Schedule:
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21 September - 6 October: Nominations open for Class Reps Elections and College Officer By-Election for Agriculture, Food & Veterinary College Officer
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7 October: Candidates for Class Reps Elections and College Officer by-election announced and winners of uncontested seats.
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14-15 October: Online voting for Class Rep Elections
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16 October: Results announced for Class Reps Elections and College Officer By-Election announced
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19 October: 5pm-6pm Mock Council and 6pm-8pm Council 1
Voting
Vote for your next Class Rep on 14-15 October online. Visit vote.ucdsu.ie to cast your vote!
Results
Results will be published on www.ucdsu.ie/class-reps
Class Rep Elections 2020/2021
Class Reps
The SU has six full time Sabbatical Officers and nine part-time College Officers, together they are known as the Executive. Alongside them are Class Reps, who are elected by their classmates to represent different courses, schools, and stages across the UCD student journey.
Alongside Sabbats, College Officers, Campaign Coordinators and the ENTs Forum, Class Reps attend Union Council every two weeks to discuss and debate issues important to students.
What do Class Reps do?
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Attend student council (every 2 weeks during term)
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Organise events, protests, and parties
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Represent your classmates
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Raise money for charity
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Set up a facebook or whatsapp group to keep in contact with your class
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Organise hoodies for your class
Why get involved?
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Make friends
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Be a part of student life
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Fight for student rights
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Volunteer at the big SU events run for students by students
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Upgrade your CV
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Free SU hoodie
How is the SU Structured?
The SU is run by six full time Sabbatical Officers and nine part-time College Officers each year. Together they are known as the Executive. Alongside them are the Class Reps, who are elected by their peers to represent different courses, schools, and stages across the UCD student journey.
Who can be a Class Rep?
In short, if you’re a UCD student, you can run and you can vote - all students can! This is your Union and you have the right to have your voice heard, by running for election yourself, or by voting, or both!
Having registered at UCD, you are now automatically a member of UCD Students’ Union. Every student studying an undergraduate or post graduate degree, diploma or PhD can run for Class Rep. You do need to have any prior experience to run for any SU role.
What is SU Council?
Every September, each class elects their reps who sit on SU Council held every two weeks during term time. Council is where all the big decisions are made and is made up of made up of Class Reps, College Officers, Campaign Coordinators, Entertainments Reps and Sabbatical Officers. Any one of them can bring forward a motion which gets voted on and rejected, amended or passed and added to our policy book. This can include things like pushing for more recycling bins on campus, requiring the Welfare Officer to provide free pregnancy tests and campaigning on things like marriage equality, abortion rights and safe drug consumption. Council is your chance to tell us what you want us to work on and to work with us. You can find out more on how council works, our constitution and policy book on https://www.ucdsu.ie/union-council
How to Campaign - Online:
Running for class rep? Great! Confused as how to campaign when classes are online? Don't worry. Campaigning will look different this year. You may not be able to connect physically right now, but that doesn't mean you can't connect online. Only members of your class can vote for you, so you need to find them. Add them to a class group on Facebook or WhatsApp and you're good to go! Tell them who you are and why they should vote for you.
Don't know who your classmates are yet? Get in touch with your peer mentor, your college officer, or join our freshers' group on https://www.facebook.com/groups/UCDFreshers2020 to find them! You can also ask a lecturer to allow you to speak at the beginning of a class to direct your classmates to a class group. If you're still stuck, just email the Campaigns and Engagement Officer, Leighton Gray on leighton.gray@ucdsu.ie
Elected Class Reps 2020/2021
UCD students have elected 146 class reps to represent them for 2020/2021.
Check out who your class rep is here
By-Elections
The main cycle of UCDSU elections takes place at the start of the first semester. In October students elected 145 Class Reps to represent and campaign on behalf of their peers. But there are still vacant seats - if you’re interested in becoming a Class Rep in any of our vacancies, read on to find out more about the process involved in holding a by-election.
How do by-elections work?
According to the UCDSU Constitution, there are three stages to holding a by-election. First, ten or more members in a particular constituency must submit a petition to the Returning Office to request that nominations for a by-election are opened. Then, once that threshold has been reached, there is a nominations period where anyone keen to run for election submits their nomination. After the nominations period closes, the by-election is held, and successful candidates are elected.
So what do I have to do?
The first step is to advertise the vacant Class Rep seats to other members of your constituency, and make sure they know that they can request a by-election to be held. Any student can submit a request to open nominations by completing the ‘By-Election Request Form’:
https://forms.gle/jNGQBnopuL4TZier9
When a minimum of 10 members have completed this form for a particular constituency, the Returning Office will declare nominations open in that constituency. Once they have done this, you can submit your nomination via the ‘By-Election Nomination Form’:
https://forms.gle/53ftEBe1Biy4QaDx8
NOTE: In order to nominate yourself in a by-election, you must supply a list of at least 5 members of your constituency who support your nomination. You must list their names, student numbers, and UCD Connect email addresses. If the information you provide is incorrect the Returning Office will not be able to confirm your nomination.
And then what?
Once the nominations period closes and the Returning Office has verified all nominations received, these will be announced via the UCD SU website and socials. Any candidates who are unopposed shall be deemed elected. If the by-election is contested, voting will then take place.
I’m still not clear what I have to do - who can I speak to?
If you’re unsure about how to proceed, you can reach out to Marina Lambrakis, the Union Returning Officer, on returningoffice@ucdsu.ie, or Leighton Gray, the Campaigns & Engagement Officer, on leighton.gray@ucdsu.ie.