UCD students vote in favour of removing Katie Ascough

Students at UCD have voted to remove President Katie Ascough from the her role in the Student Union.

In a referendum yesterday, students were asked whether or not she should be impeached. Over two thirds of voters, 69 per cent, chose to have her impeached. The turnout for the referendum was 6,611, one of the highest in years, according to the University Observer. The referendum was triggered when the pro-life president had blocked the publishing of materials on abortion services in a union freshers' week guide last month. That information had been previously been made available to students at the university. The cost of the re-printing for the union was €8,000. Ascough had previously said that she would not interfere with the union's pro-choice stance, reports RTÉ. Speaking after the result was announced, she said she felt she had "fought the good fight." "I feel confident that I have done all that I could for the students that I am grateful to have been elected to represent," she said. "This is a sad day for me but it is also a sad day for our university. Universities should be a place of freedom of speech, freedom of thought and freedom of association, fairness, respect for those who do not wish to break the law and respect for others with different beliefs."