Shorter meetings and greater inclusivity were aims outlined by Callaghan Commons, who was elected as the new chair of Class Rep Council last Tuesday.
Mary Hand, Eoin Carroll and Commons were all nominated for the position at the council’s final meeting of the year, with Commons succeeding after a second vote. The first vote was a tie between Hand and Commons.
Commons will take over from this year’s chair, Katie Dawson, and said his duty will be to “call the class rep council meetings and to chair the council in an unbiased fashion.”
Attendance of meetings is an issue Commons wishes to address during his time in the role and said time management at meetings is the best way to encourage class reps to attend.
“I want to be stricter on time of motions at council so that meetings don’t go on too long,” he said.
“Also I want to encourage more class reps to go to training so that they are aware of how to pass motions and want to engage with CRC more.”
Also elected was Emma Tunnicliffe, who will succeed Sadhbh Candon as secretary.
Current returning officer, Cat O’Driscoll was up for re-election and was contested by business student, Jack Butterly.
O’Driscoll, who took over from Stephen Conlon just over a month ago, was re-elected and will reprise the role.
Gender neutral bathrooms were one of the main issues discussed at the meeting, with outgoing clubs officer, Mel Kavanagh, proposing that there be one gender neutral bathroom in every building on campus.
These bathrooms would be available for anyone to use and would not display gender labels on the doors.
It was mandated for the incoming President and VP Welfare and Equality to support this proposal.
Also on the agenda was the possible change to the number one bus route, as proposed by Bobby Ó Rinn. He asked the council to explore the possibility of terminating the route at the Heilix, instead of Shanard road.
Ó Rinn also lobbied for the repair or replacement of the water fountains on the first and second floors of the library.
It was also proposed that greater security measures be taken with regards to online voting. Eoin O’Brien said that as the Moodle server stands now, it is possible to hack into the system and intercept votes.
He recommended changing the server from an open http site, to a secure https one, as used by banks and other such institutions.
Rebecca Lumley
Image Credit: Hayley Halpin
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