Hi folks I hope you are all well,
My name is Cathal McStay and I am really excited to be running for this position for a second time! I am Computer Science student currently in third year, my penultimate year as I am on the MEng pathway, some of you may know me through peer mentoring, or through demonstrating on Data Structures and Algorithms, maybe from course reps or we are friends but for the people who don’t know me I hope we can get to know each other!
Can I use the same joke in this manifesto as I used last year… of course I can!
If I were elected, I would aim to:
1. Fight for Pizza Days!
After joking about this last year I am starting to think this might actually be a valid stance… However, as I have focused on in the previous manifesto and will do in this once and if elected I will focus on even more is that the role of a representative is really simple, it is about you… yes you! No matter who you are, your voice matters and it deserves to be elevated.
I have volunteered as a course rep and represented my fellow placement students this year and on sitting in on meetings between course reps, school reps and staff. I have very quickly realised, as a course rep, that staff members are willing and receptive to our feedback and open to talking with us about issues we have. What I would want to change is to try and introduce more ways of giving you the opportunity to give us your feedback. We can only operate with the mandate of the school body’s voice.
So again, for real this time!
Community:
Across the School of EEECS and the wider EPS faculty, we have a wide array of characters, people who are very outgoing and friendly and maybe some people who are a bit more shy and, perhaps, wish to get a better experience of uni life, because that is what university is about at the end of the day, it is about going to the classroom being able to have fun and learn with the people around you and taking it out of the classroom, whether that is through sports, clubs or even a ‘quiet’ pint or two on a night out. I feel like we can all do our bit to create a tighter-knit community by being more open with students and staff, putting ourselves out there more, organising events, nights out, or sports/e-sports days.
Blended learning:
Blended learning has become a buzz word ever since we moved online due to a certain virus a few years ago, and since then we have all tried to work out what is the best way to move forward, whether that be online, in-person or somewhere in between, however I feel as if there is a disconnect between a lot of students on what we actually want out of these new possibilities and I feel like it is important that we are able to have discussions about this even after COVID is over. Whether this means lectures cease being recorded or continue to be accessible after the lecture or how we access materials through canvas or anything in between.
Support:
While this ties in with community and sounds a bit vague, speaking to people in peer mentoring and demonstrating I feel like a lot of students aren’t aware of the level of support available within the school, I want to make sure that everybody knows that there is support there, if you feel uncomfortable talking to staff whether this is for support in education or outside of that scope there is student support there and I feel like this needs to be highlighted and changed to make this clearer.
Assignments:
This is always a big one for all of us as our time at university shouldn’t just be based on grades, however, they certainly do help! It is clear that there are people who feel that assignments can sometimes be vague in scope and questions in some cases. While this is unavoidable in some situations, with more feedback both from staff and students we can hopefully clear up what staff are looking for in terms of responses and how students feel around the feedback and questions themselves.
You:
I ended the last manifesto with a section on how you are the most important part of this university, without you there is no university which is a weird thought but if everybody decided to stop going then this will all be over. Whether you ask a question in a lecture that everybody had in their mind or give feedback that everybody was going to say but too shy or even if you just show up every day and take notes, you are important and your voice deserves to be heard, if you vote for me I will try and help you get that across.
If you have any queries or want to get in touch, my twitter is @McstayCathal and my Instagram is mcstaycathal I can also be found elsewhere!