Seven out of ten DCU students don’t know who their their faculty convenor is, our survey revealed.
Eight out of ten students said they have never gone to a member of the SU with a problem, however 59% said they would feel comfortable approaching a member of the SU with an issue if they needed to. Some students commented that they felt going up to the SU offices in the Hub was intimidating.
While 62% of students who took the survey said they were satisfied with the range of events and entertainment organised by the SU this year, many expressed their disappointment with the range of events.
First year student Brendan Feely was unaware each faculty had a representative in the SU and said there was a need for a representative “for each school to approach, e.g business school, nursing building etc”.
One student said they were “shocked” by the lack of events and the “poor quality” of the ones that have taken place this year. Another student said they felt DCU had a very poor social life and “more events need to be organised and encouraged.”
Other students called on the SU to organise more events for non-drinkers.
Many students called for Toxic Tuesday to be brought back, with one student calling for the SU to “disband, or else bring back Toxic Tuesday”. Lorcan Brennan thinks the SU should “bring back Toxic Tuesday or a similar late night for students on campus in DCU, or at least open the topic up for discussion with the student body”.
More promotion for campus events was an issue raised by many students. One student told The College View the SU need to “promote the events clearly and earlier. We only hear about them at the last minute and they are not advertised.”
Other students commented that the SU focused too much on events and should spend more time focusing on dealing with student issues.
46% of students said they think the SU need to do more to represent DCU students on a national level, with 20% answering no and 34% answering ‘don’t know’.
One student told The College View the SU should “become more legalistic and take on external and political issues as a united union, separate from USI.”
With a referendum on re-affiliating with the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) being held on campus next week, 56% of students said they think DCU Students’ Union should be a member of the USI. 18% said no to re-affiliation and 26% said they didn’t know.
Robert Doyle believes “The DCU Students’ Union is one of the better SU’s in the country which is helped by not being a member of the USI”, while another student said DCU SU should “Join the USI because greater unity among third level institutions would benefit DCU”.
Over half of students said they think the SU adequately promote equality on campus, with 9% saying no and 35% saying they didn’t know if they did.
Many students raised the issue of the lack of female representation in SU executive and think it’s something which needs to be addressed during this year’s elections.
Aoife Mullen
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