Craig McHugh is a 21-year-old second year Economics, Politics & Law student. He is hoping to better the INTRA portal, start a book-swap app and hold more events on campus.
McHugh feels like he is a suitable candidate for the job because he believes his experience in students politics will help him in his role.
“I ran for the students’ union last year for humanities and social sciences convenor and I got it and I loved it,” McHugh said. “I learned the ins and outs of the SU and learned about how issues and initiatives can be tackled.”
The second year student is willing to defer his course for a year in order to commit to the role.
He said: “I wanted to run next year but I’m running this year because this is a perfect opportunity. I’m not being opportunistic. I don’t mind deferring for a year. I am really, really passionate about the students’ union and the work that they do and I really want to help students.”
The biggest promise on McHugh’s manifesto is the delivery of a book swap app which he believes would lessen the financial burden on students.
“The SU book swap app which is working off the idea of the SU Facebook pages. In DCU accommodation, or DCU freshers, or DCU 3rd years or DCU 2nd years, on all these pages you see people posting about selling books. Lets centralise that. Let’s make a simple app that students are told about on the first day of first year.
“There are two ways I can do this. I can work with the team up in the SU. They’re fantastic and there are some very talented individuals.
“Or we can set up a partnership between the SU and the computing and engineering faculty. We’ll provide meaningful work for these students over the summer. We’ll pay them to do up the book swap app for us so that way it’s designed by students for students.”
McHugh is aware of the ongoing debacle in Class Rep Council (CRC) around additional funding for people going out on placement. He wants to set up a Students’ Union placement shop in order to keep costs low for people on placement.
The 21-year-old also wants to make the role more representative of all DCU campuses if he is elected.
“I would like to see that the job covers more of St Pats and Glasnevin. The roles should be there for all students
“More people go on placement than just teachers. It concerns INTRA, it concerns nurses as well as people studying teaching.,” he said.
The candidate believes that he needs to carry on the work of Matt and Manus, especially their work on Gaeltacht fees.
“What people need to recognise, and what I have recognised as a faculty convenor is that things don’t get done in a year. It gets done when you pass the baton on, so it’s due to a continuation of roles.”