Catherine ‘Cat’ Kane, a Religious Education and Music student in St. Patrick’s college, decided to run for the position of Societies Officer during 2018’s Student Union Elections in an effort to unify all three DCU campuses by promoting inclusivity through societies.
Kane, who won an award last year for her contribution towards the amalgamation between DCU’s Glasnevin grounds, St. Patrick’s College and All Hallows, vows to end the segregation mentality among students across these three incorporated campuses by placing emphasis on St. Pats and All Hallows hosting more societal events.
“I know people in Pats that would love to be involved in societies but they’re all based up in DCU and that’s a very big expense on them whereas I want to start now making sure that all three campuses have those facilities to run societies and all people feel they can go to any of those campuses and still feel in DCU”, said Kane who commented that “the amalgamation is over now, we’re all one and that’s what I really want to get through this year.”
Kane is no stranger to SU responsibilities as she served as a class rep last year. Also, as Head of the Drama Society this year along with experience of involvement with other societies such as the Media Production Society (MPS) in the past, Kane believes that if she was elected Socs Officer then students could go to someone that “is in their shoes,” in relation to issues concerning college societies.
“I’d still be a member of societies and clubs and people could come to a friend,” said Kane.
Although Kane is still a member of specific societies such as MPS which she is “still heavily involved with” and “would always help promote” she also aims to “give a voice” to niche societies such as DJ Soc and ones in their infancy such as Scoliosis Soc. Kane impressed the importance of the presence of each society as she compared them to homes within DCU and the members in them akin to family.
“The whole point of running for this position is to make DCU societies the best they can possibly be. Whether it has five people in the society or whether it has a thousand people in a society, I want each society to feel they’ve reached their potential by the end of the year if I’m elected,” said Kane.
Another point in Kane’s manifesto is to create more transparency between the Chairs of Societies and the SU, which was inhibited this year as there was no official Clubs and Socs Officer fulfilling the non-sabbatical position.
“I want to make the societies as professional as possible,” said Kane when speaking about some of the issues that arose concerning societies this year such as the cancellation of Balls and the congestion with making appointments to discuss society queries. Kane said she is already speaking to sole SU Presidential candidate, Vito Moloney Burke, about these issues.
Another goal she is campaigning to achieve is to update the room booking system in on St. Pats Campus which she feels is not as up to date as the one in DCU Glasnevin.
“I want everything to be through forms now. Every single issue and event will be done through forms,” is Kane’s solution to fixing the backlog of problems.
Cait Caden
Image Credit: Catherine Kane