live SU election debate. I'm Rachel Keller. Tonight we will be hearing from all candidates running in the race for the five subatical positions which include VP for Engagement and Development, Academic Affairs, Education and Placement, Welfare and Equality and finally the President of Next Year's Student Union. These debates will be a final test for all candidates after a long week of campaigning and will be a final opportunity for them to prove to the Student Union, Student Body, why they should receive the number one vote. Voting opens tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. and we wish the best of luck to all candidates running. To start off we have the candidates for Engagement and Development with Lee Masha moderating the debate but first let's take a look at what these candidates had to say for themselves this week. I got a chance to sit down with the two candidates running for this year's position of VP for Engagement and Development, Sean Cares and Siobhan Muktaik. So I spoke to them but what they feel makes them suitable for this role. So Siobhan, I'm correct in saying you're running for the role of VP for Engagement and Development. I am indeed. And can I ask what made you run for this role in particular? What made you choose this one? Well it's the only role on the exact that I go for like it's perfect for me. Engagement and Development, you've got your task reps, volunteering, clubs and societies and being on the ground and that's me. That's what I've done for the last three years in college and that's what I'm going to continue to do and help students to do next year. Okay, perfect and what do you feel like you can bring particularly to this role? I can bring a real personal element to it like that's my whole thing about behind those students in me like I want to bring it back to basics, back on the ground, get out of the offices, get out there, meet students, let students know we're here because at the moment I don't think anyone knows, none of the people even know about students in me let alone utilise it. So I want to change that. And this is the second year in particular for this particular role like so say Imer would have had this is the first year for engagement and development. What do you feel like you can change this year say as it is going into the second year like learn from say the mistakes maybe made or kind of like run off what Imer has done like what do you feel like you can do to better say how far they've come so far? Imer has had a very hard job the past year because a new position you've known to telling to you like the others but what I really want to do is define it like nail it down what the role of engagement and development is and that's going back to my four key areas. So your past, volunteering, Cubs and societies and rolling out of campaigns like what best campaigns work on each campus like I'll know what that is. Yeah of course and so as well then you can imagine this year there's obviously been a lot of controversy over the whole you know the incorporation and everything like Pat's students aren't they've expressed their concern over like the lack of community spirit down in St Pat's you'll obviously base down St Pat's with your office there hopefully regarding like I see and how things go and how do you feel like you can kind of work with the Pat's students and like you're not a Pat's student yourself or you're you're made based up in here in Glasgow? I am well I'm the first example of a multi-campus goer so I have media studies on Glaston Avenue campus and Irish on the All Hallows campus and then I have my musical rehearsals on St. Patrick's campus so I understand that each individual campus has its own spears and I really want to maintain the spirit of each campus because we are very different. We're all one university now but the differences are there and I want to keep those differences because no point trying to make the three campuses the same because that's not realistic and that's not what DCU is. Well we wish you the best of luck Shavon and fingers crossed. Right so Sean I'm correct in saying you were running for the role of VP for Engagement and Development. I am indeed yeah. What made you choose this particular role? Well I'm coming towards the end of my four-year degree in St Pat's campus during the BA degree so qualified private school teacher at the end of this year and I feel like I have a lot of skills to offer the job and it's the right time for me to do it as well. I'm 21 now going on 22. I feel like I've learned a lot in my time in college here and I feel I've even more space to grow and develop as a person and I feel like I have a lot of ideas to bring to the table for clubs and societies, class rep councils in DCU. And what do you think personally like in particular you can bring to this role? I feel I have a good personality for the job. A lot of the engagement development remit it comes under dealing with people whether it be class rep council or your clubs and societies. I feel like I have a lot to bring to the table there. So if we think about say Emer this year had a very tough job this was the first year for this particular position. So this will be the second year of this position. What kind of how will you bring this forward? I'd like to put my own stamp on it as well as developing the students academically. I'd also like to develop them holistically so even if it was just to bring in that the students on the class rep council are trained to sit on program boards which is very daunting for students especially coming in first year. Program boards you're sitting on a meeting with lectures from the college and you need training to sit in that kind of an environment. As well as that I feel peerless in workshops so people can help deal with their friends with mental illnesses. So working with the students. Working with the students. And being a past student yourself I'm sure you're very aware of the kind of controversy with the incorporation this year and how past students feel like there's a lack of community that the past community spirit. What will you do I mean being a student yourself in past what do you feel like you can bring to kind of encourage the amalgamation of both campuses when there has been such a difficulty this year? Yeah well the difficulty we've seen is there's been an increase in the number of students but it didn't decrease in engagement with society or with events and things like that especially on some past campus. There's sixteen hundred more students on this campus and there's students from Matter Day, CICU and Sympaths and it's a lot in one campus now and they're all from separate institutions and they're all coming under the one banner just DCU. You just need to make them feel welcome in their college there's always been a community spirit in past and we need more engagement up in DCU as well in the Glass Network campus. There's a lot of clubs and societies can learn from some of our students as well and CICU in Matter Day. Well there you have it that's what this year's candidates VP for Engagement and Development Sean and Siobhan have to say. Don't forget to tune into DCU TV News live debate at 6.30 p.m. next Monday and of course don't forget to vote. This is Rachel Kelleher for DCU TV News. Welcome to the first debate which is going to be the debate for the voice president for Engagement and Development. We have two candidates running for this position it's Sean Cares and Siobhan McTague. We're going to go straight in with the questions and question number one is going to be how exactly would you define VP for Engagement and Development and Siobhan we're going to ask you to answer that one first please. So the position for Vice President for Engagement and Development is a relatively new role so it's been only one year old and it came into play after the amalgamation of all DCU campuses last year so the position is only one year old and that's why I think it hasn't really been defined. It hasn't got a chance to be defined so that's one of my main things I want to do is define the role and I define it under three main areas which is the class representation system, clubs and societies and volunteering and then underlying that would be just a general engagement across all campuses involvement across all campuses the main focus of this role is to get students involved outside of their lectures to get them involved no matter what it is they want to be it's to provide opportunities to get them involved to get them to do more outside of that lecture theatre and it's a standalone role and it's not to be confused between any other sabbatical role in the Student Union and because I think sometimes it can be confused maybe with welfare or something but that's just the way it is because it's a new role and that's what it needs to be defined I'm ready to do that. And Sean I'll have the same question for you. So for Engagement and Development I feel first of all it's a role that's ahead of its time there's no other college in Ireland with a role in the Student Union to do with Engagement and Development and so I'd like to put my own stamp on it and I feel would work closely with the clubs and societies have a mentor system in place so that they could be supported as best possible from the Student Union that would be working in along with the other members of the Student Union the others sabbatical the clubs officers the socks officers okay working with them to try and find out what the clubs and societies need and want what do they need from the Student Union and then providing that for them as well as that the actual role itself has come under the remit this year it is to serve as a point of contact for welfare issues on St Patrick's campus so that's a massive role there's 1600 more students on that campus now so there's obviously a lot more going on there and I believe that that providing support for them students is massive as well as that the class rep system that's in place the man I think it's a fantastic system like it's great I've previous experience on the St Patrick's College class rep system and I believe like it's a lot it was a lot less formal than is in DCU but I believe that combining the two could be fantastic I think it'd be really good to have and you've all mentioned there the the class rep council so we know one problem that has happened in the last couple years is that class reps will go to the CRC for the first couple of weeks couple of months but in attendance will slowly drop off how do you both plan to maintain attendance or make compulsory for a class rep to attend so Sean I'll give you that question first well start off with an incentive for people to go I think we need to have some sort of a reward system in place for our class reps I believe that their hard work that they do needs to be recognized and as well as that they need to be recognized as well the minute they don't have hoodies it's semester to you I think have them visible from first month college so get their hoodies whether it be even a t-shirt or something like that there have our class reps visible so that if you have someone in a big if you're in a big year you know that person's my class rep I have an issue I have to go to them so basically just having them more visible as well as that two training days I think one semester one or two in semester one sorry and two in semester two actually so basically just keeping them engaged with class rep council as well yeah the class rep council and the class representation system as a whole is this like one of the most important ways that we can get the whole student union the whole student body and engage with the union because class reps are the people who want to get engaged they're the people who step forward to get engaged and then their their job is to further more engaged with their class so like they're the people that we need to work on which will then filter out to the whole college like I'm only one person so with any sabbatical on any of you so you have to it's about empowering the class reps to engage with the rest of the union and I want to tell my manifesto I want to focus on election and training so election would happen much earlier on the year because you hit the ground running with that and what he is in line here it's to be at the beginning of the year as well because as John said they need to be recognized they need to recognize that needs to be at the start of the year because we don't think the start of the year in semester one it just doesn't get done and also I want to provide training training throughout the years school by school faculty by faculty so along with the end step program which is a national student engagement program run by the higher education authority and the USI and it was originally set up by a Scottish body called Sparks and they provide training for it for class reps and I want DC students to benefit from that so I'm gonna set up training throughout the year not just have one training at the start of the year and to make training more practical because at the moment training isn't more isn't it's a practical love that that class reps are able to actually put forward emotion or you know know how to communicate with their lecturers and it needs to be just a very basic training like what what class rep council is so when cast reps go in there they know how to get involved they know how to do their job and they're not just sitting there mindlessly being like oh god this all this you know jargon and like lingo that I don't understand and so yeah it needs there needs to be a more informal element definitely brought in so it be it pizzas or every random classroom and bring the issues back to the class reps themselves or what the students actually care about themselves not as a whole like that will affect every class rep not just like certain class reps and that's really important and and yeah training throughout the year so that that would that would then keep the attendance up because they know what they're getting back from it they're constantly getting something and then it turned putting it back into the system and as you both mentioned it's it's the this was the first year that we had the position of VP for education development and it's the first time that we had an officer obviously that position so what would you what have you both learned from Amher's work throughout the year and how would you build on it going forward so she won't get you down to that question and when Amy's been a fantastic job this year anyone that has to take on a spot of the position for one year is going to have a down top job because they can't look to anyone else for what they've done in previous years but I'm not here to talk about what I want to do and with the classroom system and what's happened so far I am a class rep myself so I know I know how to improve the system and I know how to improve it on the ground at a basic level because that's when he's practically basic level get back to basics train your class reps on what how to do those simple things that a class rep is going to be able to do and empower them to do more because they want to like a step forward because they want to engage they want to have they want to do more and I'm ready to empower them I'm Sean and the same so how would you build on the work that Neymar's done this year? I feel like I could build more in a lot of different areas I think that engagement development position is a lot more than just class reps and that I believe that our clubs and societies mean a lot especially up in DCU I'd love to have them come from Glass Neven to St Pats campus and all Hallows as well the visibility down there has been it's societies and clubs are not visible down there first of all we've had drama sock, Africa sock and can't think off hand at the minute but there's been only a few societies come and Gaelic have been fantastic down in St Pats campus as well and I believe supporting those societies is a big big must for next year as well as that I'd love to expand the inter-campus bike scheme show on yourself you've lectures and all the campuses in DCU so I feel it would be very handy for the students to have a service there an inter-campus bike scheme that is deposit based rental system and they get a bike that they can keep for a certain number of weeks they come back they present the bike show that it's still work in order and we keep its service never and it's their bike for that number of time they return it they can take it back out again as well but basically I'd like to increase that from we actually we have it now increased I said in my video earlier we five bikes but we actually now have 20 coming in so we'll have 25 bikes to start with I'd like to increase it till about a hundred or a hundred and fifty bikes I feel make a massive difference and as far as that last thing I want to say is class reps as well and class reps have to sit on program boards which you have lectures sitting on as well that's daunting especially for a first-year coming into college if you're a first-year class rep and you've come in and sit on a board with a lecture it's going to be a certain standard of professionalism you're going to need to reach so before they go into that situation they need the proper training and I believe and the one thing that Emory did this year she was worked closely with the USI and then with the USI Congress coming up next week what I want to know is well do you know any of the motions that are gonna be discussed next week and how many voting delegates do we have from DCU so I'll be sure I'll be discussing for you of course there's 16 delegates from DCU at the moment I'm not completely aware of the USI motions that are going on at the minute because just with elections and everything in placement I just haven't had time to look at the USI motions but I'll be sure to look into it if I'll act as Yes, the DCU has 16 delegates as Sean politely said and I want to work with the USI in all their campaigns and the motions coming forward next week no I don't know what motion there I just know that the Congress is going they actually are going on at the moment and we have a delegates from DCU going for those positions for campaigns and what I want to do is continue the work with the USI with the NSF programs that's training for class reps and also their upcoming campaigns they offer some for nurses so I want a lobby to get pay for nurses for all their placement they also have campaign coming up for the for teachers so that's work with the Institute of Education in DCU so I think it's very important that the Union does continue to work with the USI because it's a very good body and a very good backing to have that DCU deserves And something that you've both mentioned in your manifestos is you want to promote the Irish language even further and so taking into consideration that we already have the Common Gaelic and Shockton Gaelic in a safe place and how are you going to plan on doing that so Sean I'll give you that question first Well first and foremost I'm very passionate about the Irish language I speak fluently and study it on the All Hallows campus and I sat on the Common Gaelic committee last year as if it was the events officer and organized the best Shockton Gaelic that's the class 7 campus has ever seen so I have the experience and the knowledge of Irish and the passion to absolutely push it through on all campuses at the moment I think the St. Patrick's campus does very great work with with the Irish language like you can see it everywhere you go everything is bilingual I think class 7 campus needs needs a bit of work in that like it needs to be just more visible on the ground and but I work with the Africa on the SU and also the DCU to promote because the Shockton Gaelic at the moment is ran in conjunction with Students Union but doesn't always get the support it needs so I would be that person to support Common Gaelic and the Africa on that also the All Hallows campus is like the Irish hope at the moment because Fjonturne's Common Gaelic has actually just moved to the All Hallows campus so that's why all my lectures are there so I'd like to see that become an Irish hope and through running events down there to to get making sure the Shockton Gaelic reaches all three campuses and doesn't just focus on one and the Shomarkadjev is a great asset to have on the St. Patrick's campus and has already been utilised really well so it's just a constant push on that and like promoting it and the Union has like the back end to do that and that's what needs to be done. And Sean what are your plans in place to promote the language for her? Well again as Sean said she's very passionate about the Irish language I actually come from just a small Guiltic area I wouldn't be fluent speaking Irish but I'd be better than I have written writing it and as far as what I'd like to do with the Irish language goes Sean you mentioned the Shomarkadjev down in St. Patrick's campus fantastic facility to have I believe that we could have that a small room on each campus as a Shomarkadjev it's not a hard thing to do especially in Glasnevan and Alhalos. Alhalos as was said already becoming a hub for Gaelic and it's great to see it. I believe the visibility of the Irish language on the Glasnevan campus is not and Alhalos to be honest with you it's there's no visibility whatsoever from what I've seen from visiting Alhalos recently especially there's no posters of Gaelic you go around St. Patrick's campus they're everywhere and Glasnevan as well visibility it's not as much as we could have then again I suppose we don't want to push it on people but I believe there's a lot more work could be done especially with coming to Gaelic and DCGlasnevan campus from I've been talking to Siobhan Shoiget I just met her in the Student Union in St. Patrick's campus and I've outlined that I want to do the best I can for Irish and our college and I believe that I can do it. And speaking of working between campuses how are you going to allocate your time equally to each of the campuses as the air progresses rather than focusing in my time where you're focusing on one campus more. How are we going to make sure that you keep yourself in check and keep working between all campuses? It's just a matter of checking in between campuses as we go along. So you might have a day on Alhalos campus. I'd love to try and set up a small office or a desk on Alhalos and in Glasnevan campus so that I could be based on Al3 for at least a day a week in Al3. Obviously the permanent base is St. Patrick's campus and I'd work permanently out of there but I have portable offices in Alhalos and Glasnevan. As well as that I think the visibility of the Student Union around the college is massive and we don't see some of our Student Union members walking around as much I think just having them out there someone to talk to someone for students to come up and ask a question of it's vital it means a lot to students to have someone there that they can talk to and someone they know that it's there to ask them to answer their questions. Then what do you want to say for you? Yeah so with the emigration it is like DCU has just turned into moving around counseling and it's a beautiful thing like it actually is the Alhalos campus is something that's kind of nearly undiscovered I think at the moment because once people arrive in it they're like whoa Alhalos it's actually unreal down here it's a beautiful campus and it's got an amazing canteen. But what I would do though to make sure that I'm on all campuses it's just by showing your face just by being on the ground like my whole thing is the Student Union has to get out of the offices and on the ground talking to students making a difference in students' lives in a big ways or small like talking to them making like there's a lot like students deal with a lot coming from all areas of their life. So what the Union is meant to do is just make that heavy weight that a lot of students carry just a little bit lighter on a day-to-day basis engaging with that every day student on a day-to- day basis. So the bike team has already been implemented at the moment for staff members it's coming in to be implemented for students so obviously I'm going to make sure that that follows through and so that will constantly aid the flow of the campus that has already exist.  I do think the Students Union needs to be more present on the All Hallows campus and that's why I really want to push for a social space to be implemented on that campus because at the moment there's you know we hang out in the canteen lectures kind of bop about but there's no designated area such as Java such as the new bar that students can actually go to. So that needs to be implemented. And yeah it's just about being around, being there at the moment all sabbaticals should be constantly moving to all campuses and that's what I'm afraid to do. I have one or two questions now which are going to be specific to each candidate so Sean the first question for you is going to be you said yourself with the bike scheme that so earlier on in the year, it was some of the aim I worked with throughout the year and she said that she had a lot of trouble funding the scheme so how did you manage, how are you going to be able to get the funding for this first scheme? I'd go out and fundraise it myself if I need to. I believe that we need to have it done, not everyone has a car, not everyone has the money to go up and down on buses between campuses. At the end of the day we are the Students Union, we're the students representative, we need to stand up for them and we need to get these bikes for students so they can travel up and down freely. Again look there's people are going to be on all three campuses for their lectures or two campuses and it's just unfortunate it's the way it is. Look hopefully down the line we could get that to you being based on one campus but at the minute we need this bike scheme in for students to have a cheap way to maneuver between campuses and I will go out and fundraise money myself. Again if elected be up here for the full summer so you have June straight through to September with no students and I'll go round with the bucket if I need to like at this stage. Do you think even those small fundraisers might be enough to get cover the overall cost because if you're speaking for 150 to 200 bikes do you think that would be enough? Yeah I believe their bikes are to be honest with you not as dear as people think. You can get them online for a lot cheaper I've been researching there. And then Siobhan the question for you is you think you want to bring it back to the roots the student union want to be out on the floor talking to people. Do you think this is going to be an easier way to do than to say be up in the office like how are you going to manage especially between three campuses to be out constantly talking to all the students? Well I think it's the most important part of any spallot composition. It's about getting out there and engaging with the students and the fact that this role is that's what this role represents so that's why it's that in my opinion is the only role that I would go for on the student union because it is perfect for me and since I arrived in DCU I've been nothing but evolved in campus life outside of the academic realm so that won't be a problem for me that's what I've done for the last three years but this would just be an extension of that and with clubs and societies with volunteering with DCU in the community and revamping the volunteer expo and the community engagement week with all the work that I'm going to do with clubs and societies with the sports development officer and the society's officer and the SLC the society life committee and the club life committee on both campuses so it's all it all just comes back to you can do it like if you if you're on the ground you're on the ground like it doesn't it's not a big deal like it's not a difficult task and it's just by being being personal and one-on-one with students getting out there. And then Sean my second question for you then it's going to be so you talked about doing the survey with the clubs and stocks to see what they want. We already have a problem at the moment a lot of the hostings who have said that students aren't reading emails they're throwing them in the bin so with this already been a problem how are you going to manage the survey? Through Class Rep Council okay you utilize our class reps give them some responsibility as well so they can make sure that their class do engage with the survey as well as well as that like I will go in get on the ground go into classes and ask them to take part go into big lectures ask them to take part in this survey because at the end of the day what the student union is there to do is represent the student body and I believe that once we know what the students want we can give it to them okay so just engage in the students in the survey through the class reps I think it's a very simple idea and very effective. And then Sean my second question for you in your manifesto you discussed the open badge system and so as well so it was something that EMR has worked at throughout the year and it's in its final stages so what management are you going to do of the open badge system? Yeah so the open badge system is an amazing system that can be used because these days everyone is promoting themselves online with websites and especially through LinkedIn so with open badge with open badge system that's an online LinkedIn accreditation that you can put whatever for what matter what it is you've done for extracurricular involvement so EMR has worked the whole year trying to get it for DC students she's she's got that all the designs and stuff are in place but I want a lobby to get the university backing so it's not just the open badge accreditation but it's actually a DCU open badge accreditation and because at the moment we already have the union module which is really beneficial because it's unique to DCU and I also want to work to get that as a contributing module for all students because at the moment me myself I'm taking union as a non-contributing module so it doesn't contribute to my overall degree and what I want to have it for all degrees that students can have it as a contributing module and because it's so important students across all campuses but so much work into extracurricular life and they need to be rewarded first and the open badge system is a really good way and so is union. Perfect so I think we're going to leave it there for that debate and up next we have the debate for academic affairs which is going to be moderated by Amy Lawler. The Student Union now oversees all of DCU's new campuses including St. Patrick's College from Condra and Maraday Institute of Education. With the 2017 Student Union elections upcoming welfare and equality officer Cody Byrne took time out to give us an insight into his personal experience over the past year. Yeah like the year's been really weird I think like it was a bit of a unique year with obviously the incorporation and then with the lack of venue and lack of space I really enjoyed the year like and I've I've actually had a really good time I think all the campaigns even though they're really stressful to organize it's kind of nice just like getting out of the office and just chatting to students and stuff yeah I suppose just like like engaging with students just on a database it's like I actually thought that would be like hard because do you know like when there's only so much small talk you can do but it was actually it's actually fun like do you know because you meet all these different people and stuff so it's nice but yeah I've had a really really good year more than I thought I would actually. Sometimes it's hard there was to be 100% honest there's probably been three times where I went home and like genuinely cried probably but then it's okay because then you're like oh it's great it's fine because then you get I actually have a folder on my computer that says positive messages and I say them all because you need to like remind yourself. He also offered a few words of advice for students considering running for his particular position. My advice is irrespective of you know whatever ideas you have for like policies or campaigns of the main part is for you to just basically not be an arsehole and just kind of empathetic and you know you don't need to change the world with the response because you never will be you never will be able to do that but even if you're just a good listener that's a reason enough to run for the role. Nominations for the Student Union elections will open Tuesday the 28th of February and will close at 6 p.m. March 7th. This is Rachel Kelleher for DCU TV News. Hi I'm Amy Lawler and I'll be hosting the academic affairs debate. The sole candidate Brendan Power is here beside me. Thanks for joining us Brendan. So I just want to start off the debate by asking you what you think you'll be responsible for in the role of VP of academic affairs. So as the vice president of academic affairs you're mainly responsible for assistant students with their academic issues so for example if a student is in trouble with a module or if they fail an exam you're the first protocol so you give them the advice and point them in the right direction give them all the help lines or student support and development for example that are available to them put them in the right direction you're also the secretary on the exec you also sit in a variety of committees around the university and then in general for me what I would like to bring to it would be just to be an approachable person who brings a fresh idea to it. And due to the incorporation how would you provide academic assistance across all three campuses? Yeah I think it's something that could be really improved. This year there's obviously three different campuses and I think this SU is really struggling to be on all the different campuses I mean nobody can be in three places at once but just maybe redistributing the days of the week so if everyone to do a revolving office I know it was attempted at some stage but I don't think it was really followed through to the extent that it could have been. So yeah maybe to go down to different the different campuses for one day a week and have office hours that people will know that you'll be able to for them for that excellent time to assist them and yeah just being like walking down to it not even necessarily office hours but also just being on the other campuses don't be afraid to go down there. And did you include that in your manifesto? No I didn't no yeah it's yeah in hindsight it's something I should have included yeah. And are you aware that your manifesto wasn't made public to the student body? It was I sent it to I received a message from the Democracy and Development Officer in the Student Union yeah and I was there over a weekend and I sent it to him but I'm not sure at what stage it was just real I didn't know. So basically the DCU returning officer would have issued the manifesto to the student body but you weren't aware that yours wasn't issued? No I mean I sent it on within the deadlines to the returning officer so I mean that's not my job so I just presumed that it was sent. But as a candidate would you have not have checked the emails to see that yours was actually issued to the student body so they could you know read it and then decide whether or not they're gonna vote for you? Yeah in reflection yes but it wasn't something I was aware of at the time so. It's fair and then looking on from that then would you like to include anything like would you like to say anything about your manifesto that the students haven't been made aware of? I think the main thing to get across is the main points that I have on my manifesto which I'm happy to share with anyone I mean there's nothing to hide at all that's obviously an I mean error I'd imagine that didn't happen it's a shame but basically to make the grounds and tutoring services more freely available to students so at the moment they're available on noob but they're in the students union part of the loop so people don't really see them and when you're coming up to your exams obviously in a place where you're pretty stressed so the last thing you want to do is have to search high and low for them so to make them more freely available as well initiating careers week 2.0 so basically bringing industry leading speakers for example into each faculty targeting towards each faculty perhaps like interview etiquette CV skills etc. Redistributing the library opening hours so basically what happens oftentimes there's obviously been great strides in recent years with the library but I think there could be huge improvements still to be made so for example like on week 11 and week 12 people are marched out of the library hundreds of students on a Friday evening when really a Friday evening at that stage is paramount for any student to try to get to their exams whereas like in week one and two people aren't really in the library until 2 a.m. as much as they are at the end of the semester. Well you seem to have really good ideas with regards to academic affairs officer but as you said you weren't aware that your manifesto wasn't made public to the student body but like how have you been promoting your campaign to this like thus far? Yeah so basically at the moment I have my promotional video whatever you'd like to call it that's basically ready to go initially like the first edit we've had to like go over and back a few times it's a carpool karaoke so it hasn't been made public tonight. Okay. Yeah and that along with the like page will be up tonight it's basically last week I have I'm a final year student so I'm like also like trying to combine it with my degree and I was ill last week so I had to post one or extinguishing circumstances for an assignment so that's the reason why I wasn't underground underground thus far but from tomorrow onwards that would be the case. And have you noticed that like a lot of the other candidates have been making posters and they've set up Facebook pages outlining like their manifestos and why you should go for them is that something that you would be interested in doing? Yeah I have it already to go it's just basically a matter of like clicking a button. And like people as far as more people are allowed to vote tomorrow so do you think don't think that's a bit late to be establishing like a campaign? Yeah yeah I mean in hindsight but when I was at home sick and also trying to do an assignment I wasn't really at the top of my list if you want to say but yeah I mean I think in hindsight having it available the week before and will be ideal but I think by having it up available tonight students tomorrow Wednesday and Thursday are really the key times up until now it's just making people aware of it but it's when people can vote that they really want to know the information. Yeah and then when did you actually decide that you were going to run for the position? So it's something I would have considered for the last couple it's my third year in DC it's something I would have always been considering but my concrete decision was probably late January mid January. I had considered for a long time I had a lot of conversations with different people and then the reason why I'm running for this role over other roles is I really value like the substance of this role in comparison to maybe like the symbolic nature of president for example so you're actually able to make the difference in a student's day so you could be the impact you can put a student in the right direction you can make the impact on them for example staying in college or enjoying a module or giving them the right support and services that will make them try academically. And as you said then you've been thinking about running for the position since February was it so would you not have taken into account how important it is to have a good strong kind of seat behind you and representatives you know like getting your name out there to the student body so as you said like it's a bit late now to be putting up your manifesto and stuff that I before so yeah it's it's a difficult I mean the manifesto has been prepared like I have a team that's there and ready and waiting to go but it's very I found it personally very difficult to motivate people because obviously when you're running against reopen omnations it's people presumed it's a foreground conclusion which it's not and then obviously a lot of my friends are interconnected with other people that are running for sabbatical positions that are competed against so it's I mean who would you help would you help the lady with the shopping bag who's old would you have the lady or the man whoever who's like strong and able so basically that people aren't really as willing to necessarily come and help me because they think that I have a free ride which I hundred percent don't I still have a lot of work a lot of work to do but it's difficult to motivate a team to get beside you so then why should the student body vote for you instead of reopening the nominations yeah so I think the main reason the student body should vote for me is because I'm an experienced individual so I've been on the board of the organizing bureau of European school student unions so that's given me experience in education on a national and European level that experience has led me to speak in the European Parliament has led me to manage a budget of upwards of 300,000 euro I've full experience in recruitment selection processes I've also been to the ground in DCU I've changed courses I fail exams I've repeated exams so I can relate to the struggles that people can have in college and as well I'm just an approachable person I'm more than happy to have a conversation with someone formally during office hours but equally to just meet up with someone for a coffee and speak to their options and is there any changes that you would want to make in the coming year if elected as opposed to the changes that James on here the current academic officer is made yeah I think I think he's done great work but I mean there's always room for improvement careers week is something that like I said has been done pretty well but I think there's a room there for the click into an extra gear the library hours as I said as I mentioned already and then in general I think the SCU as a whole has struggled I mean it's perhaps the reason that there's only one candidate sitting here tonight and not several the SCU is like it's very very much a struggle to engage the general student population and I mean you're it's always going to be difficult to engage upwards of 16,800 students but basically being a more approachable face not always being up in the office but being walking around campus in the canteen at whatever cafe it may be and just basically being there for students if they'd like to speak I think as well regards to the people to try encourage people for next year to run as well I think it's just basically important to have that information evening like perhaps at the end of first semester being a second semester for people that are on the fence as it were and then you mentioned that careers week is something that you want to take the next level how would you plan to implement that then if you're elected because that's something that you seem to be quite focused on yeah yeah it's something I'm pretty passionate about I mean there's a quarter here recently that there's no need to repeat the same mistakes which is very very true so if you can speak to someone for example if you're interested in career media or if I'm interested in career in business and I can speak to someone who's already been down that path that careers we can give insight and the DCU is obviously heavily focused on intra but intra obviously doesn't penetrate every single first faculty so this could be maybe like a little other would be something that would be amazing if it could possibly but the careers week would basically be a time for people to have one-on-one and group conversations with people who have already gone down the path that they're looking to go down and basically you can learn from what they've done and then in your opinion what is the single biggest academic issue that DCU currently has and how would you change it I think one of the biggest issues that I would see there's a couple okay I think like the lack in comparison to our colleges the lack of being able to carry a module can be a big issue because I know several people who've repeated a module that they don't or a language for example and they repeat it a full year which is obviously a major financial implications for them and their family and it's a module that they're not intending on continuing or it could be a five credit module so students were able to carry that that would be a huge burden lifted off their shoulders and then as well for students that are intending on going on intra if they fail an exam and they have to repeal in August they don't get the results until September and then there's a very narrow narrow window where they can actually apply for intra and then effectively like they're jumping onto the last buses at work so they're not really perhaps in the best place for the workplace when they're not really prepared for it as well and they're not really been given an abundance of choice and then as you mentioned before like you're obviously the only candidate running for current position is there any particular reason that you think that the student body as you said at like the lack of a gauge or there isn't more candidates running for the position or did you ever know of anyone that maybe had potential interests in running for position or just didn't no I've heard of several people that were going wrong and I would much rather be sitting here beside three or four people than to be sitting here on my own it's a much more difficult experience I think because you're trying to compete against something that doesn't really exist or doesn't exist in a hypothetical sense I think like I mentioned I think that information even before the nomination process actually opens up so maybe in January or December for people that are debating whether to run or not I think as well like an issue that many people have come across is that they need to get like 160 nominations now which in comparison to two years ago you needed to get three so it's been a hundred and sixty nominations yeah so it's you need to get 160 which is 160 to 164 so it's to be actually yeah so I think that could sometimes sometimes seems a bit daunting to people so for if you're already pestering people before you even actually officially put in a ballot paper then you already feel like you've kind of used up a bit of equity with those people I think as well there was people that maybe like decided last minute to run or not to run and then other people just decided it wasn't for them and I mean you have to respect your decision and again like it's everybody's free will and their own choice to do what they want to do but I would absolutely like my legacy if elected I would love to see four people five people up here next year and then would you say that there's any pressures that you would face and sell candidate that maybe that the other candidates wouldn't face as far as where there's only one or the position that one candidate is running for but the rest have more than one or two so any pressures that you particularly have faced in this candidacy that other candidates might not have faced yeah I think it's it's a funny kind of pressure because you're not directly competing against something an individual that you can pick their strengths and weaknesses and you can debate with them or you can tell someone why you should vote I mean I can tell for sure multiple reasons why you should vote for me over on but with regard to the actual motivation levels for the team around you it's very difficult to like I said already it's very difficult to get people on board when they presume that it's a foreground conclusion so that's it's a difficult issue to then build a team around you when people are already you already know X-men people are running already and they would go for the person that's in a contested competition do you think that's something that affected like your social media obligations of the candidate because as far as the way like it was harder for us to get in contact with some candidates and others regarding their media cooperation was that something harder for you based on the team that you had around you or I mean I have no issue whatsoever would cooperate with like the media more than happy to have conversations with people I think I did an interview for this beforehand on last week but the fire got corrupted and then like today for example whatever way I didn't work out with times that's why it wasn't footage perhaps yeah perhaps because you know that you're not voting again or you're not running against someone yeah I mean we're all human in the end it's difficult sometimes like as much as you try to put pressure on yourself and make yourself adhere to certain standards it's always difficult to keep pushing yourself and finally then what would your greatest strength and weakness be if you were to be elected as the academic affairs officer I think my greatest strength would be the experience that I bring and the fresh approach as well so I've not been part of the SU I'm not one of these people that envisions myself going around wearing a hoodie or having a lanyard on the side of my leg I'm someone that envisions myself being no winter student so I can just have a conversation with them to basically be an approach to a face around campus have conversation with students to be able to meaning of life or be about their exams a weakness then I could perhaps have would be the complacency maybe that setting over the last couple of weeks that's something I think I mean we can all probably relate to that it's a human instinct but once I get into the role I'd be full on and I'm very excited about the potential of being elected thank you very much for joining us in the studio so next up Michelle Martin will be monitoring the VP Education and Placement debate I am Matt Daly on the fourth year of the ed I'm 22 from Sligo and I'm running for the Vice President's position for Education and Placement I really want to make a difference placement is a really really big issue especially for teachers and nurses are a lot out in placement business students as well have their own problems so I really feel passionate about placement it is even the word placement gives people anxiety so I want to be that person to help make it better I particularly want to attack the library and overcrowding water fountains plugs for phones because if you go to the library reception you will see so many charges left behind water fountains when you're in the middle of studying for exams or doing assignments the last thing you want to do is have to go down to the bottom floor of the library fill your water bottle or maybe there's water fountains that you can't even do it on like just little simple things like that to make studying make your exams a lot easier placement anxiety levels a lot of the characters especially in teaching have been struggling with anxiety and it's a really really big issue so I hope to really work with the welfare officer make placement videos beforehand to give people tips and support a mobile counselor as well for people who can't access the counselor in college so I'd be working with a welfare officer I have been with Linus in his office a lot of the last few weeks at least twice a week I'd say just getting to know what problems people have this year so that I know the type of problems people might come to me next year really looking at what he's at his phone calls emails the types of meetings he has to go to all that sort of thing everything that John says well the main key issues people are going to be coming to me but I have several issues that I think I feel important in there including on my manifesto the first one is nurses they don't spend a lot of time on campus and I feel they miss out on college experience so for the role I propose two nursing appreciation days one each semester so that nurses get the real college experience and just get a good atmosphere around their course at the year and improve library facilities and printing credit is another point so I want to improve sockets and water fendons and really simple things like that around the library and just sort over to make extra room available for people to study because when you're coming up to assignment time exam time you just need a place to study and intra the intra portal page needs to be revamped it is completely updated as well as having interest skills workshops so that when they do go to the interview there as well as they can need to get the best place possible I want to go to them as well as them coming to me but for them to come to me I feel like I'm my presence be felt there I need to speak to them myself so that they feel comfortable coming to me I'm just the person they probably have never met before same as anyone else you wouldn't want to go up to someone you haven't met before spend a few minutes traveling I need to go to them first so that they feel comfortable to me I'm on place this year and I am paying an absolute fortune for resources travel rent all that kind of stuff and it's not just teachers that need expenses and maybe some form of pay what other students also I'm Michelle Martin and with me here today is position of education and placement and so I'm at this with the incorporation this role has only been here one year so tell me bit what your understanding of the position is the job well just educational places so education so just to make the experience of getting grades and all that as best as I can as educational placement officer and then placement just so not only you can help the students that are struggling on placement but the students who are maybe getting a 2-2 boost that up to a 2-1 or 2-2 up to 2-1 or 2-1 up to 1-1 so just really to help everyone out so that not just in the case of welfare that it's improved but that their grades improved to so just to make their placement as best as possible that's why I want to run and a lot of minus is worth this year anyway was kind of behind the scene so how would you make yourself aware to students and to show that you're actually doing your job and you're doing stuff and changes are happening next year I need to be seen on all campuses at least one day during the week and similar to what Sean cares was saying in office maybe on the whole Hallows campus and be up here at least one day a week and just get out meet people walk around and you know make yourself approachable so they can come to you as well as just email in you know come up to you and have a conversation with you you know you're a human being not just a computer worker so easy simple stuff like that yeah you seem like a chill guy so before we talk about your manifesto those mentions obviously you can see in your t-shirt and what's the crack we're running with your friends your Facebook page is the same name and just like we know each other from the first week in college we're probably there was three of us originally but the other fellas and one of friends thought it means you on the side to run together I know it's not usually done up here in DC but back in parts especially when we were in first year usually when there was a president vice president going together they would always team up and they wouldn't always get in together but just good to have a partnership and you can kind of help each other out for the campaign and you kind of drive each other on obviously I'm not up against anyone but I'm still putting in 15 16 hour days to help Sean get in yeah yeah and you don't think that it was a confusing for people at first to kind of see like who's going for opposition who to probably is but I think it's good for us in the long run because we just can help each other out we nearly have the work even though sometimes it does seem double the work yeah and because you are running alone if hypothetically you were running against someone what would make you stand out how do you think that you would win next year or win if you were against someone and it's a very good question I just like to be approachable as you said be chill not take myself too seriously and just really help people out I just love helping people you know if you can help someone out they'll really appreciate it and it just makes yourself feel good in that so that's what I'd really love just to help people so then do you want to tell me about your manifesto what you would do to help people and with and interim placement because that would be the key the key element to your position yeah the main thing I really want to get is printing credit it was something that was available to us in St Pat's and we had five euro put in our account every month so like every month you might need to spend your five euro but that built up to the times when you really did need it myself and all the four tier bids are out in placement in Dublin I was in Drimna and we spent an absolute fortune you know yourself printing worksheets and resources to use in class so I spent probably about 100 euro in the last four weeks and I'll have to do that again when I'm out in Port Marina because they're in next Monday so that's really something I want to get in not just for teachers but for everyone on placement we need to put research into if there's funding available for that if that's actually a possibility we need to look at that in July when the budget for DCU's decided and if it can't be raised then we'll have to look into it with societies and run events to raise that money so if it is for teachers maybe teachers have their own event to help raise money or nurses or business students yeah another thing you mentioned in your manifesto was a survey for people after Intra and there already exists a survey for people to evaluate their employers so that's something that you knew already or were you hoping to take the survey in a different direction I just really want to get the take-up of the survey a lot better so that you incentivize it and so that people actually like put effort into the survey so that as an SU we really can identify what the problems are and then work with small groups so we can actually fix them. What did you think about Naturopia Rare but last year in the science the science faculty alone there was 18 people that couldn't get Intra for their placement and this year there's 36 so far whether that goes down or not we're not gonna know there's a lot of stigma especially with the science students with employers like not wanting to take students from DCU because of past reputation so do you have any idea what you would do with dealing with overcoming a kind of stigma and not allowing with what am I trying to say how would you deal with students that aren't it's not that they're bad students and they didn't manage to get a position but that the employers are not willing to take people from DCU or that there's not enough jobs out there for the amount of people that are in the course. I wasn't aware of that but we could certainly do a placement drive and as an SU really actively look for places for those students not just say you know sort it yourself you know but really as an SU attack it early on in the year so that when it does come to placement time that it is sorted for them. So would you be willing to work with companies to go directly with companies? Oh we'll have to so we have to sort for students that's where students union we work for the students. As long as with the ancient office as well. Yes. And nothing you had in your manifesto was having a counsellor as well a mobile counsellor. Did you intend for one person to go around campus or like tell me how about it? That was particularly a problem with third-year Beds. We have a 10 week placement at home where we are there from September to Christmas in schools and it is very stressful you're very isolated you're at home and you're putting in probably 12 hour days at least between planning and teaching and a lot of people felt isolated and there was a survey done and I think 14% said that college services were adequate and to support them which is absolutely disgraceful I think that was from the year before last so I think that would really help students who need a counsellor like because especially I think there's a six-week waiting list in the on the same paths campus for counsellor coming up to placement so a mobile counsellor should relieve some of that.  I just think it's really important everyone comes out and vote for every position just to even five ten minutes research look at manifestos get out talk to candidates ask them why they should elect you and just really express your vote. Okay cool thanks for talking today. Next up we have Sarah McLaughlin who will be moderating the welfare debate. Voting for the student union 2017 elections takes place this week on the 21st to the 23rd of March. I sat down with three out of the four candidates hoping to take Cody Burns position as VP of welfare and equality next year. The little thing you had in your manifesto was about the sports day which reminds me a bit of the sports day you used to have in school. Yeah, that's exactly why I chose it. I thought it was kind of nostalgia. I know we all have a lot of stress with college work, girlfriend work, everything so I thought we're taking a strip in the all-back going back to like your childhood roots. Physical health does impact your mental health and I thought it's a good way to relax and increase stress while also getting fit. Yeah, okay and another thing obviously as welfare officers and shift week are huge and you mentioned in your manifesto that you'd like to run more kind of workshops towards the sexual health in a relationship. Would that be kind of more advice centered or health centered or what's your idea? It's going to be both because I've noticed there's been a severe lack, because a lot of people are relationships have been a severe lack of like relationship classes so it helped people like know what to do in a relationship if we're going to be the best partner to their partner relationship also knowing signs of abuse and like how to know that you're in a dangerous relationship and also having like health classes but now a lot of people think that if they're in a long relationship they can like forego the conjure and sort of the pill. It's just trying to teach them that these are students who are at your teacher. And then do you want to tell me from your manifesto what's unique about your idea of what regards to mental health next year? I thought Cody's idea was pretty solid so I kind of built on that and in terms of I think I have more casual venture I don't have big things so I have also the Feel Good Friday it was there so that's going to be a monthly event because it's relaxed and not a film. I also have a monthly seminar which I've not seen anyone do. I have an expert from the field say a doctor who must get to find your PTSD to talk to like a huge class and inform them about the disease biologically and how it affects people at the societal level and also have them like break down like stigmas and like stereotypes about that disease. There is awareness to tell people how to approach people with these diseases because people might have them and not want to approach people with it so I thought to remove all that stigma and have someone who actually knows about the disease or talk to you about it. Another thing you mentioned as well was consent classes which is something that a lot of people are not okay with. They think that we're university students, we don't need them. I'm glad that's not your opinion. No, consent classes is something I'm also very sure because I know a lot of people think we don't need them especially more men who think we don't need them and women but we all know that it's a wonderful group that will have some kind of sexual abuse in their lifetime so obviously being a student we do tend to go out more and be more at risk which is of no fault on our own. So these are things that do need to be said. For sure. Okay thanks for talking to us today. Thank you. Two big things in your manifesto was the fines. You talked about library fines and accommodation fines so talk me through the problems you think you should address if you were offered off to serve again. No, I do understand during the downtime library fines are key especially for like when you have short term loans especially because their books are in such high demand and we can't be taken out of the library but off peak when people are using these books and they're going to find so much. I think that can be quite difficult especially when you're on campus to come in and drop the book back and even we'd say if you do live on campus and you rent out on Friday and you're late, there still is that drop box but they're still being fined for the time that's on you. Like for my manifesto if you ask and I really ring up and say look I'm going to be a little bit late, I'm giving no reason and then when you drop the book back they can assess it and maybe reduce the fines a little bit because as students you don't have that much money and like I said it's downtime that's fine, it's key but off peak when the books are in such high demand there shouldn't be such a need on such fine questions. Okay, another unique aspect of your manifesto was the idea of introducing a body system much like a lot of the students that do school so briefly talk me through how you think that would work especially taken in our age group that we are in if you were into seven. But the body system I like the inspiration from the UCB as well. They do think we're international students from the students from UCU who went abroad and come back can sign up for a body system so students who are international from UCU can get a lot of groups and obviously people who've been in the last year can tell you for this and they get a little groups of six and they're in a group for the year but not for the year but at the start they're integrated with each other so that means students from around the world that know that it's actually a new city can have these students who come abroad but I also like to integrate them maybe like first years and stuff like that because I do understand that like the student ambassadors do tours and that is so helpful but if you had students who signed up it makes a little part more person you're not an ambassador this is what you have to do you want to sign up to this you want to integrate new students into the UCU and big part of welfare obviously would be concentrating the people and also would be sexual health you know I think consent is a huge issue in the UCU or it has to be and address even more I think what is amazing about the job is to work on that I'd like to bring in like I said with the community goal week in the first semester with the South officers and obviously you give the society a good I'd like to bring in our health gas back to us live for the first week so sleep having courses and teaching about health courses and looking after yourself and talks in order to know both for your physical health but again your mental health and then bring in talks and people in order to identify how to identify sorry a task in order to be able to identify and then help you in their friends or themselves and kind of broaden our knowledge of how to have and also deal with a mental health in DC okay good thanks for talking to us today thank you one of the things you mentioned in your manifesto was unique to yours was introducing a humans of DCU company to help you what that's all about what I faced my manifesto on is what I've seen I want to use this as a way to highlight the issues first of all that are most important to students but also it's a good way for me to know what they want to see being done I'd love to see it if art get in I'd love to see it being used throughout the year just so that people share their experiences with different social issues particularly like mental health different stories like that that could really help other students see you know they're not alone and you know there's a lot of people in college that go through the same issues and one issue that's actually important to you because you study teaching is accessibility for events and everything for people on statements absolutely absolutely these sorts of stressful time like you can see me I ran in here my bags but like I think it's really important that they're still put on in the evening times that the people that I'm placing like you know not just the teachers the nurses anyone else you know they have to be able to access stuff so definitely putting things on the evening even if something like you know meditation yoga something like that that's really good for a while you're on place and to take time out for yourself and just chill and relax yeah yeah speaking of meditation and yoga if you were elected like sexual health and mental health is important as well for officers and you also mentioned spiritual health yeah what do you mean by that we've done a lot about that this in college actually with the children so on that level it's a lot of you know mindfulness and the importance of having stillness in your day you know just just for people to chill out and be able to set themselves free is the most important thing okay and then what would you also do to deal with sexual health and mental health as part of your position I would love to look at it's very controversial at the moment I know there's a lot of controversy on this being brought into other colleges I'd love to bring in consent classes I think it's really important like in all colleges I'm not single-ing out anyone but like obviously you know with the college that's so big there's obviously going to be issues somewhere you know it's not everyone obviously but you know it's good to be informed and even not for even not for yourself if you see a friend in trouble to know what to do you know I'm like to know how to approach friend even if you see a friend doing something that you're not very comfortable with to someone else to know how to deal with all those things it's a lot of over like across the board what to do in different situations Michelle Martin for DCU TV news hello and welcome back to the DCU TV news broadcast and it's all about the candidates so we're here with the welfare candidates are you okay you can feel the tension in the room well we're gonna start out with a very easy question the first question that we're gonna start with Pog at the end it's just what makes you qualified to be a welfare officer to be qualified as a welfare officer well I've been quite involved in DCU life especially this year around societies and just being around campus but I think the most important part that qualifies me well I think that qualifies me as a welfare and quality officer is unapproachable and I like I can listen to people I can give advice but also I open up as well I think when you're taking people's problems it's important that you open up to other people as well and it makes you more approachable it makes you more approachable and to other people and yeah I think I'm just worried to listen to people regardless of problems how big or how small I understand that everyone realizes that everyone takes on different problems and they're more severe to other people so as in most important part I think and this qualifies me as a welfare officer is that I'm just always there for people when they need to be and I'm approachable okay good okay that was right Maria well first off I'm trying to be a teacher I've been trying for four years and like the main thing about that is that we're looking after students like that's our whole job that's gonna be my career so and I think that really translates well in onto this job as well and just as well my personality I'm very much an approachable person I'm very outgoing I love talking to people I love working with people like I've worked at pennies and everything I think if you could still work with people after working in pennies with all the customers you can work without me but no like I'm a very good listener I'm you know really good giving advice and just being approachable and talking to people yeah okay another approachable one okay I'm approachable but because I am approachable and I have been involved in yes you and closing societies beforehand but I would say what the main reason what makes me qualified for being the welfare and the officer is because I understand what this role means to people and I understand how important that this role is to people because I've been in situations where I've had to use the welfare officer before and I've been in I know exactly how grateful I was to have that resource so I think the main reason that would make me qualified is because I know how important this is to people because it's so important to me okay that's fair that's definitely fair welfare is so important to DC students so Olivia yeah similar to everyone I kind of wanted to go for this position because I remember back in first year I'm seeing Eve and I was really scared I just moved to this like huge town and just seeing how much she helped me and also like a since first year I've been part of like minority and societies and like a LGBT sock and feminist sock it also Africa so I'm actually chair of Africa so I'm big into helping minorities and welfare and so and also I chose my course because I love science but I also love finding out how humans interact with other humans in the world and I thought if we can help somehow help them kind of engage in the world in a better way I was done at my job so that's why I've kind of run for wealth and I think that's why I'm qualified that's a really interesting like road to go down for that but it's good so first I'm going to talk to you Maria and basically you talk about bringing in consent classes into DCU but that's already been implemented by Cody this year and what are your thoughts on the actual student response to that well I know particularly in other colleges there have been a lot of issues what making it a voluntary thing and it's been proven that it hasn't been working very well as a voluntary thing so I'd like to breathe in you know at the very beginning of the year as part of Freshers Week because you get the talk for the beginning of Freshers Week you know with regards all different parts of college life and I'd like to just make it more casual more you know normalized being part of Freshers Week just a by-the-by thing you know bring in that way that is a way to bring it in but how do you feel about the actual response that it's had on the DCU campus at the moment I think students are responding well I think just the main thing for me is to start off the year with it as opposed to doing anything to rate and kind of making it a very much at the beginning of the year particularly for first years I think it needs to be addressed with especially because coming to college it's quite new so I think that's the most important part like starting off with first years and working its way down. Yeah at the moment the response has actually been quite negative it's gone really well with people who have volunteered but a lot of students feel like we don't need it that we're old enough to sort of understand it what are your thoughts on that. I know what you mean yeah now I do realize that it has been it's impossible for those who have done it but like a lot of people don't think it's necessary and I think it isn't it isn't necessary like some people might feel you know I understand it completely it's fine but it's not just about if you understand it yourself I think it's as well seeing other people in different situations like you might see a friend who's in need or you might see a friend of yours who's doing something that you don't quite like and it's kind of it teaches you how to approach that as well I think just bring it in on a compulsory basis at the beginning of the year will help like it normalize that it's not kind of making people do this it's just kind of like by the way you know this is what this is making people aware and you think that that's the best use of the resources that welfare officer will have because I know that at the moment it's a very expensive program so are you plan on spend a lot of your budget on that you think that that's the best use of the resources I think it just well it is a really big issue in all colleges but especially I think just out of college that it is very important to bring in and I think like I can't I don't think we can stress enough how important they are to bring into college I think that yeah it's worth bringing it into the budget but it could be just like one talk at the beginning of the year like it wouldn't cost too much to just do one talk for all the first years coming in do you know what I mean like it's not it's not some like it doesn't need to be done it can be done continuously throughout the year but I think the most important part is just the beginning of the year which shouldn't cost too much you know okay thank you for your answer next I'm going to go on to Podge so as well for officer you're supposed to be a symbol of support for the students assumptions have raised concerns about your comments on rape at a society event do you want to address this yeah of course I'm not going to defend myself in any way I think I ought to address this but by all means I have no issue with people coming to me because I as a welfare officer you do have to be a symbol and I understand at the time and what the story was I understand when when like it was brought to me that's set on stage and I understand they just wanted to embarrass a certain number of a society but the way it went about it was often and I know that was my own fault for saying the story I had anyway no intention I had no intention of making fun of such a severe issue and I didn't mean to either and I do feel that I addressed it quite well but I do think that any issue that students have come by want me to come and support me because they're dead right it's something that is huge in this in this society and as Maria said she wants to come to any classes and something like this is something that has to be addressed so I'm not going to defend myself in any way shape or form and it was a mistake and I think I will never do it again okay and so was it someone brought the story to you and said we want to embarrass this person say it or was it that you had heard it and you thought okay this is going to be funny no the original story went that the certain person just kisses best friend sister and she was of age and it was just a parody but then as I was on stage there was more pieces being thrown at me that I just repeated so then as I said it I realized what I said and I couldn't take her back and I just want to like address that it was my own fault and I should have said it and I know we encourage sexual assault rates that at all it is a huge issue and what's going on I apologize okay thank you for that I'm just gonna talk to Jason so basically you focus a lot on your sexuality as part of your campaign and why do you think that this is so important to your campaign um I suppose like it's it's something it's my sexuality like coming out was that was one of the first things that brought me to the welfare officer in DC and I kind of just went there for a bit of advice you know how to come out and it was something that as as being in the closet it was massive for me to come out like I knew the majority of my family would be supportive but still even just to say those words was incredibly hard like and going to the welfare officer and finding out that you know like stories that she had told me about other people and how successful they had there it had been and that just brought me to the role of welfare and then since the incorporation when equality has been tied in with the role um I know like how hard Eve fought for their marriage referendum and I know that there is a political mandate for us to verify for pro-choice in the PLA so I just feel like I just want to give everything back that Eve did for the LGBTQ plus community so that's why something I focus in my manifesto okay so but why do you think that you use that a lot in regards to like your promotion and sort of your day-to-day talking with people why is that such an sort of important thing to you to use I know that you know you worked with the with the welfare and that's how you came out and stuff but why is it so integral to your actual campaign because that's something that first that I relate to welfare one of the things not like being gated I'd relate to being wet to a welfare officer but I relate to the equality side so fighting for minorities and you know fighting for everyone's rights and that's something that I why I relate because it brought me first to the SAO I wasn't really involved with the SAO in first year and then the second year I that's when I kind of brought myself forward to kind of get involved and it's not really so much about sexuality relating to tying in welfare it's more about the kind of fighting for the equality side of things. Okay thank you so much and then Olivia so basically physical activity is very important to the health of DCU students and you talk about having a sports day do you think that this is actually sort of the best use of our resources would it not be better to sort of come up with a plan with clubs or the DCU gym? I thought sports day kind of helped would get the every man to join because I know a lot of people usually come who join like say DCU dance or some rock climbing there you have a kind of sporty background anyway the sports day was trying to get every single type of student to join and kind of interact and kind of improve the physique because I felt like even now I'm not the most active person but if something like that happened I thought that would be something I'd love to do I wanted to make something that everyone could do rather than just sporty people. So in regards to clubs and sites at the moment like the likes of dance and other sites have sort of free dance you can go to like you can learn ballet you can do this or even with the clubs you can evolve with the sport and actually achieve a goal with it would it not make more sense to sort of work with them where it's free instead of using resources that you could use maybe for like STI testing or something else? So actually I was planning on working with clubs and societies and that are more physical for this event but and the problem that I found with DCU dance even though I've actually used some of their free classes themselves was that there wasn't enough public knowledge about it so if the wealth officer was in charge of a campus the campus is wide and type of event I thought that would improve kind of people and interaction and engagement sports. Okay thank you so much so we're just going to go on to a question that's for everyone now so how does the candidates feel about working as part of a non-smoking Glass and Evan sort of working group so at the moment Cody works with a working group that is planning to make Glass and Evan a smoke free campus how would you feel about working with this working group? So what's our project? Yeah I do understand it's a difficult approach just in the sense that a lot of students do smoke especially in college I know myself for like nights out and it's quite common to have a cigarette. I think a non-smoking campus is a good idea however there should be certain advocate spots for smoking especially students who live on campus it'd be rather difficult for them to live in a non-smoking campus if they live there so maybe if you'd certain spots we'd say in the campus if you'd be delegated or not if you'd like arrange a spot we'd say in Hampstead in the center so soon to live on campus and who are on campus can go there smoke I think that would be quite yeah. And they not already have that in Larkfield and Hampstead where you can always sort of smoke in the certain places outside? Yeah they do. Oh sorry sorry I misread the message I thought you meant as a non-food could you repeat that? Yeah so Cody currently works with a working group that is planning to make Glass and Evan a smoke free campus how would you feel about working with this group to achieve that? Oh sorry sorry apologies and yeah no I agree with that and I feel that you know a lot of students who don't smoke would be quite served by smoke in the area so I think it's good to if you're supposed to work with them to achieve certain campaigns to ensure that students are behind you in this and then bring it forward so then hopefully you can make Glass and Evan a smoke free campus. Okay Marie yeah I definitely think it's something that you need to make sure the students are all behind because there are a lot of issues like obviously it's a great idea it's a great way to promote you know health units and all that and but you also have to take into account that you know it could be late at night and there could be students and you don't want them leaving the campus too far like there's you know safety issues with that as well you know and so I think things like that really have to be looked into but I think it definitely has to be cleared with the students and see what the general idea is first. Yeah I'd be more than happy to work with them as long as they're a come suited of students. I would love to work with them because again I don't smoke myself but I also am not just making in a way that we're having a no smoking campus but kind of I've came for the reasons why because there's a lot of them stigma in not smoking but it's also that's kind of people say smoking is anti-social if you find that smoking is more social than not smoking because you don't get to interact with people in the smoking area so if you can make it if you can make them not smoking seem like the better option as well so we don't feel like they have they have no reason to not smoke as well. Okay thank you and the next question I just want to go into is everyone knows that at the moment in DC it's very hard to get a doctor's appointment it's nearly impossible so how would you feel about raising the fee by four euro and then this would actually be done by a random so start with Pog. Yeah this is an immobilized manifesto and I do agree with that I think that it's like important that and I do understand that if students was to up the levy if the student was to be up the student levy was to be up and it would make getting an appointment a lot more difficult however it would make it easier for students and it would be free and healthy so I do think it is a good idea and should probably be interpreted. Okay Maria. Yeah I think the students the services being provided to students are very good buys at all the you know doctors and all the medical centers and what it is there is a problem with getting actual appointments I do think four euro a year isn't too much to know for something so important. It's a four euro rise from the current fee which is actually 20 euro. Oh sorry I thought yeah yeah yeah but like I still think it is worth the extra four euro to get that I mean once it is put a referendum if students are behind that then obviously I'll be behind that as well. Yeah so if students are behind it I will behind it also but it is kind of a difficult situation where you know are we going to still get as many appointments for students I know at the minute down on the same path campus so you can book an appointment but up in Glass-Even it works a bit different so you have to be there before a certain time to get an appointment on that day so it does really just depend on what the students want but at the same time as well we need to be promoting the services that are outside of DCU so if students have a medical card in DCU they could go down the road there to Mona up in Sanctuary and then the students that then don't have the medical card can use the doctor here in Glass-Even around Sanctuary. Yeah four-year and the large scheme of things isn't that much of an increase but we need to make sure the students are aware of where that four-year is going because I might not think it's important but then other people might and so ensuring people know where the four-year is going also kind of making sure that if the four-year is implemented that they know it's going straight to this doctor counseling and the appointments so and just making sure the students know exactly where it's going and kind of ensuring that it does go to the Everyone here is obviously working for a wealth or an equality do not think that this raise will actually stop people from having equal rights to the doctor and of course if you have a medical card grant but a lot of students don't have a medical card but also aren't super rich and they can't throw out this money all the time especially if they're sick so what are your thoughts on that Podge? Yeah that's a good point so I suppose how I'd go about that is gauging again what the students want so if it was during the students then I suppose you would have to go if it seems more beneficial then go with the majority of students that do understand that our students don't have that money but if you come up with some sort of scheme that students could get the money from just be a service or something like that if you weren't able to afford it then that could help them as well. Yeah like as you said it is important that we're looking after the welfare of the students and I think one of the most one of the most important things with that is their health and it is you know their doctor's appointments and stuff and if there it is the case where they can't get doctor's appointments they can't access the service then I think you kind of have to put that over the money aspect of it you know I think it is worth for the students to pay that extra for us they know they can be guaranteed to actually get in to see the doctor provide that actually works. Well to increase the levy we would have to have a referendum anyway so the students would be voting on this but in certain situations SU would have a stance on certain referendums for example the constitution referendum that's coming up with these elections it's yes but what I think what we should do in that case then is have a neutral stance and just provide the facts so maybe your the appointments they might you know the people that really need the appointments they might have less of a chance but then there'll be free doctor's fees and the students need to know all the facts so that they can decide then in that referendum. Yeah because four year might be might be not something someone can afford so maybe kind of highlighting or trying to work with the access services and services for poor students or students who cannot afford the fees to kind of make a certain like not a levy free kind of service for them but kind of a different service that they can probably work around and work to their budget so that's how I okay thank you all those great answers and next I'm going to go with this scenario so basically an international student who is in first year lands at your door just came off a flight their English isn't like up to national standard and they have nowhere to live what do you do certain apology um well initially I also wanted to quote I'm a manifesto there's a deal of a body system so students who come internationally to DCU will be partnered up with people who were in DCU went abroad and essentially although I do know the DCU investors give students towards body system is that it's more personal level especially for students who because it's had for students who've been abroad and who are back in Ireland and they know that it's difficult for a student who's coming to a new country so I would if so I want that meant for students who they have their body before they come over and then if they come to me looking for accommodation I would do the very best as possible can to look at the resources on the student union page to try my best to get them accommodation as quick as possible okay so the body system is actually already in effect with the international office it's something they already do but if someone is standing right in front of you and doesn't have somewhere to sleep that night that is your job to sort of get them somewhere so what do you do um what do I do of course right away attempting depending on the time if they come to that night you have to do your best to find accommodation that night whether if it's with you you are the student welfare you can look after welfare at the end of the day you are the person they come to for help and then as soon as possible just spend as much time as you can to try and get them accommodation for the future um so that they can enjoy their time please see you okay thank you Maria um yeah um first off if it's on a short-term basis then need somewhere for the night I think you know if you can't leave a student that's come to you know struggling like that so um I think looking into seeing if there's any spare rooms on accommodation and if not look you know outside that and see you know a hostel or something like that you know just so that they're not you know stuck and um you know giving advice on that long-term I think one of the things I want to do particularly and I think it could particularly help international students is provide a lot of information like a type of online brochure type thing that gives them exact you know things to ask tenants know their tenant or renters know their tenants rights all that sort of thing so it's just especially for first-time renters as well it kind of helps a lot of people yeah well I think it's important to know that the students union would never turn any one away like that um I know that there is um unused well they're not unused but they're mostly empty rooms up in Hampstead that could be something to look into with uh with campus res to maybe put them in there for the night um if that would be kind of more safer option because they're on campus they have security but if not maybe a local hotel maybe um hostel but at the same time yeah long-term I would have I would show them how to find the accommodation maybe if there is that language barrier then maybe find someone that does speak the same language um and just show them all the options that they have the most important thing is to make sure that they are safe and sound up okay and Livia yeah so if it's emergency foundation again looking here on campus and also looking outside of sorry private and private accommodation that can tell your hostels and finding someone who's from their culture because even though we you can find someone who speaks the language but they might not be from the same culture so kind of finding someone who's part of that culture and kind of explaining um how to kind of navigate through DCU and in their and their kind of understanding and then also like um to a time of the renters right because that's a big thing and knowing their rights and making sure they know of every single kind of um resource available to them is that in the long term in the long term as well because so um I'd hopefully take them in and just talk to them through um someone who's part of that culture kind of explain all their all their rights and all their and all the resources there for them as well do you think they'd be able to do that like if they came to you at like seven o'clock at night in the SU so for that for emergency one I just try and find them at home for the next day I'd bring in someone hopefully like say those are Japanese and women are mad I would hopefully find someone from their culture kind of explain and because they probably would know better than I would because they kind of know um what it's like to be a foreign student in a kind of foreign country so yeah okay and we're just going to go on to our final question now of the night so who's your number two who would you vote for as your number two I know certain podge yeah that's um for my number two I would simply um not in disgrace any of the candidates but yeah Jason um just from I know him I do think he'd be great my professor um as with the other two ladies um it's not um that's discrimination I hit that I know Jason and um I do believe that he does just from no one personally he does really want this role and you know he's passionate about it so if um he's the Jason I would be happy about okay Maria yeah um you're popular I was gonna go for you too I just think um he's done his research and he's clearly passionate about the role and I think they're two really important things for a welfare officer to have okay and Jason's the popular one who's who's the popular one to you um I'm actually really sorry guys but I'd probably Olivia um I think that she really cares and there's like a genuine kind of low for the role there with her as well just but not as much as for me a little talk and Olivia and I get to add to the file Jason um right from the same town as well so that kind of like loyalty but also just because like I've seen him work his way up you know in the SC and I've seen how much he's caring he cares for students he's a science and health rep and everything he's done he's done because he knows what it's like to be in this position of like and vulnerability you know and especially with the um and I think he would understand maybe not to not to like what you guys are but more than anyone what it's like to kind of have a welfare officer come to you and help you and I think he understands that fully and I'd love for him if I didn't get it for him to get it yeah that was really really lovely that's a great way to end it um that's all we're going to have time for now with the welfare officers up next we have Richard Callagher who will be who will be moderating the presidential debate so stay tuned my name's Alvin I'm a 4th year finance student and I'm running to be the next DCU students union president hey guys my name's Sarah Sweeney I'm running to be your next DCU SU president and I'm from Faradayden County Jodhigal and I'm a 21 year old final year business Jodhig student my name is Lee Cargo and I'm running for president for the student union my name is James Rooney and I'm running for presidency in the October DCU actually so my name is Imer McGuire I'm the current vice president for the development I am a graduate of St. Papp's College and I'm running for president I'm running for presidency because after this year I feel like I have somewhat want to give and I have an investment interest in the student movement and I feel like I know where we've gone wrong this year and how we can improve for the future my first job is as a protest candidate so my aim is to bring new air to the student union so things can get done better big problems on the DCU I think one of the biggest ones among the corporations students are not being happy I know that the way it's going to go forward will really affect the future of the DCU I think the next two years are going to be crucial I'm running for presidency because I want to make a difference I want to bring some changes and some improvements and also build on some of the success of the current issues had in the upcoming year hidden talents well I did join a summer I rode bareback up on a mule up into the middle of 15 miles into the outback to go down trees for one of my jobs at the state so that was a bit whatever hidden talents was it's a tough one I suppose one of my hidden talents is that I consistently failed to prepare for exercise and big activity events so recently I've started doing triathlon so we're having done any exercise or any training for them so I've gotten through them and it's good that I've gone through three triathlons now but I've nearly had three heart attacks and that's a talent for myself you want to give an example just say someone is Spanish and I can speak a little bit of English final debate at the evening um firstly I'd like to welcome all presidential candidates here this evening and thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedules because I know a few of you were um had a lot going on this evening so thanks for being here and so we're going to start off this evening with the first question and that is I in deciding to run for this particular decision or position who have you spoken to in researching this role and what have you what have you learned who have you spoken to we'll start off with Ricardo who did I speak with to be honest probably nobody but I've been involved with the student union for a while and I think I have a clear picture of what the presidential role should be so yeah okay um I suppose in relation to previous sabbatical officers I've spoken closely with Kim Sweeney in Curtin all the current officers and as well as that every point in my manifesto I can back up I've spoken to every single person like a lot of mine is about sports so I work quite closely with Ken from the gym so I kind of probably concentrate most of it and everyone's been on that so okay perfect and being one yourself yeah I have the daily inside view of what the president does and because I work so closely with Dylan but um I suppose in relation again to the question I've spoken with Kim Sweeney and I've spoken to past and same paths and student representatives and such as Rory Tobredon and Owen Rackard as well as um working closely with staff members such as Brie McRat, Dara Kyo, there's no point making empty promises that we can't fulfill so I wanted to make sure that everything I have in my manifesto is accomplishable and to do that you have to go through the right people and on a university level as well as on a student union level okay and I suppose I was in talks with previous SU presidents from the original Pats campus Rory Tobredon Rackard and also I was talking to another individual Sean Conahan who he was an elected president for Pats many years ago I've also been in discussions with the Gareth something else um which Brie and the current president of DCU and also Roger Godiva as regards other issues within the union and so I've been interacting with them and kind of that gained my interest and get a better idea of what maybe might be in store in the future for such a month okay and now finally yeah so I've gotten conflict with everyone in the last few years that I've known that um actually was in the role so uh so I'm on Clark um he was president when I was in first year I remember going to the helix and actually seeing him and being inspired but there was someone kind of looking out for students um in a union basis I've also gotten conflict with Garrett Gillick who's the education officer um in the same year since then obviously got a conflict with Kim obviously I've known Dylan very well and the same I was too loud to hear I think on record and Rory Tobredon all giving us advice and they're kind of uh helping us all out in a way okay so the second question I have is that this year is the second year that the SU president will be over he'll be leading in a team that is uh has five executive positions more than other years I mean this year was the first year so how do you feel as um you would be able to take on this role as president you'd be um leading and kind of in charge of a larger team so compared to say this year the way it was dealt with how do you guys feel like you would cope with the role of either James? I suppose one of the things that you have to do if you're over a group of people you have to understand who they are and get an understand for their personalities in different point of views that they have you have to accept that as the leader of are at the head of these individuals you're going to have conflict you're always going to have conflict in a working environment where different point of views are involved I know that from working in different areas like you have to work together as a team you have to put aside your differences and put ahead the people who you are over whether it be the student body who will be elected over to represent or from previous experience working in night clubs you put the ordinary citizen ahead of you when you're in a night club situation so bringing it back you have to just get on with them and try and engage with them or talk with them or make sure that you're seen on all the campuses I think that was the biggest issue this year some of the members of the SU may have felt that they were left out to drive by other members of the SU who didn't interact with them or didn't visit the other campuses to show that they were there I think that will be the biggest thing is to try and being on all campuses but you're one person so I'm wondering how you'd manage your your team of people to the best of your ability kind of in I mean you can't be in one more in one place at one time so just managing that you have the people in different places this year that seem to not really work to the full extent so how would you is it do anyone else have an answer for that and from sorry do you want to go and for seeing what happened this year I think it's very important that we realize that it's not just five sabbaticals there's a team of part-timers who give a lot to student union and give a lot of time and to different activities and campaigns and stuff that would be on and in regards to time management I think that it's there wasn't enough of a presence on all campuses this year even today during campaigning it's hard to see that some students on all how those campus don't even know who the current students union are they they don't even recognize what's going on so I think that's something that really needs to be worked on is a presence of course you cannot fulfill a duty to be in 10 places at one time you are only one human being but I think it's about time management and a little bit of you know it's compromise it's you need to make sure that you're visible to all students and you're down on the ground with them we're not just people up in an office where people that you can come and talk to on a daily basis so now do you think that yeah I just think that like if you're friends with people it makes it so much easier I know that you obviously you're gonna meet people in life that you're not going to get on completely with but if you are friends with the people you work with and the people you're actually going to be seeing on a day-in-day basis that people that you know are going to hop in when you're are feeling um I suppose a little bit down or you're not really hitting on all cylinders they kind of it will remind you that or like you represent the students and and you'll remind them and when it comes down to that you'll know what actually is important and the students are what's most important at the end of the day so that's what will actually come out to partition it won't just be yourself and for individuals it'll actually be a team okay anyone else anything to add to that I would add that I think the team has five people working full-time on the positions I cannot imagine they don't have time to do that so I think full-time implies some of your time is going to go on meetings probably a lot of time but at the same time some of your time should go to actually walk in the different campuses meet people maybe attend events maybe just show you are there as everybody's pointing out they think the most important for president is to show that you are there and in terms of the team working each VP let's say has specific skills and skip a specific role and you just need to get sure that whatever day have to do gets done besides doing what you have to do obviously okay right there do you have anything to add I just think it's really important to know when to be a member of a team and when to be a leader and I mean I was on paths today I spent most of my day down there and just from speaking to students they couldn't name the five sabbatical officers like I don't think I think physical presence is so so important and I think that's something paths have been hugely underrepresented in this year and that's something I really want to work on the unity of the campuses so I think communication is a big problem that needs to be worked on next year okay agreed so um another question then would be say Dylan saying Dylan is this year's president could you criticize or would you benefit on something that he has done this year um what would you do differently what will you do differently to something that Dylan has done something you wouldn't have done yourself you want to start with you um well obviously I have to work with him so for another couple months but um personally I feel like um representation on a usi level wasn't and there wasn't as much of a buy-in with him I don't think it was a personal interest of him of his um so I feel like I would work a lot more closely with usi we pay them a fee to work with them and they don't work we don't work for them they work for us basically so I think we need to utilize the skill set that they have and push for things that students need on a on a higher level and such as the loan scheme obviously repeal the A and national campaigns for teachers and for nurses and also for gilthofis those things are important to the students that we have here on campus and they weren't utilized enough and as well as I think communication was a massive thing this year and even between the team I feel like if I was president I'd want to empower my my team a lot more by just having you didn't feel empowered as part of the team not that I didn't feel empowered he obviously tried very hard and he did do his ultimate best um but I feel like something that he could have done more is communicate more with us we could have had more team meetings more one-to-one meetings and also with the part-timers I felt like they were kind of left out in the cold they were just called upon whenever they were needed and I think that that's something that they need to be empowered more so as well because they have a more one-to-one basis I think a lot of the time with students so that's something that needs to be utilized okay yeah I think like kind of contrasting that I think I do understand what he was coming from but it's like Dylan was kind of handed a very much a hard um like hard deck yeah it was the first year first year and also that like a lot of the problems that were arose were actually at a university level there weren't actually his issues and he had created it was that he was dealt the situation he had to decide where to go to it and a lot of people blaming him as the figurehead when he hadn't got nothing to do with it um but I do think there was a lot he hadn't actually be praised for like he's we've always been told that you're never ever going to have a festival in this year and he was the first person to get a marquee put in um for six weeks on canvas I think that wasn't actually appreciated enough that he was actually able to do that he was in the lobby and the the DCU government body to get that in it wasn't something it was put in overnight and it was a huge undertaking it was a lot of money that he knew that societies were going to use in the year with the lapse of the the hope that well obviously we're going to have next year with the opening of the student center next year we're actually going to have that in but um he does have a lot to do kind of for as well okay anyone else anything to say about it? People assume it was a lot you were saying more presence more interaction between the different faculties and the faculty reps and also the other vps like um I can say and more students on the patches campus can say this that didn't cure came down drawn the elections and then he was never seen again until the elections this year and I feel that's a major issue you have to be shown to be doing your job and one of the things to do that is in shorty you know what is going on on the ground did you know the issues that students are faced and that can be done both through interaction with your team that you're working with both the power time and full-time representatives and also by engaging with the students to show that you actually take their opinion into account and I think that will be the biggest change I would like to make is more interaction between the president and the elected representatives and the students okay I think I would kind of take a mix of their answers there I think Dylan's a very good people person and maybe more so up in DC and just exact same thing again there was no physical presence out in parts and I got the same kind of reaction that James mentioned they're done in parts today so just to be more engaged with students I think that's really important okay correct I would say on this question I am famous for asking him what have you done yes and it's nothing personal obviously no but I would say it's just from my point of view as a portrait so not to say some Patrick people I cannot name anything he's done for me really nothing so the only thing I heard was the Gougeon on the radio in the lab one night and I thought really that's what I have to hear from the student union I'm trying to make better you heard sorry could you repeat that the Gougeon campaign that was great for marketing it was great I mean no doubt it was a really good marketing campaign for Nubar but it actually was something those students very much cared about I think the fact that Dylan did get involved in it so that what you could see is that in one way if your biggest hit is to try to bring back a Gougeon as a president of a student union I'm sorry but I would say that's not your job okay that's fair enough and so now I'm going to ask individual questions other candidates are more than welcome to to kind of have a say at the end but just keep it keep it nice and civil so we'll begin with you Nile yeah and it's regarding your proposal for Tefal you are aware that this is actually already available on the teaching camp or for teaching students dance impact education faculty yeah yeah so basically if you were to make that available to all students the cost would be extremely costly so how do you propose kind of that you would make this feasible well actually from talking from email that the actual people who supplied this course and after you have done it myself in school and they alleviate the fee if they can actually bring in people don't speak English themselves and once a week the people who are actually doing the course go off and actually teach them themselves so that the feed that you're talking about is actually just for a one-on-one session or a group session with an actual teacher or a lecturer and but if you actually have a group of students that are actually engaging in the program and you make it on some community base so sort of the rag go like the rag side to go out and they actually meet people and teach maths in a school very similar they bring in a group of student a group of people and usually non-nationalist Ireland and you actually teach them on a one-on-one basis once a week and the fee is reduced so it will be a reduced fee yeah exactly exactly and I think that if it actually gets integrated into the actual and not only education faculty but the language school here Salas for example I think it's very important that students not only be able to like learn other languages we should be able to teach around because it's so valuable that you can go abroad you can learn how to teach your own language you can travel with it you can also earn money from abroad just like people going away in a J1 they might be a barista or bartender you can go to Southeast Asia or different parts of Africa and actually be able to teach English to people actually provide a skill while you're earning money okay and who offers the reduced fee so it's actually the Tefl company themselves okay okay that's fine so anyone have anything to comment on that or is that just a given I think it's a great idea and I think it's something that should be of course brought in but just from being a Bachelor of Arts student humanities down in St Patrick's campus I know from my time as a student that when we looked into doing Tefl that for anyone who wasn't doing an education-based course and had placement that it was a subsequent amount of money such as like 750 I think it was 750 euros when I was there so even at a reduced rate I just question how reduced is it and how much is it going to cost the students or the students union and is it a really feasible option I think though like when you're bringing in costs into an idea and before you've even like outlined why you're why not students it comes from the from somebody I believe that just doesn't really appreciate students opinion so when I went out I got all my nominations this year from students that I didn't know and I asked each and every one of them in all the different faculties what the main points they actually wanted to bring in and or they want to see in college and number one from especially to humanities faculty and people who were doing languages there were very little hours in this college who wanted to do so do co-curricular activities was a Tefl course so that means we as a lobby the university to actually bring this in and bring in as a module like an optional module like if you actually look at how expensive a module is to bring into this college it's a huge amount of money so you think about I'm doing French volume two you have to pay a lecturer every time they're in the class tutorials they're correcting exams that all cost money but if the if the college was our government and we lobby them enough to actually bring that in it's going to be in the college so if we actually bring it in on a university level it the cost doesn't matter so I think you're saying that cost is a problem if you're actually not looking at the big issue here the big issue should be students issues and what students care about and cost comes later okay that's fair enough James we'll go to you for the next question in your manifesto you suggested a four campus um festival with for one campus one campus four four stages four times four stages four times okay um and you compared to the Trinity Bowl that is held every year you are aware that the Trinity Bowl isn't run by the SU it's from a third party okay it's done a partnership with a third party it was in discussions with the actual communications officer within the Trinity Union and I had a good chat with him on it and he said yeah it is done in partnership with um another elected representative from outside of the union but it is done jointly the union does play a role within it as well and they said that the reason why they do it in partnership with another group is regards cost and also with regards getting other acts in and I had mentioned that as well when I put the question before that I would be willing if it was that the union was only able to hold itself to seek other promoters from outside of the college to aid in the forming of such an event okay so that would be the only case no okay because UCD attempted to do something about a few years ago and they went bankrupt yeah but they're doing it now this year and they actually have a place out in Dunleary Harbour for over seven thousand students okay perfect brilliant now so Emeril move on to you in your manifesto you said that after your experience this year as engagement development officer that you know where your team succeeded but more importantly it went wrong so I want to ask you where did you go on and personally I feel like a lack of communication was was our main issue and people weren't up to date with what we were doing on for them on a day-to-day basis a lot of the information would go to class reps through and class rep officer reports but it wouldn't filter through to the students and presence of course through that communication is also extremely important and there wasn't a huge credence from all sabbaticals on each campus and I worked really hard to try and make it to each one at least once or twice a week and but it is something that you really have to push yourself to do and I feel like all sabbaticals didn't perhaps do that and as well as that I think USI again wasn't utilised and the way it should have been we should have been lobbying for stuff that students are really really important about and also I think with the class rep system and the new constitution that is currently up for referendum tomorrow or yeah tomorrow for voting and I think the way we went about that wasn't exactly the correct way to go about it it wasn't transparent enough for students they felt like we were trying to trick them into something which we most definitely weren't when we were actually brought it back to the constitutional review committee everything remained the same pretty much and there was very few changes but I feel like it was just a communication and presence issue and a lot of the time okay do you have something to comment on that? I would say it did not really remain the same it changed quite because that was one of the main issues this year like just going back to the constitution okay this is an example of transparency that I would say is clearly showing that things are not being done right by now I would encourage obviously that it gets improved but I would say you cannot just say you changed the constitution in the way it was done and well there was no there were major changes in the constitution that were actually changes that would affect many students for example I'm thinking about the postgraduate officer and this officer was moved to a new sort of position without asking any postgres so I don't see where the transparency is there so I would say major changes were not kept at the same time that minor or major changes that were important were kept too yeah no I agree but I know I was just the question I asked him was what would what I would change around so but I understand that your point there she's just trying to point out what she what she in fact would improve yeah I would improve the way that we went about okay so it's on agreement on that it's on agreement that that was done okay great so Sarah I'm going to move on to you now um you unfortunately have received a lot of backlash over the last week or two since your campaign started um if you had an opportunity to take this one for example to kind of explain the misunderstanding um what would you say do you have anything you would like to say yeah absolutely so for anyone that doesn't know she's talking about my slogan which has created a bit of controversy yeah so it is you can't spell success without ss the ss were obviously hitler's private army from word war two which was but you intended during initials a very long time ago you literally cannot spell the word success without ss I kind of it's very obviously and you can't and the literature fun on my name there was no one time behind it it is a university campaign I didn't see anyone taking a sinister approach to it and I think just another point to make I've received so much abuse on Twitter and I think people just need to be really really careful what they say to people like I am quite thick skinned and I think I can like I have laughed it off but I think it's difficult people need to be really really careful what they say like just not even for the campaign but on the grand scale things like there's someone receiving the abuse like it's all well good to be a keyboard warrior but you need to take into account that it can cause upset to people but obviously I meant absolutely no references to that you didn't have any I mean we all studied I suppose history in school you didn't have any kind of recognition that there was there was a connection there between the two when you were doing your company yeah I did junior certainly in third history yeah I did but I just really didn't see anyone taking a sinister approach to it for a university campaign and I was really disappointed to see that people actually did and I think to be honest it nearly says more about people that they would take it that way from being out in the ground from talking to people I've thought like oh I thought yourself I'm so funny and you know generally very good feedback apart from a few journalists on twitter here and there okay well Ricardo my question for you is you have made it very clear that your cancy is one of protest correct and it's in order to give PhD students a voice correct postgraduate students sorry it's not exactly the same postgraduate okay postgraduate okay however you haven't actually made it clear what you will do if you do become present to be honest this is intentionally like this okay so it's clearly a protest campaign just for one reason is we were arguing the whole year that a postgraduate student has massive issues to get engaged in this student union right now so it's really hard from the point of view of a postgraduate it's me it's hard because of time issues it's hard because of policies like there are really few policies that are targeted to postgraduate students and in some meetings let's say there was the well everybody can run they said okay then let's run so it's almost like a joke no no it's not a joke because you can ask I've been seriously involved I've been part of constitutional review meeting I've been part of as many CRCs that I've been able to but it's more a way to say after a year we were seen a bit like okay you're always annoying you're always there just with problems we are having problems so we want the problem solved so that's a bit the final consequent let's say bit of postgraduates wanting to be part of this union but not okay but how would you solve this if you're not going to if the point is that you're not going to I would say engagement is one thing that is definitely not there and I'm not going to list different things that could be done to engage postgraduates but I can tell you one right now just make more postgraduate reps just have some something like postgraduate faculty reps because it's true that we have faculty reps but actually the faculty reps that we have right now they don't really reach postgraduate students and I would say the faculty rep is maybe the first point of contact or one of the first the class reps but that don