Rant

Amz

I was prompted to write this rant in response to a debate that is currently ongoing on the women's rugby site with regard to "Operation Fish Finger". Please bear with me

DCU isn’t a student friendly university, as contradictory as that sounds it’s the reality of the situation. I don’t believe that this planned protest is going to change the attitudes of the people in real power within the university. While I agree greater access to the facilities needs to be arranged for the sports clubs etc. I don’t believe this kind of action is going to be the catalyst for change.

There as a sickening level of apathy amongst DCU students, not just with regard to the sports club and the Student’s Union, but with regard to everything in DCU. This kind of protest happens once in a blue moon in DCU and why the SU feels that people are going to suddenly want to get involved in the running of student facilities is beyond me. There is no “community spirit” amongst the students in DCU, there’s no sense of belonging instilled in students from day one. This is the reason why people aren’t going to give up their time to try and make a difference on Wednesday. They don’t feel like they’ll help because they don’t feel valued by the college as they’re not given enough input from the very beginning. They need to feel like they belong. There’s no point in a few thousand students showing up on Wednesday and then have no follow up protest or demonstration. There’s no point in telling people that they can make a difference now and rousing up some drive in the student population only to ignore them for another few months until the next problem/issue arises.

While individual clubs and societies might appear to instil a sense of belonging in their members, there is an obvious reluctance amongst the clubs and societies to interact with each other and support each other in whatever arena, be it competition, allocation of funds, allocation of facilities etc. While I accept that this mainly boils down to money this isn’t the way things should be maintained. There is a horrible “clique” mentality amongst many of the Clubs and Societies in DCU. The clubs and societies would benefit far more if people did pool their resources rather than attempting to compete for everything. In our own case, working with the men’s club and our possible future relations with the American Football Club etc. will hopefully see us become bigger and better than we currently are.

Sometimes I hate DCU, I hate the cliques, I hate the fact that if you don’t make a name for yourself early on in your student career it’s incredibly difficult for you to get involved in anything. I hate that people aren’t interested in making things better and I hate that there’s such a mercenary attitude amongst so many of the students. I hate that so many people are only too willing to sit around and complain about lack of entertainment, or how DCU is so dull, yet ask them to make an effort and they can’t get away quick enough. I’d like nothing better than to get involved, but because people don’t know me I can’t see the point. I’m not happy to just be “backroom staff” so to speak, it’s incredibly frustrating. I’m incredibly proud at times to be a student at DCU, but there’s no outlet for me to express that. I can’t see myself getting elected for any position because I don’t feel I have the support of my fellow students, at times I didn’t feel supported by the committee here in rugby. If I thought for one second that by running for office I’d actually be able to make a difference or that people would at least be willing to back me I’d have no qualms about running. At this stage though I’m cynical about the whole operation.

The SCC and SPC, make it so difficult for clubs and societies to progress and develop. Everything has reams of red tape attached to it. They don’t seem to want clubs to do well. Smaller clubs like our own have no way of competing on the same level as Snowboarding etc. we’re already restricted in the number of members we have because we realistically only cater for women. There’s no parity there, there’s never going to be parity there and until things change somewhat I can’t see student apathy in this place changing.

The SU needs to make it’s presence felt on a much more regular basis, the occasional e-mail from the President or one of the other officers isn’t the way to work. These mails could be the man on the moon for all some people care! They need to have a more palpable presence on campus. We need to be able to see them working, we need to see what they do. We need to see that our vote has made a difference that by getting up off our asses that we have been involved in something and this in turn might help instil a greater sense of belonging.

Kingp35

i gotta say i agree with evrything you have just said. There were so many people that i know that were complaining about the lack of good events but none of them would have done anything to combat this. It could have been laziness but it could also be that they thought they couldnt make a difference.

Its true that the SU dont do enough or dont make it known to the general student what they are doing. I only know the name of the SU president and thats it. And this is only from the mails that are sent around. A more proactive attitude needs to be taken by the SU to try and make the necessary changes.

I agree with the clubs and socs thing too but it does all have to do with money. Every club needs the money to allow it to operate properly and this will always instill a rivalry but saying this all clubs should be treated equally whether they are the womens rugby club or any other club for that matter.

I would gladly run for election if i thought i wuld get the chance but I dont see it happening and I cant see any changes happening by the time i leave the college. Its sad really but there is nothing I can do about it.

Suaimhneach

Amz, run for election. Find a way to. I'd vote for you, and I am sure many others would too. Esp based on what you just said.

Amz

It's too late now isn't it?

What would I run for?

*shrug*

Suaimhneach

Heh
__________________________________________
Hi all,
Just a quick reminder to all that the nominations for the SU elections will
close tomorrow Tuesday 15th of March at five PM SHARP!

___________________________________________

By a few hours

What a shame.

There was laods you could have run for.

Amz

I thought it was the 15th alright.

Oh well, maybe next year.

Thanks for the support JesJes.

kelvin

Got to agree with you there. Theres one thing DCU will never be able to organise and thats FUN. I know friends in DIT without a student bar but they have places in the college to sit down and talk(nowhere in dcu), play pool and chill out. Fun, excitement and making people belong isn't something you can just throw money at. In short Dcu has no soul. You can't bring a girl back to your campus apartments after one of the balls, the drinks are dearer than some places in town and the bands are always ****e. It's always been like that and I never bothered trying to change it because I don't see the point. It has lots of facilities but it has a deeply rooted culture of the square. can't wait to go on the next dit rag trip!!

Amz

Kelvin, what the hell are you playin' at?

For the benefit of Faceless Man and those like him this thread was originally written nearly a year ago.

CuLT

pwnt.

Scráib

amz wrote:

Kelvin, what the hell are you playin' at?

For the benefit of Faceless Man and those like him this thread was originally written nearly a year ago.

That may be true, but personally I'm glad I read it. It makes too much sense to be ignored. DCU has no real soul, its not student friendly and the lads who actually run the university run it like a business instead of a college. Students should be the priority, but they aren't.

As for the SU, I had a discussion with some mates about it before and the kindest thig said was 'stench of corruption'.

If someone ran for SU pres this year and bothered his or her arse campainging outside the hub the day before the election using what you just wrote, do you know how much support they'd get? Hands down they'd win. And they could concievably change all thats wrong with this college.

rugbug86

Scr&#225 wrote: »

If someone ran for SU pres this year and bothered his or her arse campainging outside the hub the day before the election using what you just wrote, do you know how much support they'd get? Hands down they'd win. And they could concievably change all thats wrong with this college.

how long have you been in DCU?
Take it from someone who was actually ON the SU executive, that's not how it works. fair enough i was only Science Convenor, but things are not that easy to change. i sat on the faculty executive committee as a student representitive, and its only this year that things i said are starting to take effect.
The year i was elected, everyone had a good campaign. i know myself and the would be women's officer walked around campus for the 2 days of the elections handing out flyers for the elections, steering people towards the polling stations, etc, and still only 20% of students voted. last year we also looked at the option of students voting through their portal pages, but there was issues of security.
trust me, the students union is one thing that i know something about, and there's no support for the SU in the general student body. until that changes, the SU cant. do you not think the SU would love to put on big name bands on a weekly basis? they would, they just dont think there's any point to spending €30K + on a band if people aren't gonna buy tickets for them. look at the RAG ball last year. people BEGGED for bigger bands, so one was given, and there was no tickets sold. christmas ball last year, no-one bought tickets so it had to be cancelled. christmas ball this year, seemed like it'd be a great night but because no-one went it just fell on its arse.
if you have such a problem with the SU why dont ya get off yer bum and go do something about it. if i can do it, anyone can.

gizmo

Indeed thats the view I have. I don't bitch about events mainly cos I believe its the students who need to get off their arse and make more of an effort, not the SU. Fair enough the latter has its flaws but tbh the only way they can hope to improve matters is with the support of the students. Every institution has its share of red tape though so its to be expected that some things take awhile to be implmented. That said certain issues are important enough to cut the bull**** and just act.

You're right about the Rag Ball too, getting Electric Six was great and tbh people had to pay more than €15 to see them in the Ambassador the following week. The problem with the student body is that they want all these benefits and great bands, they just don't want to have to pay for it, one thing though...IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT...:rolleyes:

Support smaller events -> SU get confident they can fill the place for bigger events -> SU put on bigger events

Thats the only way its going to work imho...

Scráib

Hmmm... Okay I was wrong to put the blame solely on the SU then, I admit that. Students have a part to play too, and in general we're fairly lazy when it comes to on campus gigs. To be honest I haven't gone to any of the SU organised events because I never enjoy those three-room events in the Hub.

But I do believe that the SU have a bad reputation among the students, thats why no one reads their emails, probably why operation fishfinger wasn't much of a success either. Maybe a decent PR campaign listing what's been achieved might solve it.

And yes I know its easy for me to say that. Why don't I join the SU? I'm starting Intra in two weeks and then its into fourth year. I'm not getting into anything like that for fourth year.

gizmo

Indeed, but no SU is perfect and looking back at their past events I must say my friends and I have nearly always had a great time at them. What has pissed us off is the general laziness of the students when it comes to attending them.
Those Hub based events are there for a reason, having them in there cuts down on costs and keeps the ticket prices low, well as far as I know anyway. Just look at the Rag Ball last year, they got an alternate venue and a big band and look what happened...was that the SU? Hell no! Fair enough alot of people don't like Spirit but all I heard leading up to it was people bitchin' about how it was a "disgrace" or "****in' joke" that tickets were €15. These same people however would have no problem shelling out ~€8 to get into a club on a regular night and for a few quid extra they were getting to see a great live band in the form of Electric 6. So basically they can't win either way...

Oh and who doesnt read their mails? Thats more of it, something that they might like could be on and they wouldn't know about it and then bitch about not being told, typical.

ONE thing that I don't like about this and last years SU is the lack of weekly reminders as to what events are coming up. I remember back in first year the first mail in my inbox every Monday morning was a mail from Lorna/Ents Guy detailing the events on in the Bar during the week. It made planning your nights out easier and people had no excuse for not hearing about stuff. This has stopped in the last two years and I'm not really sure why. It was either a decision made by the SU Presidents in question or they just didnt have as many events on in the bars to warrant an email...

rugbug86

we stopped the weekly emails cos people were complaining about too many "allstudents" emails... :rolleyes:

we tried to make it work through class reps, but the class reps didn't do it!

gizmo

*sigh*

Just tell them to STFU tbh...

EDIT: The irony eh? "[Allstudents] SHAGWEEK, RAGWEEK & EVERYTHING ELSE" in my mail box less than 30mins later!

cooker3

I don't criticise the SU because I don't care, I don't really attend the SU events because I dont care about them so I am the sort of person you are criticising and guess what I don't care about that either!

gizmo

In all honesty thats a pretty ****ty attitude to have, in general I mean, not just you Rob.

I mean if you don't care about the SU then don't criticise them. If you wouldnt go to SU events even if they were good in your opinon, then don't cricitise them. I mean sure, everyone is entitled to their opinion but look at what happened with those emails. A number of people complained about getting too many of them, most of whom were people that probably fit into the above bracket, and now the rest of us, who actually do care about on-campus events and are interested in supporting them, don't get them because of those people, not really fair now is it?

cooker3

cooker3 wrote:

I don't criticise the SU because I don't care, either!

Did you miss that part. I never criticise the SU apart from when they organised an event for gamessoc without telling us but thats differant story.
If the SU never organised another event in the 18 months I have left then I wouldn't notice or care. Some people care about that sort of thing and others don't, can't expect everyone to think like you.

gizmo

Nah, I wasnt referring to you Rob, I'm talking about the people who don't care about the SU or their events but still feel the need to complain about them.

...and did you edit the quote of your own reply?

cooker3

Right, well hurts me to say it, sort of agree, if you complain then do something about it otherwide don't complain.

I seen that myself, I copied and pasted it, don't know where the word either came from, strange

gizmo

Heh, this agreeing with me thing is becoming quite a habit of yours, isnt it!

cooker3

don't worry, it's a short run phase that I'll get over soon enough.