GDA Student Rep Nominated
For the past 3 years the Grangegorman Development Agency has been in operation. Bob Coggins - ex president of DITSU had been personally appointed to the Agency by the then Minister for Education Mary Hanafin. Bob ably represented the students voice on the Agency since then and now that the term of office had run out, it was time to start lobbying for a new seat on the Agency.
We can only nominate someone who we would
like to represent us and then it is up to the Minister to appoint that
person or not so obviously we needed to chose someone who can both
lobby for the seat and then use that position to the best advantage of
the students.
After much discussion at the first meeting of Governing Council (Oct 14th), the members requested to hold a selection process to give one nominee their backing to sit on the GDA, to represent the students' interests in planning for the new Campus. It was important that all candidates were aware, that as this is a Ministerial appointment – the person the Council chose would not be guaranteed a place on the Agency.
The Selection for this
was held on Monday 19th October, at an emergency session
of Governing Council, and the position was contested by three
candidates – Darren Bates, Student Aungier Street; Sean Campbell,
Vice President Services and Trading; and Bob Coggins, Student Aungier St and current student rep on the GDA. Nominees
were given time to introduce themselves, and then a question and
answer session took place.
A secret ballot was held and the results from the 33 voters were
Darren Bates - 2 votes,
Sean Campbell 24 votes
Bob Coggins - 7 votes
So obviously Council decided to support Sean Campbell in seeking appointment to the Agency. We wish Sean the best of luck as he now faces a time of intense lobbying of the Department and hopefully The Minister will shortly be announcing him as the Student Rep on the Grangegorman development Agency!
