MALCOLM BYRNE has failed in his bid to be elected to the governing body of UCD as a postgrad representative.

Byrne polled 1,683 votes in last Saturday's count, leaving him in third place behind Frank Bradley (1,940 votes) and the successful candidate, Cliona de Bhaldraithe Marsh, who took 2,382 of the total valid poll of 6,005. The election was necessitated by the death of Professor Gus Martin, one of the graduate nominees to the governing body.

Byrne, a former education officer in UCD students' union, said he was not disappointed by the result and that his involvement in the election had raised once again the necessity of having a postgraduate representative on the governing body. He expressed the hope that when the governing body reviews its composition in the near future it will find a place for such a representative.

Marsh, a member of staff of the college's German Department and chairperson of the Women's Education,

Research and Resource Centre, is believed to have polled well among women. Five of the six graduate nominees to the governing body are women Maurice Manning is the exception.

Meanwhile, Byrne's successor as SU education officer, Garrett Tubridy, has announced that he will not be running for president this year, contrary to expectations. In a tersely worded statement, he said the students' union council was "not representing students" and, in the case of some members, "acting as much against students' interests as some of the college authorities".

Tubridy also criticised SU president Loughlin Deegan and described the University Observer, the union newspaper, as "blatantly hostile and out of touch". It was no secret in UCD that Tubridy and Deegan had clashed and that relations between the two officers could charitably be described as "frosty