Saskia McCormack-Eiffe is running for the position of Campaigns & Engagement Officer, and is the sole candidate in this race. McCormack-Eiffe is a Second-Year Politics, International Relations, and Social Justice student.
Saskia McCormack-Eiffe is a Second-Year Politics, International Relations, and Social Justice student. McCormack-Eiffe is running for the position of Campaigns & Engagement Officer, and is the sole candidate in this race.
The University Observer started by asking McCormack-Eiffe what positions, if any, she currently holds on campus: “ I’m the current Gender and Equality Campaigns Coordinator in the Campaigns Forum, and previously I was the RAG coordinator in the Ents Forum. And currently I am the Secretary of UCD Pol Soc.”
We ask McCormack-Eiffe about her involvement in any prior campaigns. She informs us that although she has not run for a Sabbatical position before, she did run the USI Referendum campaign. She confirms that she is not affiliated with any political party at present.
She is able to successfully answer all of our questions relating to the role and the structure of UCDSU administration, except for naming all of the boards on which the Campaigns and Engagement Officer sits. Besides this, however, her knowledge of campus institutions is fairly robust and she is able to name and describe the role of a number of important bodies.
The discussion then turns to McCormack-Eiffe’s experience and credentials. She he previously served as a Peer Mentor, as a Regional Coordinator in the Irish second-level Students’ Union, and has also served with the European Youth Parliament Ireland (“I have also organised my own regional sessions, single handedly!”), in addition to numerous other roles in the SU and various extracurricular societies such as PolSoc. She also informs us of her involvement in activism, and other accomplishments, such as serving as a Girl Guide.
McCormack-Eiffe then discusses the most important aspects of the role, regarding Engagement: “It’s about getting students back in with the SU. I feel like over the past number of years, especially since COVID, we’ve kind of seen a withdrawal of students’ interest. I saw it last year with the Ents forum. People just aren’t getting connected with the SU. We have to look at ways on how to bring back in [engagement].”
On the subject of the Campaigns aspect of the role, she feels there have been campaigns that “could have been done more proactively.” She highlights campaign tactics that she feels were more successful: “The N11 Roadblock for example. That brought attention. The ‘It’s Not Me It’s UCD’ campaign, we did banner drops there. Stuff like that. It brought attention to the University. It brought attention to the issues surrounding the University. [...] I feel like we need to bring, not a radical approach, but a more proactive approach to issues around the University.”
“I feel like we need to bring, not a radical approach, but a more proactive approach to issues around the University.”
McCormack-Eiffe elaborates on her work ethic, arguing that although she’s running in an uncontested race, she still wants to put effort into her campaign: “I put my all into everything.” She cites an example, claiming she spent over a thousand hours working on her most recent project. “I love UCD. I love studying here.”
"I put my all into everything."
During the interview, McCormack-Eiffe maintained she intends to incorporate important social, environmental, political, and humanitarian issues into her campaigning work. She discusses the situation in Gaza, describing it as “appalling and disgusting,” and expresses support and solidarity for the Palestinian people.
She then discusses her manifesto. She explains her support for reevaluating the SUSI grant system in the context of SU begetary submissions to Government. “We release a pre-budget submission every year.” She argues that this should be used as an opportunity to introduce proposals to amend the SUSI system: “[...] I’m kind of going off my own lived experience with SUSI. [...] SUSI is means tested, and, a lot of the time, I think they shouldn’t be taking the student’s earnings into account. [...] I had a job last year, and that put me over the SUSI [grant threshold] by €2000.”
“Also, if you’re independent from your parents you’re not seen as being independent from your parents until you’re twenty-three. [...] If you’re living away from home and you’re paying your own rent, paying your bills, paying your fees, you’re still being assessed on your parent’s earnings.” She tells us that she feels this system is unfair to economically disadvantaged students and will campaign to reform this in order to promote greater accessibility to students whose parents cannot afford to support them in college.
McCormack-Eiffe argues in favour of promoting greater accessibility and introducing black backgrounds and dyslexic-friendly fonts to videos posted on the UCDSU website. She also argues in favour of creating an elections guide to provide more information to voters in national elections. She argues that the union should provide more resources so that students who are voting in elections and referendums can find information “easily and in one place,” and also to ensure that it’s reliable information.
McCormack-Eiffe argues in favour of promoting greater accessibility and introducing black backgrounds and dyslexic-friendly fonts to videos posted on the UCDSU website.
She also proposes to restructure class representative elections by bringing forward a referendum to allow elections to take place at the end of the Spring trimester, allowing work to be undertaken more efficiently coming into the Autumn trimester after Summer. She argues that this will enable council to get more done, and will create a more efficient electoral process.
She also discusses campaigns she intends to organise in order to alleviate the burden of the cost of living on students and promote a reduction in prices on campus.
McCormack-Eiffe discusses the various ways she plans to improve overall engagement among the student body: “Making sure that they know we’re here, that we’re available. [...] Opening up hours where [we’re] around campus and people can approach [us]. Pushing our events with the Entertainments Officer. Pushing the campaigns that we’re doing. And really showing students: this is what we do for you, and this is what we need to help you. I think that would really help with engagement.”