Hello everyone, I’m Isaac, and I’m running for the School of Arts, English and Languages (SAEL) representative! I am currently in my first year of a three-year course in Music and Audio Production and I am very passionate about student representation. I was the Head Boy of my secondary school, the Abbey Christian Brothers’ Grammar School and I loved having the responsibility to represent the students and to echo all their needs desires to improve their study/workplace and I am determined to do the same for our school this year. As your representative, I aim to let your voices be heard and let your issues be addressed no matter how big or small.
In this current climate of COVID-19, our ability to communicate with one another is crucial. I know that as students, we have all been left in the dark and a lot of us are confused about what our teaching and university life will be like if COVID-19 does not slow down. No matter what the situation, as your representative, I will work tirelessly to make sure that ALL assessments will have a time period of 24 hrs for completion as I understand that a lot of you won’t have direct access to a good stable internet at all times and it is not fair to put everyone in the same boat when they simply are not. I understand that we have not been getting as much feedback as we would like from our lecturers and in these times online communication between student and lecturers is artificial and not as effective as in-person feedback. That is why my main goal as your school representative is to try and push on-campus teaching again. I will work with the other school representatives to come up to with strategies where we can all have on-campus teaching and stay safe simultaneously. Meeting fellow students and truly experiencing on-campus lectures is a must and I am determined for all of us to experience that one way or another.
A lot of first-year students this year feel robbed of a year. We have not been able to socialise with our peers. We have not been able to truly network and meet our lecturers. We have not been able to use all school facilities that was promised to us before coming to university. Now I know that a lot of people have had it a lot worse than us. I am not going to go forward with this situation with a sense of despair but more with a sense of hope. As your school representative, I will push for all of us students to experience our first year properly. I would love to include us all in the first year's freshers programme of next year because I believe we all deserve a chance to have a proper first year experience. I will make sure that we will all have a PROPER induction to our courses and to all the facilities that our university has to offer. I know that you feel forgotten as a student in these times, but, as your representative, I will make sure that this will not be the case anymore. I will make sure that we will get back to normal together.