The three candidates running in the UCD Students’ Union (UCDSU) Sabbatical Officer by-elections participated in hustings on October 16th. The three hopefuls faced questions from one another, as well as from students and student media.
The Race for Campaigns and Engagement Officer
Kelvyn Fields and Rajul Bhitre are both running for the position of Campaigns and Engagement Officer. They each had three minutes at hustings to highlight the key points of their manifestos and goals if they were to be elected.
Kelvyn Fields
Fields has just completed his Master’s in Gender, Sexuality and Culture. He is an organiser with UCD Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). He has also served as an auditor for UCD Volunteers Overseas (UCDVO) and UCD History Society.
In his hustings speech, Fields stated that politicising UCDSU is one of his main goals. He highlighted his previous activism experience as a member of both the UCD and Trinity College encampments for Palestine. He urged those in the audience to “imagine what we can achieve if we all banded together”.
His manifesto highlights the key areas of housing, fees, transport, Palestine, Union Engagement, LGBTQ+ Rights and national organising. When asked if his focus was too ambitious, he acknowledged the breadth of his manifesto, but he believes that some of his ideas overlap with previous Officer Hazen Griffin, which means he will not be starting completely from scratch.
He also outlined that some of his goals can be achieved in the short term. These include organising regular town halls, relaunching the Student Action Group for Housing (SUAGH) and passing an anti-transphobia policy for the Union.
Fields was asked how he would work towards cutting UCD’s 2% rent increase and decreasing or even abolishing student fees. His plans include relaunching SUAGH, forming a tenants board for those on campus, creating a database where students can highlight any of their housing issues and then bringing this data to UCD management.
Fields reinforced his experience campaigning and explained how he will always speak up on behalf of students, but that if those in management “don’t play fair, we won’t either”.
Rajul Bhitre
Bhitre is a recent graduate who studied Philosophy and Literature. She was Vice President of a Literature Society that she helped found in India, as well as being a member of an NGO. Her manifesto focuses on “balanced advocacy”. She hopes to campaign on larger systemic issues that are pricing students out of the market while also resolving minor campus inefficiencies and operational deficits.
She aims to work towards decreasing student fees and challenging the on-campus rent. When asked what specific steps she will take to secure this, she explained that she hopes to work with the Department of Further and Higher Education as well as Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn (AMLÉ) to reduce fees. She will lobby the university management and UCD Estates to lower the rent to the national average.
Her manifesto also focuses on transparency and engagement. She hopes to introduce a “Union on the Ground” initiative. This would involve members of the SU speaking with students in “non-traditional” locations to engage students not typically involved with the union. Elaborating on this point at hustings, she explained that she would visit bus stops, the village and “post-grad spots” at least once a month to speak with students there and hear their issues.
She plans to introduce a “Have your Say” portal on the UCDSU website to allow students to voice complaints, sign petitions and introduce new mandates. When asked how she would deal with the different entities involved with establishing something like this, she answered that she would “know more if I’m elected”.
Both Fields and Bhitre were asked why they did not run for these positions last year, and both stated academic pressures at the time as the main cause.
Funding
During hustings, current UCDSU Education Officer, Matt Mion, asked both candidates how they plan to fund their initiatives when UCD frequently asks the SU where the funds to support initiatives will come from.
Bhitre answered that it is a difficult question and she would need to look at the SU funds closely to answer. Fields replied that this is ridiculous and not an acceptable excuse from UCD. He highlighted how UCD is approaching a turnover of €1 billion and asked where student rent is going and why it cannot be invested back into accommodation to improve living conditions.
Smurfit
Addressing how he plans to bridge the gap between Belfield and Smurfit, Fields explained his plans to increase bus services between the campuses. Bhitre highlighted how she plans to solve the technical difficulties students experience on the Smurfit campus, such as unreliable printers and wifi. Her “Union on the Ground” initiative will operate at Smurfit. She also hopes to work towards an affordable SU shop on the campus.
Palestine
A key part of Fields’ manifesto focuses on standing in solidarity with Palestine. He was asked how exactly he plans to work towards the exclusion of Israel from the Horizon Europe project.
He highlighted the nationwide ‘Walk Out for Gaza’ that students and staff from UCD participated in earlier that day. He explained that this is a step in the right direction to encourage UCD to unite with other Irish universities and to ultimately join EU universities in lobbying for Israel’s removal from Horizon.
Palestine is absent from Bhitre’s manifesto. When asked about this, she explained that “when it comes to lobbying for Palestine [she] would love to help with BDS”. When probed further by Fields as to why this was not a part of her manifesto and why she has not already worked with BDS, she answered that her knowledge regarding Palestine is “a bit restricted” and she needs to educate herself more. She explained that she was not a part of BDS protests as she was overwhelmed with her academics while navigating a new education system as an international master’s student.
Race for Entertainment Officer
Luke Sherlock is the only candidate running for the position of Entertainment Officer. During his hustings speech, he focused on events that he would introduce if he were to be elected. These include: charity 5-a-side football, Irish culture night, student art gallery and free cooking classes to show students how to make affordable, nutritious meals.
When asked if he had researched the logistics of organising events such as the free cooking classes, he explained that he has a contact who works in fine dining as well as a nutrition professor who is interested in working on the event.
Answering why his campaign has not been particularly visible thus far, he explained that because he is running uncontested, he believes the campaign is not of the utmost importance.
Sherlock was asked how he plans to tackle the issues that many societies and students are facing when it comes to booking spaces on campus. He answered that he was unaware of the issue, so he does not have an answer to it, but he would contact Estates to work to solve it.
Asked about his broader goals for the role – aside from potential events – he highlighted engagement. He believes event engagement has been quite low, and he hopes to deliver events that students want. UCDSU Education Officer, Mion, then highlighted how an Ents survey had already been conducted and asked what Sherlock would do differently to gauge student interests. He answered that using “data is one thing, constant data is another”. However, he did not outline how he plans to attain this “constant data”.
Sherlock was asked at hustings if he has any plans to improve UCD Ball, one of the biggest UCDSU events he would be responsible for if elected. He answered that he has no ideas yet and “would need to be elected to give you a better statement on that”.
Sherlock was also asked why he did not run for the position last year, and he explained that he was “having a mare at the time”.
Ellen Clusker – Co-Editor
Emma Murphy – Social Media Manager and Contributor