"Take Back The Union"
Michael Roche is a third-year Economics and History student from Wexford, running to be your next UCD Students’ Union President. Roche is currently Careers and Sponsorship Officer for the Literary and Historical Society, and was Public Relations Officer of UCD Fianna Fáil Kevin Barry Cumann, as well as being involved in sports clubs during his time in UCD. Roche has also worked as a Parliamentary Assistant for Fianna Fáil for a year and a half.
Talking about what inspired him to run for President, Roche commented, “My journey to actually running for the SU is I just felt that the delivery over the last three years of the SU hasn't been enough. I think particularly with engagement, I think there's 10% of the student body which are ordinarily engaged.” For Roche, “it’s about building up the trust that I personally lost in the SU; building that back up again with the student body, and ensuring that it’s more representative of the student body as a whole.” He continued, “What I basically want to do is just do a revolution in terms of the engagement of the Union.”
Despite not being involved in a previous SU election campaign, nor holding a position within the union, Roche possessed a strong knowledge of the structural workings of UCD, and navigated questions regarding the relationship with UCD President Orla Feely, Bursar David Kelly, the Finance Remunerations Asset Management Committee (FRAMC) with confidence. He believes Feely is “somebody that business can be done with” and that FRAMC have prioritised profit over students in the last couple of years, something which must change, and he wants to build a good relationship with the committee.
Roche said he would continue to enforce the implementation of mandates currently in place in the Union, including; to support BDS and Palestine, to provide gender affirming products for trans students in UCD and to address racism, anti-migrant and refugee views on campus.
Michael Roche wants to ‘Take Back The Union’. So, what’s wrong with the SU and how is he going to fix it? “I think the worst part of the union to me is the engagement levels” which he describes as “at rock bottom”. Roche says “there's 90% of the university community out there that want to engage, that want an active union that's actually going to help them.”
He continued, “I think the best way to do that is by having events that are actually good craic”, then, he says, the rest will follow. “If someone comes to a coffee morning, for instance, it's very easy then to ask them, oh, do you want to engage in a survey? Do you want to engage in this policy?”
Roche views his candidacy as a way of taking action to ensure the future of the union. “We have to fix it because it will be very, very easy for a bad actor to come along and say, 10% of the university community, what's the point of having a union altogether? Why should the [SU] president sit in the governing authority? What mandate do they have?”
“I think we need to continue our stake-hold within the university. The union's turning 50 this year, the only way we're going to ensure it for another 50 years is if we increase engagement with the union and the university community as a whole.”
The three main issues most affecting UCD students according to Roche are as follows; Student Experience, Housing, and Representation. “I think campus feels cold. I think campus is pay to play,” Roche comments on student experience. On housing, “Make no qualms about it, we’re living in a housing crisis. If I become President, my housing demands are going to be made over the summer so that they can be effectuated into the incoming academic year.” Finally, on representation, “I don't think the union has been good at representing students so far [...] I think their advocacy is admirable. I just don't think that it's focused in the right way.”
USI Referendum
As the only Presidential candidate able to express an opinion on the USI Referendum (current Sabbatical Officers must maintain a neutral stance on referenda during working hours), Roche reacts strongly to the referendum to rejoin USI:
“Before you even answer yes or no to that question, this union is in absolutely no position to be having a referendum on this. Our union, in my opinion, is on its knees. The union is not ready to join another structure right now. We've so [many] problems in the union already and I just don't think any of them are going to be fixed by joining an external structure like the USI at the moment.”
He further argues that rejoining USI is a “tough sell to students”, as the cost of membership stands at €5 for full-time students. “Fundamentally, whether you're yes or no at the minute, [it’s] just not the time.”
Manifesto
Housing
The longest section of Roche’s manifesto is Housing, detailing his ambitions for the year, and indeed for beyond the one-year-term. Roche commented on UCD raising rents consistently by 2% each year, and highlighted the fact that the university have started charging a separate charge for utilities. He says “Through the back door they’ve managed to increase students’ rents outside of the 2% that they’re actually allowed to do. This is a massive issue, and I don’t think the Students’ Union has been at all present on this.” Roche would like to work more closely with UCD Estates if elected President in order to scrap this extra utilities charge.
In his manifesto, he aims to secure a four-year rent cap ‘to provide students with stability and fair pricing’. He firmly believes this goal is realistic, “I think it gives the finances of the university a fixed long-term, people are of no bones about where this is, about what's happening with finances of the University.” Roche does not commit to securing a Rent Freeze, insisting, “this is about being realistic to students. It's about being honest to students.”
As for his short-term goals, Roche wants to demand a rent reduction for Glenomena Residences. “Glenomena is not up to standard. Its quality has decreased. I think a targeted rent decrease there is something that the university could actually engage with us on because they need to reflect its actual value, which is not €1,100 a month.” He also wants to ensure profits from Estates are invested back into student life, and thinks this is a “very realistic goal.”
As for the methods he is going to use to achieve his short-term housing goals, and fight for longer term goals, Roche believes that direct action has taken a back seat recently. “I think direct action is 100% on the table”, he adds “It’s probably our biggest weapon against the University.” However, he highlighted that he firstly wants to have a closer working relationship with Estates, he wants to “see what’s salvageable” and “see what we can actually get for the student body before we walk out and go on strike.”
In his manifesto, Roche commits to pushing for ‘practical housing solutions [...] such as a high-rise version of Merville’, which he argues should be built in place of Village Blocks A and B. “Students' accommodation shouldn't be luxury. It should be basic. It should be, for instance, like Merville, but it also should be acceptable, and the rents should then reflect its actual value” The village, he says, “was a disaster for students.”
Again, Roche wants to work with UCD Estates to achieve this, citing friends of his who work in Estates, mind you “not in managerial positions”, but who have given him “specific information” about how to effectuate these changes.
Student Life on Campus
Roche wants to reintroduce independent food stalls to campus, stating, “the new permanent food stalls are a disaster.” Roche believes “you could very easily argue with the University to make a return to these independent food stalls. It’s something faculty would respect, it’s something the students respect. It was something that the employees of the university would respect as a whole.” The return of independent food stalls, much like the traditional Thursday Markets, would be a welcome return to UCD, but the feasibility of this pledge remains to be seen.
Roche’s manifesto also advocates for the expansion of the Sanctuary Programme. Roche believes the programme “is the best thing that came out of the BDS movement on campus, because it’s probably the most tangible thing that we can actually see.” Whilst a step in the right direction, Roche wants it to be expanded, through lobbying. “I don’t think anyone wants to see a return to the encampment. I don't think the university does. I don't think the student body does. I just don't think people want to relitigate that issue but I think there is an opportunity to say we're not going further enough here. Let's do a little bit more. Let's play our part and let's, at the end of the day, get displaced students an education in University College Dublin.”
An ambitious goal of Roche’s is to ‘Continue the rain shelter between Ag Building & Library’, Roche points out, “I've read other manifestos that talk about traffic lights, for instance, so it's [construction] something that's been done across the board in presidential manifestos.” He continues, “It’s 10 metres of construction, it’s not that deep, I think it can be done. It would probably be relatively cheap. It would probably be done in a month [...] I think a lot of people would appreciate it.”
Craic on Campus
Roche wants to ‘Make events actually good craic’, and has been in contact with the sole ENTS candidate, Lily Gnojewski, “We’re aligned in a lot of ways about the issues we think about the events that are going on on campus at the minute and I think she is someone that does have her finger on the pulse.”
Roche cites Trinity College Dublin’s ‘Pav Fridays’ as a possible introduction to UCD nightlife. He wants to “reinvigorate campus” and says, “If you look at Pav Fridays, it's fundamentally something that's run by the Dublin students in Trinity because they're actually around on Fridays, they're around on weekends [...] We have thousands more students from Dublin based in our university. This 100% could be a success, we just actually need to have the appetite to do it [...] I think this comes back to just having a little bit more ambition.”
Christmas Day
Roche wants to ‘Bring Back Christmas Day’, and points to the increased level of security on campus at this year’s Christmas Day, calling it a blatant “student’s rights issue.” Roche sees future UCD Christmas Days being SU-led, rather than “pushing it onto any other branch of UCD.” He believes the SU “didn’t meet the moment” on Christmas Day this year, adding “I think we need to take ownership of it, and have a bit more ambition about what we can actually achieve.”
UCD Village
In his manifesto, Roche says if elected President he will oppose the renewal of The Wright Group’s catering contract in the Village Foodhall, as well as Centra’s lease in the village in favour of an ALDI or LIDL. He says these contracts are due to expire in 2028, and feels the need “to state our opposition now.” Roche argues that “by starting this opposition now, it’s very easy for us to go into a negotiation [...] I think the best way to do this is to say that we're going to oppose re-tendering your lease after 2028 and then actually open up a dialogue with them and have it as a policy of the union to continue that opposition until they come to the table with us on prices.”
I'll actively engage more students, and I will issue more transparency than the union has ever given before.
UCDSU Shops and Finances
Roche wants to reduce the price of sandwiches in the SU Shops by €1 to ‘eliminate the €100,000 profit currently being made in the shops’. It is worth pointing out that it is not listed as a profit in the budget, rather a contribution from the shops to the union. Roche believes the €100,000 that the SU gets back from the shops “should be reinvested back into the shop as a whole to make things cheaper within the shop.”
A large part of Roche’s campaign thus far has looked at the finances and spending of the Students’ Union. When asked if he feels the union needs to be more transparent, he responded, “100% [...] Through that speech I made at that debate, I think we’ve seen more transparency from the union than many students felt we ever got from it.” He admits there were “undershoots” and “overshoots” in this speech, but argues that “we’ve also seen a revolution in transparency from the union in reaction to this.”
If elected President, Roche would release itemised accounts from the SU in order to increase transparency, and would conduct an independent review into the SU wage bill. “Off the bat, I'm going to bring down the president's salary to €31,000. It's not fair that they're paid more than the other sabbatical officers.” As for the wage bill, he states “it makes up 80% of the budget so far. I just don't think that that's good enough. I don't think students feel that they're getting that back.” On the review of the wage bill, he says the next steps would be to first “See what the review says, accept the results of the review, and then go from there.”
Roche responded to questions regarding a speech made in February, in which he said UCDSU receives €1 million from the Student Centre Levy, when in fact it receives €0 from the levy. Roche says this issue went as far as the Returning Officer, Eoin Heffernan, who addressed the issue. It was decided that Roche would not have to put out a corrective statement on the claim, as Roche argued that the SU is student funded, just not by the levy, “The union is student funded. There's no getting around it. Whether it comes from the levy or, you know, capitation grant is frankly a pedantic argument.”
When asked about his comments later in the speech where he claimed a €140,000 refurbishment of the SU offices included a cinema screen, which it did not, Roche commented, “We could litigate everything that I got wrong. There were undershoots, there were overshoots in the figures [in the speech]. We could go through them item by item. The point is students feel their money is being wasted.”
Roche was then asked what he would say to critics who have labelled his campaign ‘Populist’. He argued that building engagement with “people who don’t normally engage with the union” is an “extremely positive thing.” He argued, “I'm coming in to fix the union because I can see the issues that are there that are easily identifiable to me.”
“I think people calling my campaign populist have missed the point of my campaign. My campaign is about fixing the union, ensuring that it works better for students, ensuring that there's better stakeholder engagement in the union.”
Roche was asked why students should trust him to be their next SU President considering some of the misleading information that he shared; Roche believes he represents “A lot of the average students [...] The student union has not been transparent enough with students. Students didn't know where money was going.” He continued, “We've actually seen more transparency from the union than we've ever seen before. I think people should put their faith in me because they'll understand what they'll get. What you see is what you will get. I will be completely transparent with them.”
Roche describes his leadership style as “very personal”, rather than laissez-faire. “I'd be a little bit more hands-on, but that's because I love communicating with people. I love talking to people. I love getting their ideas, getting their perspectives, and actually seeing what we can achieve together.”
In a closing comment as to why students should vote for Michael Roche for President of UCDSU on April 1st, 2nd and 3rd, he stated, “I'll actively engage more students, and I will issue more transparency than the union has ever given before.”