Half of DCU students who took part in a survey do not know who the Students’ Union Education Officer is.
In a survey of 250 students carried out by DCUfm’s news team, 35% of DCU students didn’t know who the Students’ Union President is, and just under 34% could not identify the Welfare Officer.
However Education Officer Aaron Clogher said he is not concerned by the reults of the survey: “People might recognise me more than they would my name”.
Almost two thirds of students who took part do not know who their convenor is. Just over 20% of business school students could name their convenor, Neil Mulhern, while only 37% of humanities students could name Humanities and Social Sciences Convenor, Kenneth Browne.
This, according to the Students’ Union Executive, is because convenors do not have a very public role. Browne says that the convenors have a large role, but that most of their work is carried out behind the scenes.
A total of 80% of students are happy with the performance of their class reps. “Convenors are a point of contact with the class reps, not with the general student population,” according to SU President, Paul Doherty. “As long as the class reps know who they are, as long as we have a point of contact, the SU is happy.”
DCUfm’s News Editor, Nick Sheridan told The College View the survey was carried out to get a general idea of the relationship between the SU and students in DCU. He feels the outcome of the survey was positive, especially since 80% of students are pleased with the performance of the SU.
Paul Doherty mirrors this, saying that in some colleges around the country only 50% of students are happy with their SU.
This survey is the first of its kind in DCU, and Nick Sheridan feels it should be repeated in the future “if not annually, then on a semester by semester basis”.
The results were broadcast on a DCU Review State of the Union special on Wednesday November 28th.
Aoife Bennett
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