 interviewing the candidates that are running for the role of VP for Engagement and Development, Aaron Harper and Karen McGovern. We spoke to them and asked what they want to do in their manifestos and what changes they would bring about to the role. So can you introduce yourself and a bit about the role you're running for? Yes, my name's Karen McGovern. I'm a final year business student and I'm running for Engagement and Development. And what do you think you can bring to the role? I think, so I have a lot of experience in running events so I think I can bring my experience of running events and getting people involved. So far I've took over chairperson of ANF and I've saw their every event I've run so I know what students want and I think I can really get them involved. So is there anything you think that would need to be changed within the role itself? I think the role needs to be more defined and students need to know exactly what the role goes. So I think if there's more awareness of what the role actually does it'll be able to be performed better. So would you want to just run us through your manifesto? So first thing on my manifesto is revitalize events. I feel a lot of events are targeted towards first year students whereas there's a lot of other students in college so I think there needs to be more frequent and diverse events spread across all campuses. Then secondly, I think we need to facilitate campus life and much so to get involved there need to be places to get involved so I believe that there should be computer homes brought into each campus so these are relaxing places where students can go because I commuted for the first three years and I found there's nowhere to go. You're sitting in the library on a computer watching Netflix some days and there's nowhere you can actually go and socialize. So I look to have relaxing areas with basic amenities so you can boil a kettle, make pot noodles, whatever. And then I also think there should be a weekly boost to omni because this year I'm actually living on campus so I'm one of the few students that I've done both and I struggled and struggled on the trek to omni. It's not that far but it's far enough. With a bag of messages, yeah. So I think there needs to be a... It was brought in before a campus poster on omni but it was actually a little, little actually sponsored it but it was brought in halfway through the year and it wasn't really run properly because everyone gets in kind of a routine and they follow the same routine every week. They go to this shop with these people at this time so I think if it's brought in from the start of the year it would be able to be run perfect and all the first years will get on board to be engaged and end up. There was a bit of a crisis at the start of the year with class rep nominations. They were delayed. Do you think there was any way to maybe better manage that or was there anything you would have done differently to handle the situation? So Siobhan got a... It's a very good system. She has actually gotten placed now but obviously it took time to work out and there should have been a backup system so I think there should be a paper ballot as well as the system is up and running perfect now and I've no doubts that it's going to work week one but there has to be... there has to be a backup so the paper ballot has to be there and if that online doesn't work you get scrapped straight away. Paper ballot's done and we have set a date that we have to have class reps by. Okay and in terms of engagement it's evident about this year that a lot of roles are uncontested and do you think people feel that they can't include themselves in running for roles or do you think that shows a lack of engagement or do you address this issue next year? So it's tough with building a new student centre. This year is kind of hidden away from things. You have to walk all the way in a new barrier you have to walk up a hidden stairs and there, I'm not saying and it doesn't look very appealing to be in the offices I think next year wants to be glass windows are open, everything you'll be able to see the offices and everyone will be like wow that's appealing so I think it's I think it really owns off I think it'll start to get better from now and the second thing you can run campaigns, so promotional videos etc to make them more appealing as well. Yeah and what would you say would be the biggest challenge you feel and incoming VP would face next year? The biggest challenge would face it will be, I think UND across all campuses we're still, we're two years in we're still struggling between Pats and Glass 7 I think that's going to be the biggest challenge we're going to come back because Pats they feel like they've been mistreated so I think I really this year they've had kind of Matt Davy as the unofficial Pats rep which is not good for a union you should have all four of us to be rep in both campuses so I think that is the biggest challenge. Okay, so Karin why should people vote for you? I feel I have a great understanding of what students need and how to get them involved in their job. Cheers, thank you. Hi, do you just want to introduce yourself a little bit and maybe tell us a bit about why you want to run for this role? So my name is Aaron Harper I'm a final year multimedia student and I'm running for the position of engagement and development mainly because I have been involved heavily in my time at DCU in all aspects that are required for this role so clubs and societies, volunteering class reps and campaigns for the SU so it seems like a natural regression for me. Do you want to just run through your manifesto and some of the things in your own words what you think needs to be implemented? Yeah, so I think some long term goals I would have would be obviously to bring volunteering on par with clubs and society so one thing I would like to implement would be to have the volunteer fair and the clubs and stocks fair amalgamated into one so that because there is such an emphasis on clubs and societies within DCU that we kind of give volunteering a similar platform and ensure that people who do want to get involved in volunteering can do so and can see what there is on offer within DCU also to update the SU website as is in the manifesto of many candidates and our current president wishes to do that over the summer. Okay so one thing that was quite an issue this year with DCU was the class rep nominations at the start of the year how do you think this could have been better managed maybe there was a way to stop the delay or in fact maybe implement something quicker how do you feel that you could have done it better? Well there was a couple of issues with that one we didn't have a returning officer so I think within the constitution it is the engagement of development officer that runs the class rep elections but in conjunction with the returning officer and obviously we didn't have one so there was no help there and also there was no meeting between ISS and the SU it was all done over the phone so I think possibly a proper meeting and I think maybe it wasn't seen as serious an issue as it was and that there was a delay and a knock on effect by having it so late and I think ensure that it doesn't happen again essentially to trial it and work with ISS over the summer to eliminate any issues that we had this year so we can get straight into class rep council we can have our class rep selected and get into the training and ensure that students are represented on the SU Okay so in terms of engagement there has been an evident lack of it as a lot of people have noticed that there are actually a few roles this year that are uncontested there was one that had to be popped back out for someone to actually go for the role do you feel that there is a lack of engagement and is there any particular reason you think that people are a bit adamant to not run for the roles or put themselves out there? Yeah well I think there's a couple of reasons why we haven't had as many candidates this year and one of the reasons being that we haven't had a student hub student centre because it's been under construction for the last two years so there's definitely less community feel within DCU because of that I think that the issue of the cost of running for a position at 300 euro budget I know a lot of students couldn't afford to spend that because it is their own money and they aren't guaranteed to be elected so they if they don't get elected it's still 300 euro that is I wouldn't say wasted but that they have spent and that they're not going to get back And in terms of the role itself what would you feel are the main issues or the biggest problems that someone would come into if you were to get this role? I think it is just ensuring that for years to come that there's a solid foundation to work on I think with the new student centre a great chance to start fresh and ensure that first years coming in are engaged and join clubs and societies and get volunteering and understand how the SU works and how we can benefit them and I think that is the main issue that the next years SU will face and I hope if elected I can be part of that and I can ensure that we do get off the ground running with the new student centre Okay Sarn, why should people vote for you? They should vote for me because I think I'm approachable, I'm hardworking I'm definitely dedicated to the role I'm experienced I have reached out to so many different areas and consulted all those areas in what I wanted to do and I have gotten some great feedback about what it is that I feel like I can achieve this year it is very doable, it is realistic and I think while I have given a lot to students in the last couple of years through various ways I definitely think I can give a lot more in this role We'll wish you the best of luck Thank you So there you have it, those are your two candidates running for the role at FIMP for engagement and development in your student union elections You can now log into loop and place your vote and results will be out this Friday I'm here reporting for DCUTV News