Fifteen minutes. Floor after floor. No empty and quiet space in the whole Arts Block building. We settled on the GMB, or rather a stairwell in it. This scene could be described as a catalyst for why Seán Thim O’Leary is running to be SU President. They are a current class representative of Junior Sophister PPES and the first Archivist of the Student Union. Witnessing “how unfair things are for people” pushed O’Leary to “want to make a stronger stand and [initiate] change for people’s benefit”. These seemingly minuscule discrepancies in college life have a significant impact, and O’Leary plans to tackle these challenges.
In stride with their belief that we need “persistent and strong action for students’ rights,” O’Leary helped to set up the SU Archive and ensure easy access to the database. Working firsthand with the archival material of the SU only further amplified O’Leary’s commitment to student activism and voices. “It’s hard to feel the impact that one person has over one year span, but if you take a look at what happened over the course of a decade, you’ll suddenly realise that people’s actions do have long-lasting consequences and long positive change,” O’Leary explains. In addition to working within the SU, O’Leary serves as a trustee at Courtown Community Council, where they work alongside their community to solve a myriad of concerns–most recently focusing on pushing for more bins around town. O’Leary again emphasises the importance of ensuring that these seemingly “benign” things actually take place in order to foster a healthy community–an approach which they plan to apply to the Student Union.
In an interview with the University Times, O’Leary charted their plans “to bring a welfare and service-oriented approach to the Students’ Union, in combination with the grassroots momentum that’s been building up over the past couple of years.” In terms of welfare, O’Leary emphasises their plan to push for a change at the college level for funding towards the health service, disability service, and student counselling service. O’Leary further explains the shift they hope to apply to the Union in the face of government underfunding. “It’s really important that the Students’ Union takes a more proactive role in highlighting the areas of underfunding and [combines that] with the grassroots approach of engaging with students,” they explain.
In terms of their service-based approach, O’Leary points to their personal experience as a commuter to and from college. “There are still day-to-day issues, for people like me that are commuters, that can’t afford to live in Dublin and who also, consequently, can’t afford to buy a hot meal in Dublin every day,” O’Leary says. This prompts their plan to continue pursuing the installation of microwaves, kettles, and student kitchen spaces across all of campus. In lieu of student spaces, O’Leary hopes to implement a standardised system of booking student study spaces across all of campus as well. O’Leary’s plans for direct communication and streamlined standardisation come to fruition in their proposal to bring back the Student Union Handbook. The Student Handbook will “enumerate the rights of students in it, so everyone knows what their rights are, and it would act as a guided introduction for first years,” O’Leary explains. Many students don’t know what their rights are, and thus don’t know when those rights are breached. O’Leary wants the Student Handbook to ensure that “all of the students’ rights can be enumerated and collated together,” which will amplify the SU’s job of stepping in and taking on methods of recourse.
Not only does the clear and concise description of student rights have a place in the Handbook, but O’Leary explains that having a descriptive guide to navigate overwhelming college paperwork is an absolute necessity. They explain that whether it is filling out forms with regards to registering for postal vote or housing, “having a step-by-step process to walk through these very significant things is really important.” The Handbook would also highlight “important services around the college that students can access, so as they have a straightforward and easy set of steps they can follow to get involved with the SU, get their issues resolved through college administration, and to know that the SU has their back for everything,” O’Leary says.
O’Leary’s personal experience as a commuter to college has influenced much of their policy position on the housing and transportation accessibility crisis. They propose lobbying for the Leap card to be accepted on all public transport in Ireland and further grassroots SU push for improved public transit, including reduced student rates. In terms of the ongoing housing crisis, O’Leary proposes continuing to lobby the Government for increased higher education funding and reducing the rent burden. They emphasise that every student should have access to safe housing and a reliable transportation system. “The state should do everything in its power to ensure that everyone has a roof over their head, and that everyone is able to have a roof over their head while they’re [engaging in] their education, [students] shouldn’t have to worry about that,” O’Leary asserts.
O’Leary’s SU plans extend to the entire student body, including those who are often overlooked. They propose to further collaborate and engage with Health Science and STEM students. O’Leary expresses admiration for current SU President Jenny Maguire’s strategy of direct engagement with Health Science students by contacting groups of HS students to discuss specific issues which impact their cohort. “Using them as kind of a jumping-off point to aggregate the voices of health science students, so as the college would deliver better services for health science students…is a really good way of getting meaningful change across,” O’Leary says. In similar fashion, they believe more accessibility should be extended to SU elections for increased flexibility and “codified mechanisms for the President and other sabbatical officers to regularly engage with health science students and the health science convener on health science student specific issues.” O’Leary extends the same rhetoric to their plans to further engage with STEM students. “I’d like to see the SU more actively spending time organizing events with STEM students…you want to engage with those students directly, and then go and use that as a basis of how to further engage them going forward,” they explain.
O’Leary’s plans all centre around a cumulative sentiment–the Student Union will enact the most change when students band together. The aspiring candidate references the historical impact of student change globally as a key inspiration for their involvement in the SU. “[As students], we’ve always been the greatest force of change within society,” they say. Although they plan to adhere to a welfare, service-based, and grassroots approach, O’Leary also welcomes differing perspectives and ideals. “I’m not going to be hostile towards fighting for students’ rights, for some person’s vision of fighting for students’ rights…we’re all here to fight for students’ rights, and I think that’s the most important thing to go for,” they assert. When asked about what feeling they would like to walk away with from their hypothetical tenure, O’Leary explained, “I would like to walk away knowing that people are inspired to take action for their rights, but not just to take action as individuals, to take actions together.”
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