James Donoghue, a final year journalism student from Co. Wexford is running for Vice President for Education. An SU careers week, DCU’s first Darkness into Light run, and a peer to peer mentoring system are what he plans to introduce if elected as Education officer for DCUSU.
“I’ve loved my time here in DCU and the more I got involved, the more I realised I enjoy coaching roles and helping people out.”
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Donoghue feels that his Donoghue gained relevant experience for the position through his role with the hurling club.
“It’s a big club, it takes a lot of money and funding and it takes a lot of organisation to make sure it’s run successfully. I feel like we’ve made a lot of progress this year.”
He considers his potential peer to peer mentoring system as the most important aspect of his manifesto.
“Sometimes all a student needs is to sit down and have an informal chat where they can receive advice or be pointed in the right direction,” he said.
He also aims to introduce Whatsapp groups between Class Reps is the best was to improve communication between reps.
“I want class reps to talk to conveners via the app so that if four or five people in a class are failing, I could go visit the class and see what I could do.”
He also wants to make the SU more approachable during exam time. He wants to run things such as healthy breakfast mornings so students know that the SU are here to help. He also wants to introduce flat screen TVs in the Science building.
“I’ve a few contacts in Avonmore Milk. A lot of the time people come down and give out free stuff in the Hub, why not have a stand in the Nursing building and get a member of the SU down there so they can have a chat with people.”
“There was a bit of a revamp this year with the CRC and the councils were better attended because there was pizza there,” he said.
“I want to make it more informal and better integration between class years. Nobody understands the importance of second or third years giving first years tips about certain lectures and how to deal with exams.”
He also spoke about how he plans to ensure a smooth amalgamation with St Pats. As of September, all incoming St Pats’ first years will be officially registered as DCU students.He hopes to plan more integrated events with the President to include St Pat’s students.
“I also want to go down to DIT to see how they manage and get some ideas on how to amalgamate the two colleges.”
When asked about how he would promote DCU as a bilingual campus, which is required by DCUSU according to the present constitution.
“I have no problem promoting it. I know a lot of Erasmus students want to get involved in with hurling. I’d like GAA clubs to organise things like the GoGames camps.”
He also wants to hold regular Irish days where the first 50 people who speak the cúpla focail get a free lunch as well as allocating Irish scholarships to incoming students.
“I also want to get the Irish Society to run Ceilís in the Nubar. It’s simple things like that.”
He says that he’s been getting a lot of positive feedback regarding his official Careers Week.
Finnian Curran
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