Activities and Engagement – Zach Savage

Support and Reward Clubs & Societies – Champion Student Associations, Activism and Volunteering – Make A Safer and More Inclusive Campus – Bring the Olympics to QUB with a Summer Sports Day!

Could you briefly explain to us your manifesto and summarise it?

The main thing I’m really passionate about is, clubs and societies. I believe it’s really important to support and reward them because they do really important work in improving the general community at Queen’s. I’ve been involved in clubs and societies all throughout my studies. I think that’s really important. I’ve been involved in, I believe, campaigning and generally, you know, working towards your student community and Belfast community, which is is really important as well. Improving safety around Queen’s as well is an issue I’ve heard people talk to me about. So I’ve thought about ways to kind of work on that as well. And for their credit, I think the current SU team have a lot of great policies and areas around that in improving that. I would like to continue on that work and expand that. And then my last major policy is trying to set up a Queen’s Sports Day. Um. Blatantly inspired by the Olympics. I won’t lie.

And so you mentioned that you’ve been a part of a lot of different clubs and societies, and could you give us some examples and how you would use that experience in your role?

Of course. So I originally I became the English Society’s Events Officer my second year at uni. I then went on to become the society president. This is my second year as president of the society. Um, last year I was involved in bringing back the Gorgon magazine, um, which I’m now an editor for, and that was it was originally in the 60s, the magazine that first published Seamus Heaney. So now we’re working on publishing new literary talent at Queen’s. I’ve been involved in other societies as well, not in committee roles. So I was a member of the Literific for a while and did debate there. I’ve been a member of Wine and Cheese Society this year. I’ve been a member of Players in the past, so I’ve generally been around.

Are there any specific problems that you would highlight with how societies are currently run and how you propose to handle that if you are elected?

Yeah, I think there is a real issue, especially with people I’ve talked to this year involved in different clubs and socs around generally feeling like they don’t know where to start or to get advice or how to do things. Um, there are existing systems for training committee members. Those training sessions aren’t mandatory for most people in committee. Only two people in committee have to do that. It’s very common as well in general committees, people to not show up or do work, which can leave those left behind in committee struggling. I think there need to be better systems and guidelines to, you know, train committee members to give them the tools they need to succeed in the ways they want to.

And with regard to you’ve mentioned volunteering within the student community. So there is a general consensus around students that they may feel disconnected from activism and campaigns. So how in your role would you make it the opportunity more accessible and appealing to the wider student community?

I think for one thing, a lot of people I’ve talked to about volunteering who want to do it don’t realise that they can get rewarded and recognition for it. Um, there’s some miscommunication where people don’t understand the Future Ready award. Uh, volunteering thing, which you can get for doing a certain number of hours. Um, generally more like like volunteering fairs. They’re not on the same scale as generally Freshers Fair. I think volunteering is a different aspect of ways to get involved in Queen’s. Um, and certainly clubs and societies are prioritized and I believe rightly so, but we need to do more as well for volunteering. Definitely. And with regard to safety and inclusion, you’ve referenced rising safety concerns in Northern Ireland. So what concrete actions could the university take? Um, and could you take within your role to improve student safety? So already this year, um, I know the current SU officers have worked on the green Dot active bystander training thing they’ve worked on. I’ve seen, um, like free self-defence martial arts classes offered. This stuff I believe has only happened a couple times throughout the year. I think there needs to be a real kind of expansion of this. The whole Green Dot system doesn’t work if only a dozen people have it. We need to do more of these sessions, get more people involved. Make it clearer to people when it’s happening, what it is, why it’s important. Um, and generally, you know, the work that the university has done is good. It just needs to be more now.

And with regard to your summer sports Day plans, could you walk us through how you would plan the event and deliver the proposed summer sports day from concept?

I think originally, what this will require is a lot of coordination with existing student clubs, because I don’t want to be stepping on anyone’s toes. I think it’s a great idea to get them involved and, you know, give them support because I don’t want to overburden them as well on top of their normal practice sessions. But any clubs that want to get involved, they want to highlight their sport and open it up to a more general audience. I think whether this is a one day thing or even like a multi-day event depends just how much interest there is and how many people get involved in it. But certainly in my mind, I think the ideal outcome for this is, you know, multiple days, having hundreds of students getting involved.

if you could only achieve three measurable outcomes by the end of your term, what would they be and how would you evaluate success?

Number one is overhauling the support system that clubs and societies receive. I think that is the most important thing. It’s work that I’m already doing as an outgoing society president. I’m term limited. I can’t go again. So a lot of my work this year has been evaluating what resources we have, drafting those up and organizing them into something neat, something, you know, clear, comprehensible for whoever takes over after me. And I think a broader system of that applied across all clubs and societies with room to tailor where alterations are useful. That’s the big priority I want to work on. I think the Summer sports day is probably just my personal passion project. It’s a I think it’ll be a lot of fun. It’s hard to picture right now with the lack of sunlight we’ve had, but in the summer, I’m sure it’d be great. My idea and success of that is getting people involved in sports. We haven’t necessarily been this year. A lot of people maybe drop out of sports after school. And I think making that more fun, more accessible. To me, that’s what success there looks like.

Finally, of course, making Queen’s safer. There is a real, uh, you know, safety issue in Northern Ireland. Personally, I’ve been mugged before. I think this is something we have to take seriously. This is something people are definitely concerned about that I’ve heard concerns about, and I want to work my best to make sure people can feel safe, because you can’t have fun if you don’t feel safe.

What’s the ideal night out in Belfast?

Oh, are we talking, like, club nights? I’m too old for that now.Uh, no. I stopped clubs after first year. I’m partial to the Parlour. The Parlour has been a good venue for us whenever we’ve hosted events. I know the manager there. Paul. He’s a good man. The staff there are friendly; pints are relatively cheap. And the vibes are great.

You can read Zach’s manifesto here.