 I'm here in DC at Glass 7 campus, where students are getting ready to vote in the upcoming Student Union elections. I got the opportunity to sit down with Visha Maloney Burke, the only presidential candidate this year. He told us why he thinks we should vote for him as our next president. Okay, so Visha, you've also decided to run for a Student Union president in DC. What made you decide to do this? Kind of multitude of factors really. Towards the end of last year it started to dawn on me that through all my experience of having DCU, through the clubs and socks and the class rep, I kind of gained a lot of skills that would be required for such a role. I didn't think straight away, but it was like it was the leadership, it was the organisation. It was kind of understanding the breadth of DCU. I kind of had worked with a lot of students, a lot of different circles and I lived on campus for two years anyway. So I kind of understood how the campus worked from a grassroots level. And then through the likes of my work at the SLC, I was quite fortunate to work with kind of senior staff members of the university as well. So across the board I had the experience, I thought, to do something like this. But way more than the experience, I had the passion. DCU literally changed my life when I came here. Not to be wrong, but I was quite an uninspiring fella. I was happy to come to college, get a decent degree, go out with my mates and have a nice time. That was it like. But as soon as I walked through the door, all of that changed. Working with some extraordinary people and having some extraordinary experiences that I never thought I would gave me a massive passion for the university and for the people in it. Passion I didn't realise was in SLC until 2015 when I arrived. And because of that, so appreciate it. Everyone's going to tell you this in their interviews this week, but I really just wanted to give back. I just have a burning desire in SLC to give back and nothing would make me happier than to be sitting up there this time next year being able to help the student body develop and grow as individuals. As I think I did, I want to help other people experience that. It's a lovely feeling. So you're saying you want to help other people experience that and inclusion is a massive part of your manifesto. So how are you planning to ensure inclusion across all three campuses and then on each individual campus? Yeah, of course. So with inclusion and engagement, stop number one is the student centre next year. It's absolutely massive and it's going to be the biggest year for student engagement in memory. That's a fact. That centre has so much potential. But as president, I'd love to utilise that potential. I was one of the few students left in the college really that experienced what it was like in my first year. We still had the venue and I still have that inside me. And it's probably actually the reason I'm running for president right now. But the current first and second years, there's some gems and some fantastic individuals. But there is a drop-off in the engagement there. That's because they don't quite know what it's like or they haven't been given the access that we were given. So they're going to be in Wonderland next year. So first year students will easily engage. The final year students will easily engage with those who've never experienced, which will be really hard. So we'll have to do our most events on there every night of the week, every week of the year. And of course, as you said, I focus on other campuses as well. I know Pat's students, they still, there's still something not quite connected in there with the students, unions, student paths across the board. So I think it's just constant liaison with them. We, I and the students, as a whole, shouldn't go to Pat's and try and throw our events onto them. You know what I mean? It's more about asking what we can do. And that's what I've been doing throughout the week. In terms of our third campus all-halos, lovely, lovely campus. I've been there a lot recently, putting up posters at Halkett to be filming for videos. Huge open space. And all Halloween ball went really well this year. A lot of people really enjoyed it. Not going to have a leg to stand moment by trying to do that again next year with the new Student Centre. Talking money just doesn't make sense now that we have that. But can still really use the space. And that's why with the Carnival, that's a really big thing I want to do. And of course, talking about all these big glitzy glam events. That's that is a big part of student engagement. And it's fantastic for so many students, but there's so much more to student engagement. And I really do acknowledge that. And I suppose it's the side I've seen quite a lot as well. It's on the ground. It's the different cohorts of DCU. These different cohorts and these you make up the fabric and make it such a fantastic place, which is kind of bringing my diversity point of my manifesto into it. So it's doing a lot more to bring all these groups together because it's such there's such fantastic people. I know I mentioned the manifesto of the international students in the isolation. That's a big, big puzzle. And you've got the likes of the Interfaith Centre, right next door to the Newark. Any single day of the year, you'll find 100, well 100 odd students, 50 odd students in the Interfaith Centre, 100 odd students in Newark. On a database, these students will never cross paths. And they're both extraordinary in their own rights. So I think it's from day one orientation week, week zero is getting these students mingling. And I do plan on introducing more events that kind of way, orientators. I won't say that I've been going on and on and on with this. So I won't give you every single detail. But I do just plan on doing a lot more to bring every kind of different community in DCU together to be a big community and experience a lot more and meet a lot more people as a result of us. Very good. And another card over here, Manifesto, is Free Pagans Test being rolled out for students. So why do you think this is important in DCU? Well, from a welfare perspective, the team have been doing a really good job this year. Positively doing a really good job this year. And with the two people running for welfare this year, this election, I'm absolutely sure it'll be another fantastic year ahead. But there can always be more done. And last year, county did a great job with really pushing free STI checks. Pagans did a really good job of increasing access to free STI checks. So students need this array of information about their own sexual health. And that's that's there. We can always push it more. So now that we've had the success with the STI checks, we have the free condoms and everything like that up in the SU. It's time once again to push it further. And free pregnancy test have been successful with other students' unions. So there's no reason why it can't be successful here. I've been asked a lot of questions about the likes of the pregnancy tests and the crisis pregnancy information packs for Manifesto, the drug information packs. And there's a need for all of them. I think there's a general acceptance for that. So I think there's no reason now for us not to go ahead with that push that and actually make it happen. And really kind of raise the bar for our students well there across the board. In other years we've seen four or five candidates from the Bureau of Station and they see you're the only one. So why do you think that you're the only one who went forward? I think there's a lot of factors really. The main one being the bill on campus, which I've already mentioned, not to be severe. But that bill has been a bit of a plague in the DCU over the last couple of years. And the SU teams up there, the Spotify teams that have seen us through them, have done their utmost to combat it. But it's just so hard. On a weekly basis, your student society events being called left, right and centre. Events aren't happening. Students can't get engaged when there's nothing there to engage them. The SU itself this year is around the New York Open Little Staircase through an emergency exit. Like half the students probably don't even know where it is. So it's just about visibility. I think that's one of the big reasons. They pushed it and I think they're all baffled as to why I am the running. I am completely baffled. I've thought about this for quite a long time for your honesty. And all the scenarios I ever imagined, never once would it be me sitting here, not alongside five other candidates, do you know what I mean? Yeah. So I'm not entirely sure why. There's probably a lot of reasons. I know a big goal for myself next year would be to ensure that there would be five people sitting here. And I think I would have the advantage that now may not have, which has just been the pure chance that I was there for the right year. Again, I would like to stress that I don't think they've done a great job of being visible this year. That's what's really depending on me. There's two or three of them that are always there on the ground really pushing things, but I feel it's baffled. And it's not just my position as well. It's no idea, to be honest. Thank you very much. So there you have it. That was Visha Maloney-Brick, our only presidential candidate this year. I'm Megan Kamay with DCU-TV News. 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