Hi, my name is Niamh and I’m running in the 2021 QUBSU election to become the new Equality and Diversity Officer. I’m an experienced student activist, having been both President of Amnesty International QUB and the Northern Ireland Rep on Amnesty’s National Student Board. I am a Postgraduate Rep on SU Council and Campaign Lead for Project Choice. I’ve been active on a range of issues including climate justice, period poverty, refugee rights, equal marriage, and reproductive justice. I decided to run for election this year. Let me tell you why.

I’m a GB student.

When I moved to Northern Ireland four years ago, I was met by a huge culture shock. First year at university is hard, but for me this was coupled with lonely weekends in Elms Accommodation as everyone else had gone home. I had no money to do the same, so it didn’t make for the university experience sold on the brochure.

In my four years at Queen’s, I’ve never seen a candidate run on policies to better support GB, Isle of Man and Channel island students. Honestly, I think it is about time - GB, IOM and Channel Island students represent a significant number of students at Queen’s and should be supported.

This is why I ran to lead the change and introduce support initiatives. If elected, I will introduce a peer mentoring scheme for GB students, run weekend social events and lobby for expansion of the GB scholarship to cover all these students regardless of grades. This is with the intention of helping to ease the epidemic of loneliness whilst also helping these students to maintain support structures at home. This is more than just aiding GB students to make friends, it is about validating their position and valuing them as members of the student body.

I’m dyslexic.

Dyslexia is a learning difficulty, where amongst other challenges, dyslexic people find it difficult to process the written word. This makes things like spelling, grammar and writing op-ed articles more difficult. Roughly 10 per cent of the population have dyslexia, yet support provisions are sparse across education. I almost didn’t pass GSCE English due to a lack of support. At 21, I achieved a Politics BA from Queen’s despite similarly suffering from lack of support.

This story is far too common. Disabled students are ignored under the current system. For years students were calling for recorded lectures only to be ignored until it became a necessity for everyone due to Covid-19. Even now, the closed captioning system for live lectures is inaccurate, lecture capture technology is underfunded, and disabled students’ concerns are ignored.

I ran for election because I think it is time disabled students were heard. If elected, I will lobby for the continuation of lecture recording, lobby for investment in proper lecture capture technology to ensure high quality recordings and demand an overhaul of the closed captioning system. I will also ensure all video and social media content is closed captioned across the SU and Queen’s social media platforms. This is about more than simply extending recording lectures post-coronavirus but creating systematic change whereby disabled students feel valued and heard.

I’m a woman.

Being a woman in Northern Ireland is hard. Female students definitely don’t need me to tell them this. Since September we have witnessed countless attacks on women including the literal targeted attacks of women students in south Belfast. Beyond this being a safety concern, sustained sexism can make female students feel less confident and accepted within the wider university community.

I ran to empower female students, support student-run campaigns and introduce initiatives for period poverty and anti-street harassment. I want to expand Project Choice, focus on lobbying and produce comprehensive online resources for the SU website signposting students to specialised support organisations such as Informing Choices and Nexus NI.

Ultimately, I am not just running for me. I’m running to represent every student who has felt the SU and wider university don’t represent or support them. I want to create tangible and long-lasting change to the university and SU’s approach. If you can relate to this, I ask you to vote for me for Equality and Diversity Officer

To see all the candidates running for this position, visit the QUB SU Website.

SU21 - Niamh Oddy for Equality and Diversity Officer