Roscommon native Sam O’Neill has been elected Students’ Union president of Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology for a second term, after an overwhelming majority of 90 per cent voted to re-instate him into the position.
Mr O'Neill is a GMIT graduate of business and a native of Ballaghadereen and only the fifth person to have two terms as president in the union’s history. The SU president is the chief executive officer and principal spokesperson for the Students' Union, and he represents the students of GMIT on all of the major decision making bodies within the institute. He is the third consecutive Roscommon native to fill the position in GMIT, following Joe O'Connor of Kilmore and Colin Canny from Creggs. Mr O’Neill has also been nominated by his peers for Student Leader of the Year in the National Student Achievement Awards which take place today, Thursday April 17.
Commenting on his re-election, Mr O’Neill said: “This is my third year working in the Students’ Union having also served a term as vice president and welfare officer. I feel privileged and proud that the students of this institute have put their trust in me once more, and I look forward to working hard on their behalf in the coming year.”
For the 2014-15 academic year, Mr O’Neill will be joined by Michael Kerrigan who has been elected to the new position of education officer, and Amy Kelly who takes up the position of welfare officer. Mr Kerrigan is a native of Kilconly, Tuam, a former welfare officer and graduate of business. Ms Kelly is from Kildare and is currently completing her degree in gno agus cumarsáid.
The Students’ Union is a democratic organisation whose function is to represent the needs of its members across all five GMIT campuses. The new executive will officially take up office on June 1.
