The University of Galway elections have concluded, and the four full time Students’ Union officers have been elected for the academic year 2023/2024.
Dean Kenny was elected as SU President, Izzy Tiernan was chosen as Vice-President/ Welfare and Equality Officer, Raimey O’Boyle will take on Vice President/Education Officer and Faye Ní Dhomhnaill will become Leas Uachtarán don Ghaeilge.
Kenny is set to replace Sai Gujulla in July, and the first thing he plans to do tackle is the repeat fee issue, but he proposes “an alternative solution.”
He said: “I have been here for three SU Presidents and they have all swore to get rid of the repeat fee but it has never happened. I propose an alternative by setting repeat fees per module to €100, with a €300 cap altogether.”
“I strive to be the most present President this SU has ever seen at the most basic level by interacting and liaising with the student body as much as possible, and I believe Pints with the President is a small step to achieving this.”
Freshly elected VP for Welfare and Equality Izzy Tiernan also told SIN her aims for when she takes office in July, saying “My main plan is that I want to set up a Student Watch alongside the on-campus Gardaí and security so students would get involved keeping the university safe.”
Speaking on inheriting the role from Imogen O’Flaherty Falconer, they said: “I hope to carry on the great work done by the previous officer in introducing sensory rooms and will act to create more, as well as continuing to work with brilliant organisations such as Active Consent.”
Raimey O’Boyle VP for Education elect spoke about her passion to be Education officer, as being the current Postgrad Taught Officer.
She said: “I deal with similar issues regularly and work really closely with the current Education officer a lot, so I’ve been working in that remit and becoming VP for Education I would get to continue to do this work, in a greater capacity.”
Speaking about how O’Boyle plans to reach out to students she said: “I have a suggestion box on my Linktree and anyone can contribute to that, and attending councils, and maybe a regular stand for people to come up to.”
Faye Ní Dhomhnaill will be taking over as Leas Uachtarán don Ghaeilge, the first time this position has had elections along with the other full-time officers, and spoke about her passion for the role.
She said: “Is aoibheann liom Gaeilge. I want to bring a bit more Gaeilge to campus and let people know that it’s ok to want to speak Irish.”
Ní Dhomhnaill said he plans to “;et people know what rights they have in regards to the Irish language and compose a list of the rights that students have.”
She said: “I want to put a new straitéis na Gaeilge in place to have a next step and keep putting the pressure on.”
The newly elected committee will begin their roles in July, along with the 14 new SU part-time officers that were also recently elected, to look after student’s issues and provide information to students about all aspects of student life.
To contact the Students’ Union about issues relating to the aforementioned topics, you can visit https://su.nuigalway.ie/about-su-nuigalway/executive-committee/.
