Final Year PhD Student and ArtsSoc Auditor Jacob Miller is seeking to become UCD's next Welfare Officer. An SU outsider, his campaign is rooted in the belief that the SU needs a radical shake-up, that campus accessibility must be improved and in his belief that stronger measures must be taken to reduce the costs of student accommodation.
This year’s UCDSU Executive Elections see three candidates running for the position of Welfare Officer. Final Year PhD Student and ArtsSoc Auditor Jacob Miller is one of them. Despite being an ‘outsider’ to the SU, Miller’s campaign is ambitious in its proposals to improve welfare on campus.
Quizzed on what qualifies him for the role of Welfare Officer, Millers refers to his experience as a PhD representative and Auditor of ArtsSoc: "I've been a PhD rep for a year, so I spent time going to meetings, talking with staff, representing student concern. I’ve been Auditor for Artsoc, so that took a lot of organisational skill, being able to balance a PhD and running a society at the same time." Miller also highlights his experience working in student accommodation at the University of York when he was studying as an undergraduate, where he “saw the way a university is run from an admin perspective."
Miller contends that this knowledge of a different college's operations, what worked and didn't work, offers him a unique perspective on how to go about securing fundamental change. Examples of two such proposals, based around his University of York experience are plans to replace residence lock-out charges with a €5 charge on temporary cards not returned within 48 hours and the establishment of a Safe-Taxi Scheme.
Miller highlights his experience with political campaigning – he was a member of the UK Labour party between 2015 and 2019 – as another reason why he is suited for the role: "I've got experience doing political campaigning as well – canvassing, trying to get people engaged."
Asked what he felt were the issues most affecting UCD Students, Miller cites housing and critiques the SU's lacklustre approach to achieving change in regards to the extortionate cost of campus renting. "I remember Ruari Power going down to Dublin City Council… I remember a protest out on the green by the lake, and I think a couple of days later they were like okay we're going to raise rents for the next year. For me putting the rent strikes in has come about because we haven't had any change. If we want change we have to hit them where it hurts: their wallets."
"For me putting the rent strikes in has come about because we haven't had any change … if we want change we have to hit them where it hurts: their wallets."
He then continued, "For me the rent strike is kind of a change of approach, it's a much more direct approach and I think when you look back at what has been effective at getting rent down in recent years, it has been rent strikes."
Miller references the UCL (University College London) rent strikes of 2016-2017, which resulted in a number of concessions including rent freezes and accommodation bursaries, and the UK-wide accommodation strikes of 2020-2021 which resulted in students on the UK on average receiving an annual return of £1500 in rent back from various reimbursements and credits.
Miller argues that this is, "Definitely the way to go… we need something to bring in if we're negotiating with university management. Currently the way a lot of these conversations go is here's a series of things we want, and they say we can't… and the question is what do you do after that."
The next issue Miller identifies is that of the widespread problems of accessibility across campus, with Newman being the most egregious example. Miller criticises the "Outdated approach to accessibility in terms of having one small bay that can fit two students… I don’t think it's right to basically be separating those students of from their peers." Miller advocates for the introduction of areas in lecture halls that don't have seating, "[... ]so you can have that access, because lectures are as much a social thing, they’re about meeting your peers and I don't think the current way it works you necessarily get that."
"I dont think its right to basically be separating those students of from their peers."
Another problem Miller focuses on is that of campus health services. Speaking to The University Observer, he discusses his own lived experience with depression and his struggles with accessing supports. "I had to wait about eight weeks for counselling when I went for it." Miller believes that UCD does have the funding to hire more staff and therefore improves the rates of access, "[...] but it's a question of where they put it [...] often the Business School, Law School or into top salaries at the top end of the university."
Miller acknowledges that, in comparison to his fellow candidates, he is much less familiar with the SU, but believes that is a strength rather than a weakness, and argues that a new perspective is exactly what the SU needs both in terms of engagement and campaigning: "They need to be much more head on in tackling key issues then they currently are. I think we need much more direct action when it comes to things like the housing crisis."
"They need to be much more head on in tackling key issues then they currently are. I think we need much more direct action when it comes to things like the housing crisis."
On one of the most critical aspects of the role: casework, Miller advocates for holding clinics outside the SU office, "being prepared to hold particular office hours or clinics around different parts of the campus would be good. Doing that in Smurfit [would be great]. If maybe you're not especially mobile, or struggling to get up in the morning, I think having to go over to Belfield to the SU offices is kind of off-putting."