 Welcome to DCU-TV News, I'm Cauchy-Cabin and I'm Karen Gaffney. Today we'll be looking at some of the top stories that have taken place over the past two weeks. On Friday, DCU-SU held a protest outside the Department of Justice to fight against the deportation of University of Sanctuary student, Shepard Makaya. Ifa Horan reports. On Friday, DCU-SU gathered outside the Department of Justice to protest against the deportation of DCU University of Sanctuary student, Shepard Makaya. A 40-minute silent vigil was held in the peaceful protest. It was attended by students from across Ireland's universities. Shepard is a member of the student community throughout Ireland and I think when one member of our community is under attack, we stand up, we fight back. If there is any scintilla of humanity, compassion or justice in the Department of Justice, they will immediately revolt this deportation order and allow Shepard to protest. Void Barrett brought the case up in the doll in Tuesday but Flanagan refused to speak on individual cases in the doll. Shepard's future in Ireland is still uncertain. This has been Ifa Horan for DCU-TV News. DCU Student Union sabbatical officer delivered an address during the first class rep council of the year about being present at the controversial A&F AGM on October 4th. Reported by Cotchcaden. DCU-SU VP for Engagement and Development, Karen McGovern gave a statement on his attendance at the controversial A&F AGM during the first class rep council of 2018-2019. At the AGM there wasn't a massive capacity. I was there as a previous chair president of this society. I'm sure you have heard of an old part of the organization or ruling of the AGM. The group went on. I didn't know what was planned. I'm devastated that this is happening. The situation on the health control, I didn't know what to do. There should have been. I regret it. I'm not only sorry to everyone that's involved. I'm sorry to all DCU students. These children won't happen again. The chairperson of FEMSOC, Amy Cogden, questioned all sabbaticals on whether they were present at the A&F AGM. I'm Cotchcaden with DCU-TV News. Neve Quinlan, Sean O'Burtis and Lauren Allen take DCU campus to gain a better insight into the voting trends of fellow DCU students on the presidential election. Voting for the presidential election is set to take place on Friday, the 26th of October. Current president Michael D. Higgins will be running for a second term, despite stating that he would only serve a single term as president in his 2011 inauguration. This is the first election in 42 years that a president will be facing contests for a second term by a political party. I think you're going to vote for Michael D. I'm going to vote for Michael D. Higgins. I think for me I'll be voting for Michael D. Higgins because I was really impressed at what he's done in the past seven years. I know there's been a controversy surrounding payments of money at the moment, but I think out of the current candidates that are in the running as well, I just feel he's the best. I think he represents the best of Ireland. He's a Gael Gore, he's a passion for Irish culture, and he's an advocate for gender equality. Michael D. Higgins is favourite to win at 67% public preference, according to an Irish Times poll. This was the 55 points ahead of the second favourite Sean Gallagher. At least 3.2 million of the registered voters are expected to vote on Friday. I did some sort of research, I have a small bit of an interest in politics and everything, so I like to at least not start them before I vote. I feel like you really need to go out of your way to get the information. It's hard, not that much information is given to us on Twitter or Instagram or anything like that. You really need to be looking at news websites to find information. I don't know, I'm actually probably not going to vote, to be honest. I think there's just not a lot, especially it's more about just the controversies around, you don't really find out about what they do and what their plans are, you find just more about stuff they've done and bad stuff about them. As many of the campaigners have avoided using ballot posters in order to be more environmentally friendly, social media was expected to be the main platform of campaigning. However still, students feel out of the loop and are confused about what they're going to vote. Lauren Allen, DCU TV News. April Bryan and On Your Boy reported on the recent campaign launched attack of a third level funding crisis. DCU, along with Ireland's six other universities, have launched the Save Our Spark campaign, encouraging the public to demand that the government tackles the funding crisis in third level education. State funding per college student in Ireland at 5,000 euro is barely half of what it was a decade ago. We spoke to government TD, Noel Rock, about the need for meaningful reform for higher education. I think Irish universities are doing a good job with the funding they have, but we can do better in terms of both funding the sector better and in terms of performing better. DCU is a model of this. DCU in many sectors is punching well above its weight, but in order to make those next steps forward, we need more funding and more focus on where we can improve and how we can improve. The launch of the Save Our Spark campaign comes just as the European Investment Bank has announced 100 million euro in funding for four development projects in Trinity College Dublin, including development of the E3 Institute in engineering, energy and environment, refurbishment of the arts block, expansion of the law school and new student accommodation at Trinity Halls. With funding across all third level institutions such a prevalent issue, I'm here on DCU's Glass-Neven campus to gauge students' reaction to the Save Our Spark campaign and Trinity College Dublin's 100 million euro investment loan. Yeah, it's extremely important for the development of the universities. I mean, when you look at DCU's involvement with the finance department, they're talking about cutting, spending, that's in sport, in law, in business. They're constantly talking about cutting, so with this campaign, it'll develop the universities. It's going to take pressure off the housing crisis in Dublin. They're so short of just a minute, I need to find a little bit of help. Yeah. To take action to secure the future of education in Ireland. Ifo, Brian, DCU TV News. Wednesday, October 4th was National Plastic Free Day. Avian Bryant, Orla Dwyer and Emily Sheehan report on DCU's attempt at reducing its plastic waste. Wednesday, October 17th is Plastic Waste Free Day on DCU campus. This is also happening in 15 other third level institutions across the country. The initiative by the union of students in Ireland hopes to draw attention to the excessive use of plastic. On the Glasneben campus, Lundis has made an effort to cut down on their plastic waste. So we're the first Lundis store not to have plastic bags for life. Lundis now actually have made the cloth tote bags available for all of its stores. We have taken biodegradable bags for our produce. Dr David Robbins believes that the university could do more. They could ban single use cups from Starbucks and the other coffee outlets and force people to bring their cheap cups or to buy a reusable cup there or use compostable cups. That would be the next step. I think they've made a very good start. DCU Sustainable Living Society tells us how we can reduce the amount of plastic. It's not realistic to say somebody don't eat this, don't eat that. Especially when it comes to things like the all-over snacks, the all-over crisps, the all-over pizzas, buying books. Because when you buy a book, packaging, you have less to get rid of instead of individual packages. We talk to staff and students in DCU together thoughts on Plastic Waste Free Day. Firstly, I don't think going Plastic Free by 2020 is soon enough to go Plastic Free. I think it should have been done over the summer. I don't think it's that big an operation to take Plastic at DCU. I don't think we're doing enough in the university because it'll take an effort by all. We need more kind of glass, I suppose, reusable cups or gel cups, simple little things. You can't just walk over and get like a plastic cup of water anymore but like plastic utensils are harder to get. Like I actually have noticed a literal difference, yes. Well, I try to use them less now just in relation to the environment and obviously you work in the university where you're trying to make sure that you're trying to be an example in these type of situations. With the deadline of 2020, DCU is still far away from kicking its plastic cup. That's all for now. Join us on the next DCU TV news broadcast in a fortnight. I'm Karen Gaffney and I'm Cauchy Cazen. Goodbye.