 I'm here at USI Congress 2017 where motions have been passed, constitutional amendments have been made and a new officer board has been elected. There were eight of these new officers elected to the board after a morning of hustings took place in Ennis. DCU's Sean Cassidy was beaten by Amy Kelly for the VP of campaigns. Cassidy was the first DCU student to run for a position on the board since 2014. My vision for this role is a simple one. To broaden the levels of participation in our student movement, our campaigns need students at its centre. We are either a grassroots movement or we are not. Following hustings, the USI discussed and voted on the motions. One of these motions was on cervical cancer awareness. DCU student and maiden speaker, Kweevenine Relagon, was motivated by the issue to stand up and share her story. One of the women in the shops in Pestola, as I got my name, and she, yeah, it was a great time. She said, did you know one of the girls in school was after getting diagnosed with cervical cancer and it's turned up. This girl is 20 years old, she's younger than I am. She did not think at any stage of her life that cervical cancer was going to affect her, let her own her family, let her own her friends, and let her own her friends She never thought she was going to have that after school. I honestly woke up this morning and didn't think I would be passionate about anything that was brought to the floor, let alone a welfare issue because that's not really my skill set. But one of the things that came up was in relation to lowering the age that people were allowed to get cervical cancer smear tests. And I don't know about many other people who are watching this, but when I was in secondary school we all got the cervical cancer job and I thought I was going to live forever, but at the same time I'm now being, come to the realisation that there are girls who are in my class in secondary school who are now facing the battle of cervical cancer. Myers Keen of the University College, Cork, also spoke on the issue. So I spoke on the motion about cervical cancer awareness because there's not really a targeted awareness campaign for people under 25 because obviously the age threshold is women over 25 and I went up and I spoke and I said that it wasn't just women who would get cervical smears, it was anyone who fits outside the veterinary and I mentioned that I'm a trans man and that I'm obviously going to have to get one, but I can't and I've got pre-cancer cells in my body and I can't avail of a smear test without going privately, which is expensive. In order of these motions was the removal of the unpaid status and power-time status of the VP for the Irish language. The people that read it, they say that we're still going to be discussing this. This position is just as important as any of the other positions on this award. The issues facing the language are huge issues and so many students are interested in the language and it's my time that we have someone full-time to fight for these issues. After some time the motion was passed creating a new full-time position on the office board. Andrew Byrne DCTV News at the USA Congress, NS.