Cusu Easter Elections 2019 Manifesto Booklet

meet the candidates MANIFESTOS | EASTER 2019

elections@cusu.cam.ac.uk | vote.cusu.cam.ac.uk

Welcome to the manifestos booklet for the 2019 CUSU Easter Elections.

This academic year, the winners of these elections will be running some of the key campaigns within CUSU, impacting the Unions, the University, the city and on a national level.

Their manifestos are your way of deciding who you want speaking for you – so please do spend a little time reading through them before casting your vote. Remember: in every election, if you are not happy with any of the candidates, you also have the option to vote to re-open nominations (“RON”). If RON wins an election, nominations for that position will be re-opened and a by-election held in due course.

Voting is online-only via www.vote.cusu. cam.ac.uk. The ballot will open at 9 am on Tuesday, 30 October, and close at 5 pm on Friday, 2 November. You are able to check that you are on the electoral roll at the same address until 5 pm on Monday, 29 October.

We hope you enjoy the elections!

-CUSU Elections Committee elections@cusu.cam.ac.uk

following the elections

FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM: CUSUONLINE

WHAT IS RON? (RE-OPEN NOMINATIONS) If you are not happy with any of the current candidates standing for election, you can vote to Re-Open Nominations (RON). RON appears on the ballot and votes for RON are counted in the same way as those for candidates. If RON is declared the winner after all votes have been counted, the election will be held again. The original candidates are allowed to run again in the new ballot, but it gives the opportunity for new candidates to run.

If nominations are re-opened for one of the NUS-Delegate positions, then representatives from the colleges and faculties will vote for those positions at CUSU Council. NUS delegates elected through CUSU Council will have to vote along the lines of CUSU policy when they attend NUS Conference.

WHY VOTE RON? Voters may choose to vote RON for one of the following reasons: •They do not think any of the available candidates should be elected.

•They would rather have more choice and be able to select from a greater number of candidates (not a guaranteed outcome).

•They have already ranked some candidates, but feel that none of the remaining candidates should be elected.

VOTING RON IN STV/AV ELECTIONS The CUSU Cross Campus Elections are counted using the Single Transferable Vote system (STV) which becomes Alternative Vote (AV) for positions with only one place. Put simply, this means you will be able to rank candidates in order of preference, instead of only voting for one candidate. When counting votes, if there is no outright winner, the losing votes will be redistributed according to voters’ second preferences (and then third, fourth and so on) until there is an outright winner. You can rank RON first and still rank other candidates afterwards, so your vote is not wasted if ReOpen Nominations is not successful.

You do not need to vote for RON in an election, so if you think all of the candidates are better than no candidate, don’t put a number next to RON on your ballot!

More information about STV can be found on the CUSU website. www.cusu.co.uk/takeaction/elections

access & funding PART-TIME EXECUTIVE CAMPAIGNS OFFICER CANDIDATES

RACHEL JOHNSTON

FOR ACCESS & FUNDING PART-TIME CAMPAIGNS OFFICER Rent is an Access issue Hi, I’m Rachel and I am proposing a manifesto dedicated to rent campaigning.

Cambridge’s commitment to being an accessible institution cannot be something that is just championed in prospectuses and on open days. Students have dedicated countless time and energy into making this claim true, including campaigning against unaffordable and harmful rents.

Rent is explicitly an access issue. At my own college, a survey conducted by students revealed that 46.9% of respondents said that rent has had a negative impact on their financial security. With many people giving heartbreaking testimonies about their inability to even afford food as they attempt to make rent. The strain on students as they attempt to balance their degrees, part time jobs, family situations, their health and their ability to pay rent is immense. Rent as Access officer, was a key issue I worked collaboratively on with my peers and the Medward Student Collective. These experiences shaped the things I wish to do with my time on the access and funding team. It informed us about the power and struggles of small organic rent organising, especially within the complicated power structures present in Cambridge. This environment makes it easy to feel isolated and vulnerable within the college system. I would be committed to helping students feel like they are supported at a larger scale. A CUSU access campaign dedicated to tackling rent also will help give legitimacy to college based struggles. I will work towards the development of wider support networks and formal student infrastructures within organising, to ensure access to collective resources, knowledge sharing, as well as financial support. A rent tool kit will build on the rent forums that have occured this year. For example, guides on how to conduct rent surveys, write open letters and petitions, advice on how to engage with fellow students and staff and about various rent actions. My experiences have also taught me the importance of cultivating social bonds between students in various years, social spheres and colleges.

Linking together college based struggles would be something I am dedicated to.

Rent action is occurring at a national level across universities, we can find strength in this. Infrastructures that are resilient, supportive and collective are essential for the mental wellbeing of students as they campaign for a better community. College wealth disparity and the centralisation of funds is a discussion that I hope to help facilitate on a central university level.

Other central factors to my campaign are transparency and communication with the university administration.

Many students do not understand how their rent is being used, nor do they feel that financial support provided by college is transparent or approachable.

All access work should centre voices that find it the hardest to speak out and be heard. Campaigning around rent needs to recognise varying student experiences and contextualise this discussion within - college wealth disparity, gendered patterns of rent, the university’s relationship with the local community, the marketisation of education and struggling mental health provisions.

education PART-TIME EXECUTIVE CAMPAIGNS OFFICER CANDIDATES

RORY KENT

FOR EDUCATION PART-TIME CAMPAIGNS OFFICER Democratise Education I’m Rory (he/him/his), an MPhil student in History and Philosophy of Science and I’m running to be one of your two Part-time Executives for the Education Team! I am running to campaign for a democratised and liberated education. Over the last few years, the University and its departments have begun to wake up to students’ continued calls for a more democratic and liberated education system, one in which students have a substantial say in what we learn. We have seen real progress across several departments with regards to updating curricula to include a greater representation of marginalised voices and the University is undertaking a long-overdue investigation into its colonial legacies through its ties to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. However, the democratisation and decolonisation of our education cannot and will not happen overnight; we need to sustain these projects for years to come and we will face new challenges at each stage. As your Education PTE, I will work to ensure that reforms continue to take place and become ever-more holistic, going beyond simple changes to reading lists to include more substantial re-evaluations of what we learn, how we learn it and why.

As well as working with the CUSU Education Officer, I will network with student faculty reps, the Decolonise Network and the liberation campaigns in order to develop and implement proposal to democratise our curricula, pedagogic practices and teaching resources. For example, I hope to develop and implement proposals for university-wide inclusive practice workshops—sessions where supervisors and lecturers will be trained to make their teaching more accessible to marginalised students and how to better engage with so-called ‘noncanonical’ teaching materials. I also hope to address students’ concerns beyond teaching by holding the University to account on its research links with arms companies and the fossil fuel industry; our education is not truly liberated until the University is no longer complicit in warfare and the climate crisis.

I already have extensive experience with education reform. In 2016-17, I was the Part IB student representative for the Department of History and Philosophy of Science and, this year, I am the MPhil representative; in both cases I brought students’ concerns forward to the Department’s governing bodies and affected institutional change as a result. I regularly facilitate the Decolonise HPS Working Group, working with undergraduates, graduate students and staff to develop and implement changes to departmental practices and curricula. I continue to work with the university-wide Decolonise Network, bringing together representatives from across the faculties to discuss ideas and share best practices.

This has all been hugely valuable experience and leaves me well-equipped to campaign for a democratic eduction system.

To summarise, my priorities as your Education PTE will be to: 1. Help sustain student-led movements to democratise and decolonise our curricula and pedagogy; 2. Develop and implement inclusive practice workshops across the university; 3. Give students a voice against the University’s research links to arms and fossil fuels companies. I hope you will consider voting for me for your Education PTE!

BEN MARGOLIS

FOR EDUCATION PART-TIME CAMPAIGNS OFFICER This university has shown itself to be a vibrant community of engaged and mobilised students over the past year, fighting for free education, resisting marketisation, and bringing to light persistent colonialism in the insitution. To match this, the student body needs strong representatives in the student union aiding campaigns and societies in their work, and also holding the university directly to account.

As CUSU Education Campaigns Officer I would: - Support attempts on both the union and campaigning fronts to cut extortionate and inaccessible costs of living at many colleges - Continue to ensure the university opposes all forms of the Prevent programme, guaranteeing the free speech and safety of people of colour in the university. - Lobby for more transparency and accountability in college and faculty appointment processes, to prevent the proliferation of psedo-scientific research or endorsement of figures who threaten the safety of university members. - Provide funding and support for students to continue enquiries into research sponsorship from military institutions and the fossil fuel industry, ending the “revolving door�.

- Work to decolonise education, including aiding academic representatives in lobbying their faculties, and working with the Decolonise Network to ensure that they are adequately represented on the CUSU agenda. - Look into funded programmes for students to investigate links between colleges and slavery specifically. - Provide advice for academic representatives to push student-run agendas in their faculties.

I am a second year historian with a wide range of experience in university organising.

As History faculty board representative since Michaelmas, I have worked on ensuring that the faculty considers decolonial issues in tripos reforms, and that more student voices are heard on issues in the current system. I have also been involved in campaigning for Robinson Cut the Rent, with the Living Wage Campaign over low pay and casualisation, and with the Zero Carbon Society over climate justice in the university. The joint experience of campaigning and formally representing students on committee places me in a position to support students both inside and outside the institution to achieve a free education.

part-time students’ officer PART-TIME EXECUTIVE CAMPAIGNS OFFICER CANDIDATE

KERENSA GAUNT & ANNA WARD FOR PART-TIME STUDENTS’ CAMPAIGNS OFFICER

We’re Rensa Gaunt and Anna Ward, both 4th year undergrads studying Double Time (part time undergrad for health reasons). Rensa has been the Executive for Part Time Students this year, and is re-running for election with Anna, so that we can do even more to support other students considering going part time.

Highlights of this year include: • Creation of Guide to Double Time • Many meetings about disability on college, faculty and university level • Making formal complaints about illegal and dubious university behaviour Working alongside Disabled Students’ Campaign and the Disabled Students’ Officer • Running pizza socials for current and potential Double Time students • Co-creating and bringing the DSC Accessibility Pledge to CUSU Council, where it passed unanimously!

Over the next year we will: • Continue to fight for standard fees to be automatic instead of on request • Petition the university to end inconsistent treatment when going Double Time Petition uni to publicise the Guide • Continue to raise awareness of Double Time as an option for students • Petition to simplify the application process for Double Time More socials for Double Time students • Continue to represent Double Time students at DSC Vote Kerensa Gaunt and Anna Ward for Part-Time Students’ Executive!

welfare & rights PART-TIME EXECUTIVE CAMPAIGNS OFFICER CANDIDATE

ALEPH ROSS

FOR WELFARE & RIGHTS CAMPAIGNS OFFICER

Cut The Rent We are one of the wealthiest universities in the world, and yet students are struggling to afford basic necessities due to the extortionate cost of rent.

This varies significantly across the university, but in some colleges students are charged in excess of £180/week for a roof over their heads (e.g. all first years in Murray Edwards). It should be possible for all students to have access to good quality housing that they can comfortably afford to live in, and Cambridge University has the money to make this a reality. Their choice not to do so exacerbates existing inequalities across the student body, with poorer students being forced to work alongside their degrees, financial pressure taking a serious toll on their mental and physical health. I have been closely involved with the Murray Edwards Student Collective this year as we have stirred up a fuss about high rents at our college, and we have learned a lot about what a successful rent campaign might look like, from both our strengths and our weaknesses. Namely, that it should be disruptive, democratic, and include as many students as possible. I don’t believe that college or university management are likely to make substantial rent cuts without serious pressure from students, which is why the Collective attempted to build a rent strike in Easter Term. However, despite the fact that roughly 10% of undergraduates pledged to strike, we did not feel this was enough to go ahead with an action that gets its strength from numbers.

As campaigns officer for welfare and rights, I would like to focus my energy on building these numbers across the university. This would include strengthening connections between existing rent campaigns in Cambridge to build a university-wide movement, with the possibility of coordinated actions (such as demonstrations, banner drops, and potentially strikes) in the upcoming year. I would use CUSU support and funding to strengthen the outreach aspects of the campaign, setting up socials, discussion groups and speaker events in order to equip as many students as possible with the confidence to get involved in organising. I believe that well informed and strong student communities are necessary for a campaign to cut the rent to be sustainable: it cannot be lead by a small few, but needs to be collective and able to adapt to the specific situations of each college and each student.

TYRA AMOFAH-AKARDOM FOR WELFARE & RIGHTS CAMPAIGNS OFFICER

I’m Tyra, a first year Education student at Fitzwilliam. I am also on the CUSU BME Campaign, as one of two Education Officers.

Although I’ve not been here for that long, I have already seen some areas where we as students could be getting additional support from the university. As I am viewing things with a fresh pair of eyes, I believe I will be able to bring new ideas to the table. Working with Stella, I would like to ensure that Cambridge is a safe and happy environment for all of us.

I believe I would do well in this role as I have worked on teams in the past for initiatives (particularly during sixth form), and so have gained collaborative and organisation skills which will be of benefit in this role. Being on the BME Campaign, I would be able to create a strong link between the roles, facilitating a platform for students whose voices are so often not heard.

My primary areas of concern are: • Tackling the issue of Prevent – the threat and misuse of Prevent violates both the welfare and rights of those students who it targets most.

- I will aim to ensure that students are informed about the university’s policies surrounding Prevent, including how it is implemented in different colleges. This will have a primary focus on the students who are disproportionately affected, such as Muslim and BME students.

- I would like to work with societies and campaigns on a university level to enact a plan that students can follow if and when they are threatened with Prevent.

• Facilitating links between students and staff – so often, we feel as if we lose our voice as students, making it hard for us to communicate when things are difficult which is damaging in such high intensity environment. I would want to ensure that we are able to find ways to talk about the issues that we have in academic settings that are harmful for students both academically and generally.

- I will aim to establish a means whereby students will be able to feel more comfortable reporting instances of harassment within faculties which infringe on student comfortability. This will likely be through the means of an anonymous online form.

- I will also aim to make clear the avenues that students can take when studies become overwhelming, to make the process of asking for help less intimidating and a lot easier to navigate.

- By addressing these issues not only will our academics hopefully be easier to handle, but more importantly our overall wellbeing will not be jeopardised.

don’t forget to vote!

VOTE.CUSU.CAM.AC.UK