Adam Hanlon is a final year Law and Society student. His aims are to improve INTRA and placement for all students in DCU, reduce printing costs and library times for placement students and introducing a placement week to keep these students connected with DCU life.
His main focus in his manifesto for the election is placement students and giving each student the same opportunity for this.
“The majority of my position is to work with placement students who are already on placement and to be their advocate to improve the systems that are in place there and to implement new systems to help their time on placement and to make it as easy as possible for them,” Hanlon said.
“Another big thing for me would be to advocate for one day 100% of DCU students to get a placement experience, that’s really something I want to work on,” he said.
“I will dedicate as much time as I can and it will probably be most of my time dedicated to the students that are on placement and students that are experiencing problems,” he added.
Hanlon is also campaigning for all printing costs to be reduced for those on placement that are in need of accessing subsidised printing materials while not in college and those who need to access these facilities on Sundays when they are closed.
“For teachers in particular, the library facilities aren’t up to scratch. Teachers spend their weekend putting together lesson plans after a long week of teaching and on Sunday the library isn’t open for them to print off their lesson plan. If I can work to advocate for the library to be open for an hour or two on a Sunday and to have the facilities there in place”, Hanlon said.
Hanlon plans for the costs of fees for those on placement to be reduced as he feels that €3043 yearly for those who are not attending college while on placement is a big ask.
“It isn’t an easy job to get those fees reduced or to subsidised but it’s one of those things that we need to keep pushing. It’s almost an extension on the fight for publically funded education. When you’re away and not availing of the campus facilities, that’s a big thing to pay. We really need to be the figurehead on this, not every student is in the position where they can afford or to be able to spend money in that way,” Hanlon said.
A large part of Hanlon’s campaign and something he is strongly pushing is Placement Week as he feels that engaging with the college during placement is essential.
“It’s basically a way to keep student’s engaged. When you’re away on placement, you’re missing out on the DCU experience and I feel like that’s such a major part of your overall education in DCU. So when you’re away from that and come back you can almost feel alienated. It’s to keep that connection with the students that are on placement, if we can run social events, get DCU alumni involved, keep that connection there.”
Ellen Fitzpatrick