Brian Treacy, a current Social Science student and Higher Education Editor for the University Observer this year’s only candidate for Student Union Education Officer.
Treacy, who is currently a Class Rep said that he is running because he ‘got a look into the inner work on how they [the Students’ Union] actually can be a benefit to students’ during his two years as a representative. He also feels that the Education Officer was the best role to support students in UCD.
Treacy wants to bring in new SU supported ‘assessment seminars’ that are designed to teach students about the best way to structure given assignments and address persistent grammar issues. He says that having spoken to staff involved in the writing centre, that they are ‘seeing students dropping grades due to poor structure.’ His hope is that if this is a SU run event, it will be a more accessible setting for students to engage and learn in.
He would also aim to introduce seminars with recent graduates from UCD to show people what they can expect when they leave college or layout master course options for them. Treacy hopes this will give students some guidance into what modules they should pick or what links can be formed to employers in fields that students would be interested in.
Treacy says he will aim to advocate that all lecture slides are placed online on time while also pushing for lecturers to begin recording and posting their lecturers for students. Treacy noted that 30 years ago, the idea of lecture slides seemed a radical step, but were almost universally well received. He says that 30 years from now we will look back on at the idea of recording lecturers and wonder why we were so slow to adopt it.
Treacy’s biggest new idea was developed in conjunction with the registry office. He wants to see a system in place where when students are registering they can clearly see when the assessments for that module fall. This is in an effort to allow students to better plan their academics and so that lecturers can also see when assignments from different modules are due to fall. This Treacy hopes will mean that lecturers will be able to avoid having numerous assignments falling on the same days or weeks and reduce the stress on students.
Treacy is also committed to advocating for further reductions in the resit and repeat fees. This will be alongside his efforts to help students understand and navigate the SUSI grant process. Treacy acknowledges that the process is often confusing and problems with it are often underreported as students don’t understand how they are missing out. He hopes that with the support of the Education Office, students can get the full benefit from these supports.
By Aaron Bowman – CoEditor
