By First Year Editors Felix Mordaunt and Aaron Carroll.
As election nominations closed on the 28th of January, and elections set to commence on the 16th of February, it’s the first opportunity to get out and vote for DCU’s first year students. But how much do first years know about who they’re voting for?
Many First-Year students on campus know that the Student Union acts as the representative body for DCU students, and that they also organise many events on campus. However, they’re in the dark as to how the SU does so, what their daily activities look like, and the importance of the SU in DCU.
When asked what they knew about the current Student Union, computer science student Christa Gigi said, “I know that they represent the student body, but that’s about it.”
Journalism student David Quirk, when asked, simply answered with, “Nothing”, followed by “Nothing at all.”
Engineering student Chris O’Leary said, “Well, I know that they’re in charge of obviously organising all events and stuff, making sure of, like, the upkeep of all the societies and stuff, and standing up for students’ rights.”
When asked if he knew anything of the day-to-day events of the Student Union, he said, “Not on a day-to-day basis, but obviously you see the big events. But between the events, no, not really.”
Fellow Engineering student Cian Denner elaborated on this, saying, “There’s a lot of, yeah, same thing, sort of events and stuff, but there’s not a lot of advertisement about what they actually do around the college.”
However, those who have regular dealings with the Student Union know a bit more about its activities. First-Year Accounting and Finance student Alex Dennis is the Mini Events Officer for DCU’s LGBTA Society and, as part of that, sometimes deals with the Student Union.
“I know that there’s the five sabbatical officers, and then there’s the part-time officers as well, and they help with kind of stuff like lobbying to the government, and other things to help the student body and mainly be a voice for the whole student body.”
As for the SU’s day-to-day activities, she said “I would know bits here and there, from being on a committee, and having to deal with them sometimes, that they would do things like organising the big weeks and stuff like that, but I wouldn’t know much of their, like, in office day-to-day stuff.”
When asked if being on a committee helped with her knowledge of the SU, she said “Yeah, a bit, to be fair.” stating that the committee often collaborated with the Student Union.
Abhinav Giridhar is a class rep for his First-Year Computer Science class. His status as a class rep gives him a greater knowledge of the goings-on at the SU.
“I get to know what meetings they’ve attended, what they’re doing to represent DCU in government meetings. I think they’re doing a stellar job, as of now.”
It’s easier for those involved with the Student Union whether, directly or indirectly, to see what they do to represent DCU.
But for those who aren’t, especially First-Years who won’t have been at the college for very long, it’s more difficult to see the impact the SU has.
VP for Diversity and Inclusion, Malha Muhammed said that the Student Union emphasised the different mediums used to communicate their activities, including the newsletter emailed to students every Monday, advertisements on the televisions in the U Building, and the SU Instagram Page.
When asked if she thought that it was up to the student body to go looking for information, she said it was about “meeting in the middle”.
“We’re working for the students so we need to put the effort in to actually reach the students and advertise… I would say sixty percent SU but students will also play a part.”
She added that the job of the Student Union isn’t just organising events on campus, but also logistics and board meetings, as well as focusing on sensitive issues stating that “I’d say we’ll need to work on more visibility… I personally wouldn’t want students to think the SU is just for events.”
Image Credit: MOLA Architecture