Hey guys I'm James Clarke and I am your Students' Union President.

Firstly, I'd like to thank all the people who elected me to the position of SU president - it's a real honour. I'd also like to congratulate all those incoming students to the college on their leaving certs or any other criteria they had to meet to come to DkIT. This is my first term in office so I hope to learn along the way and hopefully not make too many mistakes either. With all this in mind I'm sure we can have a great year!!!

I, as president have the overall responsibility for running the Union and I am also your Education Officer. This basically means that if you have any problem with any aspect of your course, come to me and I will try and sort it out for you. You must remember that we are independent of the college and we only have the student’s best interests at heart. Any problems at all come down to the Union offices and we will advise you as best we can. Remember, the Students Union is nothing without the students so come on down and have a chat. What goes on between us stays between us so don’t hesitate to come down.

Hopefully we will all have a good year, but I do believe it could be a difficult one. Obviously the current economic climate is not helping anything, but with the publication of the Hunt report only around the corner we could be in for a rocky road ahead. Sorry for being so downbeat! The Hunt report is a report commissioned into third level education by the current government and the general consensus is that it will suggest a return to third level fees. Now this is something that I feel very strongly about along with my colleagues in USI (Union of Students in Ireland). We will be doing a lot of political lobbying this year on a national and local level. This by the way has already started and I have already been in contact with many local TD’s to ascertain their parties stance on the reintroduction of third level fees. I will also be calling on all of you throughout the year to contact your local TD’s to let them know you won’t tolerate the return of fees.

On a brighter note I fully expect this year to be a great success with myself and David working very hard to bring you bigger and better awareness campaigns. We are also vigorously slaving away trying to make this the best year yet on the social side of things. We already have two or three things in the pipeline which I don’t want to disclose yet (it will ruin the surprise)! The huge variety of clubs and societies on offer also means you will never be found wanting for something to do.If there is a particular club/society not on the list you can always go and have a chat with Diarmuid Cahill (Clubs & SOC’s Officer), he won’t steer you wrong. We also offer other services on campus such as a Doctor, Nurse, Career Guidance Officer, Councillor and Chaplin.

All in all I really hope you enjoy the year and don’t forget if you are not enjoying your time in college please drop in and tell us why, it could be the case that we can do something to make college life a better experience for you, after all that’s what we’re here for!!!

James Clarke