In these days of constant media focus, being in a position of political prominence has ceased to be just about the job you do.

For people who might not read through reams of political objectives or even to listen to rousing speeches, snap decisions will be made about politicians based on photographs or brief snippets of information gleaned from whatever publication they may be flicking through. For these people, seeing the smiling faces of a politician’s happy family are always going to have a positive effect in the mind of the individual.

This is what has given rise to the family as a political tool. Be it a beautiful or vocal wife or a smiling brood of children, politicians’ families are becoming increasingly more visible in the eyes of the public.

‘Behind every strong man, there is a strong woman’, or so the saying goes. Never has this idea been more prevalent, than in the upcoming presidential elections in the United States. Michelle Obama, wife to Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, has faced much criticism from the media, with many sources naming her an ‘angry black woman’ and an American TV station even using the term ‘baby mama’, which they have since retracted.

However, the positive influence that Michelle has had on her husband’s campaign cannot be ignored. Obama has given numerous ‘stump speeches’, which passionately advocate her husband’s policies and paint a very hopeful and bright future. Her intelligence and fervence gleamed through and her message was undoubtedly well received. So would it be right to say that Barack Obama uses Michelle as part of his image, to help him appear more wholesome and possibly reassure a number of the more conservative voters?

Although the concept of a ‘wife-on-the-arm’ has been, rightly, outdated, Michelle Obama, despite receiving criticism for her sarcastic humour and strong statements, has been a prominent figure in her husband’s popularity. One way that Michelle has helped her husband more recently, as the campaigning draws to a close, is supposedly to tone down her public image, as the ‘firebrand’.

Evidence of this can be seen in her fashion choices as of late. Michelle, often on the best dressed lists, for her stylish formal garb, has taken to wearing sundresses and more feminine attire. This returns us to the idea of a submissive and dutiful wife, but if anything, this is also evidence of an astute and highly political mind.

It seems that in Obama’s case, his wife has created a new role in which to aid her husband, which is of an equal in many respects, as it is her intelligence and presence that make her speeches so hard-hitting and their synchronicity, which is often remarked upon in the press.

Showcasing a happy family will appeal on a subconscious level to vast numbers of indifferent voters

Another stately wife worth mentioning is Carla Bruni, singer, former model and wife of the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy. When elected, Sarkozy was still married to his second wife, Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz, with whom he shared ten years of marriage. They divorced in October 2007, six months into his presidency. Sarkozy met Bruni at a dinner party a month later and couple were married on 2nd February, 2008.

Perhaps not as vocal as Obama, Bruni takes every given opportunity to appear in public. In the last two months alone, Bruni has met the Dalai Lama, Pope Benedict XVI, Laura Bush, Queen Rania of Jordan and Wendi Murdoch, the wife of business mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Though Bruni may have taken a backseat when it comes to delivering inspiring political rhetoric, she has said does not want to project an image of being a pretty presidential wall flower. She told Vanity Fair magazine: “Unconsciously, I would project myself more like Jackie Kennedy than for instance, Madame de Gaulle, who would be much more like the classical French woman behind her husband.”

Bruni’s somewhat paradoxical awareness of her “unconscious projection” of this image may seem a little conceited however she is not the only one to make the connection between herself and America’s favourite first lady, with countless publications remarking on her similarity to the icon. She has certainly come into the affections of swathes of the public with her beauty and style, affections perhaps that President Sarkozy felt he would naturally become the object of also.

If this was his thinking then it has severely backfired on him as his he saw his approval rating go from a spectacular 66 per cent in December of last year (the highest since Charles de Gaulle returned to power in 1959) down to a poor 33 per cent in July of this year. Sarkozy’s public are non-plussed with his international jet-setting lifestyle while he shows off the charming Bruni while his public remains more concerned that his inspiring pre-election promises have not been fulfilled.

Another premier whose family has always been a part of his heavy media artillery is our own self-titled Íar-Thaoiseach, Bertie Ahern. Having married his wife, Miriam, in 1975, they separated in 1992, having had two daughters, Georgina and Cecilia.

When Bertie took the office of Taoiseach in 2002, he and Miriam had long since parted ways making Bertie the first Taoiseach to have been legally separated.

Bertie tackled this admirably and dealt with the issue of bringing his then-partner Celia Larkin on official engagements. It may seem a ridiculous issue to be raising concerns with the public in this day and age, but Ireland was like a snake still trying to free itself from the tight skin of the memory of church/state integration and there was weeks of work for the likes of Joe Duffy and Marian Finucane in placating the vocal citizens of Ireland.

The fuss was short lived and it was eventually turned into an PR exercise with Bertie portrayed as the forward-thinking liberal leader of the new Ireland. Though things with Celia Larkin eventually came to their natural end, Bertie was always happy to be photographed with his daughters and maintained cordial relations with Miriam.

However heartening these constant exposures to his clearly happy family life may be, are they always good for credibility? For example, Georgina Aherne’s popstar husband and Cecelia’s ‘chick-lit’ writing career may be admirable on a personal level but they may seem to the public like frivolous associations for the leader of a nation. Or when such mass exposure to the personal life of someone places them in our affections, is their image in our minds as a serious politician irreparably undermined?

One thing is certain; the family card is one that is being played more and more by politicians the world over and definitely one which they can use to their advantage. Showcasing a happy family will appeal on a subconscious level to vast numbers of indifferent voters. The trick will always be treading the fine line to make sure it results in making them popular as opposed to just ‘pop’.

Attending college is undoubtedly one of the most enjoyable phases of the lives of those who choose to embark on it. It’s when most people really start taking a hatchet to the parental apron strings and find themselves in the possession of a seemingly illicit amount of freedom.

Yet freedom is a variable depending on the individual circumstances. Where a student lives is a huge determining factor in the quality of their college experience.

Where you rest your weary academia-addled (and possibly beer-basted) brain every evening can determine whether you are living a life of flagrant anarchy or sheltered tranquillity. It decides whether you eat bacon and cabbage or beans and toast for dinner, whether you wear clothes scented with detergent or shaken from a pile in the corner of the room, with a stench of which you have become strangely accustomed.

Living at home is for many the only option because of the exorbitant price of rent in the areas surrounding UCD, although some students choose to remain at home voluntarily. Though some may feel a little stifled living under their parents’ roof throughout their college years, there are undeniable advantages to the comfort and familiarity of home.

Campus accommodation is another choice for students. It is deemed by many to be the most favourable choice due to its proximity to lectures and undoubted social benefits.

Inhabiting campus residence is not cheap but the cost is a necessary evil for many who are coming from the further corners of the country.However, the coveted spaces in campus accommodation are not available for everyone. Chances of obtaining one of the coveted places diminish the closer you live to Dublin, especially after first year.

If a bid for Merville or Belgrove is unsucessful, rented accommodation is the only option. Recent years have seen students struggle to find places to lease and subsequently, students bend over backwards to pay rent, with part time jobs being ill equipped to fund such high figures.

The recent property slump however has seen rents decrease steadily and rental property numbers increase with the number of properties for rent on daft.ie having tripled since October 2006. This should ease the labour of flat hunting for the average student considerably, perhaps it can be considered the only silver lining in the storm cloud of recession.

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In this section: Nora Costigan speaks to Soren Marl, Deirdre Ní Annrachain speaks to Richard Sweetman, and Amy Colgan talks to Sarah Costigan about their experiences of finding accommodation for UCD.

“I was gob smacked when I saw the prices over here”

“It was nice to have three other people living with you. I was placed with other people from outside of Ireland which is good for intercultural mixing. I live with one guy from Offaly and two guys from Asia. The Asian guys don’t have much English so it’s great for them to be learning it by living with us.”

While campus accommodation is not known for its glamour, Marl adjusted well to the move from the comfort of home into the uniform, utilitarian surroundings of Merville.

“I got lucky because I don’t have to share a room. There are four bedrooms and two bathrooms each with a shower and a toilet. The electricity meter is a great idea as instead of bills we put a pay as you go card in the meter like phone credit. The emersion and the cooker use it up quite quickly though but that’s good in a way because it gets you into the habit of thinking about the electricity and trying to save it. You become less careless about leaving lights on and that kind of thing.”

However, as pleased as Marl was with his accommodation, he found that Merville only catered for the very basic habitation needs. “I didn’t know if I’d be getting cutlery and pots and all that so when I arrived last week there was none of those sort of things. I’ve been living off cornflakes for a week”.

As UCD students will know, it is no easy feat to grab a new home on campus. For Marl, it was a stroke of luck that saw him successfully apply for on-campus accommodation.

“I got my accommodation by accident I think. I was refused initially because I only live in Westmeath. Then a few days later [the Accommodation Office] rang me again and said I got accommodation and I needed to come and pay for it. When I arrived down they looked shocked because they thought I was a female! They had to give me the place in the end because they couldn’t take it back once they’d offered it to me. It was very funny.”

The social opportunities that living in Merville present are clear. Marl feels that living at home with parents does not offer the same chance. “If I had the choice to live with my parents in Dublin, I would still choose campus for my first year. I think it’s a great way to meet people and get into the UCD life”.

“Sports will be a very integral part of my student life. I think it would be very hard to get involved if you weren’t living on campus because the transport system after eleven o’clock isn’t great. If you were training or you had a meeting with your society that was late it would be difficult to get home.”

Often, it is second years who miss out on campus accommodation, with final and first years seemingly being given priority. The prospect of leaving the comfort of campus is a worry for Marl.

“I’ll be disappointed when I have to rent next year because it’s so expensive. When I was in Germany I was renting an apartment and my bedroom was 20 square meters and I was only paying €200 per month for that. I was gob smacked when I saw the prices over here.”

However the payment scheme for campus accommodation in UCD is something which Marl admits could do with ammending.

“I found it a bit strange that you pay for the campus accommodation one semester at a time. You pay upfront per semester but if you decide to leave, none of it is refunded. It doesn’t leave a lot of flexibility and you’re really tied down.”

These high prices and inflexibiltiy are factors which also need to addressed, especially in terms of attracting foreign students to the university. “I think the high prices make it quite difficult to come and study here from abroad because of the price difference.”

Despite its fiscal draw backs, Marl feels that living on campus is “a huge plus” for his college experience. ‘The price is a drawback but I think that’s more to do with the country as opposed to the college so can’t be helped.”

This week, all over Belfield, there are new beginnings- people at the start of an exciting new journey in their lives.

Three months ago they waved goodbye to their old lives in other places where they were top of the pile. Waiting through the deluge of summer, future students prayed fervently that their hard work had paid off to earn them a coveted place in the ever-expanding concrete bastion of education we know as UCD.

But it’s not just fresh-faced first years that are treading the slabs for the first time. UCD will be welcoming new faces in varying other guises also. Erasmus students will arrive in their droves from all over Europe and beyond, for a year of international study and most often an opportunity to learn English in an immersion situation.

Junior Year Abroad will facilitate the arrival of mainly American students, here to inject a semester or two of the Irish experience into their degrees. Also joining for the first time will be postgraduate students, no strangers to the college experience but perhaps new to the UCD version.

And of course, mature students, for whom college and first year is as new as it is to the youngsters but who are approaching it from a different angle, be it through the eyes of a twenty-five-year-old, or indeed the eyes of a fifty-five-year-old.

Either way it is a daunting experience to come here unaccompanied for the first time this week.

It seems that everyone seems to know everyone, and even more incredibly, everyone seems to know their way around the seemingly identical grey buildings, brown corridors and wooden doors.

Of course, choosing to put your head down and get on with your degree without any involvement in extra-curricular activities is up to you, but all you’ll have at the end of three years is a piece of paper. Obviously, a degree is a very worthy piece of paper, but settling for a solely academic life can mean risking a whole new life experience.

The university experience has so much more to offer. Three years is not a long time. Although, at first, it may seem to be stretching in front of you like an interminable highway of trepidation and uncertainty.

However, when broken down, the basic college career is comprised of three, nine month periods. Granted, that does sound like a lot, but students tend to find themselves moving from one exam period straight into another. Or at least, from weeks of nights in the student bar to more.

Getting involved in just one other activity outside of your classes, be it a sports club, a society or the Students’ Union can potentially land you with a whole set of friends, skills, experiences and memories that will turn the college years into cherished times.

By the end of first year the chances are you will be looking for as many ways as possible to prolong your time as a student: learning a new language and culture while on Erasmus, taking a Junior Year Abroad in the US, or even taking a post graduate degree in good old Belfield.

Never-mind what people used to say about your schooldays being the best of your life, that was just a placatory tactic! These days that you are about to embark on are the ones to remember. There are literally hundreds of groups catering for even the narrowest of niche interests. All you have to do is look around and there’ll be something there for you.

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Academics
Barbara Feeney

The UCD Horizons programme was established with the intention of broadening and deepening students’ degrees.

Second year Psychology student, Barbara Feeney decided to broaden her learning and opted to study electives from outside her specific course. An Arts student, Feeney opted to take a course in first Law. Despite having little prior knowledge of the legal ways of the world, Feeney has a keen interest to learn more about the subject. Plus, she believed that a basic background in law may stand to her in the future. While early classes left Feeney a bit intimidated by the law students’ expansive knowledge, and she tended to refrain from answering questions, this feeling was short lived.

“I began to participate more, understanding that the other students knew just as much as I did. After twelve weeks I had established a great understanding of the subject, despite my initial feelings of having a disadvantage.”

Being encouraged to participate in accessible lectures and tutorials meant that Feeney struck up some new friendships with the law students and thoroughly enjoyed her Roebuck experience.
As she picked her elective options for this year, Feeney’s positive episode in Roebuck has meant that she has searched for electives across the Colleges in UCD, and is about to attempt a beginners spanish class.
“I found choosing to study an elective that was outside of my core course was extremely beneficial. Not only did I acquire an understanding of law, but I had the opportunity to meet other students, and experience the teaching of different lecturers”.

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Sport
Nora Costigan

From the staples like soccer, rugby and hockey to the more obscure fencing, snowboarding and trampolining, everyone’s sporting appetite will be satisfied by the dizzying variety of sports club in UCD.

Regardless of whether you’ve been a pro player throughout your secondary school career, or if you were scared stiff of PE class since the age of five, joining a sports club offers new skills, new friends and a sometimes daunting, yet enjoyable experience.

Sports clubs offer the very important regular physical activity that exam time in the library often smothers, and this release can serve to strengthen your college experience.

Women’s Basketball club Secretary, Georgina Dwyer, describes extra-curricular activities as “almost a necessity… If you just trudge your way through academics you get burnt out.”

Not only did Dwyer improve her dribbling in her time with the club, she also gained some unexpected skills. “A lot of people find themselves in a very organisational or important role within the club. It helps you mature a lot within a matter of months.”

Although signing up for the first time can be a daunting prospect, Mens’ Boat Club Captain, Naoise Grisewood understands the importance of just “giving it a go”. Despite having never rowed before, Grisewood decided to jump ship when he came to UCD and hasn’t looked back.

Physical exercise can hit the back burner for many students once academic pressures start to come down hard, however both Dwyer and Grisewood believe that have their grades not suffered due to their time on the playing fields.

Instead, Grisewood feels that focusing on the game in hand makes students much better with time management. “We end up turning in the same results as people who haven’t ever joined a sports club and who have loads of spare time”.

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Societies

For students who can’t wait to jump on a soapbox and speak their mind, and for those who just hope to strike up a few new friendships, UCD offers an almost infinite number of societies, all eagerly jumping to sign up freshers.

The scores of societies who will be battling for your signature next week span almost every interest; debating, drama, jazz, volunteering, photography, and of course there’s a lot more, are all catered for by student societies.

Joining up may be the tricky part, but students who do so are highly rewarded.

Spanish Society Auditor, Brendan Moore threw himself in the deep end last year when decided to run the Spanish society with a couple of friends.

“It was just ourselves and our own ideas”. Moore’s ideas included conversation evenings where erasmus and Irish students could chat casually, improving their language skills.

Proving that joining a society can lead to many new friendships, these language sessions quickly turned a little more relaxed, Moore explains that “we’d often move onto the bar after and just keep practising”.

Between salsa classes, a spanish play and a language ball, the society gathered each week, and Moore agrees that being involved “definitely opened me up to people in my classes and it was great to get everyone together”.

Having gotten so much out of his experience with the Spanish society, Moore advises every student to “look out for societies who do something each week… it doesn’t matter how big or small the society is”.