Enzo Crothers is running to be your next Students' Union president.
Enzo Crothers is running uncontested to be the next president of UCD Students Union. Crothers is a Stage 3 student, studying a Humanities degree in History and Politics. He is currently one of three House Debates Convenors with the Literary and Historical Society (L&H). He has also formerly been a member of the committees of the Politics Society and the History Society. Crothers works in the Clubhouse, the student bar on campus. During the 2024 General Election, Crothers served as Director of Communications for Sinn Féin TD John Brady during the Wicklow TD’s re-election campaign. Crothers has also served as an active participant of UCD BDS, having taken part in the 2024 UCD Encampment. Now, he’s aiming to be the top representative of students on campus, with his eyes on engagement, affordability and, perhaps most interestingly, AMLÉ.
Crothers expresses a strong belief in the power of unions, and more specifically, the potential power of the national union of third level students in Ireland, Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn (AMLÉ) formerly known as the Union of Students in Ireland (USI). He cites a statement from incumbent UCDSU President Michael Roche, made at a recent Union Council meeting, stating, “If AMLÉ didn’t exist, we would be sitting at council talking about how we can set up a union for students in Ireland.” Crothers was part of the Vote Yes campaign for the AMLÉ referendum last year. Asked what he thinks about the current sabbatical officers’ negative reviews of AMLÉ, he states, “I think a lot of the current sabbatical officers went in with an already negative view of AMLÉ, which doesn’t help with trying to foster a new relationship... As a concept, a national union of students is overwhelmingly positive.”
Crothers is one of three sabbatical officer candidates to have confirmed themselves as a member of Sinn Féin this year. Crothers opted not to comment on other candidates political views, but says that he views the role of President as one of representation of all 40,000 students, not to his own personal beliefs. “The allegiance is always to the students, always to that 40,000 number, not to one individual and your beliefs.” He confirmed he’d be happy to work with representatives from a variety of political parties in the role of UCDSU President. “I will align myself with anyone and everyone who is willing to improve the student experience and student life across Ireland.”
“The allegiance is always to the students, always to that 40,000 number, not to one individual and your beliefs.”
Throughout the interview Crothers emphasised that he’d be there to represent students, not himself. Crothers worked on the recent campaign of President Catherine Connolly - a campaign which Union Council voted against endorsing in a failed motion. Asked his opinion on the failure of the motion to pass, he simply states, “It was a democratic decision. The people decided, and that’s more than fair.” He echoes a similar answer when asked how he would react if the union issued a mandate that he disagreed with.
The University Observer asked Crothers what the three main issues facing UCD students are. “Affordability, affordability, affordability.” He made clear that he believes a lot of student issues - from mental health to housing - can be traced back to affordability in a lot of cases. However, he stopped short of naming any concrete plans to make campus more affordable for students. He said that the Student Union Action Group on Housing will be more active and that he hopes through new revenue streams such as SU club nights that the SU shops could offer discounts - but wasn’t willing to pledge any specific affordability changes.
Crothers voiced a level of disappointment concerning the response from Student Unions across the country to the affordability crisis facing students. “When we're talking about issues like affordability, we have a government where both of the parties within this government have promised to reduce fees and abolish them within the term of government - and then they raised them by €500 this year. There was, at least for me, a very disappointing lack of motivation from SUs nationally, including UCD, around that.”
When asked to name three goals that he believed were achievable this year, he said that he’d make UCD Christmas bigger and better, fully integrate with AMLÉ and ensure that every Sabbatical Officer and College Officer race this time next year was contested. He acknowledges the engagement crisis within UCDSU and says that he’s disappointed to be running uncontested for President.
The upcoming constitutional review has been a point of conversation with all sabbatical officer candidates. Despite not truly knowing at the time of this interview what the proposed new constitution is going to look like, we do know that the inclusion of a full-time Oifigeach na Gaeilge (Irish Language Officer) is going to be proposed. Crothers hasn’t submitted to the constitutional review, but says he supports the idea.
“Gaeilge is very near and dear to my heart. I made a video in support of what was going to be a referendum about [the introduction of a Gaeilge officer]. I know it’s since been moved to the constitutional review side of things which will hopefully guarantee that it goes forward, which is great to see. I absolutely support it.”
In his manifesto, Crothers acknowledges that housing is a huge problem facing students. He says he’d seek to grow the Digs drive, saying that this year’s Digs drive “wasn’t as successful as the union would like it to be. He says he’d work with the Welfare Officer, the work of whom he heavily praises, to ensure that students are getting all the help on housing that they can get from the union.
Crothers also says that there are a lot of issues with students getting to campus. “As someone who travels over an hour and a half each way, every single day, public transport in this country is an absolute nightmare”. He says issues also exist for students not taking public transport. “We saw the whole debacle with Estates and the amount of permits that they were giving out for way less parking spaces. As President, I will make sure that we actually tackle Estates on that. It’s absolutely disgusting to be honest that they’ve profited this much off students - and then when they set up a so-called refund hub, it wasn’t working properly. Most people weren’t able to get access to the refunds.”
When asked how he plans on improving engagement with UCDSU events, Crothers has his eyes set on collaboration with societies. His manifesto sets out a wish to create a “time-tabled nightlife calendar in collaboration with any and all societies who wish to see an improvement to the student experience”. He says “I just look over at what societies have been doing for years and aim to replicate it. Societies routinely beat the SU on engagement and on general craic levels to be honest. We need to, as an SU, win that PR war back from the students. There’s a general perception that the SU runs bad events and, as simple as it sounds, we need to run good events by collaborating with societies and mending that relationship”. He says that the reputation of society events and the budget of UCDSU would be a good pairing.
In his manifesto, Crothers claims that the Union currently pays 23,000 euro for exam shuttle buses between the campus and the RDS, and that he plans to put pressure on UCD to instead foot the bill. However, such an arrangement has already been negotiated - this year, UCD paid for the exam buses for the first time. When asked about this point, Crothers clarified that, “There hasn't been a formal agreement that that's going to continue to do so. As far as I'm aware, [UCD] have said they will pay for it this year, but there's no guarantee that that's going to be the case for the following year. So I'll just make sure that is kept up.”
“Collective action and direct action, political action, is always on the table for me. And I think it’s always on the table for the majority of students.”
As a member of the 2024 UCD Encampment, Crothers was a participant in an encampment campaign to force UCD to engage in negotiations regarding its ties to Israeli institutions and the support for Palestine students. “I spent my time that summer going between Wicklow as a bartender and then coming up sleeping on Belfield.” He is quick to clarify, however, that, “I’ve never been an official organiser with them, just an active participant.” Crothers expresses frustration with UCD’s continued academic ties with Israeli institutions, most notably the Technion and Ben-Gurion University via the EU-funded Horizons Programme. “We still see a lot of ties with Israeli institutions, which is not on, to be honest. We're talking about a pariah genocidal state.”
“There cannot be a grey area here, in my mind, it's black and white. And I would really like to see some movement on that.” Speaking on the EU-wide campaign to sever academic ties with Israeli universities, Crothers states that he is willing to take direct action if the situation calls for it. “Obviously, you start off with a level of, you know, decency and conversation. However, if that doesn't actually get what students want, collective action and direct action, political action, is always on the table for me. And I think it's always on the table for the majority of students.”
In his manifesto, Crothers discusses unpaid internships, saying that “student workers deserve to be treated with respect and dignity for the work they do” and specifically mentions nursing students not getting the treatment that they deserve (“Nurses routinely just get like screwed over regardless of whether they're students or after they graduate,” in his own words). How is Crothers going to fight that? Once again, his focus is on a national level - by joining forces with AMLÉ, SIPTU, and other trade unions. “Being able to work with those and have a working relationship within them is going to be key. There's also a level of lobbying the university on this issue . . . A level of compensation [for labour] is very important.”
Crothers notes that he is striving to meet with all candidates in other races prior to voting, noting that he has met with most candidates already. “At the end of the day, there can be no room in my mind for a breakdown of interpersonal relationships within the sabbatical team next year. I take a very collaborative approach to leadership especially. The idea of having a breakdown in communication would be nothing short of catastrophic. So making sure that there's positive good relationships going in to next year is really important.”
A continuing thread that becomes apparent throughout our conversation with Crothers is his focus on the bigger picture. From his view of the role of President as being a representative of the views of students, rather than a method to enact his own beliefs, to his strong emphasis on wider collaboration with other union bodies, all the way to his conception of how the sabbatical team of UCDSU should function - Crothers has an unshakingly collective and collaborative view.
When asked where his favourite spot is on campus, the Clubhouse staff member has a predictable answer: “Probably a nice booth in the Clubhouse with a Fosters.” Crothers also claims that his favourite building in UCD is Newman. “I have to be loyal to Newman on this one. It's got a weird charm about it. An ugly charm, you could say.”