Comms Race boils down to freshness versus experience

This year’s, the Comms Officer race will present students with the choice of either adding a new face to the Students’ Union, or putting their trust in the sitting officer for 12 more months.The challenge of going up against the current Communications and Commercial officer, Barry Nevin, is one which Cathal Walsh welcomes. Walsh believes that, if elected, he would bring freshness and new ideas to the position, “all of which are doable and achievable within the one year term.”In response Nevin argued that this year is possibly the best year for students to re-elect candidates, “as a lot of things are going to happen very quickly over the summer that could be potentially lost in the crossover period.” Among these developments is the new Student Hub, plans for which are to be finalised over the summer, and Nevin claimed that the information lost in the crossover could have ramifications “for decades of students.”For both candidates a key aspect of the position is offering students everything they need while at college, from food to technological repairs, at a price they can afford. In order to do this Nevin highlighted that in his time in office he has established partnerships with several local businesses “to create longer lasting deals for students,” instead of one of offers.Within his manifesto, however, Walsh was critical of the failure to continue to ‘Deal of the Week’ which had been seen in the past, arguing that these offers were of huge benefit to most students. Securing the return of such an offer should, in Walsh’s view, be easy as “local businesses want to increase their student trade” and if on a once of basis they “offer a great service at a discounted price” students would be willing to return.In addition to the loss of this offer, Walsh was also critical of the SU for prioritising the promotion of events taking place in venues outside of UCC on their social media pages over events being offered by societies and clubs. “Clubs and societies are the lifeblood of the campus. They’re events should receive preference over events in SU-linked venues in town.”However, Nevin felt that such a claim was misleading, pointing out that during his term he had honoured “every single request I received to promote a society event.” Arguing that this year’s SU had reached out to societies, clubs and independent student groups to get them more involved in events such as Freshers’ Week, Nevin stated that “we certainly haven’t ignored club or society events” in terms of promotion.Both candidates also identified the need for the continued growth of student media as of crucial importance, despite disagreeing over how to bring about such development. Whilst Walsh believes money generated from SU negotiations with local companies, and his proposed online ticketing system, could be used to fund student publications and UCC 98.3FM, Nevin believes that media within UCC needs to be further separated from the SU and should receive full control over their own finances.