Being President of the Students’ Union is a very tough task. In my year I had no idea what was in store and I am sure none of us could have predicted what challenges were to present themselves. The surfacing of fees campaign took up a lot of time as a major issue of importance to the majority of students and we knew that it could be make or break for the Union.
The President has a lot of work to do, a great deal of which is based around committee work – sitting on various college committee including Board – Trinity’s highest decision making body. Our job on these committees is to represent the students’ interests and to tell the college what you want aiming to ensure they acts in the best interests of the students.
Another major role in my job as President was as the Union’s chief campaigning officer. Given the nature of the fees campaign, a lot of media attention was needed to aid our cause. Luckily the Irish press always seemed to be willing to lend a hand, with plenty of articles and photographs being published in national and local media.
Of course, running campaigns can be very difficult without campaigners to lend a hand. We were very lucky last year to have record numbers of wonderful class reps and other students to give us the man power needed.
Campaigning for what our students need and want was always our top priority, but another key issue I dealt with last year was the visibility and approachability of the Students’ Union. In increasing these, the number of students using our services, such as the welfare loan system, increased dramatically. I feel that these individual services for our students are just as an important part of what the Students’ Union does as national campaigns.
The most important thing an SU President can do is to be out there, to be known and to be approachable. To represent effectively you need to relate to those you represent. You need to remain a student. This is much more difficult than it sounds but is the best advice I could give to anyone in the position.
And always keep in mind, the three tools needed for anything you do are: hard work, common sense and stick-to-it-iveness!
