Former Vanbrugh JCRC Chair Kallum Taylor, or ‘Special K’ as he wishes to be known for election season, has already proved himself as a campus politician in his time at York, overseeing the V-Bar refurbishment and defeating accommodation price hikes.
‘Special K’ believes YUSU needs to be stronger in fighting the student corner against the University, increasing value for money, especially with tuition fee increases. He told Vision that he decided to run for President because “we need a President who students can identify with, and who isn’t afraid to call a spade a spade by standing up for our students.”
With York slipping in the league tables, increasing the employability of York students is one of his key policies. His manifesto doesn’t seem to go into the details of how he plans to do this; it will be interesting to see what he proposes.
Another flagship policy is to do more for off-campus students. “Many off-campus students feel uncatered for once they move out of halls.” His manifesto suggests this might include creating kitchens for off-campus students and more cycle storage.
Like many other candidates, Taylor wants to increase YUSU visibility on campus. He cites the statistics in his manifesto: “50% of our students don’t actually realise they’re part of YUSU, and some of those who do, don’t know what it does.” His potential solutions are weekly officer surgeries and increasing sabb blogging activity.
Taylor is keen to focus on YUSU’s often criticised campus-wide student events, telling Vision that it was a sad fact that “students only go to campus events (outside of Fresher’s) out of loyalty, or even guilt – I know I’ve tried to sell them!” He hopes to set up a week of events to celebrate York’s 50th birthday and improve Student Union nights in town.
The Tipster’s odds: 3/1
Hernando and Taylor are pretty evenly matched in the experience stakes, and come from similar academic backgrounds, could this be a Hes East vs Hes West contest?
Bike storage and kitchens?!
I thought yusu had the power to do more than this?
A perfectly likeable candidate, but there is definitely a lack of substance in his manifesto. Reads well, but hollow. However, fair play to ‘officer surgeries and increasing sabb blogging activity’. YUSU needs more transparency.
Hasn’t special K been used before, or could Kallum not come up with an original slogan.
The strongest candidate with the biggest list of tangible achievements.
The Hes East Bar was not “won” by Nacho (it’s even in Langwith, for a point of note) but the renovation to V-Bar that is happening was won by Kallum and the JCRC.
They suffered an incredible set back when Commercial Services said no, but Kallum pushed and forced this to happen.
That’s what I want from my president. Actual achievements he can put his name to.
To compare Nacho and Kallum as having similar experiences is harsh on Kallum, as he achieved so much more in a year.
Kallum is the only one with the experience, drive and passion for this job, 100%
Even Hes East knows what an amazing impact K has had and how much more he has achieved. Shamed to have been part of a JCR that didn’t achieve anywhere near as much.
He’s managed to lose my vote not only with his posturing policies and hollow achievements, but this performance is simply an embarrassment. Added to his poor show at hustings, I just feel this is a candidate that isn’t going to deliver in the long term. If this were an election simply run as a beauty contest, Taylor certainly wouldn’t win any votes for his tacky, spray-painted, folded-out cardboard boxes. I wonder if this is going to be brushed aside as ‘cutting costs’ and ‘unimportant’, but I would strongly disagree. The first thing people will see at this university will be an image, and I certainly hope that the new YUSU sign isn’t a multi-coloured spray job on a cardboard box.
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With a budget of only £30, what do you expect from the candidates – special K’s with golden framing?
Isn’t it a bit unfair to call it hollow achievements? The Vanbrugh committee have definitely had success over the year – £100,000 refurbishment of V-Bar, record sponsorship money, and a very well received Freshers’ Fortnight. Students going the extra mile to have weekly meetings for a year etc. to help improve their college as well as having the same commitments as everyone else with their course etc. is an achievement within itself, I think.
If you pick your president on the quality of posters, you’re an idiot. Kallum has been on campus 7am-midnight everyday speaking to students, telling them what he can do for them. If you then want him to go home and make pretty pictures then i think you may be asking for a bit too much. I think i know which one is more important, interacting with students > poster making
I’m not even voting for Kallum #1 but to complain about his cardboard being too low budget it a terrible reason for not voting for him.
In response to the guy who claimed they were ‘spraypainted’ and ‘tacky’ if you saw how much effort it takes to make just one, you’d understand Kallum’s dedication to his campaign.