Orla Norton is one of four candidates running for the position of Ents Officer in the upcoming TCDSU sabbatical election. A senior sophister psychology student who has acted as events manager for the French Society between 2022 and 2024, Norton feels she has developed considerable skills in events management, leadership and teamwork commenting that “It’s on a larger scale, but it’s basically the same job that I have been doing within the French society, and it’s just something I really enjoy to do, creating events and coming up with ideas.”
When asked about the challenges and successes she experienced as an events manager, Norton referred to the difficulty of leading a large team within a student society and the skills she learnt from it. Her achievements include initiating the French Societies first club night which was a collaboration of a total of nine societies and increasing the amount of events the society held from less than one per week to up to three events per week.
Feeling positive about where Ents in Trinity currently stands, Norton praised the frequency and wide variety of events that are held in Trinity, as well as the increase in society involvement that has been seen over the last few years but nevertheless felt there is always room for improvement.
“I think that a wider variety is always a good thing, just to make sure that there is something for everybody and that there is more input from different societies, from different people with different interests,different hobbies. Also having things at different times of the day. Some people who commute can’t really make it to things that happen in the evening. So having events that are, you know, in the morning and throughout the day.”
For Norton, crowd control and implementing spiking prevention measures are issues of priority. Although positive about the impact that the use of the second bar at the Pav for more crowded Pav Fridays has had, Norton feels that there are times when crowd control is still an issue.
“I went to a couple of Fridays this year that were so busy and getting up and down the stairs felt a little bit dangerous even, and that’s why I talked about that in my manifesto, because I think that it is important to be able to have that [second Pav bar] as frequently as possible, to ensure that there’s no safety issues.”
Conscious of the difficulty of attempting to combat the issue of spiking, Norton is advocating for the use of anti-spiking lids at events as well as having Ents committee members stationed at accessible points throughout the night. ‘It’s really difficult to enjoy a night out without it being in the back of your mind things like spiking and other safety issues,’ Norton highlighted.
When discussing the upcoming Trinity Ball crowd control again emerged as an issue along with accessibility. Norton argued that “there is a need for more fencing, more control over the amount of people in one area, like a lot of people are all at the main stage, and they’re all trying to get as close as possible.”
Norton is eager to see Trinity collaborate with other Dublin universities and potentially further afield. She highlights the benefits of “being able to collaborate with other universities, being able to meet more people and have more people at the events.”
Norton is also proposing the creation of a Sustainability Officer as part of the Ents Committee, which already contains an Accessibility Officer and a Welfare Officer.
Norton puts forward that “it would be good if there was an officer that was specifically there to be able to think about that [sustainability], to think about every small detail of the event, see if there’s anything that we can make more sustainable, or to help on the side of planning events and to do other things like try to help us pressure the Pav to stop using plastic cups and stuff like that….even if it is a small change to an event that makes it a bit more sustainable. I think really publicizing that and showing that it is an effort that we’re trying to do is also really important.”
Accessibility is another issue that features on Norton’s agenda, both the physical accessibility of venues and the visual accessibility of promotional material. Her proposals include providing students with a venue description on Instagram posts and other promotional material as well utilising accessibility forms to receive details of how accessible different parts of a venue are.
‘Another thing is that I would want to announce events earlier, because that way, if there is any sort of need to be accommodated for, people can get in touch. I think with the graphics, just making sure that they’re accessible and the colour contrast is high enough and it’s legible, that’s important.”
“It’s definitely undergraduate dominated. I mean, there are a lot more events for them,” Norton stated when questioned on the amount of events currently held for postgraduate students. This along with holding events specifically for Erasmus students is something Norton says she wants to tackle.
‘Especially the beginning of the year, because if you’re in your first year of your postgrad, or you’re just an exchange student, in the beginning of the year you’re the same as a fresher, you come and you usually don’t know anyone and so focusing on those in freshers week, I think would be really important.’
When asked why students should vote for her Norton argues ‘ I would definitely bring skills of leadership and event management. It’s something that I’ve done a lot, and I’ve already done within the context of Trinity especially. And I know how to lead a team within a team, and I have experience. I know who to contact in terms of booking venues and things like that, because I’ve already done it. I know the society side of things, which I think is really important as well in Ents.’
With campaigns launching this week and voting to take place the next week, all candidates only have a short amount of time to convince students that they are the most qualified person for the job.
