Sarah Moore is a second year English & Media student hoping to represent DCU as Societies Officer in 2018/2019. She faces opposition from one other candidate, Catherine Kane.
Sarah plans to have more interaction among societies across all DCU campuses, as well as creating a permanent space for societies to call home. She also wants to increase society membership by increasing the funding allocated to societies.
“I decided to go for societies officer for next year’s student union because I’m really involved with societies at the moment, and I really want to encourage new students to join more societies,” said Moore.
“There’s thousands of students in DCU, and only about 7000 of them are a member of any club or society. As the years go on, your interaction with them dwindles whereas it should be the same.”
Sarah believes her plans stand out from previous candidates because of her desire to create a space for societies to use: “When I talked to a few society members, one of the things they said to me was about wanting a permanent place on campus where they can store things or meet any time of the day. At the moment, it’s very like- is there a lecture going on in that room, is this space free, can we store this here.
“We have a new SU building that’s going to be finished in a few weeks time- surely in that big building there will be space for clubs and societies to have an area where they can go for.”
The SU and clubs and societies are something that should go hand in hand, according to Sarah. She believes a stronger SU presence will help societies to grow across all campuses.
“I think the SU need to have more of a presence in our college life. Last year I think they had a much stronger presence, there was always something happening on campus every day.
Whereas this year I feel like the SU have become a bit disengaged with clubs and socs.”
Moore also talks about the connection between increased funding and society engagement. Interaction across all three DCU campuses is important to her, as is involving the entire student body- including postgraduate students.
“To increase society members, we need more funding. I want to sustain the funding we have but ensure continuous growth if I want more members to be interacting this year.
“I know we had the amalgamation last year but it didn’t go as smoothly as people wanted it to. I want societies to be more involved with St. Patrick’s campus and All Hallows, running more workshops and events on different campuses. They have their own student body but we should all interact together and feel as one DCU.
“With that, we need to include the postgrads a bit more. They want to be seen more as part of the student body.”
For Sarah, “more interaction, sustained funding, continuous growth and a permanent space” are what set her apart from other candidates in the 2018/2019 election race.
Rachel Farrell
Image Credit: Sarah Moore