Orla Norton, a Senior Sophister psychology student and Trinity French Society events manager, is running for Ents officer to offer students bigger, better, and safer events.
Norton told Trinity News that events planning has been a creative outlet “since I was in high school.” As Ents officer she wants to continue to do what she loves, which is “to come up with novel things. And, you know, see that come to life.”
Norton says that during her tenure with the French Society there were “two to three events per week when I was doing it, whereas before it was less than one.” Alongside buffing her ability to juggle many different types of events, Norton feels her experience as a society officer makes her a good fit for Ents officer saying: “I have the experience of managing a team, of coming up with, of seeing an event happen from its conception all the way through to it actually happening, and make sure that people know where they are, and what to do.”
As such, Norton is not worried about adjusting to the highly demanding workload of Ents saying, “your whole job is Ents. When I was doing it in French society it was on top of my studies so I think that, you know, if I was already then doing three events per week, I say that I could deal with a couple more events. Just a wider variety.”
The candidate says event planning “is something that I’ve enjoyed always,” which has always made her “want to work hard, extra hard, because it didn’t feel as much like a chore.”
One of Norton’s focuses is giving students opportunities to break out of the cloistered, Trinity stereotype by hosting events with other colleges. Her goal is “to get in touch with them [other universities’ students’ unions] or with the other Ents officers from the other universities and maybe try and do a large-scale event. We’ll be able to have so many more resources to do it.”
She says what inspired this idea is that, “it feels a lot like we’re in our own bubble. And I think talking to them [students from other universities], they definitely feel the same way. And to be able to, you know, let people meet each other and also have the positive part of it being a larger event.”
Additionally, Norton wants “more events to display the talent that College has within it. So be that, you know, live concerts or art showcases or stand-up comedy, chat sessions, you know, things like that.” She imagines “a variety of different music, and whether that’s to say, you know from 10 to 11 it’ll be this kind of music, from 11 to 12 it’ll be this kind of music or hosting different nights for different music”.
If things happen according to the candidate’s vision, students might find themselves going to such events on one of campus’ many green spaces. Norton says, “I think definitely we could do more music events in general like open area in the Pav. But also the atrium is really great. We even are thinking of the Buttery or the square. They have so much potential.”
Norton acknowledges that most of her changes revolve around the events themselves rather than specifically targeting accessibility. However, she assures voters that accessibility is not being pushed into the background. She says, “I mean, obviously I feel like I’m going to do this more in, like, the event ideas than safety because I think that that’s something that runs very much in parallel to the events, and that’s something that I want to definitely put a lot of resources in, I want to give a lot of attention to safety and accessibility.”
She aims to instill more cautionary measures. Her manifesto suggests having more Ents personnel at events, a second bar at the Pav (to prevent the classic Friday night theatrics of someone tumbling down the stairs), and free anti-spiking lids for drinks.
Norton is also concerned about the, much-overlooked, concern of digital accessibility. Regarding the graphics on Ents’ Instagram she says, “A lot of them do not have sufficient color contrast to be accessible, and that is something I think that I would definitely want to change.”
In that same vein, Norton wants to optimize communications for those who may not be able to access social media and to generally improve consistency. She says “A big part of what I want to do is to make sure that everything is planned further in advance, to make sure that everyone finds out at the same time. There are a lot of people that, you know, don’t want to use Instagram to find out about it [upcoming events] and who choose not to be on it, or people who would just rather find out about it from emails. And I think it would make it more, like, equal for everybody.”
Norton also thinks what Ents has been doing provides a good foundation for her goals saying, “I think that they have definitely put a lot of focus on making sure that there are events for everybody. I’ve seen the variety of events they’ve planned a lot in recent years. And I’ve seen the upscaling of a lot of things. Like, for example, Pav Fest that happened last semester. I think it was great. It was so much fun. And I think that really shows the potential that
College has to create things that people enjoy, that can be a bit bigger, that can be more outside of the box, than just the traditional everyday thing. I think that’s definitely something that I would want to see continued.”
Overall, Norton is an experienced candidate promising upscaling, variety, and safety.
