Owain Phillips for QUBSU President

01/03/2022

These are the core policies of our campaign. If elected, I'll use the role of Student's Union President not as the liason between the student body and management, providing a rubber stamp to university policy, but to genuinely represent the needs and views of the student body.

University management thinks that the student body will happily comply paying extortionate tuition fees for a service that is greatly deminished in quality due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

University management thinks the student body will lie down and accept a rent hike, when fees are already ridiculously high.

University management thinks that the student body wont act as it refers to the Irish language, the language of this country, as "offensive and intimidatory", refusing to allow bilingual signage on campus.

As Students' Union President, I will use the union as an effective tool of student democracy, taking the fight to management and ensuring the voices of students are heard. I will stand by those issues that matter to you, and ensure that the university is not allowed to take their students for granted and act without resistance. I will ensure that those who create the value in the university, the students and staff, are the first and last voice on the affairs that effect them.

If you have any questions about my campaign, don't hesitate to message me.

Solidarity forever.

19/02/2022

The solution to the inhospitable housing conditions for students in Belfast isn't further fruitless negotiations with management. The solution is:

1) inviting onto campus, helping them to educate and unionise the student population.

2) Using already existing SU services to agitate amongst the student body, showing them that there is an alternative to the status quo and how to fight for it.

3) Demanding a better standard of living for our students, cuts to rental rates and university funded services to help students in private rentals resist their landlords exploitation.

The solution is militancy, union action and rent strikes until the student body are treated like human beings rather than an exploitable income stream for the parasitic QUB management and their private landlord friends.

18/02/2022

What can we say about these two?
Conal and Amy with us through thick and thin - supportive and caring in every way - always prepared to go above and beyond - trusted so much by those they delivered to and many friendships made that will last forever - they pretty much covered every role they could👏💪🙌🥰
We had to say goodbye and wish them well as job commitments took priority - we know they’ll still be willing to step up any chance they get, but for now well done and soak up these new opportunities - we know we’ll see you both soon - but in the meantime we thank you both from the bottom of our hearts and for showing others the way as we are still very much supported by our dedicated foodbank volunteers fromConnolly Youth Movement - Belfast Branch - until the next time - slán a chairde🙌👍😘Conal MacMathúna

17/02/2022

Day 4 bright and early on the picket. Come down if you want to get a coffee and talk to staff fighting for their basic rights as workers.

14/02/2022

We support the striking lecturers, researchers and students who begin their strike this morning! 📚

14/02/2022

Anyone interested in talking policy can find me on the pickets outside Lanyon. I'll be here Monday to Friday, 8am to 12pm. Pop down if you have chance!

12/02/2022

Successes like this can only be made if we fight tooth and nail for them. They can only be sustained if we carry on fighting. Left to their own devices QUB will run this scheme into the ground. We cannot let them ruin this chance.

QUEEN'S University has confirmed that it is set to introduce measures that will see Gaeilgeoirí housed together in its halls of residence.

09/02/2022

The goal of any student or staff member that thinks of higher education as anything other than a tool for enriching a few Oxford educated Tories should be to kill the neoliberal university. There is a future that is better than this, and we have to build it ourselves.

08/02/2022

The primary question of the coming year will be: are you willing to take action?

When students are overcharged for a product that should be free in the first place, whether that be tuition or accomodation, are you willing to take action?

When the language of this country is treated with contempt by the management of this university, will you take action?

When staff of all kinds demand fair pay and decent work conditions, will you take action?

My answer has always been yes. I have consistently stood against neoliberalism, anti-Irish bigotry and labour exploitation. I have done so since long before this campaign began and will do so long after it ends.

If you are willing to take action, if you want to see this university become a place you can be proud of, I will stand shoulder to shoulder with you on the picket line until our struggle is won.

27/01/2022

A university should not be a commercial enterprise, where customers pay a huge amount of money and then are given a degree that allows them to access higher paying employment. It should be a place where education and research are put at the forefront. A community of people, working together to create innovative new ways of completing tasks and viewing the world. The neoliberal university has to go.

As president, I will support all campaigns for better rights and pay for staff. I will fight any attempt by Queen's management to extract more value from students. I will stand by the community of people that make Queen's against the vultures that take all they can from it.

20/01/2022

Queen's has the potential to be the best university for students and staff on this island. Despite all our hard work, we are held back by management whose sole priority is extracting as much profit as possible from the labour of others.

Our students deserve better. We have a right to access to quality education, without having to put ourselves in eye-watering levels of debt to do so. We have a right to clean, comfortable accomodation, without having to choose between paying rent and living happily and healthily. We have a right to access the facilities of our university in the language we feel most comfortable in.

Our staff deserve better. They have a right to fair pay for their hard work, without management taking the lions share of the value they create. They have a right to know that this city can be their home for as long as they want to stay here, without the constant threat of redundancy hanging over their heads. They have a right to make decisions about the university that they run.

Management should be concerned. We, the students and staff of Queen's, will not stay quiet as they continue to make life worse for the people that make this university. As president, I will represent the needs of students and staff at this university, I will hold management's feet to the fire, I wont rest until this university is a place worth attending.

13/01/2022

As president, the Irish language will be given the presence and respect that it deserves by the student union. I will hold the university to the same standard.

Languages aren't sectarian, shameful attitudes towards languages and their speakers are.

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