 Good evening and welcome to the DCU TV Students' Union Election Debate 2015. I'm Sean Defoe and alongside my co-host Owen Sheehan, we'll be talking to the candidates running for President of DCU Students' Union as well as those running for Vice President of Welfare and Vice President of Education. We're going to start with the Welfare race where there are six candidates, Katie Dray, Mikey Fanaghan, Donal Harkin, Katie McGowey, Gillian McInerney and Keira O'Dwyer. Just some of the issues that the Welfare officer has to deal with are those like accommodation, STIs and of course mental health. The woman who was dealing with them this year was Eve Curtin and she spoke to Mark Kelly earlier. So the Student Union Welfare Officer role is quite a large role in that it encompasses kind of a little bit of everything. So you're there for students on all issues from mental health, sexual health, pregnancy, eating disorders when you're worried about your friend, worried about class work, problems with the lecturer. So myself and Gary would have quite a bit of a crossover so myself and the Education Officer. So it really is a vast role. There's lots involved including committees such as appeals committee, Students' Union Executive, governing authority and loads more. They're probably one of the most tedious parts of the job but it's also really interesting to see how the university actually works and where the money goes and how we actually have a say as well and we are respected by what we consider like our elders at DCU. Another part of the job is campaigns so I absolutely love that part of the job. So our like mental well-being week and shag week and diversity week. That's where your ideas come into play so that would be my favorite part of the job because you get to be creative, you get to try out new things. It's really really the exciting part of the job. The most difficult part of the job I'd say would be the case work so that is the student issues. So it is quite a difficult job in that it's people's like your people's lives really are kind of not at risk but they're in in your hand and it's up to you to make sure that they get the best advice possible from whether it's the student support and development, the counselling service, whether it's stuff to do with student assistant fund. So you just need to be informed a little about a lot. You don't need to be a genius. You don't need to have full information on sexual health. You just need to be able to point them in the right direction. So to be informed and be willing to learn is a big part of the job. So every day is different here. So in the morning I come in and I check my emails and there's generally maybe about five or six to-do student issues so whether they're having problems with money or they'd like to arrange a meeting regarding some issue that's affecting their mental health or relationship problems. Around 10 to 12 people come into my office every week with those issues so I try my best to help them. Some people come back in a couple of weeks time and let me know how they're getting on. But mostly about 80% of people just need someone to listen to, someone to offer them advice and it's just one's off and they're there to happy, you're happy and they go off about their business. So starting off the show tonight we'll be hearing from the welfare candidates. There are six of them and they're joining me in the studio now. Starting with you Katie, why are you running this year? Well I've decided to run for welfare officer this year because I've had the best last three years in my life have been the best three years. I've really grown as a person and I feel like I want to give something back to the university and to the student union. They've helped me so much over the last three years. I know that not every student is the same but I'd like to help replicate the experience that I've had in DCU with two other students and to make them feel like they belong as one big community in DCU. Okay Katie, thank you very much. Mikey, you're also running what? I'm running because the last three years I've had an unbelievable time and the fact that I've always had people coming up to me and asking what is my plan in the future and that got me thinking and that they kept on pressuring me to ask, are you going to run for anything in the student union? Are you going to run for welfare? So the fact is if people are already asking me why aren't you going to run for it, I took it on myself to say yeah I should be the right candidate and that's why I'm here today Also because I've got some really cool ideas and I also want to bring them concepts to every student in DCU and to make it a happy place. Okay thank you. Donal Harkin, you also think that you should be the one elected why? I'm very passionate about DCU's reputation. Since I was young I was in youth kindness as head boy and I'm also president of the Sponite Day Action panel. I'm just really passionate about giving young people advice. I've worked in so many issues like the young people today and I really think I can make a change and help improve the lives of DCU students. I just really love the chance to be given out. Okay the second Katie Ronning, then Katie McGowley, why should you be Vice President for Welfare? I'm not ready to leave DCU yet. I've had a fantastic three years here and I'm ready to give back. I know I can improve student life with students here and college is a different experience for everyone and it can affect people mentally, physically and sexually and it's a place to learn and I love college. Donal Harkin, you do love college as well and why are you running? I do love college. I love college quite a bit. I'm 25 and I've been in college since I left school. I have quite a bit of experience that I feel I can bring to the role of welfare. I have a huge amount of experience in casework. I'm trained youth and community worker so that's very much dealing one-on-one with people. I've been running campaigns all year as chairperson of LGBT and I sit on several committees some national so I feel that if I were to get the job I could hit the ground running and give the absolute most to the job. And then last but not least, Kiro Dwar. Yes, the main reason I'm running is since I started in DCU I had a lot of difficulties myself settling in in first year and the SU where the people who are there is a sport for me and I was always so grateful for that. I want to give back to not only the SU but be there as a pillar of support for all the students in DCU. I think having those difficult times in first year has made me grow so much more and learn so much more about other people and that's why I really want to give back and be there as a sport for them. One of the big issues that students have been having the last few years and indeed people in general especially in Dublin has been housing and the lack of accommodation for students and Kiro I'm going to start with you because you mentioned your manifesto you want to see an online portal for housing access or how would that work? Yeah that's right at the moment when you click into the accommodation link on the Student Union page it brings you into another page where there's just further links so I want to cut out them links and have it as just all the houses that are currently available that the landlords have said that they are fully available and willing to take on students so it cuts out all those extra links and it's just straight away these are the houses that are available to you. A lot about the cost for students because I mean it's something that even the government hasn't been able to fix as there are people coming home this every single week and how can you help as a welfare candidate for that? That's no that's very true and a lot of people have come to me saying the accommodation is rising every single year is there anything you think you'll be able to do? Realistically I think it will be very difficult but it's definitely something I'm looking into and I'm currently looking into a way to few landlords around the area to see if there's a possibility of at least bringing the housing prices down. I don't believe the student accommodation would be as easy to do but definitely with the housing I think there's more of a chance there. Don't know if that's something you think will be done? I think so like I think you know the private accommodations like I live in Shnoen for example myself they're getting very expensive and that's something to be very hard to tackle but I think you know I was curious about housing you know and a lot of house around here a lot of people are looking to get students and you know they make money from whatever I think if they knew they get students on a regular basis and was affordable for students need to live there continuously I think that's something you could definitely look into. Right would you agree Katie? Yeah I think it is a very difficult thing to bring in for DC students and especially with housing prices I commute so I don't have as much of a like I don't have to deal with it but I know my friends and stuff they do find it like it's very expensive to live in DC or around DC. I think if you were to work with landlords around the area and they knew like Donald said that there was a continuous amount of students coming in and that they they would look after the houses and that they would be there that that would make them want to take on students more. Of course it's so to argue with the saying you haven't lived outside of home you haven't had to look at so how are we going to understand that the issue with students who have? So I definitely if I was to become welfare officer I'd have to definitely look into it a lot more and work with students who are living in student accommodation and who have who have problems paying for it obviously it's like I have the luxury of living at home so I don't have to pay rent and that's something that like a lot of students have and it's very hard to deal with and the money is an issue and we would have to look at it and maybe as the university try and help with it because there is obviously issues and it shouldn't be an issue just because you're from the country that you can't come to university. Money was of course a big issue for for students at the moment and so is healthy eating it's something that a number of you talked about at Hastings and Katie you wanted to introduce and if you were elected healthy eating on a budget so something that will be valid to students tell us a bit about that. I'm a fan of workshops true out first semester in particular especially for freshers starting in orientation week and teaching them where to shop around the area of DCU and how to cook how to eat on a budget. Is that something that kind of Eve has done quite a lot this year particularly where you can order your veg and get it in so how would you build on that? Well it's more independent for students to learn themselves rather than dependent on Eve. Okay Mikey and something else you're also very passionate about. I think that on my manifesto is the idea is to have vending machines so I got the idea from what I was walking to the Isle Center one day and in one of the kind of the bars they have burger vending machines so they keep them hot so I kind of talking myself if I was run for a position and from one of the welfare I think to have fruit vending machines will be something that could work they're efficient and it'll prove healthy if you're a vending machine with kick hats and there's apples and bananas surely there are people who are going to go oh I can go for them instead of having to walk to the shop if there's one in each building engineering science instead of what I have to walk to the shop they can just walk down the stairs have a banana have a water have a time it can go back and study. Is that also that's quite expensive though because the reason fruit isn't in vending machines is because it goes off it's not a kick hat. Well if it's work but a good campaign a solid team around it if everyone gets on board it there is no reason that it couldn't it shouldn't fail. What kind of a team is going to stop fruit going off how would they do that? Well not a team but if there are people who are marketing it right because it is healthy eating at the end of the day and that's what we're trying to bring into DCU it already is here with the fruit and veg with but there is there is a plan there and it should should carry through. Right so we'll be part of a bigger campaign rather than just a small campaign. Well no I mean if it started off in September and we can obviously do it on a trial basis first see how it goes and I'm pretty sure it will be a good success and it could not only just be DCU but this could go all around the universities all around schools because it's such a big deal in secondary schools within the healthy eating and if we can get if we can start off we could be the top we could DCU could be the person that the college that starts with fruit vending machines so this could go all around Ireland. Okay the big issue that I think the best you would have with that is the cost of it and how would you deal with that on a cost effective basis where you're not going to have a massive amount of money maybe to spend on vending machines or on a big campaign for example. Yeah well my manifesto and myself I'm all about little things and an idea that was was brought up in one of the questions that's given at Hostings the other day was that we can we started conversation with the restaurant managers and at the tills instead of having muffins and chocolate we could have fruit which is something that they offer already it's just about product placement it's moving things I know myself when I go in I will grab some fruit if I see it but if there's a huge cure around the salad bar I'm not going to try and jostle through people to get my banana if it's by the cut if it's by the tills I will absolutely pick it up and something for healthy eating for students living in accommodation and living away from home would be chat to your mates I have a friend who regularly buys a big bag of potatoes with a friend at first they put their money together they get more for their money's worth and they take turns cooking and things like that which will work very well if you have friends if you're living with friends and that kind of things that those would be my kind of ideas that I will bring to the table. Right well what if a restaurant manager then came to you and said well Kit Kats might as far as they sales apples and bananas aren't sexy they're not going to sell they're not going to make me like. I think it's in there it I think it's in their interest to help students out I know the manager of the main restaurant and he is a very very open guy and really really open to lots of different suggestions and things like that I think we can see a wide variety of things in the canteen already there's from the different sections where you can buy hot food to the salad bar to paninis and rolls and all that kind of thing I think it's just about moving it slightly moving it around and I think it's something that could be negotiated. Something that's on your campaign for the study is to promote it better and safer sex how are you going to sex better for students? It's a bit opening this conversation shag week since I arrived here has all has been completely about STIs and condoms and I know about that stuff and I know the majority of students know about that stuff it's not just saying this is what an STI looks like and here's how to prevent it it's also about opening with that conversation around consent when communicating what you want and about talking about what exactly you want from sex talking about it openly and honestly and having that conversation with students because I think it's still a very taboo thing people do laugh and do giggle about it but it's a very serious thing at the end of the day. Do you agree though to be just talk more about sex? I think yes what Jillian said is definitely correct I think though they should be a serious focus on STIs I think you know a lot of cases STIs you know they don't appear straight away and then your case of people are really sick because they don't know months later so that's why I want to bring in free STI tests in every few months I think it's something that's really really important I think you know it's something we can't overlook and I think you know it's just so important for students like in the fun and has people there like I think other things pale in comparison to how important that issue really is. Okay finally we're running out of time in this debate and we're going to all of you and in one word what is the most important issue you would face as the welfare candidate we'll start at the first of the table here one word what's the most important. Definitely mental health. Mental health Jillian. Small things. Mental health. Dr's fees. Mental health. Mental health. Okay thank you to the welfare candidates Katie Dray and Mikey Fanaghan, Donald Harkin, Katie Mugowe, Jillian McInerney and Keira O'Dwyer that's it for the welfare race. We head over to Owen now. Thanks Sean. Yes the SU position for vice president of education is one that always throws up a number of questions for our candidates. Should we be electing somebody who through their involvement with the student's union exec can directly impact on our student life or should we be electing somebody who can collaborate with our academic staff the person who's been dealing with questions like this all year is our current vice president for education Gary Gillick. The education officer is basically the student representative well on the executive that does exactly what it says in the team we deal I deal with anything that's to do with education. In other colleges they call it the vice president of academic affairs and quality assurance and that sort of defines the role more so but basically it's just anything that's to do with education or educational policy. Did-it-it task is it's a hard thing to answer because every single day is completely different like so I mean obviously it's going to change as well around exam time you're going to have a lot of things about exam results so different things falling about like compensation appeals postponement of assessments all those sort of things. Other days then you could be working on quality assurance which is essentially student feedback to improve the student experience in the university. Just every single day is going to be something completely different and then you're dealing with general student queries as well like transfer queries sometimes it leads into finances sometimes it leads into registration anything that's going to be related back to your academics. In an education officer I mean the same thing you'd look for in any sort of sabbatical in that they need to be organized for the education one in particular because they sit on the most committees so you have to be organized which you know square root of reading all the sort of paper before you go in no one are going to start answering things not that your question but do you know you have to really really organize in that you have to be sort of confident as well when you're sitting in these sort of committee meetings with these new people and lecturers so you have to be well able to just be there speak your voice as well as that then you'd have to be organized confident what else did I say you don't have to be organized confident you have to be willing to engage that's it with sort of students and any sort of projects you're taking on like students are going to be coming into you every single day and you have to be extremely approachable I know that they're generic terms for every single sabbatical but it's it's really is true of this one for different reasons. You're very welcome along to the DCUTV live debate for the SU position of vice president for education the four candidates going for the position this year are Jake Ryan, James Donahue, Jack Butterley and Eir LeCarty. We'll begin with each candidate giving themselves 30 seconds to tell us why they are running for this position. We'll begin with Jake Ryan. I'm running for this position because I love DCU I've had the best possible experience I could hope for and I want every student to have an experience like that that's why I'm running because it's all about your experience that's what my campaign is about. Hi I'm running this year I serve as a current business convener this year and I believe I have the right ideas to take the union forward in and achieve achievable goals that'll improve the education experience as well as student life here on campus. How are you going? I'm James Donahue. I love DCU I love waking up in the morning and it's it's brilliant crack but at the same time from my experiences here I've learned that working with people is the way I want to go and I'd love to have the chance to work with people through this role as education officer. Yeah I'm Eir LeCarty to be honest you know my years in DCU have been amazing I've learned a lot throughout the years I am actually a repeat student and I want to use my experience and what I've learned throughout my years to help other students and give gave them information so they can succeed and just be there for the students be there for support. Okay so we'll begin by going through a couple of your manifestos and obviously you've had the opportunity to chat at hostings and be asked a couple of questions yesterday but we'll begin with yourself James because as part of education officer obviously a critical part of anybody's education is their exams and one of the very interesting points on your manifesto is regarding the Christmas exams any plan on making them a little less stressful for students and how do you plan on doing this? Yeah obviously being someone who gets stressed and I've had a couple of bad experiences with Red Bull to be honest with you I think that we get study skills provided but they're not exactly catered towards that six-week break which we have so maybe study skills specific to the DCU break and specific to college exams because a lot of people in my course anyway don't actually know how to study for college exams because it's different to some people are still thinking how any SRP's you need and stuff like that but then on top of that I want to work with the welfare officer to run events to promote better mental health during exams and healthy breakfast mornings and stuff like that just so it's a little less stressed and a little more just we're prepared for this we're going to go through and we'll be going the other side. Jack your student who would have had a full complement of January exams this year it's been something that I guess in the conversation of the regular DCU student is often referred to as unfair that people are studying during their Christmas breaks has this ever entered your mind at all over the past couple of weeks that perhaps DCU could look to change the date of the exams and push them before Christmas? It all comes down to real preference really I know some students would have been delighted at the same time to have the Christmas period to study and I do know others who feel that the Christmas period was kind of interrupted and ruined by it it really comes down to personal preference there surely if there's demand of course to get it changed those are things that can be explored but at the same time that's all just speculation right now genuinely like I'm my own opinion I have my own opinion but I'm sure everyone has their own opinions too on which would be a better structure I had six exams there in January it was an awful lot of work on top of my commitments outside of the lecture hall so I do know I do know the I do know how tough exams can be but it's the main thing is just making sure that you're well prepared for them and making sure that the office is a good support system for anyone who has exams as well as anyone who you know somewhere you can go if exams aren't going too well or anywhere like that and something obviously during that study period is the whole issue of study spaces which is something that you mentioned yesterday Eerle and indeed in your manifesto you said that you want to I'll actually really ought to quote from your manifesto just for the audience you said the lack of computers laptops power points by power points I presume you mean projectors and private student rooms in the library and around campus has always been an issue and I want to combat this once and for all however your solution is that students can simply book a Henry Gratton classroom how does that challenge the like once and for all the lack of computers laptops and projectors yeah well just say when I'm the power points as in plug sockets and that that's what I meant by that okay um oh sorry I think there is a lack of power points where you can plug in your laptop and that charge them because you don't want a dead battery going to do an assignment um to what I was suggesting as in like if you could go and book a classroom which you can actually but there isn't enough awareness which I believe um you go into a classroom you can spend you can spend your day there with a group work or something not necessarily doing uh using a laptop or something but you have that study space and uh just making more friendly uh just so you when you're in college for a long day you don't want to be drained around so you can go around the classrooms need to be more welcoming more uh chilled out sure because obviously those rooms are available to societies at the moments but not to just people who want to do study but again the lack of computers laptops power points that how are you going to do that booking your room doesn't just provide you with a computer or a laptop yeah obviously that's the point um hopefully we could uh get on get on work with the president uh we can provide more laptops and computers and get them into the college through iss is it yeah hopefully okay um we'll we leave that there because I want to move on to class rep meetings because that was obviously something that in the old bar yesterday was talked about at length uh Jake do you have much experience in CRC when it comes to like monitoring to the the attendance of class reps and stuff like that no I've never actually been in CRC myself but um I think that the system works really well at the moment I think that it the problem is with a democracy anyone can get elected and the thing is it might not always be the right person for the job but generally class reps wanted for the right reasons and I think the system works well I haven't actually been in it but I have knowledge in how it works and also if I were to be elected I'd get the full training over the summer okay uh so you'd be bringing in students to DC over to summer like training for class reps over the summer is it no no I think that the training is fine I just think that obviously sometimes some class reps are less engaged so that's why maybe the convener's role needs to be increased maybe office hours and before nightly office hours where you have one hour where you can go to the convener if your class rep is a bit disengaged or not go on to your issues that you've somewhere else you can go to your convener is here Jack what do you agree with that um basically I do believe the class rep system is working incredibly well we have over 300 class reps this year the best thing to do really about the class reps is to obviously the training Gary has provided this year has been incredibly beneficial I've seen the results it's such a big difference from last year to this year just the amount of engagement and you know you know debate going on in class rep council every fortnight the big thing I would like to push for is to make sure class reps effectively the SU campaigns you know everything from mental health week to shag week they kind of can be seemed a bit limited to the hub base but there's no reason with such a great you know vast amount of class reps that they can't be actually featured in every building of each faculty the four faculties should be well represented in that case you know there should be class reps out there like the big thing I would be pushing for is for the conveners to be responsible for bringing those campaigns to their individual buildings so like with the class reps actually carry that out in the building yes of course it's not exactly part of their remit to carry forth the SU policies there it's more to be like the conduit of information between yourselves and the con in the exec and their class themselves is not of course but the best thing to do is a lot of class reps they're always looking for experience to get involved and like the SU policies and the SU campaigns it's something you do you're interested in it as a point to that as well as that though the class reps would be responsible for applying information basically I've been encouraging all my class reps this year to just be doing like little bullet points from you know like from CRC just like okay so we talked about you know possible repeat fee rises you know let your class know that we you know put emotion against this you know to start to debate about changing that little things like that just keeping the spread of information that's the main thing about class reps they're the feet on the ground and to make people to make sure that anything that does happen an exec convener and obviously a class of counsel that the general student body is informed in each class and that's the best way to keep pushing it okay uh you mentioned that you want to improve the social side of CRC there were weekends away organized this year would you continue to do them again next year and more yeah I think that is very important because um from my experience especially working with class reps that sometimes it does feel hard to engage because maybe don't want to be bothered because they do have their own college work to be doing as well but if they get trained in more social informal aspect then they can be more approachable and that's what I want to make TCU a nice friendly environment where people just be friends and interact better that's good that actually brings me nicely onto my next point which is about the su being approachable it's something that comes up every single year in these debates and James you said exactly that you want to make the su more approachable and nearly you've spoken about this as well you said you want an su for everyone so we'll start with you I guess we'll get you in just a second James but earlier you said you're going to make the su a union for all let's not forget it's 15,000 students next year across two campuses how are you going to do this just to give more information because from my time in DCU maybe first second year to be honest I don't think I even knew what su stood for okay and a lot of students from talking to students the last week the last student campaign a lot of students don't even know the su was there and they feel dawned and I dawned it going up into the su because they don't really know people up there or they don't know a friend up there might have them out but I want to give information there so people know that they can come up and they can approach us so how is this information going to be given out true I'm not sure yet hope you work with the weather for officers or work with the president su because every first year student obviously gets a flyer about the su every every year they get emails constantly about it so do you feel that's not good enough at the moment well it kind of goes to show that it's not good enough at the moment because a lot of people are they don't have the knowledge of it so I'm going to work on that I'm going to take what is implemented now and work on that and improve it and I will I would like to constantly get feedback from the students so they can they can tell me what's happening or they can tell whoever is elected what's happening and how they feel on the situation jens why isn't the su's approachability up to your standards I assume it's not up to your standards because you said you wanted to make it more approachable um yeah well in fairness everyone up in the su is very approachable I got to know him very well this year and that's that's a brilliant thing and I think talking to all the lads run this year everyone's very approachable as well but sometimes it can be a little daunting and some people just they don't they don't even think of going up to a friend of mine actually went up looking for condoms on there but he went to the careers office as well so like stuff like that it's just known where it is and I said maybe a few simple things to maybe get an extra couple of groups up there like I said healthy breakfast mornings and I want to include other faculties more I want to put TVs like the ones in the library in the science building so there is su notices and there's careers notice as well just small little things to make people feel more included obviously I've been kind of with the GA club myself now and I've been in events for rag and uh cancer stock two brilliant societies so I'd like to branch out and maybe go to a different society night as well to get to know more people as well and get more involved in things but the su the exec and fairness have been very involved with those they have in fairness and just a few simple things like the healthy breakfast morn's and stuff I'm not saying I'm going to change the world and everyone's going to be up in my office every day of the week but just a few simple things try to be as approachable as I can because in fairness if it wasn't for this year's su and getting to know him I probably wouldn't be sitting here going for this so I'd like everyone else to feel the same that they can go up to the su and have a chat Jack you're on the exec this year um if people attack you and say we need to make a more approachable what's your response um I wouldn't I genuinely do think the su is incredibly approachable they have a great relationship clubs societies they have a great relationship with general students and a great relationship with staff as well and we're very very lucky at this university and the big thing though is about making the su more approachable is what I said earlier on to making sure class reps are well trained making sure class reps are well equipped on the ground level in each of their individual classes make sure that every bit of information that's coming out of the exec and class of council is being passed on making sure that L campaigns people feel included people feel engaged with them people just feel like this su is for everyone because it is it is working towards everyone and with even just building on the improvements we've made this year it genuinely can be for everyone and everyone can feel included Jack I want to bring you up really quickly on something you said in hostings yesterday and it's a very interesting point about the Irish accommodation setup explain more to me exactly what's this going to involve them where is it going to be well this actually was brought to me from a DC coming away like because I have very limited knowledge in that area to be honest I've always had an appreciation for it because it's been a thing in my family but I've just never really got a grasp for it but um yeah so an Irish language accommodation because there's been a lot of talk and steps taken when it comes to the Irish language and there's events and there's Kalees and things and that's great and it's great especially for international students but for students here in Ireland who want to speak the language the best way to do it is to have Irish language speak in accommodation because it's a big step and it shows that DC is making a huge effort to do so other colleges have it and it's about time DC you had it where is it going to be well I think really what could happen is you could have some of Hampstead or you could have some of College Park changed over to Irish how many rooms um well maybe a floor even okay so because I don't speak Irish I've suddenly got less of a chance to get into on-campus accommodation yeah well it's the same as if you don't get over 500 you've left it's 550 points from this year okay but yeah I still don't think that's fair and there's no reason why I to live in Gateway because I got 450 yeah and that was an awful long way away every day and so I don't think that's a fair system either and I think there's things like that wrong with accommodation accommodation needs to be changed but I think back to the Irish language I think that you could do a whole floor because there's no reason my Irish language speaking students shouldn't have a whole floor okay um I want to finish up with this um I think we'll stick on this point because it is something that's been very very I suppose much talked about yesterday especially and the year that you were I was put to you as well I think a couple of times about the Irish language how important would would this accommodation be if it was being introduced yeah that would uh it would be very important it brings a new aspect of college life um there is a lot of people out there who speaks Irish and it is a prominent feature in today's society and really what's happening is with the shot in the gate and the different social events that's happening they are good but uh look at everything can be improved and we just have to listen to the people and give them what they want and support them no matter what they want and if I was to be elected then I would definitely work closely with the welfare officer to provide the information that students need around what they can do to promote Irish language and to really increase social events through Irish because I think within the university it's not all that academically you learn so much socially that you can bring throughout your whole life and with these social events and especially with Irish we can make it happen look okay ear like hearty James Donahue Jack Butler Lee and Jake Ryan thank you very much for joining us in studio here today that's where we leave the debate for the vice president for education role now it's over to you Sean thanks Owen we turn now to the presidential race the president of the student union represents DCU students on a national level the man who held that role this year was Kenneth Brown and Mark Kelly spoke to him earlier student union president is the chief representative for every student in DCU so we've over 12 000 students here and we've elections every march obviously we're in the middle of them right now that's what you're doing this for but anyone can run for us and there's no restrictions from first to final year and obviously the longer you've been here the more of a of a grounding or a base you're going to build up so first years first years don't really run for that much and but essentially you're the chief representative you're the chief spokesperson I need the big issues all the responsibility will fall on your shoulders but there's a lot of fun with it as well yeah the job entails so the the number one thing would it will be representation and I would sit on I think close to 20 different committees across the university which is very mental and now they're not all they're not all weekly things some of them could be four nightly some maybe once a month or once every six weeks but you're we we've a really good working relationship here with the university and so Dave we have seats on everything we've we've a student's voice and everything and myself Gary and Eve share those out but I would I would sit on a lot of them and your main thing would be the the main voice of students here on campus and aside with that we look after the budget so I'd be I'd be responsible for those that have to sign off on anything that goes any events anything that's going ahead basically different departments or different places might be running here we might be planning it ourselves but if it's coming out of the student's union and pocket I'd have to approve those things as well and now I think the main thing and it's kind of the buzzword around elections every year is just someone who's approachable but I think you you can never really go past that if you if you have someone who's a president but you don't feel comfortable talking to them then are they really much used to you so I think someone who's just really friendly really in touch with the students there's someone you can see walking around and they're no different to you because you might have been in class and you might have elected them but someone that everyone feels comfortable talking to but also someone I think who's very very good at building working relationships and here and do like we know we know everyone across the different unions in the country and I think we we easily say maybe we're maybe we're boasting but we've one of the best work in relationships with the university so I think you know being to be able to positively work with staff and we're all striving for a better better experience here for students in DCU so someone who probably isn't as isn't as you know headstronger looking to go in and fight the power but just so work with them welcome back to the DCU TV students union election debate I'm joined now in the studio by the candidates for the president's race there are four people running however only three are here tonight Timmy Crowe is absent as he's representing Ireland in athletics in Prague this week however you can check out his manifesto at Timmy for prayers on Facebook or on his website 11student.com and so joined by the three candidates who are here that's Sean Cassidy Terry Keegan and Kim Sweeney guys I'll start by asking you why do you feel Terry we'll start with you that you should be elected SU president basically I committed to college three years ago and I got heavily involved I set up the DCU boxing club got heavily involved in the club life committee this year I sit on the office of student life I'm also on the new bar committee in the hub development committee so from that I've been heavily involved with a lot of people setting up things helping people with the club life committee setting up butter clubs so basically I just think that I'm a pretty good people person and I think I'd bring a good sort of maturity to the role because I'm a mature student myself okay Sean Cassidy why should people go for you I suppose because I represent something different year on year we see the same election and more often than not it's a popularity contest and we don't see enough about policy and about political implications of what the candidates represent I'm running on simple policies things that are very achievable but I also represent activism I've been an activist within the union for two to four years depending on your point of view and again through my policies put forward a council that made a long-term change so again if you look at the temporary form that students can access if they've lost their student card during the exam that's something that I proposed last year and that's benefits students as of this year so it's these type of areas where you know you look across the university you see fines you see things not getting done you see students not being properly represented and I think you know part of it is that students aren't informed about you know what type of representatives they deserve and when you give them the information I've been talking to a lot of students this week and when you give them the information you can really see their eyes explode so when you talk about you know the the amount of net profit like the campus rise is making you know you literally just see their eyes pop and you know that's really what I'm running on I'm trying to engage students trying to inform them and try to show them that I'm the best candidate okay and Kim Sweeney why are you running for president? Well I spent four years representing my class and my faculty and I think there's time now that I can represent as a whole student body and I've been highly I've been really involved I really enjoyed my four years here but I think that I need another year to give back to DCU because I appreciate everything it's done for me and I don't want to approachable I'm hardworking everyone that knows me knows that I give 100% to everything that I do and I really want to take on the challenge of being president. You mentioned the entire student body there the current SU president Kenneth Brown said the hardest thing he found about this year was that you never will never please everybody that no matter how good you do how many things you bring in there's always going to be someone in your ear complaining about something else how how would you deal with that do you think that would get to you? No because like because I have been representing for example the science ball I was organizing this year I was trying to get the all of the nurses could get involved but because some of them are in placement and not all of them could come but I made I did a survey to see which states would suit most of them so I think just trying to get most of the student body and you're never going to please everyone I think that if you try to please most of them and the highest percentage then that's the best way to go about it. Is that something you agree with Sean? To a certain extent you know the reality is that you have you know 12 to 13 thousand students coming from various different backgrounds various different demographics you have post grads under grads and the reality is that everyone has different type of issues you know it's not that you're going to please everyone it's that you want to represent them on their specific issues so again for post grads post grads I've mentioned this before the need for a GSU is long overdue other unions have it we don't and you know the question has to be asked why even though we've discussed this for two years when you look at undergrad issues look at nurses for example you know they're still not paid the minimum wage but is that something you can influence as yes I'm looking at it I'm looking at it and I'm looking you know you actually have to that that's national that's a national that's where you have to build solidarity with other unions like UCD like Trinity like NUIG and like UCC where nurses are and try and build movement so like for example you know I believe that there's power in a union and if you look at yesterday the INMO supported by the USI I think it's the PSA might be wrong that's the site nurses union they got together over the last couple of months to try and fight against what had happened with the nurses board around they introduced 50 percent increase a 50 euro increase on the annual retention which all nurses have to pay and as of yesterday that was deferred so unions do work when you get together when you put some effort in when you're strategic when you lobby properly you do make change like I'm looking at the nurses minimum wage campaign and the difference between paying them minimum wage what they paid now and actually paying them just minimum wage which they should be paid more but again we're gonna we're gonna be trying to be realistic is three million a year three million a year and at the grand scale of the health budget that's not a lot to show our nurses that you know we value them and also that you know they get equal pay for equal work well in a health project that people are coming back it can actually be quite a lot of money and it is something that type of lobbying something that takes a lot of time Terry do you think that in especially because it's only a one-year reign that there's a lot that you could do while trying to battle the red tape of a position like the president yeah I'm sure like there is a there's a lot that can be done I don't know if I'd 100 degree and thinking that the DCU president would be a kind of political entity entirely I think that you're kind of there more to facilitate and run events sit and do sit on committees you know we're running as a non-voting exec and you're hope you're there to be the chair of committees and try and make change through what the student body wants you know I've been sitting on the CLC for the last two years chair this year we had to make changes to policy that people didn't particularly like you know we brought in the pay for coaching to be you know done through paying through the books and stuff like that and through tax and it's not been overly popular by a lot of clubs but they had to take it and you know for for change and for things to move forward you have to do that so you know I think that would be the way I'd be running it you know because obviously a lot of posters and things around campus this week probably the most noticeable this the banner that you've erected in the hobbit how much did that cost 50 euro 50 how'd you get such a deal on that that's a very fine jaunty o'neill there's a little club from there he's a graphic designer and he does this for a living so he pretty much just said he was gonna he was going to do for free but I know that that's not in the spirit of the campaign so it's not in the rules I said yeah it's not in the rules but also it's not it's not in the spirit either yeah if you get in contact with jaunty will he give me a banner 50 euro probably not no so that's a problem how do you feel about him that he's getting an advantage because of the contacts he has um I think life's all about contacts really to be honest and that's how you get anything really around like you know you can use your contacts and I if I had someone I'd love them to help me that way as well is the presence of the same it's all but pretty much a popularity race no I don't think that either like you could be popular but you could be popular for like the wrong reasons you know what I mean like so such as and you could be just part of a society that and you're the chair of it and you're known through that um whereas I think that you need to be a nice person and approachable as well as um just being popular you know like things like that um I would consider myself like quite popular all across ECU but that's for different reasons because I've got involved between my faculty and different societies and stuff like that you know so that's how I feel about it right okay um Sean Casting I'd like to point that you brought up at CRC last week and that was with regard to the wages for the sabbatical positions you think that the sabbatical should be paid more I think the education officer and welfare officer should be and it's quite simple and actually you're going to have a situation where was that mentioned though we didn't actually it was I made it particularly clear three times I didn't I again sorry you didn't hear but I did say three times just to clarify yeah no I want them increased because and just clarify where you want the education and welfare but not present not present again it would be untoward if I was to get asked for an increase well run it'd be absolutely untoward and I made this clear to all sabbatical when I talked to them a month or two beforehand about this the reason why I want to discuss this because the reality is that your education officer and welfare officer are the only people in the union have a peer to peer role they have to sit down with students and next year you're going to have a situation where you have to represent the students on St. Pat's who are in St. Pat's Dramkondra although they are DCU students so you're going to have to get under so they're only allowed to work 40 hours work paid 40 hours a week how are they going to be able to do that if someone else is going to have more sabbatical positions no that's in two years time that's in two years time so would the wage come down then do you not feel that the president sits down and has a one-on-one he doesn't but no I'm sorry but like if you look at the constitution where these roles are outlined not you know something out of the air where the roles are outlined education peer-to-peer welfare peer-to-peer president chief representative simple as no I don't agree with that because I think that the president obviously when for example a chair on a society they obviously chair the meetings do all that but that doesn't mean that like sometimes the chair can get away with not doing anything because I think the president needs to be working equally as hard and if not harder so I don't know why you would increase the wages of the welfare and the education officer and not increase the president I I'm very happy to go with the wage that it has at the moment but I don't know why you would because he'd be like technically the president would be sitting on a lot more committees working equally if not more like harder so I think I think as is I think that it's a pretty it's pretty good rate for it's pretty much in line with a lot of unions and I think that it's all three positions are pretty much shared an equal responsibility I don't think that it should be separate so a certain one could get more than the other I think it could also be seen as a sort of a way of kind of getting votes to kind of make them out of yourself about a week before two weeks before elections there do you think that's what Sean's doing well I'm not saying that but I'm saying that's what I kind of look can you explain that concept to me well just if you're if you're saying you don't want the presidency to get more because you're running for it and you're looking for the other one because it'll be on to work and again the motivation for having this discussion is because you know we should have discussions that are difficult first of all but second of all your education officer and welfare officer gonna have a difficult board for the next year now do you want them to be paid adequately or not like they are paid under their contract 40 years with they cannot work more but they do so they're going to have to go down so it's the president no he doesn't because again there's this thing where the president is a political representative and you have the rest of the executive you can delegate responsibility that's one of the biggest problems in this year that doesn't I'm sorry just you I didn't know you please don't look me um yeah the president has a chair of the executive he can delegate responsibility the largest problem in this union is that the power is top heavy I remember when I sat as chair of uh chair of council they wouldn't even let us email access to the website to the union union website because they felt that it was their their website not the union's website this was the president at the time and it's this culture of power has to be vested in just one or two or three people we have executive that's 10 11 people we have two to 300 class reps why don't we defer why don't we uh delegate responsibility empower students but that's something that's been done in two years time with the increase sabbaticals like I mean would you would you think that they would be fair to increase the wage for next year and then take a back down when there are those more sabbaticals I have absolutely no problem with that and also it's not just it wasn't just wages sabbatical pay so in a number of unions you have your you're normally in around paid the same same level but again if you look at training they get for their training spot okay they get free accommodation so again it's about having a little bit of a go on their own no no there isn't there's a number of other colleges where they have sabbaticals so I think u l's paid a euro every year they have looked into accommodation for this I've never heard this there is no documents online say student the student union has looked into that's another problem that student union executive has these conversations between themselves and not with the student body but you want you want you say that you want to make it clear and have the conversation with the student body but in your manifesto you talk about union committees and you want to start two new committees and the events and uh events and entertainment committee and a usi dcu relations committee is that not just going to crowd things up more with more committees and more guys this this this is two parts this is about delegating with regards to the usi committee you have your usi annual budget so your membership fees are paid individually we also have a 30k budget that funds your officers going to national council and your students going to national congress and things like pink train so again you need corner I don't know how much you're spending where they're spending if you look at usi officer board every officer every officer has to give an uh an expense as a count to national council they're the equivalent of their class rep council so do you know where the money is going I don't know where the money is going I'd like to know where it's going that's the first thing the second thing about the events form I look around events like there's this concept that you know like the union is about events I'm sorry we we employ an events coordinator for a reason he's quite good at his job the only thing the president sabbaticals and the executive is they inform events they shape events they don't ring up let's say the dark and say can you come up that's what prevents coordinator you inform and shape events and that's about it so from my point of view you know I look around I see let's look at the likes of we're we had in the the hub there today A&F had a had a ball and the queue was out the door like why can't we get them coming in on site and ask them how do you do this let's let's learn from them let's get societies involved in a very real way I had a I put my science ball tickets on sale and they've sold I sold them all out in 45 minutes that's why it like that's why I'm is this is a spring break ball sold you and all the tickets sold but like the students union puts on these balls that's what like I want to reform the balls next year like that's one of my things as well but that's what I have there where you bring in people from outside who have competencies in these issues and how are you going to be paid they were again it depends like you it's like I think so that's putting more money into something else that could be going towards the events of getting these data right no no no I'm sorry I'm sorry it's not putting money in there you're getting people in societies asking them come on board and help the union and why would the people in the society are massively busy any any big society is especially in the second semester absolutely swamp so why are they going to give their time towards something like that it's like with the media crew what incentive is like I'm sorry how many classes are involved in how many class reps there are a number of class reps who are all who hold positions in society as well it this this is something to find out see where societies are if they want union I always hear you you want the better events you have to actually put some skin in the game you want better events you can't just snipe from the from the side for the summer ball Ken has organized a group of people to get together and to ask them questions on it he was a co-teacher I guess you were here what's your view of even happening about club life yeah I sat on focus groups recently looking into what students want for balls and stuff like that there's big events created by AF and stuff like that that's fine they've got a huge base they've got a huge following and people who sign up to them will go to these things because this is pretty much the biggest event of the year and that's what they do in terms of I think just setting up events it's good that the spring break is on you know people choose not to go that's their own fault I think it's going to be a really good event and getting in acts like the darkness and stuff like that I think James Nils is doing a great job getting them in and SU promoting it all they can do is promote it they can promote it through their Facebook page and everything else and these don't need more people involved from outside like the committee or I think it'd be good if you could get societies involved if you could get clubs involved in these things myself I run I've ran big events at boxing events and I've tried my best to get clubs and societies involved as much as possible and you can only ask them so much it's it's unpaid it's voluntary and it's only people who want to do things for themselves like so you can ask them but I think you need the likes of an events coordinator like Shay that can bring in these big acts and get them in if people choose not to go that isn't you know he has to try and as best in the SU have to try and promote it unfortunately we're running out of time in the debate tonight so I finally just want to go through the panel and in one sentence what the biggest issue for you is if you were elected president and why people should vote for you based on us can we start with you and what's your biggest the what do you think the biggest issue for the president DC will be next year and well I think the merger with matter-day and St. Pat's is a big thing and then the hope development plan so I don't work on them too I think it's three issues it's the merger it's the whole being knocked and rebuilt and it's the general election if you want to make any change that's where it is and and Terry yeah I just agree with exactly what they said that the whole development which I've been on the committee and the merger is obviously two biggest issues I think that the president's gonna have to face yeah that's about all we've got time for in the president's debate tonight thank you to Sean Cassidy Kim Sweeney and Terry Keegan for joining us in studio there is of course a fourth person running for SU president this year that's Timmy Crowe we couldn't make it tonight because he's representing Ireland in athletics in Prague this week but if you want to check out his manifesto and find out what he stands for you could do so on Facebook at Timmy for Prez or on his website one one student dot com that's all we've got time for in the DCU TV students union elections for this year thanks a million to the production team to my co-presenter Owen Sheehan and to you for tuning in thank you