ISSUE 6 / VOLUME 19 31 1 06

OCCUPIEDSTUDENTS PROTEST OVER GRANTS

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College Tribune

21VOLUMES OF THE

1989 - 2008

21College Tribune

VOLUMES OF THE

1989 - 2008

Edited by Peter Lahiff

Research by Jennifer Bray

Design & Layout by Simon Ward

Published by the College Tribune,

Box 72, Student Consultative Forum,

University College Dublin, 2008

Issue 2: No radicals in UCD

Issue 1: The f irst issue wades into the contraception and Capitation fee controversies.

Issue 4: The protest was pulled but the point had been made.

Issue 4: Ian Walsh contributed these regular cartoons

Issue 1: ...and consider

Issue 10: The Student Club bar was a mine of stories.

Issue 8: Julieann pulled out and her best friend Elva Shanahan replaced her and broke the record.

34 The College Tribune VOLUME 11

vw

Issue 4: Society events such as these coffee mornings give the university its buzz.v

Not having been associ-ated with the paper at the start we had fallen into the positions of sports editor and design editor respectively by the end of the previous volume and its editor encouraged us to take over. As there were no other candidates we were appointed with-out the formalities of sub-mitting a proposal or do-ing an interview.

Peter had suffered

through the long produc-tion weekends before but Richard was new to it and when told somewhere be-tween 4 and 6 am on the day our fi rst issue went to press that he should write the editorial, Rich-ard paused for a moment

before asking, “what’s an editorial”. This was the fi rst of 12 production weekends which saw us go without sleep for up to three days, except for when we dozed off at the computer, sustained by chip butties with extra mayo.

For us the College Tri-bune was the local pa-per for a town the size of Limerick. We tried to avoid dry stories based

on Students’ Union press releases with quotes from the same few spokesmen. Holding the union to ac-count, while important, was less exciting than checking into the univer-sity’s administration. Our exclusive story on the col-lege budget made national headlines. We were proud too of our campaign to get a full breakdown of how exam and deferral fees were spent.

Strong features were also important as was the human angle in sto-ries. We sought news about the places relevant to students the lectures, clubs and societies, and, of course, the bar. Never taking ourselves too seri-ously, we always enjoyed showing the lighter side of student life.

Peter LahiffRichard Oakley

Issue 11: The shenanigans of sports clubs often amused us.

Issue 2: Students would drop by and tell us what had just happened in their lecture.

Issue 5: Crime stories involved trying to get hold of the campus liaison Garda in Donnybrook.

Issue 2: Our editorial page cartoons helped to illustrate the big stories of the day.

35The College TribuneVOLUME 11

EDITORIAL

The College Tribune52 Volume 15

Issue 1: Images of the Twin Towers coming down were on front pages around the world for weeks after the event, and the College Tribune was no different. Like everyone else, 9/11 had a huge impact on students in UCD and issues related to the atrocity - from invasions to heightened security - were very emotive on campus.

Hospital’s Cup Condition StableA dramatic search operation involv-

ing a Garda helicopter was used in the recovery of a 194-year-old rugby trophy believed to have been stolen by a UCD Student.

The historic Hospitals’ Cup was won by the Mater Hospital on De-cember 16th in Donnybrook and the team were celebrating in Hartigan’s of Leeson St the following day.

Professor of Ophthalmology Co-lin O’Brien was taking the cup home after a day of festivity but when he “left his Taxi he was then mugged by

l thi f d d d t

near the Phoenix Park.The individual was tracked down

and the cup was handed back to Pro-fessor O’Brien under garda supervi-sion.

A Professor of Ophthalmology, O’Brien was unavailable for comment at the time of going to print. Vice Cap-tain for the team, Frank O’Leary com-mented only that, “the issue is not resolved.”

A UCD spokesperson could only th t P f O’B i h d

VINNIE O’DOWD could only O’Brien had by a member

President for re is no dis-for any inci-

y kind of theft ed about the nvolved Mrs ble to com-ent.”by competi-competitions petition has Paul Storr of y in 1812. He mpire’s most

Hartigans: Cup was stolen from UCD Professor on his way home

The Students’ Union poster advertis-ing Class Rep positions was branded“stupid and totally unacceptable” afterit was revealed that one of the photo-graphs on it was faked. “Daniel Wang,Class Rep 2002/03” has beenrevealed to have never been a ClassRep, or even ever a student of UCD.

St d t ’ U i D t P id t D

UCD.” When asked as to the legal ramificationsof using the photo, Curran replied “if we put upa picture for a few weeks around UCD of a per-son who lives thousands and thousand of milesaway, I don’t think that’s really an [legal] issue.”

Enda Duffy, Labour Youth Chairperson,rejected this argument, branding the use of thepicture as “sick” and claiming that “what is sick-est about the poster is the fact they picked anAsian picture and gave him a tokenistic name

Class Rep poster boy revealed

to be fakedJACK CANE

Students’ Union Deputy President, DaveCurran, who was responsible for the postercampaign, commented that “we took pictures ofpeople we knew were formerly Class Reps, butthey were all girls. I tried to get in touch with for-mer male Class Reps, but could only find onesthat were running for the position again, and Icouldn’t give them extra publicity.”

Defending his decision to “do a Google ImageSearch and come up with this picture”, Curranasserted that “we needed to get the poster

asserted that we needed to get the posterdone, it was late and we had a deadline.” Thecampaign attracted a record number of 178Class Rep nominations.

The decision to use this picture, of “DanielWang”, a man of Chinese extraction, was citedas “stupid and totally unacceptable” accordingto a Chinese student speaking to the CollegeTribune, who wishes to remain anonymous.

The man whose image is used in the poster’sreal name remains a mystery. Curran, com-menting on the issue, claimed that “I don’t knowwho chose the name, the poster was a collabo-rative effort.”

The anonymous Chinese student continued

60% of students have voted in favour of the proposed new student centre.

Despite this, it is not yet clear wheth-er the referendum has been of cially passed as nobody knows if the required amount of students turned up to vote.

According to the Students’ Union con-stitution a referendum like this would need a 10% turnout in order for a quo-rum to be reached.

2,700 voters went to the polls. 1,204 students voted in favour of the new Stu-dent Centre while 793 voted against amending the constitution to accommo-date the proposed new Student Centre. A total 80 votes were spoiled.

According to Returning Of cer, Mor-gan Shelley, “To be a valid policy refer-endum, 10% of the membership of the Union must have voted.

“Over the next week I will be nding out exactly how many members theUnion has. If there are 20,770 mem-

on all of cers of the Union inde nitely. Otherwise it is just a once-off plebiscite, which measures the views of the mem-bers on a particular date.”

Karen O’Connell, 2nd Arts, set up a ‘No’ Campaign opposing the changes to the Constitution. “I felt so strongly over the fact that there was no consultation with students, which is why I made the effort to give a voice to those who weren’t in favour of the new Student Centre.”

“Considering this new Student Centre will be nanced by students they should have a lot more say in how their money is being spent.”

The ‘No’ side urged students, “If you don’t know, vote no.” A slogan which proved successful in the Arts block, where the ‘No’ side won by a clear ma-jority.

“No decision has been made as of yet because Morgan Shelley has to estab-

CAITRIONA GAFFNEY60% of students have voted in favour of the proposed new student centre.

Despite this, it is not yet clear wheth-er the referendum has been of cially passed as nobody knows if the required amount of students turned up to vote.

According to the Students’ Union con-stitution a referendum like this would need a 10% turnout in order for a quo-rum to be reached.

2,700 voters went to the polls. 1,204 students voted in favour of the new Stu-dent Centre while 793 voted against amending the constitution to accommo-date the proposed new Student Centre. A total 80 votes were spoiled.

According to Returning Of cer, Mor-gan Shelley, “To be a valid policy refer-endum, 10% of the membership of the Union must have voted.

“Over the next week I will be nding out exactly how many members theUnion has. If there are 20,770 mem-

on all of cers of the Union inde nitely. Otherwise it is just a once-off plebiscite, which measures the views of the mem-bers on a particular date.”

Karen O’Connell, 2nd Arts, set up a ‘No’ Campaign opposing the changes to the Constitution. “I felt so strongly over the fact that there was no consultation with students, which is why I made the effort to give a voice to those who weren’t in favour of the new Student Centre.”

“Considering this new Student Centre will be nanced by students they should have a lot more say in how their money is being spent.”

The ‘No’ side urged students, “If you don’t know, vote no.” A slogan which proved successful in the Arts block, where the ‘No’ side won by a clear ma-jority.

“No decision has been made as of yet because Morgan Shelley has to estab-

CAITRIONA GAFFNEY

Unrest Among Students Academics UnhappySenior Clinicians QuitHospital StrugglesBrady SlammedThe College Tribune has been alerted to anumber of serious problems and unrestin the Veterinary Medicine faculty by aca-demics, former clinicians and unhappystudents.

Serious concerns have been raised regarding theAnimal Hospital’s output and its ability to attractpatients to the hospital, leaving some final year stu-dents with near nothing to do. As a result of this, oneacademic, who is no longer employed by UCD, hashit out at the University claiming that:

“The final year students are getting sold short.Every other student down there is getting sold short.”

The former clinician went on to attack UCD’sPresident, stating “Hugh Brady thinks that everythingin the world should make a profit. UCD should not bethere to make profit it should be there to educate, andthe Vet Faculty, they should be there to train clini-cians.”

There is also concern about the ability of the VetsHospital to attract cases.

>SEE PAGE

5

The Vet Hospital, located behindthe O’Reilly Hall, was built in2002, at a reported cost ofapproximately €44 million whenthe Veterinary Faculty wasmoved from Ballsbridge toBelfield. The state of the artHospital is the only one of itskind in Ireland.

However, the Hospital’s move awayfrom Ballsbridge coupled with theresearch intensive reward system usedby UCD has led to unrest among cur-rent academics and prompted others toleave.

Under the University’s rewardscheme, promotion is contingent onresearch. As a result of this, cliniciansin the Vet Hospital are being over-looked for promotion because they aretoo busy engaging in practical work toproduce the adequate amount ofresearch.

In addition, the difficulty the Hospitalhas encountered in attracting signifi-cant case loads, particularly in largeanimal surgery, and the departure ofsenior and experienced clinicians hasleft “students short” according to onef d i

Another recently departed academic,Michael Mahoney, said, “If theUniversity is to continue to maintain itsVeterinary Teaching Hospital as a cen-tre of excellence within the context of aresearch intensive environment itneeds to actively acknowledge andsupport the outputs of veterinary clini-cians.”

StudentsA number of final year Vet students

have expressed their displeasure at thecurrent situation in the hospital.

In final year, students take on ‘rota-tions’, where they actively work in theHospital toward their final degree. Thisis designed to give them practical expe-rience.

The Small Animal Hospital is runningat “full capacity” according to HospitalManager, John Brettler.

However, students have expressedconcern regarding the caseload in theL A i l H it l l i i th t

EOIN MACAODHA

Students “Have Started to Get Pissed Off”g

former academic. Below are the issues raised by staff,

students and former staff, unless other-wise stated, these people asked not tobe named.

AcademicsA number of senior academics still

working in the School of Agriculture,Food Science and Veterinary Medicinehave stated that there are serious prob-lems with morale, experience and thelow volume of caseloads. The academ-ic quoted here has asked to remainanonymous.

The main concern highlighted is thatthe College’s impetus on research hasbeen detrimental to the Vet Hospital,with one senior source stating “themajor problem here is that you justcan’t expect to maintain the same stan-dard of teaching when you are expect-ed to churn out research. Therefore, ifyou are conscientious and commityourself to your students you have nochance of promotion.” VETS HOSPITAL: CONCERNS HAVE BEEN RAISED REGARDING ITS OUTPUT

9>EDITORIAL

Result unclear on new Student Centre

A YAK: THERE’S LOADS OF THEM IN MONGOLIA

ceived a MMS message with a photo of the trophy and the words “Do you want the cup?”

The thief is believed to be a mem-ber of the Men’s Boat Club in UCD. The stolen cup was taken to the Boat Club headquarters in Islandbridge,

e s

-e e y

A Professor of Ophthalmology, O’Brien was unavailable for comment at the time of going to print. Vice Cap-tain for the team, Frank O’Leary com-mented only that, “the issue is not resolved.”

A UCD spokesperson could only th t P f O’B i h d

a lone thief and made a speedy get-way in the taxi that he had already followed the Professor in” a source told the College Tribune.

As the taxi sped away, the Profes-sor noted the vehicle’s registration number and is believed to have called in the theft to the gardai who launched their helicopter in response.

Simultaneously, a member of the Mater Hospital rugby team, who was still in the Leeson St. hostelry, re-

i d MMS ith h t

EDITORIAL >8CURRAN GETS IT WANG

bers or less, then the referendum will be quorate.”

In accordance with the SU consti-tution, the membership is calculated mostly by reference to the number of students currently registered with the University who are studying for degrees and postgraduate diplomas recognised by the NUI.

“The value of being quorate is that the referendum policy would be binding on all of cers of the Union inde nitely. Otherwise it is just a once-off plebiscite, which measures the views of the mem-bers on a particular date.”

Karen O’Connell, 2nd Arts, set up a ‘No’ Campaign opposing the changes to the Constitution. “I felt so strongly over the fact that there was no consultation with students, which is why I made the effort to give a voice to those who weren’t in favour of the new Student Centre.”

60% VOTE YES FOR A

WHITEELEPHANT

ISSUE 10 / VOLUME 19 20.04.06

SEE PAGE 3

College Tribune

Volume 1966

Issue 4: Inability to attract patients to new 44m Vet hospital left students with few cases to study and resulted in the loss of several academics.

194 year old rugby trophy called the hospital’s cup, worth over €100,000 was stolen by a UCD student and sparked a dramatic search operation involving the Garda helicopter.

Witty captioning was a hallmark of Volume 19Issue 10: Students vote in favour of a student centre that would increase the student levy

NO new grading scaleNO change in rules used to award honoursNO horizons electivesNO Christmas exams

(*After Extra Time)

ADMIN BUILDING

StudentsSuits 0

1*

In an unprecedented u-turn, College Authori-ties have backed down and agreed not to roll-out Modularisation and Semesterisation to in-clude current second year Arts students.

The decision came in the aftermath of a vigor-ous campaign encompassing the Students’ Union and second years and has been hailed as a mas-sive victory for the students of UCD.

S d ’ U i Ed i Of J H

holding of information.”While going on to say that the decision would

mean “there isn’t radical change but at the same time it’s presented in a kind of modularised way that it’ll allow everyone to register the same way. It’s simpler, that will be one of the advantages.”

Th b l b l h h i i

KAREN O’CONNELL

College back down on modularisationy

Students’ Union Education Of cer, Jane Hor-gan Jones, who was instrumental in the cam-paign, expressed her pleasure at the result and stated “It goes to show what people can do if they run a concerted campaign for the whole year.

“I’d love somehow to go back in time in a ‘it’s a wonderful life scenario’ and see what would have

ISSUE 8 / VOLUME 19 06.03.06

REVEALED: Confidential academic survey

ACT OF BODAN IRISH RUGBY LEGEND TALKSSPORT’S FOCUS PAGE 4

INSIDEIN DEPTHANALYSIS OF UCD SPORT

EOIN MAC AODHAA con dential survey carried out by Professor Gerard Casey, Head of the School of Philoso-phy, has highlighted major con-cerns with morale, leadership and the restructuring of the col-lege among academics.

When contacted Professor Ca-sey refused to comment on the survey itself but did admit that he had initiated it.

The College Tribune was given the survey anonymously by a dis-gruntled academic.

Former Head of the Politics De-partment Tom Garvin stated, “First of all it’s not a scienti c survey, it’s probably self selecting, people who are most disgruntled would be inclined to send in their reactions.

“But there is a lot of unease, there is no doubt about that, even though a lot of it would not be ex-pressed in as vitriolic way as some of the people in that survey.

“I think there is too much lead-ership. Highly authoritarian lead-ership that’s highly remote for the lecturers and professors.

“I hope you don’t mind me say-

ing this, the lecturers and profes-sors are the product. Not the stu-dents, not the president. People come here to listen to the lecturers and professors not the president or the registrar and I think they don’t quite realise that.”

When questioned Registrar Philip Nolan stated; “My response to that is that an awful lot of issues in that survey ware actually things in terms of modularisation that we’ve actually formally and more extensive reviewed.

“If you want to nd out what’s going on it’s much better to get people in and ask them, If 70% people are positive you get 70% positive and 30% negative. When you ask people for their views in an unstructured way you are more likely to get the ones who have a problem.

“My dif culty with that survey is that it is more likely to have been answered by people who had issues.”

‘Alas the rot in UCD isterminal’

HaydenHaydenRompsRompsHomeHome

SPORTSSPORTS

FOCUSFOCUS

UCDUCD

Sabbatical Sabbatical Election Election CoverageCoverage

16>CONTINUED 6>

2005 saw the Ameri-canisation of academic life in UCD. Horizons, the modular programme was about to be intro-duced, and more and more funding was di-rected away from the humanities towards more profi table areas like science.

In some ways what active student involve-ment was left in UCD dissapated during this

academic year. Socities began to see a decline in membership, the Stu-dents’ Union elections, while interesting failed to capture the partici-pation of the electorate and the Old Student Bar

was quieter than ever before.

The continuing story of the year was disaf-fection among the aca-demic community at the changes brought in by the new adminstration. With one anonymous survey of academic staff displaying just how low morale had become.

During the year the Tribune concentrated on this malaise, highlighting

the lack of facilities in the School of Veterinary Science and the threat to introduce a modular system for second year students who had al-ready signed up for the old system.

There was a palpable feeling that the au-thorites were applying the old adage that UCD would be a ‘great place without the students’.

The Tribune took on

a campaigning role dur-ing volume 17, perhaps to the detriment of bal-anced journalism! There were small victories with the college capitulating on forcing second years into a modular system. However, 2005 saw an irreversible trend with league tables and at-tracting investment the new priorities.

Eoin Mac Aodha

College Tribune

Volume 19 67

ISSUE 8 / VOLUME 19 06 03 06

HaydenRompsHome

SPORTS

FOCUS

UCD

Sabbatical Election Coverage

EDITORIAL

Issue 6: College row back on decision to force second years into a modularised f inal year.

Issue 8: Conf idential comments collected in a survey of academics reveal a high level of disenchantment with the changes

being made by President Hugh Brady.

Issue 2: A brawl broke out at the Fresher’s Ball, captured by intrepid music editor Ronan Dempsey

Issue 7: Crime wave envelops UCD. Muggings in Library, Drug busts on res. An armed robbery was the cherry on top

77

21College Tribune

VOLUMES OF THE

1989 - 2008

21College Tribune

VOLUMES OF THE

1989 - 2008EDITORSTHEY went in as impres-sionable youngsters and came out tired, a bit more cynical, and feeling consid-erably older. The past edi-tors of the College Tribune have moved on to a variety of different locations and job situations. Here, they refl ect on how their time with our humble, student newspaper aided their per-sonal development.

Eamon DillonEditor, Volumes 1 & 2

What did the experience teach me? It taught me not to expect people to read something just because you printed it. It taught me not to expect thanks for doing the job you want to do. I also learned never to trust the word of mercurial publishing entrepreneurs. It taught me that the vast ma-jority of people; students or otherwise were pretty much caught up with the prosaic details of life, like catching a bus, getting a degree or get-ting a ride (even the visiting US students.) Life-changing journalism was something not easily accomplished nor even noticed by most people. It taught me the value of patience, of good

friends and colleagues. It also taught me that with the power of the press comes a responsibility - that it is also something precious, but it can’t afford to be soft or fragile

Eamon Dillon is now a crime reporter with the Sunday World

Michelle Thomas Editor, Volumes 3 & 4

The paper taught me the basics and principles of journalism, how to write, and it got me a job in the Sunday Tribune, which has been hugely infl uential in my subsequent career. It resulted in a lot of free drink in the likes of the student bar, free access to gigs, wine receptions and that sort, but the strongest and most lasting result has to be the friendships made from producing the College Tribune, friendships which are still intact.

Michelle Thomas is the Com-munications Management Consultant of Michael Com-munications & Training.

Sarah Binchy Editor, Volume 5

It made me clearer on what journalism was actually for. You must produce some-thing readable and rooted in your readers’ world, or you will not sell papers. You must be accurate and fair; if you are not, you will be hearing all about it pretty instantly, particularly if you are going out personally and selling the papers, as we did, and your irate subject is standing in front of you having bought a paper from you half an hour before. In

particular, I learned that careless journalism can hurt people, and you must take responsibility for everything you write or publish.

I was drawn to journal-ism for the sense of excite-ment of the world it would open up to me, and only very slowly, probably long after that year, did I begin to understand that a clear agenda to question author-ity and power might be an important part of a journal-ist’s job too. But the College Tribune was a good place to begin to learn these things. It gave me an early sense of achievement and possibil-ity, an appetite for leading a team, and a very happy year.

Sarah Binchy is now a pro-ducer with RTE Radio One.

Roddy O’Sullivan Editor, Volume 6

My involvement with student journalism in UCD gave me great opportunities, as I had pieces published in all the main daily newspa-pers during my time there. From that, I went on to an MA and into the Irish Times newsroom where I got an

opportunity to cover a va-riety of stories, such as the Moriarty and Mahon tribu-nals before moving into life at the desk. The experience I gained with the Tribune sent me on the way.

Roddy O’Sullivan is Deputy News Editor of the Irish Times

Emmet OliverEditor, Volume 6 & 7

Despite the advent of blogging, social networks, podcasts and citizen jour-nalism, there is surely no better preparation for a life in journalism than college newspapers.

I can think of no more suitable an environment than a college newspaper to get acquainted with that strange language known as newspaperese. I can think of no more suitable an environment than a college newspaper for picking up the essential tools of the journalistic craft- intense curiousity, deep but healthy scepticism and a love of story telling. It also happens to be a great environment for making mistakes and learning from them. From the distance of an academic

Now

Now

Now

The College Tribune is University

College Dublin’s independent

student newspaper, produced

without any day-to-day funding

from the university or the Students’

Union.

Founded in 1989 at the instigation of

Vincent Browne, the students have

since produced 21 volumes of the

paper. They look after every step of

the process from writing the stories,

captions and headlines to taking

the photographs, getting the

advertising, doing the layout

and preparing the fi les for

printing.

Over those years the paper has gone from being

pasted onto cardboard fl ats and delivered to the

printer by courier, to being sent to press over

the internet.

This collection gives a taste of each editorial

reign with samples of the news, features,

sport and social life that fi lled the paper

that year. These have been selected by

the editors themselves and show how

much college life has changed and

how in some ways it never does.

This is an essential memento

for anyone who attended the

university between 1989

and 2008.

21College Tribune

VOLUMES OF THE

1989 - 2008

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