Eric Tebay
My fellow students, my name is Eric Tebay and I want to be YOUR Education Officer. As an active member of the Union for over 3 years now, I have spent my time in college progressing up the ladder of the SU taking on more and more responsibility with each year. Having known since first year that I was going to run, I made sure that all my experience and every position I held would be relevant for an Education background. This would ensure that by the time these elections came around I would be ready, willing and qualified to take on the job and more importantly be able to do it right.
Photo: Shauna Watson
Over the years I have been a delegate to USI Congress (2011), Deputy Faculty Convenor of Engineering, Maths and Science (’11-’12), a member of the Education Committee of which I am now secretary and am currently the EMS Faculty Convenor. In this role I regularly help students and class reps with their academic problems as well as representing students on college committees such as University Council and EMS Faculty Exec. Two of my bigger achievements this year have been organising EMS Day which raised €500 for charity and the annual Science Ball which saw 700 students in attendance. In short, I basically do the job of the Education Officer already but just on a smaller scale.
My plans for next year include making the SU more transparent. This would be done via an Education Facebook page, wherein I would post about upcoming issues and students can have their say. I would then ensure that these opinions are brought back to college so that students’ voices are heard. This serves the dual purpose of both informing students about what’s happening in college, which is particularly useful for off-campus students, but also that any college decisions can be made with students’ interests at heart.
I plan to introduce a new themed week into the college calendar, Exam Skills Week. The purpose of this is to bridge the gap between the Leaving Cert style of rote learning and the college style of independent learning. The week will feature numerous talks, workshops and seminars covering everything from essay writing, study techniques and time management. I would also ensure that the materials from these talks would be brought out to the off-campus locations such as James’ Hospital and D’Oliers Street.
My third policy concerns the library. The Union has made excellent progress this year in extending the BLU opening hours. I intend to build on this work and establish better hours in the Hamilton and John Stearne libraries. Alternatively, if this proved to be impossible, I would set up a form of book request system in the BLU, wherein texts from the Hamilton and John Stearne libraries can be brought to the BLU. Hence, all students may avail of the 24-hour access in the BLU library and still have access to the books they need.
I also plan on centralising the assessment of courses. As it stands, students receive too many module surveys at various points in the year and as a result there is a poor response and schools don’t receive feedback. I plan on amalgamating the module surveys from each course into one easy, manageable survey. This year college has revolutionised its administration with the introduction of the GeneSIS Project and so we now have the perfect opportunity to use this system to drastically improve how we assess our courses. This will encourage more feedback to the schools and allows them to pinpoint areas of difficulty in their courses that need to be remedied. Thus improving the quality of education students receive. As a side note for Health Science students, this assessment will also include a section on your clinical placement. So college can be made aware of any issues with hospitals or supervisors and take action should needs be.
Finally, the most important job of an Education Officer is helping individual students with their academic problems. That is why I promise to be there for each and every student whenever they need me. This could be in the form of running late office hours or holding Education clinics in Halls or off-campus locations. Whatever the issue, I intend to do whatever I can to help any and all students of this college.
You the voters now have the opportunity to improve your academic lives here in college. So when you go to the polls, vote for the candidate with the most relevant experience. Vote for the candidate with policies that benefit all students. Vote for the candidate who is ready, willing and qualified to do this job right and who will do absolutely everything in their power to help each and every student get the best education they can out of college. Vote Tebay number one for Education Officer.
