McClave elected SU President

Niall McClave will become the President of the DCU Students’ Union next year after reaching the quorum in last week’s SU elections.

Although the only candidate running for the position of President, McClave needed 850 votes in order to ensure his election.

As he claims that taking on this role is truly a full-time job (“Often the SU don’t leave the offices until ten or eleven at night,” he says), many may wonder why he is taking on the difficult role.

“Well, I firstly went to UCD before I went to DCU,” he says. “However I hated my time there. When I moved to DCU I couldn’t get over how different it was. I made more friends in one week here than I did during my whole time at UCD.

“I know this is going to sound corny, but I love DCU. It’s given so much to me, and now I want to give something back.”

When asked about the issues which he hopes to tackle in the coming year, McClave is enthusiastic.

“One of the main issues I want to deal with is the issue of student employment rights. What I really want to see happening is a weeklong campaign to increase awareness as students today are simply not aware of their rights and are being ripped off,” he says.

McClave is also unhappy at the proposed axing of the position of Student Activities Officer. In his manifesto on life.dcu.ie he promises that the SU will boycott and picket next year’s Open Day if the position goes.

“It would be a disaster. This post is a massive boost to DCU and to lose it would be extremely detrimental to campus life,” he claims.

McClave is also eager to improve DCU environmentally.

“I really would like to see DCU become a greener campus all round, with more visible bins around campus, especially in classrooms. I think that proper recycling facilities should be put into place also for items such as batteries.”

Perhaps one of the most enticing promises of McClave’s campaign involves his plans for the SU to take over the tender of the Old Bar and run it on a permanent basis. However, where will the money for this come from?

“Well there is a DCU fund for this sort of thing, and after that we’d hope that the bar would run itself. It’s high time that it’s brought back and we feel it’s feasible,” he says.

When questioned about the actual influence the SU has on the day-to-day running of DCU, McClave is adamant that a lot of the work that the Union does is “behind the scenes”.

According to McClave: “What people don’t often see is that we’re up here nearly all the time in the SU, every day, dealing with individual complaints and issues. A lot of work is done on a one-to-one basis, where people come up to us in the office, perhaps with a personal or family problem, and we can direct them where to go to get help.

“I think that’s where the real impact of the SU is felt - that students can approach its members without feeling intimidated.”

This is the trend that McClave definitely wants to see continue.

“My one great hope for the year is that the SU becomes even more accessible to every student and that people will interact with the union members to tell us what changes they want to take place.

“If we can do that, then we can make real, positive changes during our year here.”