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Tom Conway is running to be your Campaigns and Engagements Officer.
Tom Conway is one of two candidates running for the role of Campaigns and Engagement Officer. He is a current History and English undergraduate student. Conway’s manifesto specifically focuses on increasing engagement between the SU and the student body and campaigning on behalf of UCD students to ensure that they are represented on a large stage in relation to student fees, the increasing price of student accommodation, and Palestinian solidarity. Conway sees these campaigns as “ambitious” but “achievable.”
Within UCD, Conway has experience as the treasurer of the History Society and was previously the “poster runner” for Saskia McCormack-Eiffe’s campaign for UCDSU president last year. Alongside this, Conway is a member of Sinn Féin and was involved with Catherine Connolly’s successful presidential campaign on campus.
Conway believes the SU is currently going through an “engagement crisis” and it is a “serious problem the SU is facing” but acknowledges that this year has “definitely been an improvement.” Conway told The University Observer that he believes his past experience of increasing engagement for the History Society through a focus campaign to engage with students and “meet them where they’re at” will benefit him to increase engagement between the SU and students.
“I think I’m the best guy for the job. I have experience in the past, I currently have experience working with the student body, working with various organisations on campus outside of the SU, multiple societies and the university itself - I think that you need someone who can understand that for the SU to thrive on campus we need to use all of the strengths that our university has and that’s more than just the SU. So currently the society's network at engaging students is far better. It’s a lot better at [engaging]. I think that’s something I would want to tap into.”
“Over the last three years we took [the History Society] from one of the smallest societies on campus with just over one hundred members to one of the largest with, I think, just over seven hundred members.”
“Our role is to apply as much pressure as we can, to show [the government] that this is what students want and they need it now.”
One of the ways that Conway seeks to increase engagement is a “no office day,” which would just be sabbatical officers stepping outside of the student centre one day a week, or even for a few hours, going to various places around campus and engaging with the student body so familiarise the student body in what the SU actually is. “People don’t understand what the student does, and why it does it, and that’s a huge problem for us.”
When asked by the University Observer how he would respond to a mandate that he disagreed with being passed by Council Conway stated that “at the end of the day the SU is a very democratic system. If I’m elected, but then there’s a mandate that I disagree with, I am mandated to follow it and I’d be happy to. I can have my own personal disagreements with it but the SU is a democracy and if I’m mandated to do it, of course, I will agree with it.”
Regarding his support of a full time Gaeilge officer, Conway believes that it is “very important”. “As a Gaeilgeoir myself, it’s something I’d be very passionate about, more Irish representation in the Union. The Irish language is the native language of this country. It is very important that we see the SU of the largest university in Ireland putting our best foot forward with the Irish language.”
Conway affirmed that he would follow the Union’s mandate to follow BDS and support Palestine. “I’m very pro-Palestine and very pro-BDS. I think it’s great that the Union is in favour of such things.”
The Union has also been mandated by the student body to provide gender-affirming products for transgender students in UCD. On this, Conway said he would support the mandate. “I think that is great as well. I think if we have an SU that provides for students, no matter the issue, is a SU that people will want to fight up and stand for.”
Conway also supports the Union’s mandate to address racism and anti-migrant views on campus. “I think that’s also a strong mandate for the Union. I think it’s great that the Union is standing up for what is the broad opinion of the entire student body - these things are horrible and the SU should not represent them in any way.”
Separate from an "engagement crisis” and SU mandated policies, Conway acknowledges that the main issue students are concerned about is cost of living issues - transportation, accommodation, and specifically student fees.
“I am not the Minister for Higher-Education, I’m not the Taoiseach. But we as a student union, and I think as a national student union like AMLÉ, our role is to apply as much pressure as we can, to show [the government] that this is what students want and they need it now. That is why my campaign is focusing on material, achievable, cost of living matters, such as the attempt to abolish the student fees.”
When asked how we would apply such pressure on the government Conway said that he wants to “at the next AMLÉ meeting, set up a team that will organise every union in the country to apply as much pressure as possible on the government, to national protests but also a social media campaign.”
On the rising cost of accommodation, Conway was asked how he, as a sabbatical officer, would lobby UCD and the government to construct more affordable student housing, as outlined in his manifesto, given that housing policy falls outside the Students’ Union’s direct control. “I am on the Student Housing Action Group (S.H.A.G) committee at the moment. S.H.A.G has a lot of potential to make a huge impact for students, and the way we plan on doing that is showcasing the current situation on campus for students who live on campus and [how it’s] not fair. They pay ridiculous fees, there’s complaints of black mould, there's tonnes of issues and what we plan in S.H.A.G to do to, to influence the university as much as we can, is essentially to stand up and showcase the pretty awful living conditions some students are being forced to live in and paying ridiculous fees to live in [...] I think UCD will respond to public pressure.”
Voting in the sabbatical officer elections is open online from the 3rd to the 5th of March. Results will be announced on the 6th of March.