Vice President for Welfare

Berry Lenihan / SU Elections, Welfare / 0 Comment

Last year Collie Ollie put in one of the most impressive vote-getting performances in DCU election history to be returned upstairs for the 2nd year in a row. But, with Collie now moving on to pastures new,  who will be left filling his shoes next year? 

Jimmy English 

Drogheda man Jimmy English is a final year communications student who is best known for his well-pulled pints in the Nubar on a Tuesday night.

Jimmy has been a class rep for the last two years and is currently secretary of the Class Rep. Council. A well-known face around Shanowen Square, Jimmy has a big interest in sports- especially American football, and he is especially looking forward to the sport coming to Dublin later this year.

Jimmy has also been heavily involved in the Media Production Society in the past as well as the Please Talk campaign and the Rag and Shag Weeks. He is always working at something to make college life that bit better.

Jimmy believes that it is important that students feel safe on campus, and if elected he will be looking to increase campus security measures. Jimmy will also look to increase the amount of non-alcoholic events in DCU, as well as bringing things ‘back to the way they were’, by having different events on campus each night of the week.
Like some of his fellow candidates, Jimmy will look to re-open the Old Bar as a common area where students can relax, eat their lunch or study.

Jimmy lost out to Aisling Foley in the race to be Humanities convenor last year after a re-count, the Louth footballers have been in unlucky in recent years too, maybe now Jimmy is due for a change in fortunes.

Amy Lucas 

After countless hours spent representing DCU over her three years in the college, Amy Lucas is now hoping to represent the DCU students as Welfare officer next year.

In her final year of studying contemporary culture and society, Amy lives in Kilbrarck in North Dublin and has worked in a nursing home in nearby Baldoyle every weekend since she was 15. During the summer she works for a Dublin City Council initiative which helps bring local kids on day trips and to places they wouldn’t get the chance to visit otherwise.

Amy is a mental health representative for the college, as well as being a student ambassador and a co-ordinator and mentor for the College’s Access programme. She is currently a class rep too.

She loves activating the creative side of her brain, and goes to the cinema two nights a week. She is contemplating a career in media.
If elected, Amy would like to create a ‘Linkedin’ on campus which would help students on the jobs front. This initiative would involve students networking with business people, as well as successful graduates of the college, in the hope of making ‘that right contact’.

Amy wants to turn the Please Talk Week into a year-long event to try and make mental health less of a taboo subject among students. She also wants to introduce student mentors for first years coming into the college.

Amy says that she ‘is an encyclopaedia of useless facts’ and invites anyone to ask her about any fact while on the campaign trail.

Neil Collins 

They say all things come in threes, and after winning the Sigerson and O’Byrne Cups Neil Collins is hoping that adage rings true as he looks to become the new Vice President for Welfare.

A proud Roscommon man, Neil is in his final year of studying Sports Science. A member of the Castlrea/St. Kevins club, Neil is also part of the Roscommon senior football panel.

He has achieved much success on the football field, completing the Sigerson and O’Byrne cup double with DCU in 2010 and 2012. Neil was also captain of the Roscommon u-21 side which won the Connacht title in 2010 as well as the side which lost to eventual champions Galway in 2011.

However, Neil is keen to stress than there is more to him than just the sports field. An enthusiastic member of the Style society, Neil was involved in Tuesday’s fashion show, while he is also on the committee of one of DCU’s largest societies- E Soc.

Neil is big into music and regularly writes songs and plays music. Neil is also very much a people’s person, and says that he loves talking to friends as well as meeting new people.

Neil says that he ‘won’t promise the moon, the sun and the stars’ in order to be elected, but instead guarantees that he will be ‘approachable’ for everyone in the college, no matter where they’re from or what club they’re in.

Neil believes that he would make ‘a competent and confident’ Vice President for Welfare if elected and that he would always ‘listen and engage’ with people- something which he thinks is crucial for the role.

A number of DCU women have attested that Neil’s powers of seduction are second to none and Neil will be hoping that he can seduce the voters too come next Tuesday.

Aisling Foley

It’s often said that a good team wins once, but a great team wins twice. Aisling Foley is hoping she will be a great candidate as she looks to follow on from her Humanities success last year and become the new Vice President for Welfare.

Personable, colourful and never a dull moment- it’s easy to see why Aisling Foley is popular around campus. The 2nd year SALIS student was born in Scotland, and was Scotland most expensive baby born in 1991.

She moved to Ireland when she was 3 and spent most of her youth in Dublin before moving up to Virginia in Co. Cavan when she was 14. Aisling is looking to complete a double success for Virginia in the DCUSU elections- she was in the same class in school as Lorna Finnegan, who is in the running for clubs officer.

Many men have remarked that Aisling is a Rose of Tralee in the waiting- as she combines her good looks with interests in Music, sport and dress-making. However, she was narrowly beaten in last year’s selection for the Cavan Rose.

Aisling also played with the Ulster Rugby under 21 side before she moved to college. She is the current Humanities Convenor and has loved every minute of it.

If elected, Aisling says that she will introduce a small loans scheme for students in which the union would loan students up to 100 to cover any costs they may have.

However, Aisling says she will not be campaigning for the re-introduction of Toxic Tuesday, as it is not a safe environment for students.

Whether such a stance will be toxic to her votes remains to be seen.