Communications nominees see current Student Union as “unapproachable” | Audrey Ellard Walsh

The first debate of the evening took place between Joel Carey and Owen Kirby, candidates for the position of Communications and Commercial Officer. In this debate, as in all of the evening’s debates candidates were given the opportunity to ask each other one question based on their manifeso and were then questioned by the Editor in Chief and News Editor based on questions submitted by students via email and the hashtag #UCCVotes.

    Joel put the first question to Owen asking him “What is your one main goal for your time as Communication and Commercial officer?”

    “I feel I owe the college something, it’s given me so many memories that I really do well for this college and create awareness of the Students’ Union to people who are not sure that it even exists.”

    The issue of lack of awareness of the Union was agreed upon by both candidates who cited an aim to improve this. “Unapproachable” was the term used by Joel to describe the current perception of the SU and is something he aims to tackle.

    Owen referred to Joel’s stated experience working in Amsterdam, asking what ideas he would take from this time and how he would apply them to his work, if elected, to the role. Joel spoke about his aim to bring his experience working in promotions and marketing in Amsterdam into play while countering the issue of awareness. If elected, he would encourage students to bring their own ideas to the Union.

    A question submitted by a student was on the issue of transparency. The candidates were asked about the issue of lack of available or up to date union documentation online, and an example stated was the fact that council minutes on collegeroad.ie have not been updated since October 2011. Kirby stated that one of his main policies is to improve communications beginning with the website. His plan includes livening up collegeroad.ie, taking joe.ie as an example of a format to follow to make it “more fun and oriented towards students”. He also proposes setting up a blog on which to convey information through videos, as he argues emails are often ignored.

    Carey agrees that there is a problem. “First thing I would do is update it.” He plans on introducing an online portal through which students can submit ideas for the Union and would redesign collegeroad.ie to make it more user friendly.

    The lack of distinction in the policies of either candidate was reflected in the polling carried out by Express staff members. ‘Undecided’ was the most common response, with a slight majority favouring Joel Carey.