Fiscal Referendum
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore announced last week that the referendum on the European fiscal treaty will take place on Thursday, May 31st. This date will be seen as a positive by the many UCD undergraduates who are not registered to vote in Dublin, as second semester exams are set to conclude on May 12th. Taoiseach Enda [...]
Not Dead Yet?
As our generation grows in influence, Timothy Potenz takes a look at how we regard religion and the Catholic Church. If you are reading this paper, it is unlikely that you were able to spell the word “diocese” this week 17 years ago. At that time, in early April 1995, Andrew Madden became the first [...]
Sinn Féin becomes UCD society
After two years without official recognition, Sinn Féin UCD has once again become a society. The college branch, which has remained active during its hiatus from the Freshers’ Tent, will be hoping to significantly increase its membership come September. That hope can hardly be described as misplaced; Sinn Féin is currently undergoing levels of public [...]
Lecturers and PhDs
Figures published recently in the Irish Times have revealed that UCD has the lowest percentage of lecturers with PhDs out of all the major universities in the Republic of Ireland. The statistics reveal that whilst 92% of the full time academic staff at NUI Maynooth hold a PhD, only 72% of all academic staff at [...]
Dublin Bay oil sparks debate
The possibility that Providence Resources will be granted a Foreshore Licence to undertake an exploratory well drill in Dublin Bay has been met with an outcry from local residents, politicians and environmental activist groups. Conrad Richardson, Environmental Officer in UCD, has recognised the planned oil drilling in Dublin Bay as a key environmental challenge facing [...]
Arab Spring
Robert Nielsen reflects on months of turmoil in the Middle East Chaos theory states that something as small as a butterfly flapping its wings could start a chain of reactions that could cause a hurricane. This could be applied to the Arab Spring which began on December 17 2010 when Mohammad Bouazizi set himself on [...]
Positive steps for LGBT
On Valentine’s Day, UCD’s LGBT society took part in a protest outside government buildings on Kildare Street. Around thirty UCD LGBT members, and one member of Trinity LGBT, protested on the issue of civil partnership for same-sex couples in Ireland. The protest was also attended by openly gay members of the Oireachtas Senator Katherine Zappone, [...]
Over-eager campaign teams
Timothy Potenz examines the effect those-campaigners-that-follow-you-around-on-election-day have on the legitimacy of the Student Union elections. In the run up to this Student Union election we can expect the typical plethora of election campaign strategies. As usual, meetings, lecture announcements, posters and fliers will be hard to miss as we gear up to Election Day. These are [...]
Engineering Graduates Face Poor Reputation
-Employment opportunities threatened by low quality education system -Google looks to those educated abroad to fill vacancies Criticisms of Irish third level standards, accumulating from major companies in the engineering, electronics and science world, are beginning to move from shaming our education system and its graduates to genuinely threatening their futures. Eric Schmidt, [...]
Institutes vs Universities
-Institutes of Technology set to apply for University status -Proposals met with “arrogant” responses from universities D ebates are raging over the status of institutes of technology in Irish third level education, as the Irish government is set to back a new technological university. The possibility of new technological universities was first raised [...]