Danni Curtis is a graduand of Politics and International Relations, thumb and is running for the position of Education Officer in the upcoming SU elections. Curtis has been active across a variety of platforms during her time in UCD, rx including the Arts society, decease Law society, PleaseTalk campaigns and UCDSU’s Welfare crew.
Curtis explains that it was her own positive experiences with the office of Education over the years that inspired her to run for Education Officer, as well as being an active member in societies and organizations across campus.
“I completed my first year in UCD over a year and a half due to extenuating circumstances. The Education Officer and the Welfare Officer played a big part in keeping me in college, and because of these experiences I have such respect for the role of Education,”
If elected Education Officer, Curtis plans to work toward achieving a 24-hour study space on campus. When asked about how she would put this in place she had this to say:
“I have sat down and spoke to various people, and I believe we are very close to achieving a 24-hour working space here on campus. It is in the works and I believe we have a great opportunity to enact this now with Andrew Deeks as president. One of his aims is to create a research intensive university and ensure we have the resources to achieve this.
One of those resources is the 24-hour work space. If we can’t have a 24-hour library what I would suggest is that the library remains open from 7:30-12:00 as normal, and then have the students move to a smaller space like they do during exam time, such as Astra Hall for example, and then have that stay open for the rest of the night,”
Another aim of Curtis is to establish a clear and manageable payment scheme for students in relation to fees, including repeat fees. Curtis acknowledged that UCD had a “bizarre and expensive,” approach to repeats, but felt that the university could be very understanding in helping students establish a payment scheme.
The College Tribune asked Curtis would she, if elected, make lowering the cost of repeat fees a priority, to which she stated:
“The issue with resit fees in UCD, is that they go across the board. They take an average of what it costs for every student to re-sit exams. I’d love to bring them [the repeat fees] down, but the issue is, if we do, are we going to have vet and engineering students paying more?
I think it is a very expensive average that could be brought down, because other universities manage to cap and absorb that expense. Some universities manage to cap it, and even if UCD brought in a capped rate so that students are only paying a certain amount for these re-sits. I think that would be the most feasible way of going forward,”
Dannii Curtis is running against 5th year medical student Sharon Ryan in the race for Education Officer, with voting taking place throughout the next two days.
