The University Observer sat down with Campaigns and Engagement Officer Candidate, Rajul Bhitre.
Rajul Bhitre is running for Campaigns and Engagement Officer at UCD Students Union. Her campaign slogan, ‘because ‘student life’ shouldn’t be an oxymoron’, lends itself well to her manifesto which not only looks at the typical big picture issues that most C&E manifestos do, but maintains a focus on what she calls ‘micro wins’.
Rajul is relatively new to UCDSU but has been involved on campus over the last year as Master’s Rep in Indian Society and as a part of the campaign team for UCDSU Graduate Officer Shreyansh Jagtap. In India, she set up her university’s literature society. Despite being relatively inexperienced in UCDSU compared to the other candidates in this election, she easily answered questions about the inner workings of the university.
When asked why a student should vote for her in this election, Bhitre says “I have a knack for connecting with people. When it comes to personal connections, this is something that I’ve felt I’ve been good at doing while campaigning”.
She also claims good organizational skills and said that organising events will be a large part of her role. “I want students to know that the SU exists”. Bhitre says that the most important part of her role would be “reaching out to students and getting to know their problems. I think that is step one, you go out and you understand what students are facing and you note them down and work towards them and deliver the best results”.
Compared to her competitor's manifesto, Bhitre’s could be described as achievable. While her manifesto does start with mentions of fighting rent prices and campaigning to reduce fees, it also has a focus on smaller goals like installing more power outlets, making study spaces more easily bookable and setting up a digital feedback forum on the SU website. She says “These are minor goals, but I think that they affect students in their daily lives and I think we have to prioritise them. So these are things that students face in their daily lives and I want to focus on those first. That is why people should vote for me”.
Bhitre is currently not a student in UCD and has no role on campus. When asked how she feels the students’ unions are getting on this year, she’s quick to praise them. She praises the changes that have been made as well as the engagement that was seen at the recent SU market.
However, Bhitre was not shy to point out that the union does not have strong engagement in general. When asked how she would change this, she says “one things that I want to focus on is what I call the union on the ground. I want the union to get out of their offices, go on the ground and go to students and ask them personally what problems they’re facing. I think its something that will make the students feel directly connected to the SU”.
In a question put to both candidates, Bhitre mentioned that they’d support the UCDSU mandates of supporting Palestine, gender-affirming products and creating an anti-racist campus.
Bhitre says her top priority would be fighting the current fees rate. The recent budget set the annual contribution fee at €2500, up €500 from last year. She says she’ll work with the SU President on a tactic to get the fee increase reversed.
When asked about her relationships with current sabbatical officers, she stressed that herself and Jagtap are good friends. She’s also spoken with education officer Matt Mion, Welfare Officer Emilia O’Hagan as well as recently resigned officers Hazen E. Griffin and Lily Gnojewski. Bhitre said that she didn’t consider running in the original election for this role earlier this year, stating that she was too busy with her academics.
Throughout our interview, Bhitre mentioned Smurfit campus on a number of occasions. She’s insistent that all of her work will stretch to both campuses to ensure all students are involved. She also took the opportunity on a number of occasions to stress that her goals were achievable and will make an immediate impact on students' lives.
One interesting part of our interview came when Bhitre mentioned her desire to have college officers paid for their roles. “Obvioiusly, a lot of the SU funding goes to the sabbats, but I think they have enough funds to remunerate the college officers as well, so that is something that I would like to change”.
Voting in the sabbatical officer by-elections is open online from the 22nd to the 23rd of October. Results will be announced on the 24th of October.