Amidst the cut-backs and funding crisis throughout third level education, the government’s proposal to upgrade certain Institutes of Technology (IT) to technological universities has been met with a lot of criticism and a unanimous outcry from the country’s seven university presidents. Suggested in the Hunt Report, this move could see a whole new type of university emerge with a different focus from traditional institutions.

Regions where the suggested reforms are being considered include the Southeast (Carlow and Tralee ITs), the Border Midland and Western (BMW) region (Athlone, Dundalk, Galway-Mayo, Letterkenny, and Sligo ITs), and Dublin (DIT and Tallaght IT). The idea has also received strong support from several senior Cabinet figures, including Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin, who represent Kilkenny and Wexford in the Dáil.

Athlone Institute of Technology President, Prof. Ciarán Ó Catháin, explains the ambitions of the project. “We are looking to create a differentiated institution, one that will be known for the excellence of its teaching and learning, and for its close collaboration with industry. Such a technological university will be much more than the sum of its parts, it will be a powerful agent of change in higher education for all the communities and stakeholders involved.”

However, the plan is still in its infancy according to Higher Education Authority spokesperson Malcolm Byrne. “First of all there’s no decision that has been made about giving university status to anybody yet. What’s provided for in the National Strategy for Higher Education, the Hunt Report, is for the concept of a technological university and it’s essentially a university along the lines as we know it but it would be more focused on technology and indeed industry.

“What has happened is that the HEA has drawn up the criteria for what that technological university should be. Those criteria will be published in February and it will then be up to either individual institutions or groups of institutions to come together and to apply to become a technological university,” he says. “It’s not just going to be a name change from X Institute of Technology to X Technological University, they will have to meet the very rigorous standards that will be set out and that will be checked by both an Irish panel and an international panel … if it’s determined that they reach the standards that are set out in the criteria then a recommendation will come from the panel that the combination would be able to be a technological university.”

The debate on what exactly these criteria will be is ongoing, and rumoured to now be involving various ministers. So far it has been accepted that the new universities would be expected to move away from the arts and humanities courses and focus on technology and the sciences. But what actually is the difference between a university of the type that currently exists, and one that is ‘technological’?

Gerard Casey, UCD Professor of Philosophy, is sceptical of what he says is politically- fuelled “creeping universityitus” and claims there has always been a fundamental gap between the two kinds of institutions. He says that one of the traditional variations has always been in the way a student is trained to think. “The main difference, let’s say in relation to something like engineering, because they both do that, was that the ITs, whether they’re designed to do this or not, were producing people who were employment-fit almost immediately. That is to say they fitted into the existing employment structure, they went out into the job market with the skills they needed for that job market. The difference [with] a university education, however, in engineering is that you’re training people to devise the solutions to problems that don’t yet exist.”

The proposed promotion then seems at variance with a view President Michael Higgins echoed last week when speaking about the “intellectual crisis” he believes Ireland is facing. He spoke about the special role of the university; “And were universities not special places, the citizens of the future may ask, for the generation of alternatives in science, culture and philosophy? The universities have a great challenge in the questions that are posed now, questions that are beyond ones of a narrow utility.”

However Professor Joe Carthy, principle of the UCD College of Science, does not agree that technological university can’t make a contribution to thought and development. “I think there’s a good tradition of technical universities in other countries, in Germany and in the United States, the best known being Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and no one would dispute its contribution to global education so I wouldn’t be too concerned. I think university status would mean that the university academics would have the freedom to do the kind of research that they need to do. I think, and one assumes, that they would be able for excellence in their areas.”

Assurances by Byrne that “the standards that would be expected in academic terms would be the same as any other university” lend weight to this appraisal.

Outside of the debate over educational approach, the way upgraded existing ITs to university status would benefit rural areas is also something that has been highlighted. Irish universities are currently very urban-centric, and there has long been a desire by some to alter this. It is hoped that new university status will promote and develop rural regions, not only by keeping students in the area, but also through the work that they hope to carry out.

“How a BMW Technology University will best serve the needs of this region is at the heart of our discussions,” according to Dundalk Institute of Technology President, Denis Cummins. “Research and innovation that supports indigenous and multinational industry will be central to its operation, which will be a catalyst for job creation. This will build on our substantial track record of supporting enterprise.”

Yet research is another topic that causes controversy. Byrne says that “One of the requirements [to becoming a university] is in the area of research and there is that issue between research and learning, so those criteria are going to have to be set out. I’m not going to pre-empt what the criteria are because they still need publication, but obviously research would be one of them. Clearly anyone who wishes to apply for designation as a technological university would have to reach or exceed the criteria that [is] set out.”

If the extra funding required to research and publish is considered, Casey believes that these reforms don’t make sense right now. He points out the much larger teaching involvement in ITs means that they currently don’t have time to research, and questions whether the new dispensation would result in more staff being required to provide time to do both.“It’s not like waving your magic wand, like Cinderella’s fairy godmother turning the mice into horses, it doesn’t quite work like that. You have to think it through. It’s a change in emphasis, it’s a change in what you do. A significant change. It’s not just a name, it’s a different reality.”

He passionately outlines the real crux of the issue as he sees it. “Has anybody thought this through? We’re being systematically cut in here, right now we literally have an embargo on tea and biscuits … soon they’ll have us out cleaning the floor. The universities in Ireland are plummeting down the rankings for whatever they’re worth, which is not much as far as I’m concerned. The bottom is falling out of the market. There’s an embargo here on buying books for the library. We cannot buy books for our library. This is in a research institution. It’s pathetic.”

Carthy, while supportive of the overall idea, echoes this sentiment. “There’s almost an implicit thing that it’s not going to cost anything, and it’s difficult to believe that that could be the situation … Some people kind of think it’s almost like you’re just changing the name plates, like the current institutes become universities and there’s no cost change. I suspect that’s not the case.” He continued by saying that there was a certain snobbishness associated with gaining university status and that the plan could affect CAO choices, even if no structural or budgetary changes were introduced. University status, even as just a name, can affect an institution’s ability to attract top students.

It is likely that real reform will require investment in existing ITs and the question is, do we need to spend to aid recovery? In a joint press release by the Presidents of DIT, IT Tallaght and IT Blanchardstown it is suggested that perhaps these new institutions would respond to what Ireland is currently lacking, which could in turn aid the economy. “In the context of Ireland’s national recovery plan, we will work towards building a new and exciting civic and technological institution, providing a world-class experience for our students, and developing graduates who will respond to the needs of society.”

However the issue of cost will not simply disappear. The exact criteria for the upgrades will be revealed in February, when we can expect the funding debate to reach a climax. Technological universities exist successfully worldwide, and lend to the production of a more diverse and skilled workforce. The benefit that would be brought to rural areas is also undeniable, but it is a sad fact that in Ireland education cannot function or compete internationally without substantial money coming in. Without funding these new technological universities could not get off the ground and into the rankings. Without substantial funding and genuine re-organisation, a superficial change in label will do little to paper over the cracks emerging across the Irish higher education system.

In recent years, Ireland has made a sharp turn towards multiculturalism. For a nation that has been perceived as unanimously white, both by foreign observers and its own indigenous population, Ireland has become more diverse at a rapid rate , with an increasingly large immigrant population.

Institutionally at least, Ireland is probably one of the most liberal and welcoming nations in the western world, and the increase in immigration to this country can be put down to its lenient immigration laws (in tandem with a formerly burgeoning economy). Professor Bryan Fanning of UCD’s School of Applied Social Sciences points out that “we don’t have far-right parties, we don’t have anti-immigrant political movements and that kind of thing. In a sense, basically, our politics is such that racial tension doesn’t find expression.” However, according to Prof. Fanning’s research, the problem of racism in Ireland is one of a series of isolated incidents, including people “who were terrified out of their houses, spat on and beaten up. One black African bus driver described how he was urinated on from above by passengers in a very racially-motivated incident.” UCD Students’ Union Science Programme Officer, Chris Wong, regularly hears of racial hate crimes from his mother, who is heavily involved in the Chinese-Irish community. “Eighteen friends of hers have been robbed in the past three months. She tried to get the Gardaí to help her in setting up a prevention scheme and they were very unreceptive.”

Despite such incidents of hostility between white Irish people and citizens or settlers of other races, the issue of racism in an increasingly multicultural nation is not prevalent in the public consciousness. Indeed, the Irish people took away the birthright of the children of non-nationals born in Ireland to Irish citizenship in a 2004 referendum, with 79.17% voting to amend the constitution as such. It is clear that, for now, Ireland wants to retain its self-image as a white, Catholic people, and is resistant to embracing the new, if unexpected realities of multiculturalism. The closure of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism in 2008 due to government cutbacks only reinforces this tenet.

Martin Collins, Assistant Director of travellers’ rights organisation, Pavee Point, believes that there have been “various attempts to polarise the two communities – the traveller community and the new, immigrant communities – and people have actually said to me, ‘we should be looking after travellers; they are our own people; they are citizens of Ireland, and we shouldn’t be looking after these new communities.’ … Suddenly, we have people coming out of the woodwork, suggesting we should look after our own first.” Collins goes on to state that the traveller community has been living on the island of Ireland for 1,200 years. It seems the recent acceptance of his community by the settled people is perceived as an attempt at uniting white Irish against ethnic minorities. However, a 2010 report by Micheál Mac Gréil, entitled ‘The Emancipation of the Travelling People’ illustrated that travellers were still “one of the most despised and excluded groups in this society.”

The deduction has to be made that the settled, white, Catholic Irish person still conceptualises the Irish people as being identical to them racially, religiously and socio-economically. It’s an abstract notion, but one that finds some outlet in daily life, and Wong has had to confront it from time to time. “A lot of people don’t believe that I am an Irish citizen; I have to prove it to them. A lot of time I don’t, because I’m already so pissed off with them.” At the same time however, Prof. Fanning believes that “people who are Irish citizens tend to be of the same ethnic group, and perhaps there is a degree of what I call ‘ethnic nepotism’ towards themselves over others, and that tends to be something we find in other societies.”

This failure of the white Irish and immigrant communities, combined with the relative apathy of the state and its practices, points to a continued status of anonymity for immigrants. The concerns of immigrants will not be properly taken care of until they have some kind of stake in our political system, and that starts with enfranchisement. It is an endemic problem facing immigrants that Prof. Fanning labels ‘benign neglect’. “Political parties are indifferent to immigrants, they aren’t representing them. There’s a vacuum here, and it’s one of leadership. I think the politicians who say nothing on such issues [such as the Darren Scully controversy] are also, basically, not representing their constituents.”

The comments and actions of former mayor of Naas, Darren Scully, towards his black African constituents late last year would surely paint some Irish politicians as indifferent to immigrant rights. However, what is more damning of Irish politicians is the degree of civility with which the rhetoric and public debate on the issues of racism and immigration are characterised – a nation contented with the current standing of the population’s newest members, unwilling to recognise the antagonism many of them face on a daily basis.

For a nation with widespread emigration so engrained in its shared cultural history, one would believe that Ireland would be welcoming of newcomers, intent on righting the wrongs their ancestors faced in the New World. And while, legally at least, we are hospitable of those who seek residence here, social and political structures refuse to make ethnic minorities, and especially immigrants, feel anything more than hostility or indifference. UCD President Hugh Brady has taken steps to amend this in aiming for international students to make-up twenty-five per cent of UCD’s student body by 2015, which, as Chris Wong, the only non-white UCDSU representative correctly states, is “highlighting the fact that we need a more diverse student body more than anything.” With that said, it is a proactive step. Is it however, a move born out of a dire need to enhance UCD’s reputation? Almost certainly, nonetheless, it is a racially inclusive move, and a similar one should be taken at a national level, according to Professor Fanning. “The government should become more proactive in naturalising people who have been here a very long time, because their children are growing up here and so on. Governments have a duty to be proactive in their leadership in these issues.”

In a time when political apathy and distrust is widespread, one proposed method of increasing political participation is to increase individual citizens’ involvement via citizens’ assemblies. Traditionally met with scepticism by Irish politicians, a group of Irish professors created the initiative We the Citizens and successfully applied for substantial funding from Atlantic Philanthropy. Their experiment set out to see if increased citizen participation through assemblies could increase trust in the political system and help citizens shape Ireland for the better.

The citizens’ assembly that We the Citizens proposed followed a system in use in several other countries where, according to Professor David Farrell, Head of UCD’s School of Politics, “You engage with citizens directly in a bottom-up process where citizens have a direct involvement in helping to take decisions that are important.” Citizens would be called into such assemblies to decide on a particular issue in a particular time frame. Examples cited by Professor Farrell included allocation of a portion of local government budgets in Brazilian communities, and an electoral reform proposal in British Columbia.

Steven Cullen, a student participant, commuted from Raheny to Tallaght as a volunteer assemblyman in order to take part in one pilot. “I was required to take part in round table discussions based largely around trying to come up with practical solutions to Ireland’s political and economic problems, and on how we can improve the system under which we’re governed.” They discussed both broad and specific topics and as the discussion proceeded, “a moderator would record all of the points brought up, and we were also all given markers to use on the table’s paper tablecloth so we could write down any points or ideas that we had which didn’t come up in the discussion – moderators photographed all of these tablecloths at the end of the event.”

Cullen continued, “I was grouped with roughly eight or nine other participants plus the moderator. The other participants represented quite a variety of age groups; I was certainly the youngest in my group, while the others ranged from people in their thirties, to the middle-aged, to retired people.”  Of the moderators he said they “made sure that no one person dominated discussion, brought people into the discussion if they hadn’t spoken in a while, and also made sure that we never wandered too far from the core topics we were supposed to be talking about.” Of the discussion he felt that “the dialogue at the assembly was generally positive. Most people were articulating reasonable, realisable and constructive points.”

Professor Farrell explained there are several factors key to ensuring a citizens’ assembly is a constructive and useful process. The first of these is the selection of participants, that they are “randomly selected, because the alternative of electing them, or of letting the citizens represent sectors, or interests, either of those alternatives, introduces the dangers of entryism, and the whole process being hijacked. Random selection cuts that out immediately.” By using such random selection they prevent existing organisations from exploiting the citizens’ assembly for their own ends.

His second point was regarding the use of expert witnesses. “Clearly if you’re randomly selecting, you’re going to have huge variations in skill set of those citizens, particularly on whatever issue it is you’re talking about. And that’s exactly what we had in We the Citizens – which created an important role for expert witnesses.” These experts would be “engaging with citizens so that they become informed of the nuances and difficulties and complexities of particular issues, and then take informed decisions.” He spoke specifically of an example in British Columbia where 160 assembly members worked on weekends for a year on possible electoral reform and how “by the end of that process those 160 citizen assembly members were experts on electoral systems, more expert then most political scientists would be.”

His final point is that assemblies must be time delimited, and formed with a specific purpose. “Once it’s done its job it ceases to exist. We’re not talking about a third house of the Oireachtas, we’re talking about a one-off process and it’s set up for a purpose and made very clear from the get-go what that purpose is, so that the members have no false illusions about what their job is.” None of these assemblies exist in perpetuity, which ensures a high level of motivation on the part of participants.

We the Citizens has performed its experiment, and has now dissolved since submitting its report to the government, but the question of greater citizen involvement remains open. The group behind the initiative are continuing to lobby for the use of citizens’ assemblies, particularly for the constitutional convention the government has committed itself to. Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and Minister Brendan Howlin were both present to receive the We the Citizens report. Professor Farrell felt that it was too soon to say what the government’s response would be to their proposals, but he did feel, at least, that “both ministers gave a very positive vibe.”

This New Year has been a time of firsts. It was the first time I missed a flight, from London back to Canada. This is definitely something I never want to repeat for the sake of both my sanity and my wallet. International flights are not cheap, and spending twenty-four hours in an airport is not anyone’s idea of fun. In fact it’s pretty awful. Without a few hours of BBC’s Sherlock, and a season of Breaking Bad, I don’t think I would have made it.

Still, make it back to Canada I did, albeit a bit later than intended, just in time for another few firsts. My first Canadian winter, followed by my first night in the hospital, and my first set of stitches. These firsts are all related. Originally I was quite enjoying the Canadian winter. I’ve been lucky in that it has been rather mild here, practically still summer up until the new year, and even now that winter has arrived temperatures have been nowhere as low as they have been in the past. It has been snowing, which I love because we get far too little snow in Ireland, but it has not been at all heavy by Canadian standards. As a result, I haven’t had to acquire much in the line of winter wear. My incredible landlord bought me a winter coat for my birthday, and apart from that I had been told to buy a “tuque” and winter boots to be fully protected against the cold.

If you’re confused by the word tuque, do not be alarmed. I had no idea what it was when someone first mentioned it to me. In fact, after asking a few Canadians and even looking it up online I am still fairly confused. Everyone who mentioned this mythical piece of winter attire had either different views on what constituted a tuque, or had no idea whatsoever. The only real headway I’ve made is that it seems to be a term for a hat. Why not just use the word hat then? Crazy Canadians. In the end I just got a hat. I also decided against the winter boots.

That was a mistake, and possibly why I ended up in hospital.

Canadians are so efficient at clearing the snow away that it’s easy to just take for granted that a path will be completely free of snow, or indeed ice, wherever you go. After two weeks of this I got a bit relaxed, and was fully unprepared for that almost invisible patch of ice. Being without winter boots and thus without much grip on my shoes, I fell pretty spectacularly. I managed to break my fall on a nearby wall but only with my head, hence my first hospital trip and five stitches in my forehead.

Still, despite those minor disasters, things have been great. I may have an everlasting hatred for Gatwick Airport, but the first semester in Canada ended in fine style. I had a great Christmas with my family and friends, and I’m thrilled to be back. The new college term has been eventful, highlighting in particular an aspect of Canadian society that we really don’t seem to exploit in Ireland: themed parties.

Consider this; in the past week I have been to a Lego party (where you play with lots of Lego), a Nintendo party (fancy dress with a Nintendo theme), and then there’s a Blanket Fort party on Friday (we’re turning a friend’s apartment into a giant blanket fort – how spectacular is that?). Last semester there were many others, from the run-of-the-mill Toga parties to the more risqué ABC parties (Anything But Clothes). Even better is the fact that everyone takes the themes pretty seriously. There’s nothing worse than people showing up in normal clothes at a fancy dress party. It’s just not on.

I find these themed parties spice up going out in a great way. The variety is amazing, and you not only have the fun of preparing for these parties yourself, but also of arriving and getting to see what everyone else did too. These should happen more at home.

Stitches and themed parties aside, life in Canada continues as normal. My landlord consistently buys me lunch, despite my attempts to evade his charity, and in return asks only that I teach him how to use the Internet and his new Blackberry Tablet. He is eighty, and has never used a computer before. It’s been an experience. The only worry I have is that my facicious use of the word ‘eh’ (pronounced ‘ay?’), seems to be becoming less and less of a joke. Canada is contagious. You’ve been warned.

Ireland is facing a potentially pivotal moment in its relatively short history, as it seeks to balance national interests with attempts to find its place in a European Union struck by crisis. Years of incredible Irish growth and development, no doubt boosted by European integration, have come to a grinding halt, to be replaced by austerity measures and re-emerging questions concerning the legitimacy of outside interference.

Paul Gillespie, former Irish Times European correspondent and UCD lecturer in Politics, says that Ireland’s approach to the European Union, under its various guises, has always been governed by both Anglo-Irish relations, as well as “a European dimension to Irish nationalism.” Gillespie believes that Sean Lemass’s opening of negotiations for European membership in 1962 was motivated both by a desire to avoid becoming isolated from Britain, who had opened negotiations in 1961, and also from a natural tendency to look to Europe as a “counter-balance to Britain.”

Political motivations behind Ireland’s involvement in European affairs cannot be ignored yet, then as now, economic concerns were also a key driver towards integration. Daniel Thomas, Director of UCD’s Dublin European Institute, outlines Ireland’s reliance on trade with Britain as the overriding concern for the Irish government. “[Ireland] had political independence decades earlier but there was still economic dependence on Great Britain, and joining the economic community was a way to diversify Ireland’s markets,” he says, while also pointing out that, if Ireland had not followed Britain’s lead in joining this European market, Anglo-Irish trade could have suffered significantly. “In terms of the economic welfare of Irish citizens, there is no question that being a member of the EU was a huge consideration for all these multinational corporations that have been investing in Ireland for the last twenty-five years.”

The primacy of economic reasons and Anglo-Irish relations is echoed by Anthony Coughlan, former lecturer at Trinity and director of the National Platform for EU Research and Information Centre, a non-governmental, openly ‘Eurosceptical’ organization. However he, in contrast, believes that the levels of integration today go far beyond what Lemass could have envisaged, and are at the root of Ireland’s current financial woes. “Lemass was in a difficult position as we were heavily dependent on Britain at the time,” he says. “But I am fairly certain that he didn’t envisage that the EU would develop the way that it has, into running most of our policies and now proposing the exchange of intimate details concerning national budgets in the context of a monetary union.”

Predicted by Coughlan and many others who have taken a consistently Eurosceptic stance, the current Eurozone crisis has been used to suggest that membership of the European Union is not in Ireland’s best interest. Coughlan argues that the loss of control over monetary matters is the most evident manner in which European policy has hurt Ireland.

“Our extremely competitive independent Irish currency prior to joining the Eurozone gave us the Celtic Tiger. The loss of control over our interest rate made our Celtic Tiger boom and turned it into a bubble which burst and caused the consequent slump,” he says. “The European Central Bank forbade us to let any Irish bank go bust and therefore required us to pass on the bad debts to the Irish taxpayers. This was the result of European Central Bank policy and an independent Irish government would not have gone down that road.”

For Thomas, national governments are just as culpable for the current crisis as any supranational interference. “For years, national governments took credit when things went right and blamed Brussels when things went wrong. That pattern is now coming back to haunt us because people don’t see the way in which Europe is useful,” he says, pointing to the manner in which Irish government officials often misrepresented and, arguably, mismanaged Ireland’s economy during the boom years.

Gillespie also highlights national government policy as a contributing factor to Ireland’s precarious position, particularly the effect neglecting alliances with similarly sized EU states had on negotiations within the EU. “The network of alliances that are necessary for a small state to be heard in a European setting fell away during 2001/2002, coinciding with the property boom really,” he says. “This is a big problem because [these alliances] ensure that, if you’re getting deeper integration, there is a balance between the institutions that suited the smaller states and the emerging system.” Regardless of who is to blame, the Eurozone project is teetering close to collapse. Negotiations concerning a fiscal pact continue but it remains unclear if the Euro can survive into the next year.

The prospect of a Eurozone collapse is welcomed by Coughlan, who views the loss of monetary controls Eurozone membership enforced, no matter its affects on the economy, as symptomatic of the manner in which membership of the EU conflicts with Irish democracy. He argues that with Irish law increasingly initiated at the EU level, an arena where “Irish people make up only a tiny handful,” the EU suffers from a democratic deficit that de-legitimises the structure.

“This is not democracy,” he says. “Democracy requires a demos, a people who can identify with the community and communicate with each other. The most obvious point is that there is no common language to communicate through [at a European level]. This creates the fundamental flaw of the European project in that there is no European demos and there therefore can be no European democracy.”

The issue of democracy is problematic and is certainly worth exploring, particularly at a time when Irish citizens are being asked to make substantial sacrifices. Thomas does admit that “there are certain ways in which European decision-making is far removed from democratic input and democratic expression.” Nevertheless, he does not believe that this pooling of sovereignty necessarily equates to a loss of sovereignty. Highlighting that the EU is democratic in many other regards, he argues that the EU also has the potential to be far more democratic, if member states and their citizens become better acquainted with the system.

“I think the most important thing is to make European citizens, including our citizens, better informed about the EU, because they often do not realise how voters have influence,” he says. “Irish citizens are represented directly through the European parliament, they are indirectly represented through the government of Ireland in the two most important institutions for EU decision-making, but the average Irish citizen, just like the average French or German or Spanish or Polish citizen, see the EU as a collection of Eurocrats [who are] overpaid, faceless and tell us the shape our cucumbers should be.”

Concurring, Gillespie argues that Ireland requires greater involvement at a European level than ever before and, in contrast to Coughlan, believes that common politics at a European level can help create a genuine European identity. “The relationship between Europeanisation and national identity is terribly important. If you look closely at Ireland, there is a tension between the sovereignists and those open to multiple identities. Part of the conflict we have over integration is between these two political cultures.”

As Ireland looks to establish its future EU position, Gillespie is keen to emphasise that this crisis cannot be combated without more “common politics at a European level. I think we’re in a major shift … we need more capacity at a European level because, arguably, bureaucratic structures have been created without political ones.” Although not suggesting that Europe become a federal construct, Gillespie feels the EU must “be made more politically accessible if you want to be a democrat. You really encourage democratic participation by enabling people to have a more common politics.”

Common politics are not a possibility according to Coughlan, who maintains that the EU can never truly be democratic and is a product of a bygone era. “Essentially, it should be seen as a Cold War creature and a result of the situation after World War Two, where the larger continental powers tried to recover prestige they lost by joining together to become a big noise in world politics that they could not be individually,” he says. “That’s all out of date and irrelevant now, and so is the European Union.” He continues, “There is a totally fallacious argument that, for people to matter in the world, they need to belong to a large state” which drives European integration and, in turn, leaves European states open to exploitation by their larger neighbours.

Thomas disagrees and instead argues that state size does matter. He believes that European states “recognise they are better off operating through a European structure than going it alone. Who listens to Luxembourg or Croatia or Ireland in global politics? They are listened to because they are key players within the EU.” This becomes even more important due to Ireland’s geographic location. “Participation in European integration has been very good for Ireland and it doesn’t have good viable alternatives,” Thomas says. “A small island in the Atlantic somewhere between Europe and the United States is not a place you want to be. It may be a place you want to go to on holiday but in terms of economic welfare and political influence, that’s not a place you want to be.” The consequence of this is that, even were the EU to collapse under its current guise, he argues that “it will be re-invented.”

Although sharing Thomas’s confidence of the EU’s ability to ride out the current crisis, Gillespie offers some words of warning. “If the euro fails, you’re in for a period of very toxic politics in Europe,” he muses. “I’m not saying that there will automatically be a return to 1930s type of politics but there will be large scale instability, which is dangerous for small states, including us. We’re better to stay with this and argue our case through it, but argue it more vocally and openly, and help to create a better political framework, within which this kind of common politics can emerge.”

It goes without saying that the legacy of British rule guarantees an Irish aversion to outsider interference. Nevertheless, the truth of the matter is that Ireland, by virtue of its small size, cannot cocoon itself from the outside world and its policies will always be shaped externally to some degree. Whether it must look to Britain or Europe, Irish policy choices will be constrained to a large extent by matters beyond national borders. As the EU approaches its next major crossroads in the form of a fiscal treaty, Britain is taking an increasingly sovereignist position and resisting deeper integration. Ireland must now decide whether it follows suit.

New York. Chicago. Los Angeles. As students approach the end of the year, many are planning their upcoming summers and the exciting experiences which will no doubt be had on a J1 trip to America. Talk to any student who has done a J1 and you’ll hear tales of good times. These adventures often include stories of Irish students getting a tad too excited. On the low end of things, anecdotes include excessive partying; on the higher end, examples of more anti-social behaviour and aggressive activities which placed students in risky situations.

“There were issues this year of students putting stickers onto their passports,” according to Sheila Daly of USIT Dublin. “Somebody had a little enterprise going where they were selling stickers, a laminate, so students gave a copy of their passport and they took copies of it and changed the date of birth and made a sticker that went over the bio page which looked extremely real but in some cases police found out, it got leaked and certain bouncers and pubs and clubs found out. If you lifted the passport to the light, you can see the hologram with the passport, and with these you couldn’t so they were confiscating passports,” added Daly. Illegal? Definitely. Brilliant? Maybe. Certainly this trick is not to be recommended. However, more and more reports emerging from the United States indicate that it is not only students who may be attempting to work around the law.

This past year 400 students believed that they would be working for a major American producer of chocolate, Hershey’s, America’s answer to Cadbury’s or Nestle. However, they soon found themselves as employees of the temporary staffing agency SHS, contracted through a company called Exel on behalf of Hershey’s, working incredibly long hours under extremely physically taxing conditions in a chocolate packing factory.

Stephen Boykewich represents an American organisation called the National Guestworkers Alliance, which assists foreign guestworkers. The organisation was founded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when many guestworkers were recruited to assist in the rebuilding of New Orleans.

“These students were forced to work at extraordinary rates of productivity – 120%, 125% of plant capacity. In the process, they were suffering a whole huge range of physical ailments, from chronic fatigue to shooting pains, bruises up and down their arms and legs, they were doing heavy repetitive lifting for eight hours at a time, unable to sleep, and any concerns they raised were met with threats of retaliation or deportation,” said Boykewich.

“The most important thing to understand is that the J1 visa program is not a guestworker visa program. It was not created to be a guestworker program, it’s not administrated by the Department of Labor, but by the Department of State, and of course on the face of it, it makes no sense that the Department of State would be administering a guestworker program. It’s not equipped to, it shouldn’t be able to. The J1 program was founded in 1961, where by providing opportunities for cultural exchange, it promised young people from other countries the opportunity to come to the United States and meet Americans and return to their home countries as cultural ambassadors. What has happened over the last decade is that the J1 program has been exploited by US employers of all kinds to turn it from a cultural exchange program into the largest unregulated guestworker program in America.”

These students eventually spoke out about the abuses that they faced, which led to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton issuing a moratorium on applications of new employers to be recognised as eligible J1 employers while internal reviews of the program were conducted. In a press release, Saket Soni, the Executive Director of the National Guestworker Alliance, stated that “we can see from State’s decision that they found serious problems with the J1 visa program, which has effectively become the largest unregulated guestworker program in America. The deception, exploitation, and threats that the 400 student workers at the Hershey’s packing plant faced aren’t the exception in the J1 program; they’re the rule.”

Susie McEvoy, 4^th year International Social Science, participated in the J1 program last summer in Montauk, New York. “I ended up getting a job in a market, a shop, sort of the equivalent to Donnybrook Fair. I was doing seven o’clock to seven o’clock … working sixty hours a week. I was making rent, but that was about it, I’d have little money left over.”

Other students faced similar difficulties. 4^th year Law student Jane McCann worked in Wildwood, New Jersey at a company which provided dolphin and whale-watching tours and explained that she “worked for twenty-eight days straight, seven until seven.” Clare Nagle, 4^th year Business and Law, also worked with McCann. Nagle worked an “average of seventy hours per week … there were a couple of weeks in the beginning where it was slower, and then in the middle of the season, it was seventy-hour weeks.”

Certainly there is nothing wrong with a strong work ethic and being able to work long weekly hours. However, a major part of the issue is that under American labour law, any hours worked by any worker which exceed eight hours a day and forty hours a week require the employer to pay overtime. Yet in the case of Nagle and McCann, no overtime was paid, and in the case of McEvoy, she was paid overtime pay in cash. This allowed the employer to not pay taxes on the overtime pay; thus, the employers were able to skirt the law and exploit their labour. Additionally, they were often paid their basic wage in cash and the fact that the employers had them work these hours also put the full-time American workers at a disadvantage.

“They did it in a way that they’d pay us overtime in cash because they didn’t want to pay tax on our overtime. Which was fine for me, but then they close for three or four months of the year and the full-time workers get half the unemployment benefits that they would be getting if everything was done above board because the government thinks they are working only half the hours that they are. For me, it didn’t make much of a difference, because I get it in cash. But for full-time workers, it was a big issue,” said McEvoy. “They have such a huge amount of people coming over that they know they can replace us. My employer told me that ‘when Irish people were poor, they’d do whatever we asked them to. Now you’re more picky’.”

Attempts to take advantage of students is not limited to the workplace; many landlords are also increasingly doing so, either packing students into places or offering rentals which tenants would not normally accept. “The house was disgusting, it was an absolute kip. We didn’t have hot water for a month and I’m pretty sure it had black mould as well,” Nagle said. McEvoy describes her living situation: “We had people in our living room. We had a pull-out couch that we had at least two people in the living room, if not three people. We had another two or three people in the garage. We had another four people in my bedroom, three people in another, three people in another…the landlord collected $800 a month from each of us, and there were thirteen of us in a three bedroom house.”

Still, the J1 program provides excellent opportunities for many and, when asked if she would participate in it again, McEvoy said, “I would do it again, no questions asked. It was one of the best summers ever.” Nagle also stated that she would also go again, but offered advice to students. “We didn’t have enough time off work to travel. If I was going again I’d work less, have more fun, and go travelling at the end so I could get the fun out of the place where I was. If you’re going with your friends, get jobs in different places because if not, it’s really difficult to do anything because on your day off there’s no one else off. Be careful of your housing. They think because you’re a) under twenty-five, b) Irish, and c) on your J1 that you don’t care about what you live in.”

Both Daly and Boykewich stressed the importance of researching accommodation and employers before travelling to America. “We advise everybody to do research before they go. It’s the biggest thing. We recommend certain websites where people can find work or accommodation but we always advise people, for example Craigslist … you’ll find that there are thousands of legitimate employers and people renting accommodation on there, but you get the people who are dodgy as well,” Daly said.

Boykewich added, “Do the research. Understand every single point of whatever job offer, whatever documentation you are given. Very often, students are given job offers that will sketch out situations including some of the numbers but then are told a very different story by the sponsors. You want to be very, very clear what your economic reality is going to be and ask sponsors all the hard questions, things that are not laid out in the contract.”

A summer trip to America on a J1 can be a fantastic experience but make sure that you are well-organised in order to not be taken advantage of. Daly added a final note for UCD students considering a J1. “Not everybody has the best experience, some people can go out with unrealistic expectations, but for the most part we do a survey every year and 99.9% of people have the most amazing summer of their lives. Personally I had a green card, I got one of those Donnelly visas years ago so I went off to the States and did my time over there. It’s a rite of passage, it’s an amazing experience.  Literally, you grow up, you learn about the big bad world. And it’s great to have on a CV.”

In order to determine the levels of student participation in UCD’s extra-curricular activities, the University Observer conducted a survey of UCD students. Students were also offered the chance to make other comments. These comments ranged from the positive, such as “They offer you something different from the academic side, and the chance to meet and engage with people,” by Michael O’Flanagan from second year Politics, to the negative, such as Shannon Comiskey from second year Economics who felt that “The University can be very grey and anonymous.”

UCD is home to many different extra-curricular activities, which are in place in order to create a fun and vibrant campus. Extra-curricular involvement can help students gain valuable skills they would not gain through academics alone. Furthermore, a study commissioned by the University itself in 2007, authored by Student Advisor Colleen Doyle, found that three of the leading reasons stated by UCD students for leaving the university were “Poor Sense of Community”, “Unfriendly Environment” and “Didn’t know anyone/Difficulty making friends”, each given by roughly 20% of their respondents. Clearly extra-curricular societies can play a key role in treating those concerns. No student can prosper in university without a healthy social life. Student societies and clubs may ostensibly be for fun, but they also serve a valuable purpose in student life.

The Survey results show that 71% of Students joined a society, but that only 53% of respondents have actually attended an event this year. Furthermore, only 27% had done so in the previous two weeks. The same questions were also asked with regards to sports clubs, where it was found that 39% of respondents had joined a sports club, 35% had attended at least one event and 22% had participated in the previous two weeks. The figures for active participation were similar to societies, but considerably fewer students joined a club at the outset.

This ‘two week’ figure is likely to be the closest to the number of students who consistently participate in student societies. Combined with the society statistic, 58% of students took part in neither a society nor a sports club in the last two weeks, and 7% had done both, showing only a small overlap between the two. Of course, as with any randomised sample of two weeks there is scope for error. However, when combined with the fact that only half of respondents had attended any society event this year, it would suggest that many UCD students draw limited benefit from the society and sports club system.

Participation in other activities was also measured as a comparison. When asked whether they had attended, or planned to attend a Student Union organised event in the current year, 65% said yes, though this number may have been inflated by the inclusion of protests as “an event”, due to the SU protest that had occurred in the same week. 80% of students said they had read a student newspaper in the last month and 27% said they had participated in a class rep event in the previous two weeks. The class rep statistic deserves some special note, as for most of the faculties we surveyed the figure was in the 30%-50% range, but the Arts faculty was unusually low, with only 9% of those surveyed responding yes. One first year Science Class Rep, Niall Clarke, commented that “As a class rep it’s hard to communicate with the entire class, particularly when it’s large.” Given that Arts has many large classes and a low number of class reps to deal with them, this may explain the numerical disparity and this would appear to support plans by the constitutional review committee to expand the number of Arts class reps.

It was found that alcohol was not a decisive factor for the majority of students in attending extra-curricular activities. When asked about whether alcohol would make them more likely to attend a particular event, 37% replied it they would be more likely to attend, 7% replied that they would be less likely to attend and 57% expressed no preference.  This is interesting given the perception of students often being ‘binge drinkers’ or highly influenced by alcohol.

When asked whether they perceived student societies to be “exclusive or cliquish” the result was high, at 44%. In addition, students who had participated in a society in the previous two weeks were as likely to feel societies were cliquish as the general population of students. One Commerce student commented that “Some of the larger societies can be quite cliquish, and I know many people who left to join smaller societies as a result.” Another student, Richard Blanc of 3^rd year History, felt new members can often be ignored by older members and given little to do, commenting that “For many of the societies you have to be there for several years before you get anywhere, before that, you’re just a number.”

When asked if they “had interests or hobbies not served by a currently existing society”, the student response was relatively low, with 16% of students responding positively to this question. Suggestions for new societies ranged from Arts and Crafts, to Zoology, to Cars.

When the data was analysed further, it was found that two-week participation in societies and sports clubs varied little with regards to the student’s year of study. However, the probability of joining or attending any society fell the longer students were in college, as shown in FIG A. Another trend was that the percentage perceiving societies as “cliquish or exclusive” was 55% for most years, except first years, where only 26% believed it was an issue. A similar analysis was performed regarding faculties and found no meaningful variation.

In contrast, gender did appear to have a slight affect on responses. Female respondents were less likely to take part in societies than male respondents, while being more likely to perceive societies as exclusive or cliquish. However, less female students felt they had unserved interests or hobbies, and female students did not believe alcohol was as influential in choosing an event to attend as their male counterparts. The breakdown of results can be seen in fig B. This is an interesting result with no immediately clear explanation, and perhaps warrants further investigation.

In comments collected from individual students, other concerns were voiced that were not specifically addressed in the survey, and may have given a significant response if they had been. One of these was commuting, with sixteen students independently answering that their commute prevented them from taking part in extra-curricular activities in UCD, and many saying that events earlier in the day would make it substantially easier for them to take part.

The other main issue brought up by numerous students was publicity. Many commented that they encountered various problems keeping them from knowing how to get involved. Orla Ward, a second year Actuarial studies student, felt societies “don’t have good enough contact via email after the first two weeks, they’ve got your money and that’s it.” Likewise, Leanne Ryan of third year English believed that “societies give too little information about how to get involved, or even what they’re doing”.

Some made practical suggestions of their own of how to ameliorate pre-existing issues, like Lauren McDunphy of fourth year Nursing. “I’d like it if there was an easier way to join societies after fresher’s week, for instance online, because during fresher’s week, as a fourth year student I was very busy getting organised.” Some students also felt similarly about student newspapers and responded that while they enjoyed reading it, many had little idea of how to actually get involved and write.

The University Observer contacted Stephen Whelan, chairman of the Society Council, for comment on the results. “Firstly, it is to be expected that the numbers attending society events this late in the semester is lower than usual. Assignments and exams take precedence at this stage, so it is a bad time to examine attendance in a general sense. This has been the general trend since the introduction of semesterisation a number of years ago.” Furthermore, he stated that many society events were not always obviously run by a society, for example faculty days. Whelan also thought that “people are too quick to use the word clique. Your survey suggests that over 70% of students joined a society this year, I think this is positive. First year students are always more willing to be involved, or try new things, than other years. As people progress in college they tend to specialise. So instead of joining ten societies, they join one or two,” and “Societies want people to be involved. At any stage during the year you can join a society, and they’ll be happy to have you. I think the ‘clique’ label used is not helpful, and for the most part, ill-considered.” He concluded that, “With over eighty active societies here on campus we have a great deal of diversity … Obviously, it would be foolish to be complacent. The Societies Council will continue to encourage participation and promote society life here on campus.”

This survey shows that there is a significant number of students that are not taking part in extra-curricular activities. It should be stressed, however, that most of the student respondents were positive about student societies and felt they were an important part of the university. The main issues we found students expressing that kept them from participating were not related to a lack of resources on the part of the university, but due to poor infrastructure and communication. Students were not taking part due to events being too late, not being informed of any events, or simply not knowing how to volunteer.

Perhaps there are more problems to be solved, however the survey is already beneficial insofar as it highlights that even an improvement in the frequency and timing of email communication would create a greater connection between societies and students and invite greater participation.

It was May last year when former UCD student Sean Regan, now a presenter on kids’ magazine show elev8, got a call from a friend about auditions for a new program on RTÉ. “It was around the time of the exams, I was in Tesco. He wanted advice because I had been doing campus television, he wanted to send in a video to RTÉ for this new show, I said yeah send it in, we’ll edit it for you. I helped another friend do a show reel piece as well for RTÉ and he asked was I going to enter. I thought ‘no chance’”. He explains that his time at CTN (Campus Television Network) had given him the added experience and know-how to understand what was involved.

“I sort of had an interest. I literally put in my application at 6am on Monday, three hours before the deadline. You had to write two hundred words on why you wanted to be the face of Irish children’s television. I included some video links that I had done with CTN. Interestingly enough I had footage of interviews I had done at the UCD Ball with the Vengaboys, Iglu & Hartley and Mundy which I thought would help me stand out rather than just me sitting in my bedroom introducing myself on film … So that was my thinking behind it.”

The approach clearly drew interest from the producers and industry executives, as Sean was called back. Being able to stand out from the crowd is the main tip he would have for people who are trying to get in to the world of broadcasting.“I did a bit of beat boxing. You want to make yourself memorable.” His time in UCD also gave him an understanding of what it’s like to choose people for a production after only a brief encounter with them in auditions.

“Back in the day I was a member of Dramsoc [UCD Drama Society] and myself and a friend held casting for an event called the ‘Fresher’s Project’. Basically the premise was that there were a different set of directors each day of the week, the same play but a different cast as well. We had this day-long casting process which gave me the experience to know what it’s like to be in the director and producer’s chair when you’re choosing candidates.”

Eventually Sean got the nod and joined two other presenters for the show. He believes that presenting is not a straightforward process but once in the business you learn quickly and on your feet. “We did mock interviews, panel discussions, speech workshops. Introductions to a show, acting and what we needed to improve on … We had a baptism of fire; they said it’s going to be a daily show and live. We had four weeks to prepare for it and we didn’t get much training”.

Current UCD student and former contributor to RTÉ’s The Rumour Room and Two Tube Sahar Ali feels that she too had to learn quickly. “When you go into RTÉ you just bring what you have, your own personality, just work with what you know or else you’re holding people back. I became more comfortable [in front of] the camera. You just have to be a more enthusiastic version of yourself, more energetic but you’re still being yourself”.

Being a member of Dramsoc helped give Sahar the confidence to have a real chance of getting the job with RTÉ. “We did improvisational type games and that’s something that really helped me with getting into TV. In second year we had improvisation classes with this guy called Robert Brown, he was American, I learned so much from him and I think I wouldn’t have had the confidence without him to go for the RTÉ gig”.

Sahar feels that there aren’t many opportunities in Ireland at the moment but still encourages students to put themselves out there. “We were very lucky timing-wise. Even RTÉ now have so many contacts that they would rather choose someone that they already know. Once I was in there I started getting calls from other people about work. They are always out for new people though, even when I was doing my own thing there were people watching, although I don’t think they want to take the risk as much now.”

It seems that the message is clear for people looking to get into broadcasting; use your time in UCD to hone your skills and gain as much experience as you can, because you never know when an opportunity might present itself.

In his election manifesto, current Students’ Union (SU) President Pat de Brún promised that overhauling the SU constitution would be a priority. Now in office, he chairs a review committee tasked with creating an entirely new document. The current constitution has been a source of discord for many union members who argue that its technicalities are too specific and restrictive, while de Brún maintains that the current document fails “to represent our students in all walks of student life.” It is hoped that the proposed new document will rectify the presently overlooked members of the university, as well as review the SU.

The SU are mandated to review the constitution every five years but de Brún chose to do so during his period in office, just three years after it was last reviewed. The review involves not only revaluating the student body’s opinion of the SU, but exposing the positions held by many in the union to scrutiny. Brendan Lannoye, a fellow Review Committee member and a candidate in last year’s presidential election, believes that “it is the willingness of the current SU President to propose such a new constitution that will cause change”. The committee has placed strong emphasis on collecting ideas from a wide a range of sources, and de Brún states that they have received feedback “from every sports club, from ten years of the past sabbatical officers and from all the students.” However, Lannoye does add that the committee have not yet looked at these replies but remains hopeful that “a lot of new ideas will come to the table”.

With the role of the SU constantly shifting, the main area where de Brún and Lannoye highlight the need for change is the system of representation. De Brún asserts that the old constitution served its purpose but feels that it was directed towards a very different university, a university “geared towards traditional students which would be young, Irish, male”. He continues by saying that the number of mature, post-graduate and international students are increasing and he does not feel that these groups “ are well represented”. His sentiments are echoed by Lannoye, who feels that “parts of the current constitution just don’t make sense for the modern student and the modern SU” and can lead to some students feeling “decisions are made above my head so the [SU] doesn’t matter”.

De Brún believes that “there could be a person in each of those courses who really wants to represent their class and they actually can’t under the current constitution”. This increase in reps will involve a new system being put in place that will expand the number of class reps and break up some of the larger constituencies. “We’ve a really strict quota for class reps for elections but there’s one rep for languages, literature and music when there could be a person in each of those courses who really wants to represent their class,” de Brún adds. Though the expansion of the Class Reps system is likely to increase financial burdens and may not be universally popular, Lannoye believes it is a positive move, commenting that he “would rather have far too many voices and students feeling included, rather than the alternative”.

From the outside, it may appear unnecessary to revamp the entire document and de Brún does agree that, despite having “plenty” of weaknesses, “the [current] constitution is in many ways fine.” Lannoye suggests that the introduction of an entirely new constitution is also a technical issue. He explains that many of the “big changes” the committee hopes to make will have ramifications in other areas of the constitution which means it’s easier to introduce an entirely new document rather than a raft of smaller amendments that could lead to an overly complicated document.

Nevertheless it must be asked if this constitution will be as groundbreaking as we are led to believe.   Until this document is presented, this question cannot be answered conclusively. Nonetheless, de Brún maintains that “at the end of the day our core principles are will always remain the same … those things I don’t see changing but it’s just how we go about it and how we do it better.” Lannoye, likewise, seems confident that the committee will produce a document that will be “vastly different from the last one”. More conclusive answers will have to wait until the new document is presented to the SU council on the 19^th of January.

Going to college can be a daunting experience, but it is particularly tough if you are also leaving home for the first time. After eighteen years of being looked after you are suddenly left to fend for yourself, in a new city, maybe even a new country, sharing a small apartment with complete strangers. New students can often feel isolated during their first weeks away from home but it is also an opportunity to create a new home, a new community with your fellow residents.

Social provisions for a residence community used to be practically non-existent, with students obliged to forge their own way through campus-wide clubs and societies, and their own social initiative to befriend their neighbours. In the last few years however, the culture of UCD residence has expanded with the establishment of Res Life, a program created by the Students’ Union and the residences management with the very aim of promoting community spirit. Students’ Union Welfare officer Rachel Breslin is one of the strongest advocates of the program, her interest in the scheme stemming from her own experiences living on campus.

“I’ve lived on residence for 3 years and I’ve certainly felt, particularly in my first year when I wasn’t really involved in anything else, that the lack of community spirit in residences that I felt existed at the time can make you feel a bit more isolated. The biggest proportion of residences is first years, there’s over 800 of them, and a lot of them come from schools like I did in Donegal, not knowing anybody else in college. If there isn’t a built-in spirit of community in residences then it can actually add to your isolation rather than make you feel better about being in college.”

On the front line of the campus community initiative are the three Residence Representatives, who assist students with campus issues and represent residents in the Students’ Union council meetings. They have become heavily involved in fostering this sense of community and are working to increase awareness of the various programs and events available. Danielle Curtis, a second year Res Rep, explains how they have worked this year to increase their presence on campus.

“It was one of our aims, myself and the two other Res Reps, to get to know people. We have gone around and knocked on doors and introduced ourselves, we’ve lecture addressed in the main buildings where there would be a lot of country people on Res like Ag and Science and told people who we were. Even when we went lecture addressing about the march we introduced ourselves as Res Reps so the people who were sitting in lectures knew who we were. Its kind of us trying to get our name out there, to show people that there is somebody who represents them in council because not many people do know about that.”

One of the big projects planned for this semester is a formal Res Ball especially for the students living on campus, held in the Burlington Hotel later this month. “We have got a market of about 2,600 students to sell to, so hopefully it’ll go off”, Danielle explains. “The hitch is that it’s the first year it’s running in UCD … but hopefully we can start something small that will continue through the years.” Though the first of its kind in UCD, there have been hugely successful Res Balls held by other colleges, for example Trinity College.

The second big initiative planned is the residence magazine – a free monthly magazine put together by students and delivered to each apartment in UCD. The hope is that this will increase the community identity of residences as they become more informed about events and their fellow Res students.

“The magazine is really to make people aware of the events that are being run anyway” explains Breslin, “so L&H events, Ents events, any sort of talks that might be going on, even careers events. So kind of a calendar of events that are going over the month in the college itself to make students aware of some of the offers the campus outlets have got on … ways to save money in residences and then also to do things like, the Res Reps wanted to organise a Come Dine With Me competition. It’s difficult to organise over social media and Facebook but if we get everyone with the same leaflet going through their door and the same offer; like maybe we’re going to do an offer that week in the shop where you can buy tea for less and everyone kind of knows about it, then it will be easier.”

“We were thinking of doing a description of meals that you could cook with suggested recipes but then have house competitions so you might not get everyone knowing about the house if it’s online but if they all get a magazine they can get the house together and also post photos to the website, and then they would be in the next magazine.”

Those currently living in UCD residences have a less optimistic tale to tell of SU initiatives however. Fiona Brown, a first year Arts student living in Belgrove, feels that there is little community spirit in her building, “There’s not really a community feel, everyone just keeps themselves to themselves … I know the ones across the hall though, we can’t get rid of them! They’re over here drinking tea now”, she jokes. “It’s a big change, but I live with nice people.” Although there are parties and nights out among the group, the SU-planned events have sparked little interest. “Well they tried at the start of the year, it didn’t seem to work. There was a sports day organised but no one really went to it.”

Others paint a more positive picture of the resident community, “All my roommates are so nice” Catriona Daly, a first year Roebuck Castle resident affirms, “Half of them are exchange students only here for the semester and half of them are here for their whole course and I just think its really nice that we’re all getting to know each other, we’re all intermingling. I know a lot of people in Roebuck Castle, I’d say I know most of them because we eat together, we all have meals together. I know people from my course as well but not as well as I’d know the people in Roebuck Castle. There’s always parties going on in different apartments and people are free to come and join in so I’d say it’s definitely a community.”

Catriona agrees that there is little participation in organised Res events however, and feels the SU involvement is largely unnecessary. “I think that people are fairly good at organising their own events and stuff a lot of the time. There was an attempt to have a Roebuck Halloween thing but only a few people showed up because most people wanted to go out and stay out.

“I don’t think it’s necessary for the SU to get more involved. If they wanted to I’m sure people would be happy but at the moment we’re happy to organise our own stuff.”

Breslin however, feels that the SU drive for a residence community is very beneficial for students, particularly for those who may not be as quick to connect with classmates and neighbours. “I think that natural community on a residence, it depends on the people in the apartment, so if you have people in a block who know each other already then a community spirit builds up very quickly, but if you have people who are more shy, less confident, who maybe don’t know anybody then they don’t feel part of that community spirit unless there’s an event they can go to or unless someone makes an effort to bring them into the community, which is what I really want to do. I want to make sure that there’s an event for everybody, so that everyone feels comfortable going to at least one event during the year or doing one activity through Res Life.”

Getting to know your neighbours is not an automatic process and Rachel Breslin has found that residents are more self-contained than people realise. ”When I put in my manifesto last year … I was surprised how many students when we went round to the door, even casually when we asked if the person next door was in they’d say, ‘no, I don’t know them’ – within their own house. There’s more of that than even I was aware of.”

The feedback for the upcoming initiative has been very positive so far, with even those who feel support to be unnecessary expressing huge interest in involvement in the projects. “When an event has happened students have been really quick to say that it was really good. So rather than outwardly demanding it, when it has happened they’ve always come back saying that was a really good idea. There were lots of people attending so it shows there is an appetite for it here.”

Living on campus can be invaluable for a new student. It removes many of the pressures of living on your own for the first time; cutting out landlords, transport and depending on where you live, perhaps also cooking, which even final years seemingly struggle to master. Living in the centre of the action with so many people doing the same thing is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and these initiatives should help residents experience what UCD offers to the full.

Reflecting on her experiences as a resident, Danielle Curtis echoes Rachel in her support. “The community feel is there in every sense, I know everyone in my building this year. You just see people walking on the stairs, you introduce yourself and stuff like that. I think there is a community feel in each res and it’s pretty much the same vibe in each res. It made my first year, living on res.”