the incident but has told The University Observer, however,
that she has no regrets regarding publicity she has received for the stunt.
Publicity stunts that have been
performed as part of campaigns in UCD SU elections have proved to be successful
for candidates in previous years. The current Ents Officer, Mr. David Sherry
jumped into the lake as a much hyped publicity stunt during the run up to his
election. Former SU president, Mr. Aonghus Hourihane, beamed the slogan ‘Vote
Aonghus’ on to a screen during a major college event days before the election.
Students’ Union Budget
finally released
After a delay of five weeks, the Students’ Union has released final
figures of its expected budget for the 2003/2004 period. However the Ents
figures have not as yet been made available, as sponsorship figures still had to
be finalised at the time of going to print.
While a loss is estimated, the budget is an improvement on recent years, with SU
President Mr. Paul Dillon taking a cut in wages, and a more profitable Ents
office due to the transfer of the Freshers Ball to an off-campus venue. There
has also been increased funds from the Second Hand Bookshop, which was making a
loss this time last year. Speaking to The University Observer, SU President Mr.
Paul Dillon stated “I got elected last year on a platform that the SU would no
longer lose vast amounts of money. When we took over here, the SU had a
€20,000 deficit and it hadn’t even paid USI affiliation fees. We’ve
managed to turn that all around.” He further added “ We’ve managed to
bring down some areas, and thus have been able to budget for the counselling
service, which has been our aim all year”. The counselling service, which has
not yet begun, is expected to cost within the region of €15,000 until the end
of the academic year. The SU counsellor position has been vacant for nearly 19
months now, following a dispute, which led to the firing of former counsellor
Ms. Una Fitzsimons by last year’s SU President Mr. Aonghus Hourihane.
All unnecessary expenses such as “free drinks parties” have been cut back,
and the heavy loss in Ent’s which has engulfed previous years has been
eradicated. Mobile phone and landline expenses are once again very high
totalling €32,500, but this is a reduction of €5000 on last year’s cost.
Election and referenda costs also faired highly costing the union €25,000.
This is due mainly to the two Coca-Cola referendums held last year.
Election Analysis
The past
fortnight has been a busy one for our Student Union hopefuls. As postering and
lecture addressing began, so did the stunts and much fun was had by all looking
on.
The events of Sunday 8th February last have brought waves of suspicion and
surmising by all involved in campaign land. It was reported to The University
Observer that all the election posters were ripped down on Sunday night except
for those placed very high on the library concourse (which belonged to a certain
presidential candidate). Services say that they only clean the concourse on
Thursdays and only take down very tatty posters on Saturdays, ruling them out.
The Chair of SU Constitutional Review Committee, Mr. Pierce Farrell reported
seeing three men dressed in black and clad in balaclavas running behind the
Students’ Centre towards the Science Building, in the early hours of Monday
9th February last. He suggested that these men might have been involved in
tearing down posters. However, it’s all speculation and nobody can be sure
what really happened. Perhaps our skateboarding kids took a fancy to the
election posters over the weekend?
The week was not a quiet one for Greg Park and Ciaran Weafer. Although not
competing for the same office, it seems political differences have gotten
between these two, who were seen engaging in a shouting match with each other in
the Arts block on Wednesday last. It seems Weafer is protective of Presidential
candidate Fergal Scully and doesn’t like when people slag this years Union. A
further altercation took place between Park and Weafer on Thursday outside the
Arts block after Scully allegedly made derogatory comments in a lecture address
about Park’s manifesto. And so the bickering went on. It will make for an
interesting year if these two boys end up in office together.
Further provocation was afoot at the beginning of the election lecture address
series when defeated Ents candidate (2003) and Greg Park campaigner, Shane
Pollard, showed up to film all the candidates’ lecture addresses. Somewhat
unnerved, other candidates approached Pollard to ask why he was filming. He
replied that he was filming for RTE discussion programme, Questions and Answers.
Park denies knowledge of any such purpose and when The University Observer
contacted Questions and Answers, the show’s producers had this to say: “They
are not making it for us. Questions and Answers is a studio programme without
film footage. However, if any interested students want to get involved in the
real thing, they’re very welcome to call us for audience tickets where they
will be filmed by real RTE camera people.”
Stunt of the week has to go to Ents candidate, Ciara Davies, however, who was
accompanied to her lecture address on Thursday by a man dressed only in a thong
who proceeded to gyrate around an astounded Sociology lecturer. Davies was fined
sixty posters for the stunt by Returning Officer, Michael Clark, but she says it
was worth it and that she very well might do something similar again – so keep
your eyes peeled!
Science day kissathon raises €7,000 for charity
An attempt by a 3rd year Science student to break the world
record for kissing the most people in one day has raised €7,000 for the
Children’s Cancer fund of Our Lady’s Hospital for sick children Crumlin. Ms
Maria Synott, was attempting to break the world record of 11,000 kisses in order
to raise money for the fund, which is this year’s chosen charity for Science
Day.
The attempt took place at the top of Grafton St last Saturday, and despite a
concerted effort by Ms Synott and her fellow fundraisers they fell short of the
target. They did however manage to get 6,550 kisses before the 6pm deadline. Ms
Synott told The University Observer that she was “very happy, we raised over
€7,000 for the Children’s Cancer fund.”
Last year Science day raised €52,000 for Our Lady’s Hospital Crumlin, a
record for an Irish faculty day, and this year it takes place on Thursday the
19th of February.
New 11B bus terminus opens
The 11B bus service, which
enters the Belfield campus via the Clonskeagh gate, changed its terminus on
Monday the 2nd of February, over six months after initial plans for the move
were unveiled. The new terminus is located beside the Sports Centre on the
Clonskeagh side of the building, having previously been located opposite the
Science block in the Student Centre car park.
The original plan for the change was to remove the 11B service altogether and
instead have the 11 service stop at the bus stop beside the Sports Centre. In an
interview with The University Observer UCD Traffic Manager, Mr John Free, said
that the reason for the delay was as a result of extensive work being carried
out by Dublin Bus to open up the Bray corridor and that this was a huge effort
on their part. He added that the work being carried out by Dublin Bus on this
project would be “huge for bus services in Belfield” as it will see an
increase in the number of buses servicing the campus.
Mr Free went on to say that the long-term plan was to see the 11 service
stopping at the new bus stop and added that he was happy with the progress as
“people can go up to the Sports Bar and have a cup of coffee and wait for the
bus to arrive rather than standing in the rain as they had to previously.”
