Ed Murphy For Entertainments Officer

Ed

Hey, sorry i couldn't think of a better title.

I'm running for entertainments officer in the SU elections and would really appreciate any support you folks can give.

I figure it's best to just stick the text from my manifesto here. If you have any comments/questions i'll try to answer them as best i can, though this coming week will be extremely hectic, so i'll only be checking things sporadically.
Or just grab me in person if you see me around.

Thanks
Ed

The Basics:
UCD can be an incredibly daunting place for anyone at the best of times. It can be hard to find just one or two good friends amid the legions of people the same age as you milling around. I want to try to have as many different events to appeal to as many people as possible. The Entertainments office is a service and should be treated as a service first and foremost instead of just another stream of income. Whether you’re into The Stone Roses or Girls Aloud, I want to give people the opportunity to get together with others who have similar interests.

Diversity:
There's more to entertainment than drums and guitars. We need to see more pop, more hip-hop, more metal, more cheesy nonsense! Thursday night live shouldn't just be rock bands and singer-songwriters. There's more to entertainment than live music, we need comedians, DJs, dancers, jugglers, performers! The fun doesn't have to be confined purely to Thursday nights. We need more small scale, simple entertainment - movies, table quizzes, talent shows etc. to fill in the gaps.


Societies:
Societies should be the backbone of the UCD community. For too long Ents and the societies have been too separate, working against each other for limited space when they should have been working together to give back as much as possible to the student population. The Ents office needs to work alongside societies to stop the clash of events and overcrowding of certain nights allowing for the widest possible choice for the student population. The Ents office should operate as a launch pad providing organisational and financial support to all clubs and societies in an effort to not only prevent clashes of dates but to increase productivity and diversity for all involved. Societies need to be brought to the fore in UCD life and brought back to their former glory.

Balls!!
Traditionally the first term is the liveliest with Freshers week, the Freshers ball and the Christmas Ball and a host of other madness. There's no reason the fun should stop after Christmas. I want to bring a second ball on a scale similar to the Freshers ball to the second term. In addition I want a Post Exam Barbeque/Ball on campus utilising the forum bar, the student bar and the surrounding areas. The one time of year where people really need to have a good party is after their exams. We need, and deserve the biggest and best bands, DJs and performers possible


Class Parties:
Class parties are an essential part of college life. They’re the perfect way to get to know others in your class and Ents needs to help class reps to provide the best possible atmosphere.

Advertising Events:
In the past couple of year we’ve seen posters going up 2-3 days before many smaller events. This is completely unnecessary and unproductive. There’s no reason that posters for all event shouldn’t be up at least a week, if not two before the event happens. We have three incredibly valuable media resources in UCD - The College Tribune, The University Observer and Belfield FM. These are outlets that are completely underutilised for the promotion of events. With a short interview/feature or small ad students can be informed weeks in advance of what entertainment is coming up in UCD along with the posters around campus, in all faculties.


Charity Events:
This year we have seen just how generous students can be, supporting event after event to help those less fortunate than us. This needs to continue, we need to see students getting out and supporting others and having a good time while doing it. We need to see sabbatical officers making fools out of themselves in the name of charity, having their heads shaved, having a variety of unpleasant things thrown at them.

Chinafoot

what i have found from the last year and a half of UCD life is that the majority of the gigs and stuff seem to be based around those living on campus and in the surrounding areas.

its the same with the society nights. as a student who commutes a fair enough distance, it'd be nice to see more Ents events held on Thursdays and Fridays (when there are nitelinks) or in the city centre and not places like Bondi. :rolleyes:

oh and i definitely agree with you about the posters. theres nothing more annoying than seeing coming in to college and finding out theres a good gig on that day that you didn't know about. or when you see a gig advertised but all it says is "so-and-so playimg tomorrow" and theres no fúcking date on it. :mad: just a little pet hate of mine.

anyway good luck with the campaign.

Ed

Hey, the main reason that there tends to be a lull in activity on fridays traditionally is because of the opinion that because so many students who live on campus go home for the weekend there wouldn't be much of a turnout.

I fully believe that there should be more entertainment throughout the week (not just thursday night live). It doesn't have to be a gig, as i mentioned in the manifesto, it can be simple stuff like showing a movie or getting in a performer for a free afternoon show.

In relation to the lack of events in the city, this is primarily related to the cost of running events in dublin city. To get a venue on a thursday or friday night in the city is a hell of a lot more expensive than usting the student bar or the astra hall. That said, there should be more events run that are accessible to everyone. Not all students are from dublin 4/the southside and it's something that does need to be addressed. Possibly by ents co-rnning more events with other universities, or by providing funding for societies to run more events in the city.

Jonny Arson

Hey Ed,

I nearly completely agree with everything you have outlined in your manifesto but as in any election campaign there are alot of promises but most of them are not delivered. I do understand that it would be next to near impossible to deliver on absolute everything but could I just ask you these qusetions:

1.What do you feel you can deliver more than your other candidates?
2.What do you feel sets you aside from your other candidatres?

If I vote for you or not I do wish you best of luck over the next week or so.

arbeitsscheuer

Good luck Ed, you've my vote all the way!

Ed

Zane from MTV2 wrote:

Hey Ed,

I nearly completely agree with everything you have outlined in your manifesto but as in any election campaign there are alot of promises but most of them are not delivered. I do understand that it would be next to near impossible to deliver on absolute everything but could I just ask you these qusetions:

1.What do you feel you can deliver more than your other candidates?
2.What do you feel sets you aside from your other candidatres?

If I vote for you or not I do wish you best of luck over the next week or so.

Hey, thanks for the feedback/questions.
One of the things i thought was paramount when writing up the manifesto was to have it full of realistic, achieveable goals.
There's loads of outlandish stuff i'd like to try to pull off, but i wasn't comfortable sticking them in unless they were things i believed i could deliver 100%.
For example, the barbecue ball is not going to be some big extravagant, overpriced event. What i want to do with it is to enclose the 2 main bars and the surrounding areas, allowing for students to drink outside (ideally i'd prefer that we could drink wherebver we want but the UCD alcohol policy only allows for drinking in certain areas: "1. Alcohol may not be consumed on campus except in licensed clubs and restaurants and other areas which have been temporarily designated by the Registrar for the purpose of a particular event. "
I'm not talking about bringing in over priced marquees just for the sake of bringing them in. It'll be a pretty simple set up with djs outside the bars, and live music inside. I'd seek to keep ticket prices to a minimum(there would have to be tickets for purely health and safety reasons) with access to both areas via wrtistbands(the type you get at oxegen etc.)
Even in relation to the charity event section, that will be delivered with very little problem, if i get in i'll be having my head shaved for charity , most likely in the first term, and not in a half assed manner as has been done before, a concerted effort to fundraise around campus for the week prior.


I totally agree with you that most candidates don't deliver on their promises.

To answer both your questions: What i think i bring to the ents office that no candidate before me has brought is a genuine understanding and knowledge of the entertainment industry. This relates to all aspects; performing, organising booking and promoting.
I've worked in various aspects of the music industry, as a DJ initially at Screamadelica in the Temple Bar Music Centre for 3 years, and also at Fatty Fatty in The Thomas House on thomas st.
I then moved into music journalism, startting out at the college tribune in ucd, working as their music editor, before being hired by the event guide: http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&lr=&q=+site:www.eventguide.ie+eventguide+%22ed+murphy%22

I then moved on to work for indublin magazine(the old one, not the current one)
I also currently contribute to foggy notions magazine(though not in the recent edition due to my school work)
Through my work in the media it was a necessity to learn as much about the workings of the music industry as possible and i have an insight into it that's pretty much unparalleled by any previous ents candidate.
I've also been involved in the running of a number of live music events, most recently the extremely sucessful college tribune fundraiser last year.
I've been involved in ents since i started in ucd, as the ents officer at the time (paul burke) was a friend before i came to ucd.
The simple fact that i can set up a drum kit puts me out ahead of most previous ents candidates.
I'm sure some of that might come across as a little arrogant, and i'm sorry if it does, i'm just extremely confident in my ability to do the ents job better than anyone before me.
If you have any questions or want me to go into this in more depth please feel free to grab me if you see me wandering around campus.

Thanks
Ed

Alana

Go Ed, hope you get it, good luck with the campaigning!that bbq sounds the business, you'll be missed at the Tribune tho, I'm sure

A

Chinafoot

word on the smokers wall is pretty positive for mr. murphy. and he's certainly the most approachable candidate

having read the manifestos today, he's got my vote.

Good Luck Ed

breadmonkey

Hi Ed,

One of my mates was going around "canvasing" on your behalf the other day.

I've had a look at the manifestoes of yourself and the other guy from B&L (can't remember his name), but what struck me about his was, that he wanted to shake up the bar and have pints sold at "no more that 3euro", and booze to take away at off liscence prices. I don't know if he can deliver on this, but it's something that would make me vote fo him because I think it would make the bar immeasureably better. Where do you stand on these issues?

Thanks

Ed

As i said above, i didn't want to put anything into my manifesto that i couldn't actually deliver.
That promise of cheaper drink/off licence has been made numerous times over the past couple of years and has never been delivered.
The simple fact is that the ents officer doesn't control the prices of drinks on campus, it's controlled by a management board, which the ents officer traditionally has been on, but has never managed to deliver and there's nothing to suggest that will change.
I'd love to see cheaper drinks on campus, but it's not something that can be guaranteed so i can't promise it.

beanyb

What about his promise for a rag week? Is that an impossible promise? I'd love to see a rag week even though it would probably be as crap as freshers week in the end!

breadmonkey

I'd love to see cheaper drinks on campus, but it's not something that can be guaranteed so i can't promise it.

So would you push for it or what?

AngelofFire

Excellent performance at the hustings today Ed, Anthony Kelly`s suggestions of a bar extension every thursday are indeed dubious, because it would cost about 2 thousand a night. That would amount to about 100,000 per year, which is a huge chunk of the union finances, the money the bar makes is not enough to pay for that, unless we want to increase the union`s cut of the capitation fee.

Ed

beanyb wrote:

What about his promise for a rag week? Is that an impossible promise? I'd love to see a rag week even though it would probably be as crap as freshers week in the end!

Rag week is not impossible by any means. The only major issue with it is the size of ucd, there's 20,000 students in ucd so ideally you'd have to have a rag month to cater for everyone, which isn't very realistic. I think there's areas of entertainment already in place that can be helped along. The first is freshers week, which was fantastic when i first arrived in ucd has seen a steady decline in recent years.
A way of getting around the whole size issue is that of the faculty days, some of them are fantastic; science, ag etc, some just aren't. And that's where ents needs to start. Generally the faculty days tend to be pretty independent of the SU, and i wouldn't suggest for a minute to try to take over the great work done by so many hardworking committees. I'd just like to see ents there to offer a helping hand where it's needed, be it with funding, booking acts or general organising duties.
Also, there's no reason ents should focus on one individual week, we need to see regular, varied entertainment, every week right up to the end of the year. (obviously huge events aren't very practical in the run-up to exams and during them, but there's no reason that small scale entertainment shouldn't be available for those who want to take a little break from the stress.)

Ed

ross*k wrote:

So would you push for it or what?

Absolutly. I'd love to see cheaper drink across the board, just like the next man, i just can't promise it because it's pretty much impossible to pull off.

Ed

AngelofFire wrote:

Excellent performance at the hustings today Ed, Anthony Kelly`s suggestions of a bar extension every thursday are indeed dubious, because it would cost about 2 thousand a night. That would amount to about 100,000 per year, which is a huge chunk of the union finances, the money the bar makes is not enough to pay for that, unless we want to increase the union`s cut of the capitation fee.

Thanks for the kind words.
Aside from the cost factor, there's also the issue of getting home, he wants to run a club on a wednesday night on ucd campus until 2am. Seeing as there's no nightlinks, how's everyone gonna get home? Or is the club just for people who live in dublin 4 and those who live on campus?

Cecilia

Originally Posted by Ed:
he wants to run a club on a wednesday night on ucd campus until 2am. Seeing as there's no nightlinks, how's everyone gonna get home? Or is the club just for people who live in dublin 4 and those who live on campus?

No need to be putting the other opponent down, even if what you say is the truth. I think you're a great candidate Ed, and you will do just fine, without having to question Anthony Kelly's manifesto. Concentrate on raising your status in the out-lying faculties, and not on lowering the status of your opponent. Best of luck

uberwolf

Cecilia wrote:

No need to be putting the other opponent down, even if what you say is the truth. I think you're a great candidate Ed, and you will do just fine, without having to question Anthony Kelly's manifesto. Concentrate on raising your status in the out-lying faculties, and not on lowering the status of your opponent. Best of luck

I think he's entitled to question the opponents manifesto, or else Anto could promise U2 every week in the stu bar with a euro a drink.

Jonny Arson

I really do believe that this thread should focus on Ed's campaign and no one else's.

uberwolf

I won't stand for Anto Kelly being insulted. And Ed will rightly focus on his own manifesto. But if he's asked why he hasn't included X, Y or Z on his manifesto when his opponent has he's entitled to say why and to voice his opinion on that topic as well.

Sensationalist attention grabbing claims that can't be delivered should be exposed as such. Unfortunately Zane this is my 5th time watching a sabbat election unfold, I've been involved in every one of those in some way. Lowering the price of drink has been a promise every year. As has extended hours in the NOB (new old bar).

As with every other boards forum - you may attack the post and not the poster.

Sangre

Of course he should be allowed to question his opponents manifesto, to suggest otherwise is stupid and shows a complete lack of understanding of politics. It is not an attack on the person but his ideas etc., its perfectly legitimate and in fact should be encouraged. People can't be allowed to make outrageous claims.
Anto's manifesto is there for the shredding, great ideas but I'd chop off my left arm if he even achieves even one of his fantastical goals. Its a farce of a manifesto and is only going to grab the naieve and wishful.

Ed's manifesto is the only one to grab me as it is honest, plain, realistic and free from bull****.
Hope you get it!
Sorry if I seemed harsh on Anto, great guy and great outgoing personality but if my opponent had those plans I'd love it, easy to tear apart.

Slash/ED

The one thing I liked about Antos manifesto that could surely be implemented was setting up a five a side soccer league, would that be possible at all? We only get the odd five a side tournaments as one offs as far as I can see, a league would be excellent.

Ed

The five-a-side league is a good idea. The only problem with it is that there's already the super league, which a lot of the football players in ucd are heavily committed to. That's pretty much the reason we tend to see five-a-side tournaments rather than a full on league, because it's a big enough commitment to get in a on a saturday morning as it is.
As i said in the manifesto "The Ents office should operate as a launch pad providing organisational and financial support to all clubs and societies " That includes sports clubs. We've seen a fantastic increase in smaller scale sports events kick off this year, such as the tough rugby league and the return of the pool tournaments. When i started in ucd we used to have a pool tournament every friday night which were always a great laugh, you could win a chunk of cash(well i couldn't), make new friends and generall kick off a really good weekend. That's something i'd like to see return. Just the community aspect that comes from those events.

Slash/ED

Yeah I agree with that really, cheers for taking the time to talk over your campaign too.

Jonny Arson

Hi Ed, another question for ya.

What do you think about the general community spirit in UCD? I'm currently in Arts and sometimes I think its just me but there seems to be very little atmosphere amongst alot of the students and I sense a lack of community and spirit in my course. I've been very disappointed with our class reps. They have zero presence and have organised absolutely nothing to encourage our classes to mingle and get to know each other. Do you think the role of the class rep should have more significance and what type of events or outings would you think should organised to create an atmosphere.

Anyway Ed I will be voting for you so GO ED!

Ed

I'd agree with you to an extent. I don't think the college is devoid of community spirit, i just think the community has changed and become a little more introverted than it used to be. Because so many of the people who come to ucd are from south dublin they'll tend to stick with those from their old schools leaving many people out in the cold.
There's been a steadily increasing focus on large-scale events over the last few years, at the expense of smaller, more personal events. This is something i want to change. I'm not suggesting cutting out the large events, i'd just like to see a bigger range of small scale stuff. This would be just very simple stuff such as table quizzes, better class parties etc.. And this is where class reps need to come into their own. I know how hard it can be to get to know your class, especially if there's hundreds of people in it.
The societies and the class reps need to take on more responsibility for trying to aid integration. As do the departments, one of the problems has been the lack of clarity of the role of the dept., the class reps and the staff-student reps. The ents office needs to take responsibility too, to try to coordinate with societies and classes to try to get as many people involved as possible.
This is going to be extremely tough, but it's something i'm going to do my best to try to deliver. One of the main thoughts in my head when i was writing up my manifesto was that i wanted to make ucd a place where current students could look forward to the week ahead, to have something on that people could look forward to while they're ploughing through essays, or just to take a break from the monotony of the day.
Anyway, i hope that answers you question at least in part.

kittenkiller

Go you Ed!

Saw you at the hustings on tuesday (? i think).

well done, you did a good job!

gonna be away on mon & only comin back on tues afternoon but i'll do my best to tick that box 4u!

am spreading the word!
& already lookin forward to that bbq!

uberwolf

On that note Ed the science faculty run a welcome evening in the first week with the help of the sci day lads. A few drinking games, a few prizes etc and it really helps break the ice before teh barriers go up.

If you could Ed get onto that bandwagon - it really seemed to help the lot of them bond

PaddyofNine

Ed, nice work on the thread. If only all the SU candidates could set up a similar thread on the site!

Do you have any plans regarding Earlsfort Terrace? I know the next academic year is going to be it's last one as part of UCD, with the new Med building in progress. But there is literally no sense of college life in there. There were posters from last years summer exam parties up until Christmas, and it's only when we get to go out to Belfield maybe once a month for a biochem lab or something do we realise how much we're missing! The major clubs and societies don't even bother to put up posters in there, much less the smaller ones.

Do you have any comments?

ferdi

you got my vote ed, archaeology is cool.

Ed

PaddyofNine wrote:

Do you have any plans regarding Earlsfort Terrace? I know the next academic year is going to be it's last one as part of UCD, with the new Med building in progress. But there is literally no sense of college life in there. There were posters from last years summer exam parties up until Christmas, and it's only when we get to go out to Belfield maybe once a month for a biochem lab or something do we realise how much we're missing! The major clubs and societies don't even bother to put up posters in there, much less the smaller ones.

Do you have any comments?

Advertising of events is one of the big issues i want to address. There needs to be advertising of events in every faculty, not just along the concourse in belfield. Even faculties which are in belfield like engineering, law and richview don't get adequate advance warning of events. It's a bit daft that no ents officer had thought to just give some posters to a class rep at council.
Specifically in relation to earlsfort terrace, it's only a short bus ride away so there's no excuse for not having posters out there too. In the short term i'd like to see the pool table in the basement get a new set of balls, some cues and a recovering. In terms of atmosphere it's pretty tough to try to get some together in a buliding that looks like a reformatory. I've been in a couple of times in the past week and i have to say the place is even more depressing than the arts block.
Unfortunately they keep designing buildings for students, but seem to forget along the way that it's students who use them(there's no common room in the new health sciences building, unless you count the few tables in the computer lab.