Outgoing Officer Interviews
Semesterisation poses Presidential problem for StantonThe spokesman for UCC students and the man on whom responsibility ultimately falls, Mark Stanton’s role as president of the SU is not an easy one.Semesterisation has been one of the most significant challenges of the academic year; one which the 22-year-old accepts has not gone entirely smoothly. He is sceptical on whether it was entirely welcomed by many departments and believes many failings have to lie with the Registrar and the college itself: “I think the college in general should have been able to do more… I don’t know if saying there’s going to be teething issues for the first year is really good enough.”The Union have demonstrated a strong response to the transition; the highly publicised campaign to increase library hours demonstrating a union very much active on the behalf of the student body. According to Stanton, “It was a problem that’s been in UCC for years and, by extending the library hours, I think we’ve started the ball rolling.”A 24-hour campus is the next step he believes should follow, one which needn’t represent a huge expense, “the library takes an hour and a half to close down and open up in the morning, so we’re paying people for three hours to close the place and it’s only closed for five hours.”A central part of his remit across the past year has been involvement in planning the design of the Student Hub building, a space due to be completed in October 2017, which will replace the existing Windle Building.A planned grinds service has been established, although remains unpolished, with more lecturers required in order to tally with its high demand with students.Weekly clinics, Stanton concedes, were a manifesto item which, like others, haven’t slotted into the reality of the role. “The calendar was an awful lot more dense than I had thought it was going to be… what we’ve tried to do instead is just urge people at Class Council to bang me an email and I’ll get stuff sorted then.”The light-hearted manifesto demand for a better quality toilet paper seems, too, to have fallen down the pecking order – disappointingly, perhaps, for those voters who considered it a deal breaker: “I haven’t raised the question of the toilet paper yet at the Finance Committee. The budget is fairly tight in terms of staffing and things so I don’t think its high on the priority list but we’ll see.”[hr gap="0"]Campaigns falter on pushing placementsRelatively light on concrete promises, Dick Murphy’s manifesto for the role of Deputy and Campaigns focused more on personal experiences than plans for the year ahead. Nonetheless, media interviews and speeches from the election race show several key areas which the Philosophy and History of Art graduate planned on tackling.Increasing student employability by pushing work placement for more students is one such aim which Murphy admits has fallen by the wayside: “It’s completely got lost with everything else that’s popped up.” While ambitious and unrealistic aims are a mainstay of election manifestos, it is perhaps a little rash to completely abandon such plans during a period in which graduate unemployment remains such a significant issue.Campaigning to remain part of the USI is a point on which he has delivered. Although the USI referendum is held every three years, he outlines the ‘Yes’ vote as holding particular merit this year due to the fact it was held separately to SU elections: “It gave more of a discussion about it because it could have got lost within the elections. So if there ever was a time it was to be brought in fairly and with a clear mandate, it was this time.”Campaigning for Marriage Equality, another key aspect of Murphy’s term, has also been well marshalled by the SU, albeit one which shares credit with UCC LGBT* society and the USI. Although voter registration numbers have been encouraging, Murphy is quick to point out that his term, like the campaign, is far from over. Although the practical measures he outlines are promising – “we’re literally talking about car pools, buses to polling stations and lecture announcements” – the lateness of the referendum in the student calendar (May 22nd) may make mobilising the student body as a whole considerably more challenging.[hr gap="0"]Welfare services adapt to transitionOne of the most diverse positions the Union has to offer, Cian Power’s role as Welfare Officer, has to care for student wellbeing under a multitude of banners.He expresses that semesterisation has been the key challenge during his term, one not helped by the fact that the Union had two to three weeks shaved off the start of their term due to the pushing forward of orientations in the college calendar.Overall, though, he believes the response to problems has been as strong as could they have been for the first year of such significant changes: “I think we did well. We did the library and extra support staff for counselling services. We got extra hardship funding as well because of financial issues. We’ve been in the office longer and we’ve adapted well to putting key weeks on at certain times, when people needed it.”He accepts accommodation shortages at the start of the year as far from ideal, although lobbying the college has resulted in the increased purchase of student accommodation available solely for UCC students. Still it remains a short-term solution to a long-term problem. Educating students as to their rights as tenants during such a turbulent renting market has been a strong feature of Power’s tenure, with orientation packs and a focus on the issue throughout the year ensuring they haven’t been swept aside.Although a planned welfare action group hasn’t materialised, he suggests his engagement with SÁMH and other societies involved in mental health has been a proactive alternative. A satellite campus clinic is something which will happen during the exam months although Power is keen to stress the strength of his service lies in the definitive location of his SU Office: “People know I’m here, and if I’m not here, then there’s students missing out on me then.”[hr gap="0"]Provisional date set for UCC BallThe youngest of the Union’s paid officers, Paidi Brady, took a sabbatical following the second year of his Commerce degree in order to manage the role of Entertainments Officer. Although the role is technically a part-time one, he points out that in practical terms it quickly develops into a full-time position: “You very quickly you start spending your evenings in here until eight or nine o’clock without even thinking about it. It’s certainly not what you expect when you go into it but you very quickly learn it’s just part of the job.”His central goal over the course of the year has been to implement a UCC Ball. Based on the Trinity Ball, it would feature a night of national and international acts performing on campus. He admits that attempting to persuade agents and promoters to get involved in the planned ball has been the most significant challenge during his term, yet he remains optimistic regarding the scheduling of the event for the first of April; “We hopefully will have some decent names tied down in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully it’ll be a big one to look forward to.”A Christmas Winter Wonderland, complete with Christmas characters and an ice rink, was a manifesto item which did not go ahead as anticipated, something which Brady puts down to changes caused by semesterisation: “I had left it just until after exams and then, slowly, I kind of realised that students were going home straight after exams and there wasn’t going to be many around.”R&G Week, the flagship entertainment event of the year, Brady points to as a success in terms of both events offered to students, including the likes of Pat Fitz, and also the large number of non-alcohol related events which took place during the day.