Chris Gambino

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I want to do this job because I will introduce FRESH ideas into college politics. Unlike my opponents, I am not a party ‘HACK’ and have always been independent from the cliquish clans that run the Student Union. In fact, most of these people annoy me and only seek office as a stepping stone to a future political career. Their primary concern is the needs of their party, not the daily needs of the student body. I want to do this job because I have a constant flow of new ideas that can address in very concrete terms, many of our universal woes.

-Work to end the printing charges. I will donate my entire SU salary (€15,000) to subsidise the cost of printing charges. Who else cares that much?

-Work with the college to get the third level funding that we should be guaranteed.

- I will Campaign against the cuts and THEN work with college to get what we need. My reasoning is that they suffer as much as we do and they WANT to work together with us. I will campaign against the government as they are to blame.

-Let companies compete for the Buttery catering contract. There is no accountability and the current system has failed to produce a cost effective service due to its monopoly status. Competition for contracts will drive prices down and quality up.

-Disaffiliate from the Union of Students in Ireland (USI). They are an incompetent and financially bankrupt organisation that have lost a €10 million jackpot in the USIT failure. Now they want ordinary, hard-pressed students to pay for their catastrophe, by doubling your capitation contribution. I plan to save every student in college this extra expense by pulling TCD out of the USI.

-Create a separate SU governing council for the Health Sciences, so that they can be responsible for their own needs.

-Work more closely with the Graduate Students’ Union to achieve shared goals as well as graduate specific ones.

-A proper SPORTS COMPLEX with a POOL.

-Support the establishment of a college off-licence. A TCD off-license should have CHEAPER prices than other off-licenses in the area, for with a valid student card.

-Examine the possibility of a Student Bar at the site of the Lincoln Inn. -Keep pressure on the college to support the sports and student centres.

-Cut down on the whining. Moaning about every trivial thing loses the Student Union respect, concentrate our efforts on the important issues.

-Lessen the restrictions on the use of the college’s sports fields.

-LONGER library opening hours.

-EXTEND the opening hours of the college pubs until midnight. -Better student representation in the granting of extensions.

-Getting lecture theatres opened for studying in the evening and daytime.

-Rally to support the recognition of Irish as an official EU language.

-More funding for the Health Sciences faculty. -The Buttery is charging more than they Pav for drink. I want to make drink CHEAPER in college not more expensive, as it has become over the years.

-Turn Goldsmith Hall into a student venue. After all, it was originally built as a student centre but abandoned after 3 weeks because there was no soundproofing. It’s not a big deal to get some damn soundproofing! Many of these things are small things that piss us off about college. I want to fix them because for the past decade, THE SU HAS FORGOTTEN.

Q You've been a student at TCD for four years now, what do you think of the place ?

A Coming as I do from the USA where some of the universities are huge, the thing I most like about Trinity is that it is a compact campus with a real atmosphere to it. It makes it easier to bump into friends and keep in contact with people. And it is still big enough to offer a wide variety of courses. Even in the States, TCD is known for producing high-quality medical professionals.

Q So what do you think of Ireland ?

A One thing I notice about the Irish is they like to talk a lot. It's never too difficult to get a good discussion going on an interesting topic. Stateside most of the campuses are dominated by the political correctness. You dare not discuss anything controversial for fear of being attacked by the PC police. The Irish will engage in intelligent debate even when they disagree with you.

Q You've been accused by your detractors of voicing controversial views on many subjects.

A The purpose of attending university is to explore and understand the world around us. In order to understand myself and others I have raised many controversial issues and been involved in many interesting discussions. I suppose you could accuse me of being a bit of a polemicist, which I don't consider a bad thing. But it is true I am not very politically correct.

Q How would you sum up your philosophy in life ?

A Civilisation and learning are built on discipline. Each individual must accept responsibility for their own actions and the consequences on others. If we are to have a society that works, we must have a society that has a clear set of moral guidelines. Otherwise what you get is a society based around self-serving egotists and anarchy. Our resources should go into education not policing.