College Tribune | September 16 2008
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Letters Educational Woes Sir and Madam, It was with dismay that I watched as once again, third-level fees made their way back onto the political agenda this summer. I have followed, over the course of the last few weeks, the various debates that have ensued after Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe announced that he and his department were considering some form of tuition fee, for a group he described as ‘the many millionaires’ in the country. It came as no surprise for me to learn that he himself would personally back their return. The re-shuffle of the cabinet was, in a sense, a clairvoyant to a set of tarot cards knowing full well the end result and craving the returns. Indeed, we should have seen then what was on the cards. Eyebrows were raised at the time when Hanafin was carelessly shunted aside to be replaced by the somewhat more rusted O’Keeffe. The fact seems to be, An Taoiseach needed someone who would do the politically adventurous: arouse the fla-
grant angry passions of the hapless students and put fees back into the multi-faceted political spectrum. So, what do the students need? We don’t need to be told that the majority of us ‘won’t be affected’. We also don’t need to be told that there is a compromise, and that the abolition of fees did not do ‘what it was supposed to do’. We need to make it known that this is not the path forward (in any form), and we will not become another notch on the government’s belt of cutbacks. With fees in place, I would never have made it to college. Let’s make sure thousands like myself don’t face another financial hardship for the sins of a previous finance minister who, from his many pictured frowns, knew exactly what was looming.
I’ve adjusted quite well, but there are one or two small issues that have struck me and some of my friends. While the onset of Fresher’s week and the efforts of societies and lecturers to welcome new students has been refreshing, there is an undeniable sense of impersonality in UCD. Perhaps this is from the sheer size of the college, or perhaps the clique-ish groups that can be seen in droves. I feel if I cannot be categorised easily enough, I will not fit into any group, anywhere. I await to see how UCD will evolve for me and if I might perhaps grow into a new way of thinking. One thing is for sure: for now, it is the starkness of UCD that leaves many like me wondering exactly with whom and where the future lies.
William Costigan, Final Year Commerce.
Yours, Elaine Grealish, First year Arts.
Fitting in Dear Sir and Madam, I am a first year new to the experience of college life. So far, I think
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College Tribune Not quite so promiscuous... Dr Derek Freedman, an expert on Sexually Transmitted Infections, was clearly not thinking of parents or first years when he controversially decided to “tonguein-cheek” label UCD as a sex-infection hotspot. His litanies opened the gateways for inconsequential anecdotes. Accounts of one girl in UCD offering oral sex for a cigarette have been recently been splashed across national newspapers. If his reports and his figures are skewed, how skewed is his representation of a university which is in reality currently undergoing a much more pressing, realistic and altogether truthful change. “Think contraception”, that’s the message enforced upon students and youths on a daily basis from an onslaught of various different media. Whatever attempts the vast majority of students are making at being suitably responsible are being cancelled out by the overly-exaggerated and misguided reports of rampant promiscuity. These attempts are also being glossed over by the doctors who are more than willing to divulge information on exactly where they see their patients coming in from, and in what amount. This is prominent in Freedman’s assertion that “I see a steady stream of UCD students coming through my clinic”, and his singling out of Belfield as an area of a potentially very high STI rate. The Student Health Service has rubbished such claims, and the general consensus is that the students of UCD are not the stereotypical sexually wanton miscreants portrayed in recent reports.
Welcome to the no-so concrete jungle
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The Difference is We’re Independe
Your first year of college beckons, you’ve settled in, gone to one or two lectures, and have had the customary all week pub-crawl. And now, more of the same. Expect more lie-ins, more angry tutors and more bar food. A word of warning, there will be a certain period of upset and upheaval to your beautiful bubble world. Of course, we refer to the loathsome examinations. You can breathe easier than the rest of us in that these exams won’t really count towards your degree, but let’s not run away with our ultra-free selves just yet: you will actually need to pass to progress into your second year. Doom and gloom aside, a few simple suggestions. Read our Fresher’s Guide, because one of the things you have probably already been told is that UCD is a concrete jungle. Our Map of Lesser-Known UCD outlines just four of the many illustrious locations in the university that are actually half-decent places to relax in. We even have the serious academic stuff, and the A-Z of UCD, which any informed Fresher will brief themselves on. Our advice: Enjoy the fresh fruits that UCD has to offer, before the stale nature of actually having to make an effort hits you next year.