Established 2000 Affiliations None | Members Approximately 9,000 Website [3] | |
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Institution Griffith College Dublin Location Meagher Building, Students` Union Office | ||
The Griffith College Students' Union is the representative body for all full-time Griffith College Dublin students. As the largest independent College in Ireland, Griffith College Dublin has placed an emphasis on expanding the Students’ Union alongside the expansion of the College. They can directly influence and assist students during their academic year. The Students’ Union provides advice on welfare, health, accommodation, financial and academic matters in an effort to help students adjust to college life. However, its primary role is to represent its members views and defend their interests Griffith College Students' Union is not a member of Union of Students in Ireland (USI), the national representative body for third-level students' unions in Ireland, just like Dublin City University, University of Limerick and Cork Institute of Technology.
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The Students' Union President is elected annually by the college students and is incharge with being the chief students representative/Welfare & Ents Officer. He/she is assisted by a Clubs & Societies Officer. There is also a Student Development Officer (SU Manager) who assists students settling into college. The Students' Union organizes a number of different events throughout the year from Freshers Week, Halloween Ball, Thanksgiving, Diwali, Eid, Christmas Ball, SHAG Week and RAG Week and the formal Griffith Ball which takes place towards the end of the year.
Sabbatical Officers
The following table outlines Griffith College SU Officers and staff from the Union's beginnings in 2000 to the current day.
Clubs & Societies
There are a variety of clubs and societies in the college including:- Drama, Rugby, Soccer, Volleyball, Debating, Poker, Pool, Paintball, Basketball, Visual Communication & Art, and Toastmasters.
GCD hosted a charity poker tournament & match against The Hendon Mob in May 2004. The match ended 2-2, with GCD winning the tiebreak. 'The Gaming Club' donated €500 to the Chernobyl Children's Project, as the match prize. (Rag Week 2004 had been in aid of Chernobyl Children's Project). All four Hendon Mobsters (Ross Boatman, Barney Boatman, Ram Vaswani, Joe Beevers) were in attendance. GCD won the Paintball Intervarsitites in 2005, defeating Trinity 2-1 in the final. Team: Stephen Stokes (capt), Colm O'Connor (vice captain), Killian Faughnan, Dermot McDonald, Richie Kelly, Gavin Ng, Darren McCabe, Eoin Fanning, Nic Ryan, Alex Polyakov, Barry Hyland. GCD won the Chess Intervarities in 2005, defeating University of Limerick 2-1 in the final. Claire Michelle Smyth and Barry Vickers of Griffith College Dublin were team winners of The Thomas Finlay Court Moot Competition in UCD in March 2009.
Griffiti
The Students' Union magazine Griffiti is the most prominent publication in the college. Originally conceived as a newspaper, Griffiti changed to a more informal magazine format in its 2nd year. It was the first Griffith College student publication to be printed entirely in colour, since then full-colour magazines have become the norm in GCD. It is published every month of the academic year, and contains articles and stories which focus on general news, opinion and goings-on around the campus. Students of all disciplines are free to submit articles. The magazine's management dictates that the editor changes every academic year. It was launched in October 2004. As of December 2013 there has been 58 issues. Since its inception it has won several awards at the National Student Media (sMedia) awards including winning 'Small College Publication', 'Colour Writer of the Year', 'Website of the Year'. Originally the position was directly appointed by the SU President and Manager (as well as several others), however as of 2011 the role is now directly elected by the students. The position falls under the title of 'Communications Officer' and has been twinned with the role of SU President.