Election manifestos for the nine candidates running in this year's USI elections came out yesterday, and the game is most definitely afoot.
There are 286 votes on offer to candidates for the elections, which work on the single-transferable vote (STV) system. Large institutions such as DIT and UCD have 26 votes and the largest, Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education, has 36.
The field is remarkable in that it includes no one with a college base in either Munster or Ulster. In fact, only three of the nine candidates are from colleges outside of Dublin. The contest for president is between two of this year's sabbatical officers, Julian De Spainn and Ian Russell. In this, as in most of the other races, there should be little real policy difference.
De Spainn says that his experience as vice president will stand him in good stead if elected. "One of the main things is the whole area of continuity. As campaigns officer I have built up media contacts, political contacts and relationships with outside organisations," he says.
Good progress has been made during the year and "now that we have stabilised the union it's time to push the student agenda. The most successful lobby groups are the ones that are in it for the long haul. USI has to stand firm and get the point across that that what we want is reasonable and logical." His opponent, education officer Ian Russell, was unavailable for comment. The vice presidential chase is also a neophyte-free zone, with USI welfare officer Cian O'Callaghan facing Dublin area convenor Gareth Wlliams.
O'Callaghan says he thinks both he and Williams "would be quite like-minded in approach" and even that "both of us are good candidates". When it comes to deciding between the two, "I think people will be able to make up their minds based on manifestos and hustings."
He is optimistic about what could be achieved by the union next year. "We've had a good year this year and I think next year we have a good chance of achieving policy changes that will effect our members, most notably grants," O'Callaghan says.
Gareth Williams says there is a "need to see USI justify its affiliation fees and not have members wondering if they should be in or out". He says he does not want to be identified with any one sector of the USI, but envisages that many policies would be the same as this year.
"There would be a certain amount of continuance in that I have been on the same officer board this year," he says, but he would be "different in style". "I think USI has had a problem in the past. For the last few years it hasn't used its influence - we have lacked a certain amount of cohesion."
The post of education officer is the most sought-after, with three candidates running.
One of them, Colm Jordan, DIT Aungier Street site president and education officer, was also USI's Dublin convenor for two years. He is doubtful of the merits of sweeping policy statements. "It is very strange to have to say what you are going to do when it is actually congress that decides what each officer will be doing," he says.
He views the election less as an election and more as a selection, where personal experience and ability are the keys. "In essence it's an interview," he says.
Anna Browne, president of NCAD's union, says that while all three candidates would hold "different views and outlooks, there would be a common thread running through all our ideas".
She would particularly like to look at university quality assessment, and also says "hidden extra costs need to be hit".
She has had no other posts before being a union president. "I would possibly be seen as being fresh blood. I haven't been that involved in USI," she says.
Aoife Braiden, NUI Galway's education officer is also running for the USI education post, but was unavailable for comment. The welfare officer race became one sided last week when Michelle McAuley of DIT Cathal Brugha Street withdrew, leaving UCD's welfare officer, Alison Gibney, to go it alone.
Gibney would be the best known of the candidates outside USI circles, as more than one controversy has erupted around her. She made comments relating to drug use at the count for her UCD post and this year was criticised by some for a demonstration of joint-rolling at a Law Society "freshers' debate".
Will this approach continue? "Certainly, the more attention it attracts, the more students it attracts," she said, adding that she "will be bringing that student oriented approach" to USI - though she expects that it "won't be quite so much fun. It will be more hard work."
Gibney will be facing the stalwart of student union elections, the ever young RON (or reopen nominations). Usually the bridesmaid and hardly ever a groom, RON is not seen as a favourite candidate. "People tend to feel if someone has gone to the bother of running it is churlish not to let them have it," says one well placed USI source.
Also running against RON, for the post of equality officer, is Rory McDaid, president of the union at St Pat's, Drumcondra, Dublin. He says he will concentrate on making equality issues "much more student based" by aiming his efforts directly at students rather than unions.
