The Student Elections are upon us, yet very few of us know exactly what we're voting for or how we're even voting. Here's a short guide:
What are we Voting For?
You’ll be voting for the main members of the Executive Board. This includes all the Presidents and Vice-Presidents that lead the Union. These roles include President of Communication & Democracy, President of Education & Welfare, President of Sport & Physical Activity, Vice-President of Sport, Vice-President of International, Vice-President of Education, Vice-President of Welfare, Vice-President of Societies, Undergraduate Governor, and finally Postgraduate Governor. Basically, that’s everyone. You may be able to gather what each role is in charge of by their title, but all together they run the entire student union and lobby on behalf of the student body (that’s you!) to the university! Literally anything! It can be unisex toilets or getting that crappy WIFI sorted! The Union will fight for you to get this done so you can get back to sleeping in… I mean, attending lectures… Yeah!
Who's Running??
A few people, actually! Each with their own manifesto, or set of plans and ideas, that they are campaigning on. The vast majority of offices only have one person nominated for each role. The exceptions being President for Communication & Democracy, Vice President (International), Vice President (Societies), and Postgraduate Governor.
What you might notice, however, is one option that is available for each position, and that's Ron. Well, not Ron, but R.O.N. This stands for Re-Open Nominations. This basically means 'none of the above'. Voting for R.O.N. would leave that position empty and allow other students to be nominated for it. Maybe you, if you’re interested!
You can read all about the candidates by following this link: https://www.rguunion.co.uk/elections/candidates/16/, and to read more about R.O.N., follow this link: https://www.rguunion.co.uk/elections/ron/
How to Vote
Voting can be done online, by following this link: https://www.rguunion.co.uk/elections/. The deadline is 2pm on Friday. Thankfully there's no polling station to travel to, or just one election to annoying clash with work and Uni.