A committee tasked with analysing and modifying the Students’ Union constitution is due to present its work to Class Rep Council today, at the first meeting of the semester.
The Constitutional Review Committee was elected at the last CRC of semester one, on the heels of heated debate over the propriety of calling a constitutional referendum.
Class reps voted against having a referendum on constitutional change last semester, as was originally planned, with many expressing concern over the lack of consultation with CRC. Reps argued that the Executive could not call a referendum, without first passing a vote at council. The referendum was overturned and the Constitutional Review Committee, which comprises 13 members, was set up.
“Our job is to go through it (the constitution),” explained committee chair, Bryan Mulry.
“We sort of know what CRC want at this point and our job is to go through the document, see what to keep, what not to keep and just to question why everything was put in the way it was.”
Read more about the decisions made at CRC:
- Emergency CRC puts Referendums on hold
- Referendum cancelled as Executive is overruled
- Constitutional Review Committee elected at final CRC of the semester
The committee have met four times since its inception and are due to present their revisions at CRC tonight, though a decision on whether or not to abolish the position of Postgraduate Officer has not yet been made.
One of the changes in the rejected constitution was the removal of a part time Postgraduate Officer. It was suggested that role would be included in the responsibilities of VP Education and Placement, leaving one full time position.
This was heavily criticised by current Postgraduate Officer, Allan Stevenson, who argued that with 13,000 undergraduate students and just 3,000 postgraduate students enrolled in DCU, a postgraduate would never be elected to the position.
Stevenson said this would be “completely and utterly detrimental” to postgrads, diminishing their representation.
This was just one proposal that caused controversy amongst reps.
Touching on the subject, Mulry asserted, “we’re not doing anything weird or strange. There’s no agenda here. There never was. But they elected us to do this, our job is to go through it and make certain that everything is in working order.”
Rebecca Lumley
Image Credit: Darragh Culhane