Welcome to MISU

It has been a very busy semester so far, here is an update on what we have been doing for you!

We have worked closely with the college to help to improve some of the busiest services including:

Assisting the college with the funding for an additional Nurse in the Medical Centre

Selling the photocopying cards for the Library in An Siopa

Providing parking stickers & park magic starter packs to all student motorists

In 2008 the Student Union has donated €20,000 to the Student Assistance Fund, and €667 worth of books to the Access Office.The Student Union have also funded an extra day per week for the Student Parent Co-Ordinator service. This supplements the funding from the Crisis Pregnancy Agency for this project.

The Student Diary 2008-09 was complied by our team here in the Student Union, and the production costs were covered by advertising. The feedback from the College community has been very positive, and we hope you continue to find the diary useful!

You may know that during the past year the Student Union has undergone a Quality Review. One of the recommendations of this review was that we “re-brand” the Student Union, and re-develop our website. We commenced the re-branding process in June 2008 with Neville Design, and we are delighted with our new logo. Branded merchandise including USB Keys, refill pads, and of course hoodies are all selling well, and the logo looks fantastic on everything. The design of the logo is based on our new mission statement, which we also developed during our quality review:

Our new website www.misu.ie, went live on the 29th of August. A key development of this website is the “Mary I Live” section which is updated daily by Edel Golden, a 3rd Year BA student on work placement with us until December 2008. Edel has done a wonderful job both on the website & helping us here in the office, and we will miss her when she sets off for Chicago in January. We are working closely with every department of the college to encourage everybody in the college community to let us know what’s going on, and we will put this information up on “Mary I Live” daily, and if you have an event on that you would like the College community to get involved in, just e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the details.

Our Student Centre is finally underway and we are so excited, it is literally growing out of the ground, and it is estimated that we will move in to the new building in spring 2010. This new building will make such a difference to student life here in Mary I. with our new student centre, which will have a brand new “An Siopa”, a Café & Bookshop, recreation area, 500 seater theatre, many new teaching facilities, new computer labs, medical centre, counselling & chaplaincy spaces, so it will be a great place to be & right next door to Tailteann too!

Class Rep. Training took place on the 24th of September, we have over 70 class reps. If you want to find out who your class rep is just check the list outside our office on the Union Council notice board.

The Student Union Executive assisted with the Orientation of the First Year students in September, which included a great BBQ, Tag Rugby, Dodge ball, Giant Jenga & Twister extravaganza in Tailteann on a beautiful autumn evening. The event was a great success, and we will hopefully have a similar event in spring 2009.

Clubs and Societies are alive & well, we have 5 Clubs & 20 Societies up & running, under the guiding hand of Louise Quinn. Classes in Tailteann have been well attended throughout the term. Love it or Leave week it gave our students a great opportunity to try out some new activities, and you get to do it all again in Semester Two!

Open Days took place on a rainy 14th & 15th of October. Many of the third year BA students on placement in the college assisted with tours for the 2000 students who visited Mary I. and as always our students did us proud and the secondary students were very impressed.

Graduation 2008 took place on Thursday & Friday the 23rd & 24th of October, almost 1000 students were conferred, and the ceremonies went very well. A record 8 PhD’s were awarded, and we would like to especially congratulate Timothy Moloney who was conferred with a PhD in History. Timothy was our Equality Officer in the Student Union in the academic year 1998-99. The Student Union organised a weekend’s entertainment for the Graduates, with Trinity Rooms on Thursday & Friday nights, the Graduation Ball took place on Saturday the 24th in the South Court Hotel where 820 guests had a great evening. A special guest on the evening was Ian Russell who was President of MISU in 1998/99.

The budget brought some bad news for students, and Mary I. in the form of an increase in the Student Services Charge from €900 in 2008 to €1500 in 2009, and the government have still not ruled out the possibility of the re-introduction of third level fees. The reality of the budgets’ effect on education is: 1000 primary teaching jobs lost, no substitute teachers for uncertified sick leave, the loss of teaching posts from schools that are no longer designated as disadvantaged; and a new ceiling of a maximum of two language support teachers for most schools. John White, general secretary of the ASTI, says up to 1,000 posts will be lost at second level because of the Budget changes. The Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) predicted a significant increase in student drop-out levels before the Leaving Cert because of the Budget cuts. A number of specific programmes which promote student retention have been hit by the cuts. There will be a protest in Limerick early in 2009 organised by the INTO & I would urge you all to make your voices heard on this issue.

An Siopa and the SU Office are as busy as ever, selling all the essentials, including the best coffee in Mary I. (buy 4 get 1 free!). Dee in the SU office and Ger, Jo, Charles, Sue, Ita, Alison & Joyce in An Siopa are doing a great job providing you with the items you need at the best possible price. We appreciate your custom, and would like to assure you that profit from all our commercial activities goes right back into providing as many student supports & services as possible. If there is anything we can do for you just pop in to our office & let us know, good luck to everybody in the exams and enjoy Christmas.

Orla

Well thats semester 1 pretty much wrapped up. Twas pretty darn hectic with gigs, comedians, themed Tuesday nights and an assortment of exciting stuff in the lounge. Some of our favourite bits of the semester include the Sex and the City day & night, the Mary I band showcase in Dolans, the Halloween party and Drama week. We still have a few tricks up our sleeves for the rest of the semester! An honourable mention goes out to the carnival day in orientation week, those moustaches were class! What can we say about semester 2? Well, there is one thing on everyone’s mind, (drum roll please)..RAG WEEK!!! We, along with the entire SU are working tirelessly to give you the best rag week yet . Remember that we still want to hear from you. Any ideas, you know the drill. Rag week is not the only thing in semester 2: There is refresher’s week, shag week, seachtain na Gaeilge, not to mention our weekly club night in Trinity Rooms and there will always be a few gigs in Dolans. This semester saw the launch of TV Thursday. Basically we have some of the best TV on show in the lounge every Thursday. Some of the best so far have been Family Guy and Saw I-IV. Next semester you can expect to see The Hills, Skins, Father Ted, Will & Grace, American Dad, Desperate Housewives, Heroes….the list goes on. Big shout out to all the Freshers, hope ye have all settled in by now. The BEST is yet to come… Remember that all the money from Tuesday nights in Trooms goes toward funding Rag Week, so bí nn nó bí cearnógach(take that pa and ailbhe-Love you guys). Happy Christmas, and good luck with exams!

Ais and Denis

Hi all,Hope your first semester back went well. Well all the post-grads have had the usual fun with printers breaking down while deadlines are looming. Teaching practice and exams and the other tonne of assignments have also been a treasure to behold so most of the grads have been keeping a very low profile except for the usual troupers that keep truckin on for all of us. Hopefully next semester we'll be able to actually have lives again. I dread to think that this will be the last semester in college for us. Can't wait for next semester already. Hope Santa comes to all of you

xxx Rita x

Phew it’s been a crazy semester on the clubs and societies front! We started the semester with a really successful Clubs&Societies Day, raising more money than any other Clubs&Societies day to date – even Daithí Ó Sé popped in for a piece of the action! We spent the next week or two attending the first meeting of every club and society to help them set up their committees . We then held a training night for all committee members to inform everyone of what was involved in their particular role. We have also held several Clubs and Societies Councils to keep in regular contact with committees and help them with any problems. Of course we’re not the only ones who have been busy; none of this would happen without our wonderful Student Activities Officer Louise Quinn and the hard-working committees of the clubs and societies, who have organised some fantastic events over the last few months. Other highlights of the semester include orientation week, the college open day and going to Dublin protesting against education cut backs in the budget. Next semester we look forward to organising another Clubs and Societies Day, holding more Clubs and Societies Councils and helping clubs and societies organise some great events for you guys! Hope you all have a great Christmas,

Cait and Clara x

A charide go léir I gColáiste Mhuire gan Smál tá súil agam gur bhain sibh an taitneamh as an chéad leath den bhliain. Bhí an spraoi againn agus ba é an buach-phointe ná ag bualadh leis an dhream nua sa chéad bhliain. Agus ár ndóigh bhaineamar an-sult as gach oíche Dé Mháirt I Seomra na Trionóide. Go raibh maith agat do na daoine go léir a bhí ag tacú linn na hoícheannta seo agus do gach duine eile (go háirithe an Chéad Bhliain) bí cinnte go mbeidh sibh ann as seo amach. Caithfidh go mbeidh an airgead againn chun an Rag Week is fearr riamh a eagrú. Táimid ag tnúth go mór le Seachtain na Gaeilge i Mí na Márta agus faoi láthair táimid ag smaoineamh ar imeachtaí a bheidh ar súil I rith na seachtaine seo. Má tá aon smaoineamh agaibh ar gheall ar seo, bí I dteangmháil linn. Bí cinnte go dtugann sibh tacaíocht don Chumann Gaelach, don Chumann Ceoil Traidisiúnta agus don Chumann Damhsa Traidisiúnta. Agus ná déan dearmad: Beatha teanga í a labhairt!!! Bain triail as an bhliain.

Pa agus Ailbhe.