VP for Academic Affairs - Lucien Waugh-Daly - reflects on the SU’s work in semester one.

In spite of the challenge of how little face-to-face interaction with students is possible this year, I’ve been proud of the work I’ve done to date in my role ascVice President for Academic Affairs. In November I fulfilled a major election promise of mine: to run a week-long campaign on the topic of trade unions, informing students of their rights as workers, about various unions available for them to join, and inviting speakers from SIPTU, nursing and teaching unions to speak to students about their work. DCUSU has a responsibility to support our students who work and I hope the issues I raised during Union Week will resonate and be reiterated in the coming years. Elsewhere, I saw a great response to the virtual edition of Don’t Drop Out, Drop In week; have launched a new Sustainability Working Group involving a number of passionate students who will help shape the SU’s policy on green campus issues; I’m currently helping to oversee the implementation of the new Academic Calendar and I’m working closely with our Postgrad Officer every week to ensure postgrad student concerns are given more of a spotlight than in previous years. The new DCU Book Fair group I launched on Facebook has allowed students to trade and sell used college textbooks to save on both cost and waste, and I plan to have a new grinds hub launched on Loop early in semester 2. I aim to achieve as much long-term change as possible in the second half of my term along with my fellow sabbaticals, especially in areas like sustainability, promoting the arts and assisting students who balance college with part-time work; about which I am particularly passionate.