Jemil Saidi wakes up at 6am most mornings. He views it as a necessity, and with a schedule as hectic as his, it’s easy to see why. The fourth-year engineering and management student spends his days juggling commitments. He is heavily involved with the Dublin University Harriers and Athletics Club (DUHAC), he is the outgoing vice-chair of Dublin University Central Athletic Club (DUCAC), and he is one piece of the all-male a capella group, the Trinitones.
“It is tiring, and your body does need rest, but some days you need to just push on”, he tells me.
When Saidi’s industrious work ethic pays off, the early mornings seem like a small price to pay. Just last August, after months of struggling with injury and a rigorous recovery programmes, Saidi broke the 52-second barrier in a 400-metre event, recording a new personal best.
Saidi’s pride in reaching a goal he had set for himself months earlier is tangible: “I ran 52 seconds for the better part of three or four years … [it’s] no longer hanging over my head – I’m in 51 now. I was very, very happy.”
While Saidi is undoubtedly an accomplished athlete in his own right, much of his contribution to Trinity’s sports scene has come through his administrative roles. A mere three weeks after joining DUHAC during his first year at Trinity, Saidi was elected as a captain at the club after being approached by senior members on the committee. From there, Saidi never looked back – he was re-elected to the club’s committee twice more as captain and club captain before he turned his attention to DUCAC.
“I wasn’t even sure I would go for it”, Saidi tells me, reflecting on his first DUCAC campaign, when he ran to be a club representative. “For some reason, people thought I would be great to run for it.”
Sure enough, Saidi was successful and entered the fray as one of the eight club representatives on the DUCAC executive committee.
Saidi’s amicable personality is apparent when we talk. Within our short time together, I can identify what others saw in him: characteristics conducive to acting as a level voice for their sports clubs.
While Saidi previously found himself in elected positions following persuasion from his peers, his decision to run for vice-chair was off his own bat: “For vice-chair it was more something that I wanted to do. I’d seen how college sports was – students obviously should be making an impact.”
“For me, college sports played a huge role in my development as a student. That’s where a lot of my friends would be from … so it’s a huge part of my college life. For me, it was more about getting involved, giving back and enabling students to have that same experience that I had.”
Saidi’s immaculate record in elections was preserved when he defeated incumbent vice-chair Róisín Harbison at the 2018 DUCAC AGM.
Saidi’s calls for major constitutional change within DUCAC dominated his tenure as vice-chair. As reported in The University Times last April, Saidi proposed changes to the club’s voting structures – a long-standing bone of contention – in an effort to “create a more transparent DUCAC”.
My rationale was that if we’re deciding stuff on student sport, it should be students who are in the sporting community who have a have a say in what DUCAC – the head of the community – decides. Student involvement should just be from those who are participating in sports.”
Saidi cites Diego Coyle Diez, former captain of the Dublin University Archery Club (DUAC), as a catalyst in pushing for structural change: “I think Diego started the conversation. He did a lot of work in terms of getting the captains to meetings, trying to discuss it and getting people’s views on that.”
Coyle Diez proposed a “one club, one vote” system at last year’s AGM, following concerns that larger clubs were using their platform to “sway votes” . Rather than any member of DUCAC – and by extension, every member of a sports club in Trinity – being able to vote, Coyle Diez’s alternative suggested that each club send one elected representative to AGMs to vote on that club’s behalf, and therefore give each club equal power to decide the makeup of the DUCAC executive.
Having secured verbal agreements from six clubs backing the proposed amendment to the DUCAC constitution, Coyle Diez brought the motion forward, only for it to be dismissed by Donagh McDonagh, whose three-year term as DUCAC Chair ends next Thursday unless he’s re-elected. At the AGM, McDonagh incorrectly stated that such an amendment would require “the whole student body” to vote on such a change.
Saidi is critical of how McDonagh’s handled the situation: [The motion] was unfortunately shut down. I think that also helped as well. The way in which it was shut down at the meeting, wasn’t, in my opinion – this is my personal opinion – wasn’t the way to go about it. You could have just said, unfortunately, we don’t have enough time. We can have an EGM next month to discuss this.
“The response that was given, I think, got a lot more small clubs being like: ‘You know what, we’re going to back [Diego] here’, so … I think that did fan the flames a bit.”
Saidi himself attempted to bring about change to the voting system, and introduce budgetary transparency: a bold endeavour, given DUCAC has often been reluctant to disclose details of its financial affairs.
Much like Coyle Diez, however, Saidi’s push for reform was met with pushback, particularly against changing the voting structures.
“There was a bit of opposition to it, and there are some people who don’t like constitutional change. But I do hope – even if it’s not me who brings it in – I do hope someone brings it in.”
Despite their differences on constitutional matters, Saidi says that he enjoys a positive relationship with other executive members: “I don’t have an issue with anyone on the executive [sic]. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. No-one is ever going to agree with everything that you say.”
“I think having room for disagreement is good as well, because when you disagree, you look at it from that person’s view, and go: ‘Oh actually, let’s go back and try to look at it in a different way, where we can all come to a middle ground.’”
Three years after first becoming a captain at DUHAC, Saidi is now a major player in College’s sporting circles. He has helped change the conversation in DUCAC – constitutional change is now a very real prospect.
When I ask whether there might be progress on these changes at this week’s DUCAC AGM, Saidi laughs: “I think a lot of things will come up … it’ll be interesting to see.”
