Manifesto Points:
- Student-centric – Using student experiences to make real change.
- Inclusive networks – Connecting students across our university and community.
- Opportunities – Giving everyone the chance to get involved and be seen!
Hi, I’m Ellie. I’m the current President of Roller Disco Society and the Special Interest Society Rep at YorkSU. During my time at York I have been a member of over 26 different societies, run weekly activities at Langwith College, and have had the amazing opportunity to get to work with and experience so many diverse groups.
Activities are a central part of student-life in York and I want to ensure that everyone has a chance to get involved. My priority is to keep students at the center of activities and make sure that student experiences and needs are what shape activities at York.
I don’t just want to hear your experiences, I want to work with you to make them better. It’s time to make the change.
STUDENT-CENTRIC:
- Safety concerns: I want to take a collaborative approach to developing safety measures for students, promoting ways for students to feedback concerns directly to the union and promoting a variety of easily accessible safety devices across campus. Activities don’t end on campus, and neither should the concern for student safety.
- Inclusive: I want to continue to campaign for funding to help students participate in activities and start their own societies. Everyone should have the opportunity to participate and I want there to be accessible and known support to do this.
- Volunteering societies: I want to help ensure that all volunteering groups are officially classified under the category of ‘volunteering societies’ to ensure they receive funding they deserve. Student volunteers should not have to shoulder the cost.
- Heating: I want to campaign for student groups to have better control over the heating settings in their booked spaces, particularly when safety is concerned (such as groups focused on physical activity).
- Support: I want students to be at the center of activities at York. I would like to maintain open communication across both societies and York students by creating an easily accessible means of communication where feedback of all kinds can be received throughout the year. Additionally, I want to ensure in-person contact with societies is promoted throughout the year and regular check-in communications are received.
- Vacation periods: I know that not everyone can return home over the vacation periods. I want to make sure all students know what events/activities are happening over the vacation period, not just on campus but in York too! I want to set up a specific vacation period email detailing both on campus and city events students can participate in, including how to get involved.
INCLUSIVE NETWORKS:
- Student leaders: I want to promote better communication between student leaders across the university and provide a means for them to share knowledge/experience with other groups, including on their experience with organising merchandise, holding certain events, and working with external organisations.
- Collaborations: I would continue promoting collaborations between different groups/societies and grow this effort to involve either organising dedicated events for committees to meet one another or a specific platform to find other student groups interested in collaborating for a certain event/activity.
- Community groups: I would like to encourage the formation of networks between student groups and the wider community. I want to help groups form connections with like-minded groups outside of the university and want to provide support for groups looking to do this.
- Communication: I want to promote a more inclusive communication model that utilises multiple platforms and collaborates with diverse groups across the Student Networks to better reflect the needs and wants of current students.
OPPORTUNITIES:
- Training opportunities: I want training and development opportunities to be easily available for all students. I would like to include training/development sections in emails and explore the possibility of having professionally certified training opportunities (such as first aid training) running on campus, supporting both student leader roles and professional development.
- Society advertisement: I want to help societies gain more exposure throughout the year and grow their members. I hope to continue the effort to grow their recognition via social media but to also integrate the use of other university communication networks to expand their audiences. I want to make sure student leaders have signposted means of advertising themselves including how-tos for getting into newsletters, screens around campus, and social media mentions from other groups.
- University events: I want to continue the effort to involve student groups in official university events. I believe that all student groups should have a chance to involve themselves in the wider university activities, including Roses.
- Arrivals week and re-freshers: I want to campaign for the involvement of student groups in arrivals week and re-freshers events, enabling more activities at lower costs as well as promoting any societies who would like to take part!
Recognition: Students dedicate a huge amount of time and effort into running activities at the university, I want to do more to recognise these achievements.
The manifestos appear here exactly as they were submitted to us. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of York Vision.
Don’t get us wrong, the York SU elections are very important. But so much of the election process is formal and serious…which means it can also (at times) be a little bit dull.
But we don’t think it has to be like this. So alongside their manifesto, Vision asked each candidate a series of light-hearted, get-to-know-you type questions. This should give you a little dive into the individual personalities of the candidates:
What would be the theme song for your campaign?
Sunshine by One Republic
If your campaign had a mascot, what would it be?
A fox and not just because they’re one of my favourite animals. I have a lot that I want to do but I’m going to have fun whilst doing it.
What would be your go-to activity date i.e. a walk on the beach?
100% going roller skating – I am the RollerSoc president after all!
We gave the candidate a word, and asked them to think of what the question would be:
Answer: Goose
Candidate Question: Goose