A final year English and History student from County Mayo, John Garvey is running to be the next Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Welfare and Equality Officer. He differentiates himself from his competition – Nina Crofts, Bargavi Maghadi, and Deirdre Leahy – with his extensive experience as a Junior Common Room (JCR) Welfare Officer in Trinity Hall and part of the Welfare and Equality Committee.
“I worked as the Welfare Officer for Trinity Hall JCR in my second year. I did casework, supporting students living in halls and helping them access the support they needed in college […] I led a Welfare team of 12 students who also worked to ensure the safety of students on the nights out we organised” says Garvey.
“My experience in different positions during my time in Trinity,” he writes in his manifesto,“has given me a sense of how the SU and college’s different systems and policies work, which sets me up to affect change if elected.”
He states, “I am running for Welfare and Equality Officer because I am passionate about a number of issues which affect student welfare […]I am enthusiastic about working to improve students’ welfare through casework.”
Garvey’s experience on the JCR has led him to see things that are often overlooked. He organised and attended multiple events and gained first-hand experience of how people engaged with them. He saw some things that needed to be changed, so he intends to focus on minority groups and students who may be struggling.
“Welfare-related campaign weeks weren’t done this year, like Shag Week, Mental Health Week, and Rainbow Week […] because they weren’t getting the highest attendances.” He continues, “but I think those are the events catered to minorities in this college, and especially [to] students who might be struggling.”
Although he wants to continue the political lobbying that the SU is well known for, he sees that a different approach is needed. He wants to focus on events, particularly for individual student welfare and casework.
“The goal of those events isn’t to get the seats filled. It’s to get the kids who need that to be there.”
Garvey points out that many smaller events for minorities, like Queer Sex Ed, are pushed onto first-year students who live in halls. He wants to address this issue by having a wider range of smaller events, daytime events, and informational opportunities.
“Those events [are] opportunities to advertise our systems and supports,” he says, “there’s so many support groups in college that people don’t know about.”
To achieve this, he plans to reintroduce Union-run welfare-related ‘themed weeks,’ which offer opportunities to hold information-focused events, smaller events focused on improving the personal welfare of individual students, and events that offer some food and drink, and a safe space. He also plans on updating websites to make them more accessible and legible. Moreover, his experience as a JCR Welfare Officer in Trinity Hall has given him a sense of how much one can benefit students by simply holding a talk about Drug and Alcohol Awareness or a sex ed talk. He also plans to work with Dignity, Respect, and Consent (DRC) to expand the Consent Workshop network.
“These weeks provide an opportunity to hold Information-focused events and smaller events focused on improving the personal welfare of individual students” he stressed.
Commitment to accessibility and inclusivity is a key part of Garvey’s platform. One thing he especially stressed was ensuring accessible locations for office hours. “I don’t think office hours are the way to go. I think [it]should be a thing that a student can come to my office when I’m working and talk to me.”
He also plans to improve club nights and Pav Fridays for disabled students working wiht Dancefloor Intimacy, “an initiative focused on transforming nightclubs and music venues to be more accessible and inclusive for Disabled, Neurodivergent, d/Deaf individuals and people living with chronic illness that affects their experiences in these environments.”
Regarding accessibility, Garvey observes, “I saw moments where the accessibility of a venue prevented a student from entering a club.”
He also emphasised his plans to support queer students. He intends to collaborate with the Student Counselling Services (SCS) and QSoc to create a college-supported queer sex ed program. “The queer sex ed training, which is something I’m quite passionate about, is currently run by QSoc, and they do a really good job of it, but it shouldn’t be done by students who are unpaid.”
He also plans to hold ‘closed space’ nights out as he thinks that “union nights out might not be attractive to people who are queer or in different segments of that community in the same way.” He also plans to work with the College to finalise the setting up of a PrEP clinic in College Health.
When asked about his views on College Health, he simply replies that “it’s not as good of a service as it ideally should be,” with long waiting times. Garvey assures that he would definitely lobby for changes, potentially more staff, and advocate for better access to services and information for all students.
When asked about his approach to senior management Garvey said that “it’s very hard to know what the relationship between the union is like until you’ve seen it. I think the best way for me to put it is that what I have in my manifesto is what I want to do. And I deeply believe that [any] changes I want to make, none of [them] are unreasonable. If [they’re] pushed back against, it needs to be for completely a reason of some kind of unfeasibility.”
“I will have no problem pushing back against college senior management if there’s something I don’t agree with them. The main point is that I believe in what I want to do so I will do everything that I can to do it.”
In conclusion, John Garvey differentiates himself from his corunners by putting an emphasis on practical support, inclusivity, and accessibility. His main objectives are to reintroduce welfare-related campaign weeks, improve accessibility at club nights, and advocate for better College Health Services (PrEP clinic). Garvey’s experience as a JCR Welfare Officer and his commitment to face-to-face interactions situate him as a strong candidate, dedicated to improving the welfare and equality of all students at Trinity College Dublin.
