For most investors, studios and filmmakers, the possibility of winning an Oscar will never actually become a reality. Unless, like the three founders of Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon, you get lucky. Last month, it was announced that Cartoon Saloon’s 75-minute film, The Secret of Kells, had been nominated for Best Animated Feature at this year’s Academy Awards.

Cartoon Saloon was founded in 1999 by Tomm Moore and Paul Young, and the pair were joined soon after by Nora Twomey. Since then, the company has remained fairly hidden from the spotlight. Until now. “We’ve been doing huge amounts of promotion and press work since the nomination was announced,” says Twomey. “I’m far too pregnant to travel [Twomey is due to give birth this May] but Paul and Tomm are over in LA and they said it’s just crazy. They were at the nominee luncheon yesterday, and Sandra Bullock asked Tomm if the seat next to him was taken. I think he was too shocked to tell her that he was holding it for Paul, who was in the toilet.”

The bulk of the Oscar nomination list is usually fairly predicatable, but Best Animated Feature remains one category that always has a few wildcards thrown in. Twomey said the nomination was completely unexpected. “We only got our US distributor about three days before the deadline for Oscar qualification. Our distributor applied for us, and we didn’t expect anything to come of it.” The Secret of Kells also received a nomination at this year’s Annie Awards (which are akin to the Oscars if you’re an animator) and Twomey says that alone was enough to keep her happy. “We were nominated for the Annie first, which was a complete shock. We thought we’d be bumped out by the likes of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.”

The film, and the animators behind it, already had a fanbase in the US long before any word of an Oscar or an Annie.

Company director Tomm Moore has been keeping a production blog of the film’s progress since 2004. “The blog really helped us to build up a fanbase overseas. We have a very strong following in the US now,” says Twomey.

Even with such a following however, the film’s release in the US was very limited. That is, of course, until its popularity was boosted hugely by the surprise Oscar nomination. It was announced this week that the film will now be released in LA, San Franscisco, Boston and Chicago from April 2.

Along with the other two founders of Cartoon Saloon, Twomey is a graduate of Ballyfermot College’s animation course, and wholeheartedly supports her alma mater. But the team behind The Secret of Kells are not the only graduates of Ballyfermot to grace the list of Oscar nominees this year. Daragh O’Connell and Nicky Phelan, both Ballyfermot College alumni, were also nominated for their animated feature, Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty. And, to round things off nicely, Richard Baneham was nominated for his visual effects work on Avatar.

Although Ballyfermot is not the only Irish college offering animation courses, Twomey says it is no coincidence that its graduates do so well. “The college really does offer fantastic training,” says Twomey. I think it’s less arty than other colleges. A lot of the work we did at Ballyfermot was centered on life drawing and anatomy, which really stood to us all.”

When asked why she chose to co-found an independent company rather than working for one of the big industry names, she answers simply, “freedom.” As a student, Twomey was chosen for an internship in Disney’s animation studio in Paris, but she would clearly rather remain as master of her own fate. “Cartoon Saloon has always been about design. Animation is a great business, but it is primarily a business. Hands always stay firmly on the purse-strings. By doing small-budget work, you have less people to answer to.”

Twomey says that although budget considerations are a big issue for the company, it would never have stopped The Secret of Kells from eventually being completed. “Tomm and Paul set up Cartoon Saloon so that they could make this film. It’s always been on the cards. It was always going to be made.” The distinctive style of the animation in The Secret of Kells, which has been widely praised, was actually quite budget-friendly, says Twomey. “We definitely don’t have the resources for Disney-style animation. The art direction of the film was influenced by the Book of Kells itself, so the animation was less layered, which meant the film was cheaper to make.”

In order to stay within budget, a lot of the animation on the Secret of Kells was outsourced to Hungary, with clean-up and final cuts completed in Ireland. Twomey says she doesn’t think this had a negative effect on the quality of the finished product. “The hub of the operation was always Ireland. We did about 20 minutes worth of the animation over here, to set the look and to set the standard.” The Irish team always had the final say, says Twomey.

“Tomm was the Art Director for the project, and I would have done a lot of fixing. We were sent the animation from Hungary, and I would draw over it if any changes were needed.”

Most of the film’s animation was done solely by hand, with just a few 3D sequences. Twomey says she’s always preferred the 2D style. “Animation is in a completely different place now to where it was when I graduated in 1997. But the company has always focused more on traditional animation- it’s what we were trained in.”

The Secret of Kells was originally meant to be a 15-minute short, but over the course of production, the team’s artistic vision has grown, and Twomey says she couldn’t be happier with the result. “We’ve always wanted to make this film, but it was always, ‘next year, it’ll get done next year’. I’m delighted it’s finished and that it’s done so well.”

The BBC ran an extensive international campaign to try to secure his release, and with the help of Hamas officials, Johnston was eventually freed unharmed on July 4 2007.

Johnston was the only Western reporter permanently based in Gaza and had been working there for three years when he went missing. He reported for all BBC radio and television during the second Palestinian Intifada.

Johnston came to DCU on Monday night to discuss his 20-year career as a BBC foreign correspondent, which includes other events like the breakdown of the Soviet Union and reporting the Taliban’s control of Afghanistan.

Chairing last night’s talk was another public figure of significant distinction. Raped and abused in his early teens by one of Ireland’s most notorious paedophiles, Colm O’Gorman was one of the first to draw attention to sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

O’Gorman is one of Ireland’s most outspoken campaigners against religious child sex abuse and set up the organisation One in Four, which helps victims and investigates the deceitful cover-up.

He has moved on again and is now the executive director of Amnesty Ireland. O’Gorman welcomed Johnston to DCU and the risks that he has taken during his career but questioned what motivates him to risk his life.

“Alan put himself in places of significant risk - he was the only Western journalist in Gaza for a reason. There were 71 journalists killed in 2009, and that’s the highest number killed in a last few years,” said O’Gorman.

“Journalists often face grave violations of their human rights but also the suppression of their freedom of expression. We all should be hugely concerned about this because we must know what is going on in the world and journalists are central to this.

“Understanding the experiences of a journalist who has really been at the edge of this suppression is fascinating. Correspondents, like Alan, work in the interests of exposing truth but at the same time, they go beyond the realms of safety,” he added.

O’Gorman was himself in the media spotlight again last week following the two-day summit in Rome last week between 24 Irish bishops and Pope Benedict.

After the summit, the Vatican released a statement condemning Ireland’s history of child sexual abuse as a “heinous crime”. However, the Pope did not apologise, nor take any responsibility for what happened.

The whole meeting has been described as a PR disaster and a very cynical exercise. O’Gorman asserts that if the “Pope was serious about dealing with child sex abuse in Ireland, he doesn’t need to sit down with 24 bishops from Ireland.”

“I can’t believe that the Vatican is so blind to recognise how flawed that meeting looks to the Irish public. That congregation was completely unaware of how meaningless and pointless a public relations approach appears.

“The Pope was the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for 20 years. That department is responsible for the enforcement of Church law and dogma on a global level.

“As head of that department, he was personally responsible for the management of child sexual abuse in Catholic dioceses across the world. For 20 years, his department oversaw a cover-up,” said O’Gorman.

It took O’Gorman 14 years to report his own abuse, but when he did, other victims came forward in following months.

He later discovered that the Church had received numerous complaints about his abuser, Father Sean Fortune.

It later emerged that the Catholic Church may have known that Fortune had a history of abusing boys before being ordained. Eventually, he was given a trial date in 1999, facing 66 charges of abusing children.

Eleven days into the trial, he killed himself with whiskey and prescription drugs. O’Gorman continued his legal battle and successfully sued the Catholic Church, receiving a payment of €300,000.

His case was settled in the High Court and was based on negligence against the Fortune’s Diocese of Ferns in Wexford. O’Gorman also got a historic, unreserved public apology in court.

Last week, many victims of clerical abuse demanded accountability and an apology from Pope Benedict. However, O’Gorman says his healing and happiness is “not dependant on any apology from the Pope.”

“I’m not remotely interested in meeting the Pope for some personal time - I don’t need his apology. This issue is about justice, accountability, responsibility and justice for the rights of children. I’m not interested in meeting him”.

“The reason why I want the Pope to acknowledge and accept responsibility for what happened is to prevent anything like this ever happening again. The Vatican needs to acknowledge the cover-up - every bishop is answerable only to the Vatican.”

The Love Lab opened on February 11, and will remain open until March 12. I thought that my visit to the gallery would entail a walk-through love learning experience, with scientific explanations of the basis of emotions, and some interesting experiments to participate in or interact with.

The description on the leaflet I picked up when I got to the exhibition puts forth some intriguing questions, for instance “Does romance really exist or do our genes precondition us to seek out particular partners?”, and invites you to “put yourself to the test [and] discover the laws of attraction”.

Alas, it turned out to be different from my expectations. My experience wasn’t revealing or insightful: I didn’t learn from researchers – I helped researchers learn.

On arrival – after initial confusion, as there are no clear directions given within the gallery – I signed up to become a test subject in this whole experiment, and was given a number to ensure anonymity when it came to results time, as the research is on going and for scientific purposes.

I then had to sign up to participate in experiments. You can only sign up for one experiment at a time, getting a ticket each time and having to queue up and wait for one of three computers to come available. This took about twenty minutes each time during my visit, which was at around 4pm on Tuesday.

So, though I had come hoping to take part in every experiment and see my results, I only had time to do four, not learning anything from them.

My first venture was Can’t Help Falling in Love, a test which endeavours to measure your ability to control your impulses and desires when you are attracted to someone. The test is a sort of game, where you try to press the space bar on every picture that pops up at a rate of one per second, unless it appears twice in a row.

While this was enjoyable. I should admit that I didn’t see how it could be applicable to research on impulse. I’m no scientist, but I felt that any slip-ups I made were purely out of lack of concentration, or even lack of control over my hands when they’re used to tap, tap, tapping… Nothing to do with the intensity of my draw towards the pictures they occurred on.

After that, you must rate your attraction to people from the pictures on a scale of 1-7, forcing you to really consider the different things that make you swoon.

Walk Right Into my Life aims to discover what kind of walk most attracts you and what makes it do so. It was, for the first minute or so, interesting to have to evaluate and really think about my idea of a sexy walk. After that minute, though, the activity became tedious and repetitive.

Then I did Average face, WLT You: the mission to find the “average face” by combining attributes from as many faces as possible, and Whisper Sweet Nothings, which is similar, but with voice replacing face.

These, though their descriptions imply otherwise, are done together. The descriptions also suggest that you will be asked to judge faces and voices to identify the one you find most appealing, but I was asked to do nothing of the sort. I had my picture taken and read some quotes and sounds aloud, my voice was recorded, and that was that.

The rest of the experiments are similar, testing things from the connection between desire and age, to the relevance of genetics to love. The genetics one, plus another test to do with scents, have a charge of €5 because they involve DNA testing.

The Gallery are holding some events to fit in with the ‘Science of Desire’ theme too. Most are on specific dates, running for one day only and also charge in.

There are also two displays in the exhibition, which are very interesting. The first, Charlie Murphy’s The Anatomy of Desire: Kiss Casts, delivers what it promises: casts of peoples’ kisses.

Then there’s the MustGoToBed, a bed for couples in long-distance relationships on which they can draw with light, around their body for instance, and the image appears on the corresponding bed. This is a live, intimate experience, where the couple feel like they are close to one another.

Summing up, the exhibition differs vastly from what is expected, and does not present much new information.

It is good to help out, and so if you want to assist with scientific research it is the place to go. However, it is also time-consuming and not very enlightening, so if an education in the lessons of love is what you are after, this may not be the place for you.

Ian Denham, E&S co-chair says that claims of funding misuse among the committee are incorrect and that a campaign will be launched to dispute this decision. Denham said that the society “have lodged an appeal on the ruling.”

As was previously reported in the College View, E&S was informed by the SPC that it could no longer class itself as a society until further notice. The temporary suspension came as a result of claims that the society members failed to attend a mandatory conference during a trip to Budapest in November which the SPC partly funded.

The SPC, the body that oversees club and society funding in DCU, has since met and decided to dissolve the society completely.

In an email to the E&S committee, SPC chair Jennifer Tweed said: “Further to our meeting regarding the matter of the Entrepreneurial and Social society, the SPC has come to the following decision. From Monday March 8, the Entrepreneurial and Social society will no longer be recognised by the SPC and will therefore be defunct. This decision has been made in light of the breakdown of trust and deliberate misleading of the SPC with regards to support of the Budapest trip.”

Tweed told the College View that E&S, “are now requesting an appeal by way of an SPC EGM.”

E&S chair Denham has criticised the SPC’s decision, telling the College View that, “On the trip, society members attended an entrepreneurial conference that they were not officially registered for. Societies must have a reason to go on a foreign trip such as an event relating to your societies activities.

“Since the E&S members were not officially registered for the event it was deemed that E&S had misled the SPC and should be disbanded. Denham says that the committee are “devastated with the decision.”

“Many exciting events for the second semester have been put on hold. We have spent three hard years setting up a society that appeals to a broad range of people - to take this decision lying down would be an insult to our 2,000 fabulous members across DCU and St Pat’s. We aim to promptly lodge an appeal,” he said.

The amount of money involved in the incident is €4,500, according to Denham.

“E&S applied for funding for flights and accommodation and were granted up to €8,000. The cost of the trip was €11,000 of which €4,500 was paid for through SPC granted money and the rest was paid for by E&S.”

Last week several E&S members posted comments on the DCU Students’ Union Facebook page, voicing their anger that the society had been disbanded.

In response the Students’ Union asked E&S members via Facebook to cease commenting as the Union is not the body which deals with club and society funding. SPC chair Tweed herself commented, posting that “this is the wrong place to be mounting a protest.”

Denham says that he is aware of such online activity. “There is a war of words going on at the moment online which I’m not getting involved in - I’m not a keyboard warrior.

“We just want to try and get the society back on its feet and I hope we can count on the support of our great members who are the lifeblood of our success.”

When asked if himself or indeed any of the E&S committee encouraged members to post on the DCUSU page, Denham replied: “E&S members were not provoked to write comments on a Facebook page.”

The society has been told by the SPC that events for their upcoming Enterprise Week in week four can still go ahead on certain conditions.

“As a result of the amount of time and effort invested [into the planning of Enterprise Week] we shall allow this event to proceed as already planned,” Tweed said in the above email. “This, however, comes under the following restrictions.

“All events planned for the week in question are to be those already discussed within the grant application and previously communicated to the SPC. Furthermore, all financial activities regarding this event shall be dealt with through the SPC. This means that your new SPC representative, David Doyle, shall be required to sign all society cheques. Lastly, no events shall be organised prior to or following Enterprise Week.”

Tweed went on to explain how the dissolution of the society would come about: “Immediately after the events of Enterprise Week, the society shall be officially defunct. This means that the committee shall be fully dissolved, all membership of the society shall be revoked and complete financial control shall be returned to the SPC. No events shall be organised by the society and, as a whole, the society shall no longer exist.”

Tweed also said in the email that society members will be entitled to a refund of their membership fee of one euro each. The SPC chair said: “A certain amount of our dealings with individual societies is based on trust that the money we allocate will be spent appropriately. Any breach of this trust is clearly a serious matter, as we are dealing with students’ money.”

Refusing to be named, the executive member has slammed the entire process as “lacking transparency”.

“The entire thing is farcical, it’s making a mockery out of the whole process”, the executive member told the College View.

“There is an agenda of a few individuals and the process is not transparent, the union executive have no clue what’s going on and the student body has yet to be consulted on what they would like to see included… were not even sure if our submissions have been considered, the entire thing is a shambles to date,” they added.

The College View has also learned that a referendum on the new Students’ Union constitution will “likely” take place alongside the sabbatical elections in week nine requiring the inclusion of a ‘grandfather clause’ so as not to create any legal difficulties arising from sabbatical officer role changes.

Niall McClave, secretary of the review committee and former Students’ Union president confirmed the delay.

He says: “It’s looking likely. The idea is that we want to make sure that we do this right, with proper consultation and get as much input as possible. Obviously we’d prefer to have it done and out before then but that isn’t looking likely.”

Union sources confirmed that the ongoing delays were due to “the increased complexity of writing what is a legal document and conflict amongst those on the review committee.”

The constitutional review committee, which was established at the first Union Council meeting of the start of the academic year, is charged with formulating any proposed amendments to the constitution. It has been “struggling to reach consensus on key areas” such as sabbatical job descriptions and voting procedures.

Union sources also confirmed that the committee has suffered from a “serious lack of manpower and diluted commitment.”

Both Brian McDonald (Union Council secretary) and David Doyle (Union Council chairperson) were declared invalid members of the committee after their nominations were found to be unconstitutional.

McClave refuted the allegations of conflict. He says: “I’ve never experienced it. Obviously there are differences of opinion on some issues but they’ve never descended into conflict.”

External candidate

The College View can also reveal that an external DCU graduate may now be appointed to run a stakeholder consultation process over a period of several weeks.

Confirming that a external consultant was being considered McClave said that any process would be “run by a graduate who will come in for two or three weeks and host meetings with focus groups and individuals and then present the findings to the committee.”

The planned process will also take into consideration proposals from staff of both the Students’ Union and the university.

McClave confirmed that the process will also accept submissions from former officers of the Students’ Union in order to ensure that it “include[s] the wealth of experience out there and other relevant people in the education sector.”

Welcoming the proposed review, the executive member highlighted the need for more “information to be forthcoming by the committee on its process and deliberations.”

A separate source indicated that the consultation process would “hopefully take place during Reading Week and the subsequent week, with a draft proposals ready soon thereafter’.

McClave refused to be drawn on whether any external consultant would be paid stating that “[it’s] really a matter for the president to decide”.

Changes to Executive

Another review committee source has confirmed that significant changes to the job descriptions and roles of the executive officers “are still being considered”.

McClave reiterated the need for consultation with the membership but said that personally, “the roles aren’t suitable for what they were designed to do. The campaigns and information officer in particular never developed into the role it was intended to be. But across the executive roles have to be looked at. Some are now redundant and others don’t have enough meat.”

According to a union source, it is expected that the role of Equality Officer may be “substantially changed or abolished altogether.”

McClave, however, indicated his support for the position. “I think it’s important to keep the idea of an equality officer but the role can be expanded to include other responsibilities.”

The expansion of the role may include additional campaigning work to take off some of the burden from the deputy president welfare and education.

When asked what changes there would be to the sabbatical team, McClave refused to be drawn but stated: “I don’t think it would be appropriate to pre-empt the decisions of the committee however personally I would hope that there will be yes.”

The tout approached a number of students in front of the Helix offering to sell them tickets for a substantially discounted rate of €3. Student tickets for the event should have cost €13.

Richard Carter, a fourth year financial and actuarial maths student in DCU was one of those who was approached by, what he labelled, the “pretty uncharitable” tout.

He says that the tout – who was aged around 21 and who Carter believes was most likely a DCU student – told him straight out that the tickets were fake, showing him one of the tickets he had in his hands.

According to Carter, the tickets he was offered contained the perforated strip that were found on the official tickets for the event and looked “very authentic”.

“In the light it was difficult to see if the ticket was the right colour or not,” he says. “But it seemed ok, certainly enough to convince whoever was collecting them at the door.”

The tout showed him the stamp that he had already got from the Helix after having used his ticket to gain entry, telling Carter that he had already sold “a few that night… and that they worked fine.”

According to Alan Keegan, the Students’ Union president however, “there is a special security seal on the tickets that we get and the security working are aware of the fake tickets that occasionally turn up. This has happened in the past and whoever has had one has never gotten entry.”

Keegan said he was adamant that no tickets had been stolen from the SU reception by the “pathetic” tout as each ticket is individually numbered.

Leo Moran, the lead guitarist in the Saw Doctors told the College View he thought it was, “awful that someone would do that just to make a couple of quick bucks for themselves.”

He said: “They really don’t care… it’s all very cynical, isn’t it. They we’re obviously just looking to make a quick buck.”

The Unicef on Campus society were hosting the event along with the Students’ Union, with all profits going to Unicef’s Haiti appeal.

Moran says that the tout put aside, it was a “brilliant gig” with a “great buzz” at the event.

The amount raised by the event for charity is still being worked out by the Students’ Union as some bills still have to be paid.

He outlined his view to abolish the position in an email that was sent out to all clubs by the sports clubs committee (SCC) chair, David Lynch, at the end of last month.

According to Keegan last week however, the email was sent out in error.

Keegan wrote: “We are proposing some radical changes to the setup of the Union and we have reviewed the positions on the executive. We have changed a good amount and one of the suggestions is the removal of the clubs and socs officer on the basis that it is not needed.”

The clubs and societies officer, currently Willie Coyne, is – according to the current constitution – “responsible for the representation of members and the implementation of Union policy in relation to extra-curricular activities.”

However, according to Keegan the Students’ Union does this anyway, without the need for the Union to have a separate clubs and societies officer.

In the email sent out, he proposes that the chair of the societies and publications committee (SPC), and the chair of the sports club committee (SCC) should sit on the union council executive instead as non-voting members similar to the secretary of Union Council.

He says that, “generally the president and the two chairs will have a close working relationship as they all sit on the Hub Management Committee and the Office of Student Life Committee.”

Current clubs and societies officer Willie Coyne said that personally speaking he wouldn’t like to see the position gotten rid of, but he stressed the fact that many other aspects of the new SU constitution were also under review, and that no decisions had been made yet.

An SU insider told the College View that they thought the email by Keegan showed extreme contempt for the work being done, and already done by the current clubs and societies officer.

They said: “If the president says the position is unneeded, then what does that say about the work they’ve already done this year?”

Alan Keegan said that the student body would be informed as soon as a decision on the clubs and societieis officer position was made.

The figures show that the university spent €200,280 on last year’s CAO campaign, which saw 1,776 students enter into DCU through the CAO.

According to DCU president Ferdinand von Prondzynski, given that DCU’s finances are based on the prediction that places will be filled, if the university didn’t spend the money “we might have far fewer students and a significant financial crisis.”
He says: “We feel we are very prudent with our expenditure, as some other universities spend very much more than we do.”

However, in direct contrast to the amount spent by DCU on attracting sixth year students deciding where to go to college, University College Cork (UCC) spent only €850 on the university’s CAO campaign last academic year.

Lynn Bannon, the UCC deputy admissions officer, told the College View that the university has a “whole different approach to recruitment.”

According to von Prondzynski, given that “each student brings in a significant amount of money per year in fees and in core grant, upwards of €5,000 per student, or over €20,000 for the duration of their time in DCU overall, spending €112… is not a bad return on investment.”

He says: “There may be an argument for no university putting any money into marketing for domestic students, but that would have to be a system-wide approach, and even then you do want to make students aware of your existence.”

The amount that DCU spends on each student it attracts through the CAO is set to decrease next year however, after only €150,000 was spent on this year’s campaign – the result of a decrease to the university’s marketing budget as a whole.

It is also expected that more students than ever are set to enter into the university next year as the amount of students enrolling at DCU is set to break 11,000 for the first time.

The figures obtained by the College View show that the marketing budget decreased almost a quarter between last and this academic year, down from €309,561 to €247,650 this year.

According to John Murphy, the Students’ Union education and welfare officer marketing is very important for DCU.

“Higher education in Ireland is a very competitive industry and DCU has to compete with much older institutions such as TCD and UCD,” he says. “Any money they spend in helping to recruit students to DCU is an investment for them and it benefits everyone, including students that are already here.”

However, he feels that “given the cuts that are being made to higher education across the board, they could possibly look at more creative and cheaper ways to market DCU such as Facebook, which is a very cheap and powerful method of reaching out to people.”

The figures obtained by the College View also show that €64,730 was spent on last year’s open day campaign, with DCU student recruitment officer Stephen Spierin telling the College View earlier this year that costs for the open day have been reduced “by 50% since 2005.”

According to von Prondzynski the open days are vital beyond just marketing.

He says: “it is wholly appropriate to let students see the facilities and get a sense of what each university or college is like.”

The pay increase is intended to offset the 5% cut to the wages of grade one public sector workers introduced by the government in December’s budget.

Although the sabbatical officers (the SU president, campaigns and information officer and education and welfare officer) are not public sector workers, the SU constitution states that they should be payed the same rate as a grade one civil servant.

The motion was introduced to the floor at the meeting of the Union Council by SU president Alan Keegan, who stressed at the meeting that the increase would not come into effect until the next academic year.

Two members of the Union Council, which is comprised largely of class representatives, voted against the motion. Several attendees remarked that there was a low turnout at the meeting, with just enough class representatives present to have a vote.

Contacted by the College View, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which represents over 600,000 workers, stated that although they could not comment on the DCU Students’ Union, given they are not public sector workers, they would “applaud the principle” behind the motion.

The Union Council is the presiding body which approves SU policy each year and has the power to mandate the SU Executive.

It is comprised of all elected Students’ Union officials as well as the president and vice-president of the university itself.

The quorum (minimum attendance required to make decisions) for the Union Council is 10% of the membership of the Union Council, which according to one attendee was “barely reached”.

Most DCU Staff, including part-time staff, have been affected by at least a 5% cut in salary after the December budget.

Sabbatical officers’ salaries are partly funded by the capitation fees which DCU students pay.

Union Council chairperson David Doyle said; “I would like to point out that important decisions, similar to this one, are often made at Union Council which is why it is extremely important for all class representatives to attend and to vote. I would also like to very strongly urge all students to check up on their class rep, to make sure they both attend Union Council and have their classes voices heard.

“If your class rep doesn’t attend, find out why, and urge them to go. Agendas for Union Council are published in advance of each meeting so class reps should really do their part in ensuring every student knows what projects the Union are working on and see the issues which are discussed and debated.”

Doyle was keen to point out that this year’s SU would not benefit from the wage increase.

He says: “The 5% addition simply cancels out a 5% decrease which would be seen due to exterior powers and doesn’t take effect until the academic year 2010/2011 so none of this year’s elected Union sabbatical officers will see any increase in their pay. As it stands, the Students’ Union executive officers are among the lowest paid within the University.”

Both SU president Alan Keegan and education and welfare officer John Murphy declined to comment when contacted by The College View.

First up was the election of the new secretary. Or old secretary, if you like. Brian Mc Donald ran uncontested and was immediately reinstated, to no real surprise from anyone.

Next was Raise and Give week. Not Rag week. Definitely not Rag week. Due to recent bad press universities are distancing themselves as much as possible from rag weeks and DCU is no different. So now we have a week of ‘raising and giving money to charities’. And some very worthy ones too – Educational Trust, Alan Kearn’s African Project, Special Olympics Ireland and, of course, Haiti. Some earnest selling for the Livewire Festival followed, described optimistically by Alan Keegan as “Oxegen in one day”.

A presentation by John Carroll on proposed changes in the academic calendar brought some difference of opinion. Some of the changes would include a mandatory reading week for all faculties in semester two, an earlier start in September and exams before Christmas. Some students at the meeting were worried that this would not allow enough time to study while others said they would prefer not to have to study over the holidays. A survey carried out by the Students’ Union found that just 53.7% of DCU students were in favour of having exams in December. Union Council was similarly divided on the proposed changes.

The announcement that the new Student’s Union constitution might not be ready this year brought dissatisfaction. The new constitution was supposed to be ready for Union Council on February 17. It now seems as if it might not be finished this academic year. In this case the new constitution would not come into effect until 2012.

Alan Keegan described the task of constitutional review as a “much tougher job than anyone had anticipated.”

News that the constitutional review committee are now looking for input from students was met with mixed opinions. A member of Union Council questioned the decision, saying that it would only delay the process further. Keegan responded that the committee needed to “slow it down and do it properly” which makes you wonder what’s been done so far.

A motion to increase the sabbatical officer’s salary by 5% was rushed through in the last moments of the meeting. According to Keegan, sabbatical officers are now paid around €390 a week, connected with the Civil Service which took a 5% pay cut this year. Keegan explained the raise as restoring the sabbatical’s pay to pre-pay cuts. “Sabbaticals aren’t paid enough that they can afford to lose 5%.” The motion was passed - 19 to 2.

So why do so few class reps go to Union Council? This week there was a problem with the email list, and some didn’t recieve any kind of notification as to when the meeting was on. However this doesn’t explain away the problem.

Attendance is often an issue. Some class reps haven’t been seen at meetings since the first training day. At least one faculty convenor is so infrequently seen that any kind of sighting is an event in itself. The decisions made at Union Council affect every year group, every course, every student. If your class rep does not attend meetings, you are not being represented. The next meeting is on March 3. Perhaps this time members of Union Council will actually outnumber the empty chairs.