Manifesto Points
- Tackling the cost of living crisis via rent freezes, more hardship grants, and university fundraising campaigns.
- Fighting against the rising bigotry and sexual harassment on and off campus.
- Turbocharging social mobility through professional mentoring and coaching, networking opportunities, scholarships/ grants/ bursaries, and creating accessible spaces for neurodiverse/ disabled students.
Hi everyone! I’m Lizzie, a Muslim, neurodiverse postgraduate Sustainability Science student from a working class, immigrant background. I’m hoping to be the next Community and Wellbeing Officer. At uni, I’m a student ambassador and have served as secretary of the Aikido York Club for the past 2 years. Off-campus, I’m influencing government officials to make the UK a fairer, safer, more inclusive and more empowering place for everyone.
You all deserve a campus free from intimidation. You all deserve to live and travel in York without the fear of violence or harm based on your ethnicity, gender, religion, disability or any other factor. You all deserve to live each day without worrying about how you’re going to afford this month’s rent, travel costs to uni/ placements and food. Here’s how I will make that all a reality:
1. Fighting the Cost-of-Living Crisis – Enough’s enough!
Too many students are struggling to afford basic necessities, even with 2, 3, 4 jobs. In the 21st century, this just isn’t an acceptable way for students to live. No one should have to choose between feeding themselves, affording rent, or dropping out of uni. As Community and Wellbeing officer, I will:
- Campaign to freeze rent increases and ringfence funding for more living cost and mental health support.
The university is in a deficit of £15million following government restrictions and price increases on international student visas. Cuts and price increases are being announced left right and centre. We CANNOT allow this to negatively impact student support services and student wellbeing. As well as petitioning the university to freeze rent increases and protect student support budgets until the cost of living crisis subsides, I will create more partnerships with local and national organisations so that students have more access to free online and in-person mental health resources, workshops, peer-to-peer support groups, training, and volunteering opportunities and adopt practices outlined in the Student Minds Mental Health Manifesto.
- Increase provisions of free food, subsidised meals and ingredient costs and other living costs
through partnerships between SCOOP and local non-profits and organisations, getting sponsorships from local and national businesses, and by getting UOY growing some of its own food! I will also look to increase the cost of living grants available, and to make them more accessible to all students. Clearly, this is a bigger issue that affects everyone, not just York students. For this reason, it’s not enough to just campaign for change locally. I will collaborate with other student unions and nation-wide organisations to amplify student demands ro bring about real change.
- Partner with the Institute for Fundraising and similar bodies to upskill more students to ramp up our fundraising campaigns and events.
In today’s tough economic climate, our traditional ways of fundraising are becoming less and less effective as people have less and less to give. That’s why more students need to undergo the best campaigning and media training to effectively apply for grants, bursaries, and leverage bigger donations from higher net worth individuals and organisations. This training is usually quite expensive for individuals, but the skillset is in very high demand. Fundraising for the university/ York Student Union would provide more students with a source of income. It will also make them exponentially more employable graduates. Finally, it also allows students to raise crucial funds to keep student support services thriving for years to come.
2. Strengthening our student community to challenge Hate, Bigotry, Discrimination and Violence on and off campus
The rise of far-right political, anti-DEI movements and a rise in hooliganism on campus from intruders threatens us all. Hate speech and discrimination in all forms, have no place at UOY. We cannot wait until one of us becomes just another statistic, we need to act NOW.
To protect and empower all students, especially those at highest risk, I promise to:
- Safeguard student rights to peaceful protest, online/ offline privacy, legitimate free speech and freedom from harassment
from far-right vigilantes and other intruders on campus. To help deter bad-faith actors from repeatedly infiltrating our community to do psychological and physical harm, I will campaign the university to limit entrance points on campus as a matter of urgency. All non-students and non-staff will have to present ID to security, have their details logged in a visitor log and have a picture taken/ visitor pass to access our campus.
- Bring irresponsible social venues to account over drink spiking and sexual harassment.
I fully support campaigns to name, shame and boycott venues that do not do the bare minimum to keep us all safe. Action also needs to be taken to ensure drink spiking incidents are properly dealt with on and off-campus. I’m prepared to lobby local MPs and media outlets until venues that fail to take accountability and comply with safeguarding are heavily fined and/or shut down. I will have no tolerance for perpetrators and enablers of these disgusting acts.
- Make reporting hate speech, bigotry and incidents of violence easier and outcomes more effective.
What isn’t reported isn’t acknowledged. By rolling out training (including mental health support) for all club and society committees’ Wellbeing Champions, sabbatical officers, STYCs and STYMs, College Officers, SU staff, pastoral staff and chaplains that represent people of all faiths and none. I will also seek to work in closer partnership with local law enforcement and other relevant organisations to ensure information is passed on about incidents on and around campus.
3. Smashing glass ceilings and promoting Social Mobility
Being poor and having no professional networks is expensive. The biggest determinant of your success and wealth as an individual, today, in 2025’s UK, is how rich and influential your family is. It’s now more difficult to succeed through hard graft and academic excellence alone than it was 10, 20 years ago and for many disadvantaged, working class students, true meritocracy seems to largely be a myth. Is that fair? Every student deserves an equal opportunity to succeed. To ensure this, I will:
- Champion more inclusive admissions policies and ongoing support
tailored to students from under-privileged communities through a more accessible extensions policy, access to subject-specific tutoring, improving the quality of academic skills support advisors and providing more contingency grants, bursaries and scholarships for the most in-need students, whether they pay international or home fees..
- Improve access to professional mentoring, coaching, networking and placement opportunities
by creating year-long buddy, mentoring and coaching relationships between UG/PG students and UOY alumni and PhD students working across all specialist fields such as business and finance, environmental consulting and auditing, economics, healthcare, research and think tanks, central government and local authorities.
- Create more accessible and sensory spaces on campus where neurodiverse and disabled students can recharge and reset
so that they can bring the best of themselves to class and in social settings. Student life can sometimes be alienating, and with social networks being so crucial to future success, neurodiverse and disabled students deserve spaces where they can connect and grow without being misunderstood, excluded or having their needs overlooked.
This is our university, our community, and our future. Let’s build a campus where every student can thrive, free from financial hardship, oppression and barriers to future success. You should all feel safe, supported and empowered to make positive change happen. At a time of deep economic hardship and uncertainty, rising hate crimes, and growing threats to democracy, you need someone with the ambition, stamina and unshakeable determination to make York a more inclusive and just space for all. Someone who gets things done and collaborates well with others. This is what makes me a great candidate for the Community & Wellbeing Officer and why should I get your vote.
Vote for me and we’ll be Good as gold!
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.