Yesterday, 5th March, was the Student Election Question Time and the first opportunity to meet the candidates hoping to be elected as your student representatives.
Once again, the Union is a flurry of excitement as candidates are rushing around campaigning and trying to get people to vote for them. Part of this process is the Question Time which was held yesterday in the Sir Ian Wood Building at 12pm.
The Question Time was a chance to hear from the Student Candidates running for election and the opportunity to ask them about their manifesto aims.
Each candidate running for a President role was given 2 minutes and every candidate running for Vice President (VP) was given 1 minute to explain why they are running and why we should vote for them.
Postgrad Madeline Travis was first to take the stage and explain why she should be elected as the new President of Communication & Democracy. She explained that she wants to support Go Green and LiveEco with their good work now that their external funding has ceased. She would also work at increasing student involvement and engagement with the Union if she is elected.
Gabriel Antoniazzi, fourth-year Journalism student and President of Football, was the next candidate to speak. He explained that his course and time working as a representative in the Sports and Physical Activity Team has made him a good candidate to take on the role. Gabs also mentioned that he wants to help push the timetable app and increase social media engagement with the Union.
Current President of Communication and Democracy, Michael Ife, was the last candidate to take to the stage for this role and explain why he should be re-elected. He believes that his year as President has given him a wealth of knowledge and he wants to carry on the work he has been doing so far. If re-elected he hopes to start a guarantor scheme to help students with accommodation and to improve the car parking available at the university.
The role of President of Education & Welfare was next to be discussed and the first candidate to speak was fourth-year Media student, Adam James Johnston. Adam has been involved in the Union since he joined RGU and believes that will be useful experience for the role. He also explained that he wanted to get mental health training for all lecturers and Presidents of societies and make a clear reporting system for students who have experienced gender-based violence.
LLM Oil and Gas Law student Oghenero Ajantana was next to speak. He strongly believes that all lectures should be recorded so that students can use them as a studying tool as it is available in other schools and he doesn’t believe students at RGU should be disadvantaged by this. Oghenero also wants to see more inclusive catering options on campus to ensure that everyone’s needs are met.
The final candidate for the role was Gillian Barron, a fourth-year Law student. Gillian explained that she had spent the last year involved in the Gender Equality/ Feminism Society committee and that she had learned so much from her position that could be helpful in the role. She also explained that she wanted to see recorded lectures and more inclusive signage for disabled toilets.
The final Presidential role to be discussed was President of Sport and Physical Activity. The first candidate to take to the stage was Nicole Don, who stated that she wanted to implement an open door policy, drop-in sessions, and ensure strong communication with sport teams.
Next up was Johannes Van Wachem, who stressed that he wanted to make sports clubs inclusive for everyone. He aims to end the stigma around certain sports to make them more approachable.
Finally, Gavin Rittoo, the current Vice-President of Sports explained that having the opportunity to work with the Presidents of Sports has given him a chance to see what is needed and what the role entails. He explained that if he is elected he would like to make sure everyone got new kit, encourage more participation in sport teams and help make them more approachable.
It was then time for the Vice-Presidents to talk about why they are running. The first VP role to be discussed was Environment and Ethics. Otto Jutla is running for the role because he has been involved with LiveEco and Go Green and would like to continue supporting environmental societies.
Martha Gilmore is re-running for her role of VP of Societies. She believes that her year in the role has taught her a lot and she has feedback from freshers and other events and so knows what she would like to work on and what needs to be focussed on.
Running for the role of VP International is Dugbatey Teye who explained that if he was elected he would help ensure that international students would have a good experience at RGU and make the most out of their time here.
Sam Thiesen is running for VP of Wellbeing and Equal Opportunities and she said she would like to work with the equality champions and make sure that all their roles were filled. She would also want to support the continuation of the peer support groups which have been established this year.
The final role to be filled is Undergraduate Governor, and Michael Ife is also running for this role. He said he would like to be involved with making decisions and it would be a good opportunity to implement ideas that will be helpful to undergraduate students.
After all the speeches were finished it was then open to the floor to ask their candidates questions. There was a good discussion and students utilised the opportunity to ask their possible representatives questions.
Voting is open and will close at 2pm on Friday 9th March.
To vote for who you want to represent you next academic year simply log in here: https://www.rguunion.co.uk/elections/