Accessible Education – Mórrigan McEvoy

A vote for me is a vote for: a Campus Room Finder search tool, updated physical campus accessibility, improved class timetabling/scheduling, meaningful cost-of-living support, an equal & equitable experience for all learners, innovative sustainability projects, and blood drives in the SU. A Vote for Me is a Vote for You!

Tell us about yourself, your campaign and why you’re running for Accessible Education Officer.

So my name is Mórrigan McEvoy and I am rerunning to be the next Accessible Education Officer in Students’ Union. One of my main reasons for rerunning is because I have a lot of projects right now that I’m right in the middle of and I don’t want them to be dropped if I am not re-elected. A lot of my projects will benefit the majority, if not all, of students on campus and I think that it’s really important that the students who are going to be voting for me are the ones that see the benefits of the projects that I’m working on. So, for example, I’m working on building a virtual campus map with the university so that we can actually find where our classes are instead of running around and doing 20,000 steps trying to get there. It means that students can see accessibility information ahead of time. They can plan less anxiety, less stress, less time wasted. And it also means that people who need elevator only routes know exactly where to go when they get there.

I’ve also been working really closely with the Sustainability team here at Queen’s on a number of initiatives in regards to waste reduction on campus, helping students learn different skills such as sewing and knitting through repair cafes and also focusing on how our career services could align with our sustainable goals here at Queen’s.

While you were the Accessible Education Officer, what were the main challenges you faced and what do you think were the main achievements that you got in dealing with that?

That’s a good question. I think one of the main challenges is coming into an organisation that has so much history and also has so many different departments. So it has been a challenge to try and coordinate things across different departments and services at Queen’s, not through… the fault of personnel just because it’s a very large organisation and it’s very hard to keep everyone on the same page about things. Obviously through my work I want all students to have not only an equal experience, but an equitable experience here at Queen’s, and one of the challenges has been making sure that that can be displayed across different, not only faculties but schools as well.

Another challenge has been Trying to get yourself out there because we have one of the best voter numbers across the UK for universities and elections but even so, there’s still a lot of students who don’t even know that it’s going on, so trying to get student feedback is something that I think is really a challenge as well. I’ve been working with our Postgraduate Officer on getting a lot of student feedback this year and it has been pretty successful; it’s just about actually getting out there and trying to make yourself known.

In your manifesto you mentioned a full campus accessibility audit. So who would carry that out and what would students expect from that if it were to be correctly done?

I think it’s important that we would have someone external who doesn’t have any preconceived notions about what our buildings are or how they’re used. I think it’s really important to bring them in so that they can have a completely objective look at everything that’s going on. And it does come down to even those simple points of how many push buttons actually work. Or is there a ramp up to this building? And then it can obviously be scaled up to more specific accessibility needs and more technologically advanced as well. I think that it would have to deal with our estates team here as well at Queen’s. They obviously need to be heavily involved. They know the most about the buildings, how they’re built and how that could be realistically improved for students because… Having an audit is positive, but you also need the people who are going to be able to follow up on that. And I think that it’s important when Queen’s does continue to expand that the same standards are not only held but also improved upon for future buildings.

With transport for students, so for example issues like parking, poor bus routes etc. What do you think are the main issues there and what are you aiming to do about them?

I think one of the main issues for transport not only is cost, obviously, but it’s also the availability of routes. So, for example, I’m from Newry and the bus that I would need to take takes an hour and 20 minutes to get here if I’m getting the Translink bus. Whereas if I drive, it takes me 45 to an hour. So even though it’s not sustainable, it’s saving me time and actually it evens out monetarily, which is really shocking for me. Because public transport should not be the same price as me putting petrol in my car. So students that do have to travel, who don’t have the availability of a car, are out this expense and they’re also out their own personal time, which is completely unacceptable. Myself and our welfare officer have just recently started working on how we could be lobbying the government and our local MLAs and MPs to improve transport for students, not only in cost reductions, but also the availability of the services, because there are a lot of areas that there are no direct routes to Belfast, and that’s unacceptable.

If you had to have five words or less to describe your campaign, what would it be?

An equitable experience for all.

What is your favourite place in the McClay to study?

Okay, it’s… first floor at the windows. That’s a good spot, I think, yeah. I like big desks, but I like the bookshelves being in the vicinity. {Yes. It’s quite an open area, isn’t it?} Yeah, yeah. And I like the natural light as well. Good vibes.

You can read Mórrigan’s manifesto here.