 Good evening and welcome to a special edition of DCUTV News. We're your anchors. I'm Megan Roentree and I'm Rebecca Lumley. Every fortnight we have a live broadcast of all news that is happening in and around campus. These stories are student orientated which are created, filmed and edited by students. Here's a look back at some of the best stories we've covered throughout the year. At the end of a long stressful day at college, many students are heading back to their accommodation to relax. But for some students, the stress continues. I'm finally here at DC. I'm just back from an Erasmus in China. So I didn't come back to Ireland until mid-July. So it was very, very hard to find accommodation in that space of time. When she returned home from China to find all other accommodation was full, Laura's only option was to stay in Diggs. When I asked her how she was finding her accommodation, she told me this. Coincidentally, the woman has sold her house and she's given us three weeks to move out. Since being told she has to move out, Laura has been searching desperately for a place to live before she becomes homeless. However, any accommodation she's looked at so far has either been too expensive or substandard. Basically, there was no written contract. I wouldn't have my own key. Technically my room, people would be kind of a hallway essentially because the kitchen was one side of my room and the hallway was the other. So people would be coming through my room to use the kitchen, ground floor apartment with a big massive window facing out onto the main street. No security on the windows. So basically if I got robbed, that's everything gone. It just seemed really dodgy. This sort of accommodation is commonplace for students in Dublin. In a recent report by Dublin County Council, they found 85% of apartments failed to meet the basic accommodation standard. While the USI released results of a survey which showed the average cost of college to be 11,000 euro per year and overwhelming 95% of students think that's too expensive. So what exactly is being done to solve the current accommodation crisis? NAMMA are set to build a thousand bed student accommodation complex in the city centre. While the USI have provided a new facility on their website which lists homeowners who provide third level accommodation, however many students don't think this is enough. In a recent survey of DCU students, 98% think the government aren't doing enough to help students. 78% of students think that college hasn't done enough as they haven't provided any information on plans for future accommodation, leaving students completely in the dark. One thing does remain clear though. It's going to get worse before it gets better. Aaron Harper, TCU TV News Budget 2016 was unveiled yesterday by the government. The one and a half billion euro package is the last budget of the 31st dollar. A promising package was anticipated as a general election is scheduled for sometime next spring and overall the budget was very positive. Minister for Finance Michael Noonan unveiled the budget yesterday at Leinster House. Third level education and college fees were not mentioned anywhere in budget 2016 but there's still some good news for students. Universal social charge is to be reduced and incomes of 13,000 euro or less will not be charged USC. The minimum wage is being raised from 8.65 to 9.15 cents an hour. More jobs were promised for nurses, doctors and in education with 2,260 jobs being announced for teachers. The only tax increase in this year's budget is 50 cent out of the cigarettes. This came into effect from midnight. I went out to speak to students of TCU to see what they thought of budget 2016. It's definitely not as harsh as previous budgets but it could be a bit of luring people into trying to vote for a fit again. What did I think about the budget? I've been in English all day and haven't been able to look at anything. But given that we're coming into an election and what I've heard about it, I don't have any faith in that any thought has gone into the budget other than give away what will look best in the front pages tomorrow. A mixed reaction from the students. I'm Jordan Kavanaugh, DCU TV News. DCU's annual Shag Week took place last week on campus. I caught up with Welfare Officer Donal Harkin who told me some more about Shag Week. So Shag Week is sexual health awareness and guidance week. So educating students on their sexual health and other issues around consent. We had sex doctors and educating students on STIs. We had sex advocates who came in for consent and free aesthetics as well. So I hope we can put educating students and make them more aware of all issues related to sex. Many societies were on board to help out with Shag Week including MPS who set up the Shag Pad in the hub. The RAG Society also did their share by handing out condoms to students. And the week's most popular event, Dance Society's Full Monty, which saw some of DCU's most popular clubs and societies bearing all in the name of charity. This is Claire Prenti for DCU TV News. I'm here in the SU where the DCU violations were happening last week. Three places on the SU have to be filled. Those of OSL officer, clubs and socks officer and post-grab representative. We took a look at the election process as well as the results. This year's by elections were done electronically with students able to vote online through their loop pages. They were asked to vote on the three SU positions vacant as well as in the referendum for the restructuring of the SU. While this referendum was passed, none of the quorums for the candidate positions were met. Here's a breakdown of election results. I also spoke to SU President Kim Sweeney about the implications for the candidates of not meeting the required quorums. Basically, when there's an election or a by-election, the candidates have to reach a quorum. So the quorum for DCU is, the student population is 13,000, so it has to be 10% of that. So it has to be 1,300. So they were close but not close enough, unfortunately. Now they obviously aren't elected, so it's going to be brought to Class Rep Council where the Class Reps will decide on who will be elected. But that is going to be next semester. So at the moment they'll just fill the positions. All the candidates will fill the positions as non-voting members. And then next semester because it's been in six months of the next election, Class Reps can elect whichever, whoever they deem the best for the positions. I also spoke to Mel Kavanaugh who ran uncontested for clubs and socks officer. She told me what she thought she could bring to the job should she be elected in semester two. Well I'm really involved in the clubs and societies that I'm in in college. I'm a big active member of the LGBTA, the spoken word and the women's rugby. And I've been on a lot of committees since my two years here. So I think I'd know a lot about the clubs to bring into the SU and definitely be able to give the students perspective. And that's what I'm hoping to bring in a student voice into the SU when it comes to club matters. And so it remains to be seen who will fill these positions on the SU and represent the student body. That's all for me, I'm Rebecca Lonely for DCU TV News. Careers Week in DCU saw a fence take place across campus to get students thinking about the careers ahead of them. Events took place on many different topics related to careers, from J1 presentations to movie showings to LinkedIn workshops. The main area of help though came with info stands sitting around buildings which provided students would help and know how they needed. Siobhan Murphy is a careers advisor here in DCU. The information stand is here today as part of a wider suite of activities as part of Careers Week. Careers Week was a joint project with Students Union and the Careers Service. One of the things that we really wanted to get out is to get careers out into all of the faculties during this week. We've had loads of different skill sessions, but we thought perhaps an information stand about how you engage with the Careers Service might be very beneficial to students. So as they passed through the building, what we're encouraging them is to really look about how they would engage with the Careers Service, how would they book an appointment, what are their options and what are the services that we offer. And we've had a tremendous turnout all of this week. So some people are very interested in one specific thing about both graduate study, perhaps how to get a job. So we're just giving them a little bit of guidance on how they would actually engage with our service and how we can actually help them in a very real and meaningful way. Careers Office will help all students looking for careers advice just dropped by. Kevin Kelly, DCU TV News. Amnesty International's Colin O'Gorman paid a visit to DCU this week to talk about his work with Amnesty Ireland and more specifically the Syrian crisis. O'Gorman discussed Europe's position in the crisis and gave details of a visit he recently paid to Lebanon to express how dire the situation really is. So I was in Lebanon a couple of weeks ago visiting some of the informal, tentative settlements there, the settlements where Syrian refugees are living. And it was deeply disturbing and extraordinarily revealing and horribly fascinating in the midst of a global refugee crisis. There are about 60 million displaced people in the world today and just under 20 million of those are formally recognised as refugees. So we have the largest refugee crisis since the Second World War and it's a completely predictable crisis. We've seen it grow over the last five years or more. O'Gorman also discussed other human rights issues such as female genital mutilation and the proposal to reappear the Eighth Amendment. So we are a country that have been brutalised by a conversation about abortion and that means that we don't say the word and we don't have the conversation. It's really changing. There are women now who are coming out and talking about their experience, Tara Finn, the Canadian Ocean Angle, the Irish trans journalist who's spoken about it recently. We've been working with them and they've been coming out and telling their stories. The event was organised by the International Relations Society. I spoke to Chairperson Joseph Dillon about organising the event. Colin is probably one of Ireland's most capable and active human rights defenders and activists. I mean, he was obviously really, really famous with the marriage equality campaign. He made a big name for himself but, you know, prior to that he was already well-established human rights worker in Ireland. But I thought, you know, people in DC would have been really interested in that because obviously the marriage equality campaign was a big thing for young people. And Colin McGormann was, you know, I just thought he would really appeal to people. But what he did personally, I mean, he was going to Lebanon and he was actually looking at what they were doing and the situation that's there. And I think what's most interesting about Colin is that he was able to humanise. I'm Megan Rountree, DCU TV News. I'm here outside the hub in DCU where we just saw the DCU snow sports balloon drop. It's an annual event where great prizes are given out to some lucky winners. We took a look at the action. What was the event today? It was the annual balloon drop. So it's basically when we get, like, we kind of get around 1,500 balloons. Just stuff them in the net, put them on prizes. The main one being the balloon. And, yeah, just drop on everyone. More than 500 prizes. And that's it for me. I've been Rebecca Lowly. Voting will take place this week where members of the student body will be asked to vote on changes to the DCU Student Union Constitution. The changes proposed by Class Council include expanding the deadline for elections to be held by, modifying nomination requirements, creating a general neutral constitution and introducing an Irish language officer to the SU Executive. Currently, the DCU-SU Constitution says that the SU elections must take place before week nine. However, this ruling is currently being looked at because with the amalgamation with St Pat's SU, the timeframe doesn't suit our student body as many are on placement. The proposed amendment to the Constitution will allow the student union to take place after week nine. Because as it stands, if we have the elections at the present date, finally St Pat's students won't be able to run because they're on placement. So by us pushing the elections to be 10, finally St Pat's students can run. That's why I want to change it so they can run. Students will also be asked to vote on the creation of a new part-time Irish officer. An Irish officer is basically someone who sits in the exact and who is the voice of the Irish language on campus. So not only do they stand up for the people who are studying Irish here in DCU, the people who speak Irish, but also for the campuses as a whole as DCU strives to promote Irish, but also then to make sure that DCU is living up to its responsibilities in terms of the Irish language here on campus. Other proposed amendments include making the language in the Constitution more gender neutral and an altering the nomination process to allow for the larger student body. Andrew Barn, DCU TV News. Organising exercise classes taught by ex-prisoners is just one of Enactus' bright ideas. Last week, the Society, which focuses on the improvement of social issues, held its own Enactus Week. This comes after Radley, which is annually a huge success in DCU. I spoke to society member Lucy Mangan, who was down at the Enactus boot camp, to see what the Society is all about. So in Enactus we do social projects that help improve society and this week is all about promoting the projects that we're going to be doing this year. So on Monday we had Miss DCU, which we were using to raise money for our social projects, and it was a huge success, it was over 150, 110 people there, and we made loads of money for our social projects. Then on Tuesday nights I run a class called Head Starts for people with intellectual disabilities. We do drama, dance, art and music with them, and we really enjoy it and it's just really something to help you. It's very empowering and a lot of people volunteer and we have a lot of members that get so excited to come to the classes. Then today this is behind the through, there's a care after prison work camp and it's run by an ex-prisoner called Kieran. The camp is a social innovation to allow ex-prisoners to make a livelihood. They will run every Wednesday at half three in Albert College Park. Enactus then finished their week with the trip away. We're going to Galway for the Enactus Ireland Spring Summit, so it's like a training day that we're all going to go and have fun, make friends and stuff like that. It's just all about learning more about Enactus and helping yourself, better yourself. Enactus members say it's not too late to join the society and students can do so through the Students' Union. I'm Rebecca Lumley, DCN TV News. We're here live at IT Calo, where DCU have beaten IT Calo 15 points to seven to advance the semi-finals of the Sigerson Cup. DCU entered the quarter final stage of this year's Sigerson Cup as heavy favourites against Noel Garver and Sean Gannon's IT Calo side. Last year's quarter finalists started the game well with Ellie Fries from left half forward Chris Conroy with the cavern native kicking four of Calo's five first half points. After a slow start, the defending champions kicked in the gear on the back of smart standing play from modern corner forward Shane Carey who kept DCU within touching distance with two fine first half scores. DCU then extended their lead after a great sweeping move started by double midfielder Shane Cartey. After several handbasses, the ball eventually worked its way up to Michael Quinn who then picked out Dermot O'Connor with a lovely crossfield pass with the major footballer finding himself in acres of space before popping the ball over the bar. O'Connor would add his second point of the game a few minutes later as DCU began to turn their patient build up into well taken scores. O'Connor's point was enough to ensure DCU entered the break all tied up with a half time score of five points apiece. Carey started the second half in much of the same vein as he ended his first opening the scores with a well taken free to give the visitors an early second half lead. As the second half war on DCU began to pull away from Carlo as Carey continued to punish the hoster at the middle of the park. The informed forward picked their former Brisbane Lions star Colin Begley who in then turned fan to Alton Heine who kicked his only point of the game to give DCU a three point lead. Carey would add another free and a well taken point from play the first substitute David Mannix further extended the visitors lead with a well taken point just meters in from the sideline. The further scores from Mannix and a lay point from substitute Stephen O'Brien would ensure DCU left with a comfortable win and a place in this year's semi-finals. After the game we caught up with DCU coach Nolan Moyer to hear his thoughts on the game. Typical Sigerson, tough game, there's no easy games in Sigerson and we've known that down through the years we've known that it's on, you've got to show up every single day and to be fair to them we did show up but you know they've put in a phenomenal performance in the first half and they really put it up against it to us but look like last year you know the team found a way to win and that's what we tried to put into our team it's about finding solutions to the problems that are thrown out at you and lucky enough we came out in the second half They seem bestowalfully as a lot in the first half obviously he's entered the break at all levels but he's really pulled away early in the second half would you make any adjustments at halftime or watching it with a different second? Well we knew they were going to play that game obviously they made the pitch much much smaller as well and I think that certainly didn't suit us making you know narrowing the pitch by 20 meters and it became a very very confined pitch they probably ran out of steam in the second half and you know they have some great football players that was you know don't take away from them I really admire them and really the quality of their football and maybe just with a few quality players and a better bench in the second half and that allowed us to pull away And talking the semi-final obviously as it brings you one step closer to your goal obviously repeating the champions will be fantastic Hasn't been done I think in 20 something years we're going up against the hosts and the favourites loaded team but look it's a challenge as I said to the guys a few moments ago we're not in can't win so at least for there and we'll give it 100% I'm Jaco Till, Life Mighty Carlo Thank you to all our contributors throughout the year for their excellent work That's it from DCUTV News I'm Megan Rotry and I'm Rebecca Lumley Goodbye for now