 Oh we're nearly there. I'm getting too old for this crack. Okay if I could invite please the candidates for president of DCU Students Union to the stage please. Hi guys, I've had a speech and also I'm gonna really like that so my name is Kenneth Brown, I'm a 22 year old communication student from Wexford and the current clubs officer and DCU TV station manager, the former humanities convener and a former class rep. A society enthusiast, a media head and an all-round musician. From day one when I sat at the Helix orientation talk looking up at the stage, I knew sabbatical role was going to be something I always wanted to do and fortunately over the years and through my varying experience this has just been hammered home for me time and time again. Throughout my time here I live, breathe and sleep absolutely everything that is a university life in DCU and I firmly believe I am the best candidate for a position and I hope I can convince you to say it today. I'm a strong advocate that university life is about far more than just a degree at the end of three or four years. It's about new experiences stepping outside your comfort zone, learning new skills and making friendships that will last a lifetime. I want every student to have the opportunities to engage and to become as passionate and as proud to be a DCU student as I am. My priorities are maintaining the incredibly high standards set by current sabats, continuing the plans and efforts they have initiated along with some simple ideas of my own. Here I outline some of the things I would like to address and add to if elected. It's about the little things, improving student engagement and better enhancing the overall experience that is Dublin City University. Mental health is one of the prominent issues of our generation and though we've come a long way from ten years there's still much to be done. Every single student comes from a different background and has arrived to DCU in different ways. During my school life I was mad into sports, music and sometimes story, but during my leave and search here I was diagnosed with severe depression and everything fell to pieces and if it wasn't for the support of my family and friends I wouldn't be standing here today. I came to DCU after a full year out through the DARE scheme which is the disability access route education and two months after arriving here on the 14th of November 2011 I finished up my medication and I've never looked back. I think counsellors are great but they're not the absolute solution. I believe family, friends and being active are key to your mental health and that's why I placed such emphasis on student engagement and activity. The opportunities presented to me in the first few weeks have shaped who I am today. Your mind is not just witty for one week so I want to campaign all year round. If elected I want 2014 and 15 to be the year of mental health in DCU where every single event has an aspect of mental health integrated into it. With the library extension there's constant demand for more hours during exam weeks so I just want to implement a simple three hour extension until 1am. This will be done through a volunteer system. With the new sports structures being built down in St. Clairs I'm going to make sure I'm already working on it with the policy with CLC that DCU sports and clubs have first preference and all the booking times and slots and external organisations are put to the back of the list. With lecturing requirements I myself have studied under staff who are brilliant minds but have no experience or not experience but no idea on how to engage with a room of young students so I want to push for staff to have to undergo just presentation skills workshops. I think it's so simple it'll add so much to the overall classroom experience and to the school. With the career service I want to work with them to revitalise how they promote themselves. They do so much work behind the scenes but when they send you 12 or 15 emails a week and most of it for me as a Humanity student I'm getting emails about KPMG Deloitte. I have no interest so I just want to put a stop to just the mass marketing of that. With charity there's thousands of euro raised each year for two various clubs and stocks but I want to ring in a DCU jailbreak similar to other universities around the country to allow for more creativity, excitement and coverage of our students' abilities on a national scale. With non-alcoholic events there's two absolutely amazing screens just installed there in the venue. I want to have movie nights and series nights during the year even daytime or evening things for students that they can just turn up to for free with a bag of popcorn. You can watch your Love, Hate or Game of Thrones or we can have polls on the SU page to see what movies people want to watch. Really simple things that can just get people more engaged and give them something to do without having to go to the bar for points. There's some huge changes happening hopefully with the new students that are being built but also with the incorporation of St. Patsmatter Day and Charter of Ireland. Now this isn't a big issue for DCU students at the moment but it's huge for them because they're losing their identities. So I want to really work hard with the other sabbatical officers and those to make sure there's a solid support structure and that every student's needs are being met through the change of this. A primary element of this role is representation both within and outside of the university. And I want to make it said that I stand for every single student on an equal level. From all backgrounds, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation. So why vote for me? Well I come here as a candidate for this role with experience, passion and dedication. I've been in the middle of student life since the beginning, witnessed the good and the bad and now I have my own vision for things but this is far from definitive. I want students to know that they can give suggestions or feedback at any time of the year on how they feel things are going or how things may be improved. I will take everything on board with the aim of striving for a stronger and more inclusive DCU. There's a quality about student life here that just isn't found in other places and it's something my friends say to me anytime they come here that they just don't get in their own institutions. It's a warming community aspect that binds us together from the staff to the students, the clubs and societies and everyone else on campus. I've gained so much from my time here and I'll certainly miss it when I'm gone but before I leave I want this year to put back in what I've taken and I promise I will not disappoint. I really appreciate your first preference vote on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. I want every student to have the opportunities to engage and to become as passionate and as proud to be a DCU student as I am. Thank you. Hi guys, I'm Alan. First of all I'd like to thank you all for staying behind for us last three candidates. But currently I'm studying education and training and today I'd like to be able to show you why I believe that I'm the best candidate for the position of president. The role of the president is more than just sitting on various committees and attending conferences. The president's most important role is to represent the students of DCU. I believe that the president should be available to all the students of DCU and through communication that the president can tackle any problems or issues that may arise. The student's union president needs to be enthusiastic, hardworking and passionate and have the desire and the care for the students of DCU. So a little bit about myself. I've been involved in various clubs and societies, for example the Cricket Club yes we actually do have one for those that didn't know been involved in the music society but a snow sports with a beer pong I must add. For the last three years I've been representing my class on the Class Rep Council as well as sitting on the education and training program board. This year I'm the class representative council member sitting on the student of office life whose aim is to promote the holistic development of all the students in DCU. But students engagement we've got some amazing students at DCU here who've all excelled on the academic field on the sports field as well as in extracurricular activities both on and off campus. With this in mind there are a few things I'd like to introduce that will hopefully assist students in becoming more engaged. I've set up a Facebook page called Ask Alan. This gives DCU students the opportunity to ask questions seek advice and make suggestions that will not only better at DCU but also the experience that students have at DCU. As we know it's not always practical for the president to be available in his office all the time and some students may not want to speak face to face. This Facebook page therefore affords them the opportunity to be able to have their say. As far as events are concerned there's so many events happening in and around DCU that I feel some students are actually missing out on these as they are not aware of what is happening, where it's happening and when it is happening. I'd like to implement a system that tells students what is on every day for the week ahead. The plan is to have all events from the Students Union, the societies, the clubs and any other interested parties for the coming week to publish all their events onto one web page. And you have to access one site to see what's coming up. As has been mentioned by various candidates the class rep system. When I first became a class rep I found it a very daunting task to volunteer to be a class rep. And for many students it could be their first time, even if it's second year or third year. With this in mind I'd like to start with a new system where it's a buddy system. Somebody that's already been a class rep then helps out somebody that is class rep for the first time. The buddy system which has worked extremely well with our access program where new students are shown around DCU and how things work is a system that won't only be beneficial to the reps but I also believe that it will be beneficial to all students. As far as sustainability is concerned about 18 months ago I approached the Students Union in connection with having water fountains installed which is something I'd like to follow up on. And another issue, it's a personal hate of mine is the running taps. Taps that don't switch off automatically. We are just wasting water as we go along. So in conclusion the Student Union president needs to be engaging needs to be passionate and enthusiastic and these are some of the assets that I'll bring with me. I believe that through interacting with students the students of DCU can become more engaged and therefore have a richer experience while attending our fantastic university. I'm highly motivated, friendly, easy going and approachable. Thank you very much. Hi everybody. So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to take a few minutes to tell you who I am, what I'm about and then I'll go on and tell you about some of the main points of my manifesto. So my name is Dave Whittle. I'm a postgraduate student in the School of Computing. I'm a law graduate so I know what your rights are as a student. Since coming to DCU last year I have been working tirelessly to make it a better place for everybody. I've established the Environmental Society and the Biodiversity Officer with the Green Campus Initiative and I've also been promoting the use of reusable coffee cups on campus in order to reduce on paper waste. So what will I do if I'm elected as president? Well there are a number of policies that I will implement. Some of these are big, some of these are small but the most important thing to remember is that they can all be implemented within the next year. So the first major issue is the redevelopment of the hub. A lot of people are talking about the referendum and getting students to vote in the referendum. But what is being forgotten is what happens after that. In order for this hub to be developed it has to go through the entire planning process. In order for the students to have a proper voice in this redevelopment at all times there needs to be somebody who has experience of planning law and the planning system. I've worked in a planning office before so I have that experience. Another major issue is the change to the exam timetable. I know a lot of people are talking about extended library opening hours which is a good idea. But I think there's actually a bigger issue here and that is that exams are currently in January but they're now going to be moved to before Christmas. I think this is a good thing because it ensures that students don't have to worry about exams over the Christmas holidays but there is the danger that students will lose out on a huge amount of time for study. So with elected president I will make absolutely sure that students are given a sufficient reading week before any new exams in Christmas. I will also work to make sure that DCU is a more environmentally sustainable campus. For example I will make sure that all new hoodies are sustainably sourced as well as all office supplies. Since coming to DCU I've been working with the National Transport Authority to ensure that public transport links to DCU are improved. If elected I will make sure to continue that work. Another major issue for all students is mental health. I know that there have been a lot of suggestions put forward over the course this afternoon as to what we can do to improve mental health. I think however that the most important thing is that there is a good counseling service available with expert advice. We have this on DCU but it's not necessarily as well promoted as it could be. I know for a fact that a lot of students don't even know it exists. I think a very easy and effective thing for the students union president to do is to make sure that this excellent counseling service is well advertised. I believe the students have the ability not only to change their university but that they can also change society as well. With this in mind I will actively support the marriage equality referendum. This is something that affects me personally so I know that I will put my heart and soul into this campaign. I will make sure that there is the opportunity for students to register to vote on campus and I'll make absolutely sure that there is nothing that gets in the way of students to vote in this referendum, particularly we're talking about exams. Finally I will support the nurses campaign against further pay reductions. This is something that I have been supporting for many, many years and I've attended numerous rallies in support of nurses and their campaign. Finally I will promote the university campaign. This is a campaign that ensures that college courses are not dictated by the needs of big business. It ensures that students achieve a full all-rounded education while in college. It particularly targets humanities and it's particularly interested with the fact that humanities are being caught left, right and centre and that for a proper university that can't happen. There has to be more to education than just business needs. So there are the main points for my manifesto and I have a lot more on my Facebook page if you want to have a look at that. In the meantime I would ask you to please consider voting for me on the 26th or 27th. Thank you. Okay, book of questions here. First question for the candidates. I'll have to decipher that in a minute. Okay, there's actually only one particular question for the president so these are the other questions that were asked. Do you all yourselves have also mentioned mental health? What is the most effective campaign or effective way you believe you can achieve greater mental health awareness on campus? As I said I think counselling and all that is great but it doesn't work for everyone. It's not something that worked for me. I see counselling as a reaction to a problem that's occurred. As a preventative measure, clubs and societies and just having people around you, building up those support groups getting out there, just being involved in everything, activities if you've got something to do each evening, it's better than sitting in bed and worrying about your problems. My whole thing is about getting people out there, getting involved, fighting your friends, whether it's a core group of four or five or a massive group of a hundred but with a different society. So clubs and socks, that's me. For myself it would be student engagement once again as Kenneth says, clubs and socks but also for the president to be available at any hour of the day for someone that just needs to sit down and have a chat and that would be there for. I think the best way to promote mental health awareness is a mixture of good quality counselling service and as Kenneth says, student engagement in terms of clubs and societies. So in order to improve mental health awareness what I would promote is that clubs and societies for a period of maybe a week or a month would make it their business to promote mental health among their members. Thank you. How many of the 20 committees and working groups that the current SU President sits on, can you name? Not very many, because that's not so much to me. So as the SU Executive Education Academic Council, that's a tree, Aaron. Give me a plug. I'm not going to try and bluff it. I've sat on the committee with Aaron all this year and last year I've seen the work he does day in, day out. I think it's kind of a futile question to ask what committees are. You can put things into action once you're in the role but I don't think being able to list off things like that is going to define whether you're good for the job or not. That's it for now. I couldn't name all of them. I wouldn't even try. The point is that we take each one one step at a time and we tackle each problem one step at a time. Thanks. Generally, it doesn't matter what the name of these executive thingies are. I don't know. You're not on the Green Campus Initiative Committee, no? Okay, that was a guess. The answer is none. I would have thought the two most important ones were the university executive and the governing authority. If elected, what do you plan to do? Support the Irish language on campus and off campus? I feel like I'm repeating myself but a lot of facilities are there already. We have the Irish society so everything I want to do is try to get as many inter-society events as possible. See what the best kind of campaign ideas might be for a week during the year. Anything that's coming up, just try and get the oncoming group and that would be my thing for the year because they're already rather than setting up a separate group and trying to work things from the ground up. This is something that's already established. Well, good one. It sounds like there's a lot of things set up already for the Irish language. Why don't we do something like inter-versity debates in the Irish language so that different universities can take part? Something like that perhaps? What I would do is I would refine a suggestion that I heard from the Class Rep Council. It was suggested that a new cultural officer would be created whose role would be to promote both Irish and all types of culture on campus. What I would do is I would take that but I would reduce it to just promoting the Irish language and Irish culture. So yes, I would make sure that there was a full-time officer on campus to promote the Irish language and culture. We're getting there. Given the recent decision of the ECU students to re-affiliate the union of students in Ireland, outline your plans for the year ahead in this regard. We've been at USI for 13 years so first of all we don't know what it's like to be in that in the current day setting. A lot of the first few months are going to be just getting to terms and getting to know the functions and how USI works on a day-to-day or a week-to-week basis. The general structure is at USI but I'm going to ensure the ECU takes full advantage of the ECU training, Class Rep training, the discount cards, all things like that that they offer and we're getting our value for our money and making sure our voices are heard. As I said, the first of the while is just going to be getting to grips with the report. I think the ECU can play a solid role in the national union. The ECU student union is going to be paying thousands of euros to the USI each year. So one of my main things is I want to ensure that the ECU gets value for money from the USI. With that I doubt one of the most important parts of being part of the USI is the ability to more effectively campaign on a national level. So with this in mind I would use the membership of the USI to effectively campaign for marriage equality, nurses and defend the university campaign. Cheers. How will you make yourself more approachable to regular students? A lot of people feel like there's a click in the ECU and the sabbaticals aren't approachable, especially if you're in the engineering or science faculties. So we've four faculties and there's four weeks in a month so I'd like to just pick a faculty per week and just allocate a time during that week where there just be a simple stand out there for maybe tea and coffee and you're physically just there so people can see on a certain day Kenneth is standing there in that certain place and I'll just be available for people to chat. Other than that in the evenings from clubs or from matches or anything like that I think the job is a lot more outside the office. You need to be on a level with students and the students need to know that you're not kind of a corporate position but you're one of them and you're just working for them. As a lot of the students know, you'll find me in the Helix half eight every morning after lectures when I'm going in at five o'clock, six o'clock, you'll probably find me in the new bar. I'll either be working on an assignment or just mingling with students and that is how I hope to keep up with students ideas. The belief that the Students Union is a clique is not unique to DCU. You get this in every university. I don't always think it's fair. I think sometimes it just happens but the fact is while I've been active in DCU I was never actually a member of the Students Union so if you're looking for an outsider who was never part of the clique then that's me. We're nearly there. As an active DCU class rep I have noticed the disengagement of many students with student life outside of balls and the few actively involved clubs and societies. If elected how do you propose to tackle apathy that has grown in the last few years and increase engagement with the Students Union? There are so many ways you can get engaged that isn't just going to the bar and having a pint. The venue over there with the two screens it's giving students an option so it can be as simple as putting a poll up on Facebook and saying what movies do you want to watch and letting students decide or weekly things if they're popular at any given time. I'd like to get more lunchtime music gigs, comedy gigs even in bigger spaces like this if they're available like Zumba kind of lunchtime fitness things like you don't have to be a member of the gym to just go and take part for an hour and have something like that so again non-alcoholic events. Once again getting the class rep to let the students know what's going on also with the web page students will be able to find out what is actually going on in and around DCU so I think that is a very good way to get students more involved in what's happening in DCU and outside. I think apathy and the feeling of being left out develops when you're not interested in one of the more popular sports or clubs or societies so I don't think the problem is not being involved with the club or society the problem is that maybe they feel there's not enough small clubs and societies that they can relate to so if elected president I will set aside a week just for small clubs and societies so that some people who might feel a bit apathetic or left out can join these smaller societies closer to their needs. Okay, two more questions. Approximately 1400 students voted in the USI referendum with the referendum only passing by a single vote if there was a strong call for another referendum would you consider this even though it's not your job? If there was a strong call for another referendum we have a constitution here in DCU and there's certain regulations that go with this so if the demand comes and they follow the guidelines of the constitution then the students have a right to call or referendum on it so that would be my opinion. It's not in my power it would be whatever the students would decide. Yeah, basically as Kenneth said I can't add anything to that made our rules and our laws so if that's what the students want then that's what we'll give the students. Well I think membership of the USI is one of the best things to happen DCU and I fully supported it. That said I am aware that the referendum failed before and it's only passed by the skin of its teeth now so absolutely in the interest of democracy if there was a genuine, genuine desire to re-haul the referendum then I would support that. Last question, a horrible one to last. With the cutbacks faced by universities around the country and with a particular targeting of the humanities for cutbacks of courses if courses in DCU, Humanities School were to be cut which ones would you cut and which ones would you save? One minute. Communication soon as well as over the years I've taken more flack than probably friends who will be in real courses as they would call them I think communication is great. Some lectures are a lot better than others but I am fully capable to go out now and I'm confident that I can go and get any job I want and many people in my class are the same even though they might not be streamlined into a certain category. One thing I would, if I had to save something it would be multimedia because I think that's where the future is going and if I was to go back and do it again it would be multimedia. Even CCS say that they didn't get communications as their first choice and that's where they ended up and I'm not saying I could CCS but maybe you could find a blend there between those two there is a lot of crossover with it because they share lectures at the moment but if they're going to save one I'll leave it at that and it will be multimedia because that's where everything is going. Very difficult to cut to any course. A lot of candidates earlier on were talking about merging courses which might be the way forward in education and training a lot of our courses we have different classes where we only have one lecturer so that might be a way forward of having one lecturer although you have two or three different classes attending the same lecture that might be the way forward instead of actually having to cut to anything. Well I actually have a master's in the humanities course which hasn't helped me get a job but it was one of the most interesting things that I ever ever did so I can absolutely categorically say that I would not vote for any cuts to humanities. What might be an option is more modularization so that you would have your humanities but that there would be the option to take more business or maybe more media orientated modules that way then you can defend it a lot more based on its usefulness for the economy. Thank you. Are there any questions on the floor that aren't on questions? Going once. Going. I want to go to rock too. Okay I'd like to thank the candidates very much. I would like to thank everybody for their attention here at ECU of M and the college view as well for tweeting and updating as it's been going along. There will be an email sent out tonight in relation to the referendum which will be an information leaflet to inform people of the pros and cons of voting yes or whether why you can vote. And that's it. I'd like to thank you everybody for your time. It's been a privilege. Thank you very much to all the candidates who turned out today for taking their time. It's very important that you do so. Voting opens at 10am on Wednesday and closes at 5pm on Thursday Get out, get voting and bring your student ID card. Thank you.