Terence elected DCU Student Union President
Gorey man Terence Rooney has been elected the next President of Dublin City University Students’ Union.
The 22-year-old final year global business student is looking forward to leading a post-pandemic era, with the hope of all students returning to campus later in the year.
He said that running a campaign mostly online was something he’ll never forget.
‘Generally campaigning is a lot of going up to people and asking their opinions but even building a manifesto and policies, a lot of that was just emailing people such as class reps or clubs and societies and I had to dip in to lecturers’ Zoom classes.
There was greater engagement online and it was all virtual so a lot of it was about content and how you looked online so I reached out to some multimedia students who were big on TikTok.
‘I’m really excited now to get into it and see what I can do with it. Especially coming out of lockdown, as there’ll be so much room for improvement and restructuring in DCU.
‘The university has an amazing community as it’s a small campus that’s tight knit; everyone knows each other and it’s incredibly welcoming and open.
‘I want to reignite that community that we have in DCU and bring back events. I want to give people opportunities to interact in person again because online doesn’t do the same job,’ he said.
Thanking family and friends who supported his campaign, Terence said that student politics was not something he had thought about when he first started college.
‘I never really had much interest in getting involved but my roommate in first year was going to an Enactus meeting and he brought me along.
‘I kind of fell into it, but I ended up getting involved in that society and was Chairperson in second year. I was involved with clubs and societies such as Enterprise Society and the Raise and Give Society before I got interested in student politics, but I enjoyed student engagement and it was my life for two years in DCU.
‘I went to Spain last year with my course, and the nature of my course meant that I was supposed to do my final two years in Madrid. Getting involved in the Students’ Union was something I wanted to do but never considered doing because it wasn’t something that global business students usually did.
‘But when I came home to Ireland after Covid struck, I realised I could run for president and I’m so thankful now that I had the opportunity. I’m so grateful now that I got the chance to lead the union, and we’ll see where it goes’.
During the pandemic, Terence was involved in a virtual head shave that raised money from Pieta House. He said that he’ll learn from the Students’ Union team that has gone before him who had to step up just as the pandemic hit.
‘This year’s team were elected just before the first lockdown and their policies were surrounding a normal world or a pre-Covid world.
‘They were dealt a very different hand to everyone else but they got some incredible engagement on social media that was never there before. They did the best job possible from the year they’ve had, and I will be able to learn from them,’ he said.