NUSU to elect first male President in 5 years

Daisy Harrison - Food & Drink sub-editor

The Newcastle University Students’ Union (NUSU) Student Elections are officially underway, with 34 candidates running across 12 positions to represent Newcastle students in the 2023/24 academic year.

This year, there are four male candidates running for NUSU President: Anuraag Roy, Rajnish Lochab, Shah Yaseen Ali, and Abjol Miah. This means that for the first time in 5 years, there will not be a cis-male President of the SU. The last time that NUSU had a male President was Raffaello Marioni in the 2018/19 academic year.

Candidates running for other positions within the elections have expressed “surprise” at the maledominated candidate list. Yancy Zhang, who is running for Activities Officer, commented that “because of the leadership nature of this position, women are more likely to lack confidence [to run for the role of President] in comparison to men”. Current NUSU President, Madeline Baugh, added that “women and marginalised genders face far more scrutiny than a male candidate, and this scrutiny and judgement is often personal and offensive”. Despite having elected female Presidents for the past 5 years, only one woman has run for the role each time. This year’s candidate list could be considered a backwards step for the Students’ Union and the work done by Baugh.

Baugh’s manifesto during the 22/23 Student Elections centred around proactively tackling sexual violence and spiking, moving away from victim blaming, and prioritising support for survivors. She has also introduced workshops surrounding sex education, and their ‘Let’s Talk About Sex Baby’ campaign aims to promote sex positivity. When asked if she has faced gender-based challenges as her time as President, Baugh recounted the “internalised misogyny projected onto me, and what I do”, as well as “feeling as though I’m seen as bossy and emotional, when those attributes on a man are a strong leader and passionate.”

The Courier reached out to Presidential candidates, Abjol Miah and Shah Yaseen Ali to find out their thoughts on Baugh’s current educational campaigns, and how they will ensure the safety of all students, if elected as President. Miah commented that the ‘Let’s Talk About Sex’ campaign was “executed nicely, but just didn’t have the reach it could have”. He also said that “it’s important everyone feels like NUSU is a positive space”. Yaseen Ali noted “it is vital that we continue to raise awareness of sexual violence and aim to tackle it. This includes building upon the work the current President has done, such as continuing with the push to make Student Sexual Violence and Consent training mandatory, working closely with It Happens Here society, and continuing to raise awareness of sexual health clinics and counselling services in the North East”.

In a breakdown of the 23/24 Presidential manifestos, from an Equality, Diversity, and Inclusivity (EDI) perspective, The Courier found that Anuraag Roy aims to ‘organise culture events and diversity training initiatives’;

Abjol Miah intends to ‘create schoolwide societies, with departmental integration, building belonging, identity, and networks’; Shah Yaseen Ali wishes to ‘hold regular multi-cultural food fairs to promote EDI’; and Rajnish Lochab’s manifesto does not contain any specific points regarding diversity. Each of these manifesto points focus on improving EDI for students that come from ethnic minority backgrounds, but the candidates do not clarify how they will tackle issues surrounding gender, sexual orientation, physical ability, and socio-economic background status, which are other fundamental factors within the EDI framework.

Candidates running for Welfare and Equality Officer include Lucy Leeds, who aims to ‘further the support to victims of sexual violence by making the incident reporting process more accessible’. Leeds’ manifesto also details ‘listening to the voices of marginalised communities, collaborating with Liberation Officers and underrepresented societies’. Azra Anver intends to ‘provide more readily available sanitary towels and tampons on campus’, and Pratishtha Verma aims to ‘promote diversity, address discrimination, and ensure equal opportunities and resources for all students regardless of background or identity’.

Athletic Union Officer candidate, Kimiko Cheng, aims to ‘incentivise starting a new disability sport club’, as well as ‘encourage clubs to organise at least one session dedicated to teaching new players the rules of the game’. Candidate for Disabilities Officer, Leo David, promises to ‘gather feedback from students with disabilities, neurodivergences, and long-term health conditions through forms and feedback sessions’ and ‘offer robust accessibility training for clubs and societies’.

Charlotte Pickles, who is running for Marginalised Genders Officer, aims to ‘better the education surrounding lesser-known gender identities’ and ‘work alongside the Welfare and Equality Officer to provide advice and awareness to students affected by gender discrimination’.

You can follow each candidate during their campaigns by following their social media pages, and tuning into the Student Election Debates, which will be livestreamed between the 27th of February – 3rd of March.

Voting opens on the 6th of March and the candidates’ full manifestos are available to view via the NUSU website. Results Night will take place on the 10th of March.

One of my favourite lyrics of all time has to be “I can’t promise that I’m going to be fine, but I’ll throw my best punch every single time”, because of its prominent meaning in everyday life. That lyric has crept into my mind on several occasions this week, and I truly believe it’s a subconscious reminder that as long as I continue to give my all to everything I do, then things will work out just as they should. I am a firm believer that no one can ask more of you than your best. But something I’m not so good at remembering is that your ‘best’ is forever changing and is completely situational. Doing your best is evolutionary; it requires progress, failures and reflection, and this week I think I’ve faced all three of these things. Lots of this job centers around legacy. The legacy that I will create and the legacy of those who have been before me. I am constantly reminded that I am one tiny part of a vast and diverse Student Media history, and sometimes that hits hard. I think I can speak for those who have come before

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Recent Netflix release My Lover, My Killer raises questions on how morally dubious true crime documentaries really are | Page 34 me, that the legacy that has been created makes it hard to facilitate changes; even if these are for the better. I spent a long time in this job worrying that if I changed something about Student Media, then I would be damaging the prolonged history we have here. I was worried that the changes wouldn’t be taken wellbecause who really likes change anyway? But, big changes are coming, and deep down I know that these will better those who will come after me; and I think that makes it all okay. As I’m writing this, I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend before we hit the ground running with the Election Debates from Monday (the day this paper is published!). It doesn’t quite seem real that 52 weeks ago I was preparing my campaign and was then elected into this role. I can sympathise with every candidate wholeheartedly, and whilst the prospect of putting yourself out there to thousands of students across campus may seem scary, you’ll definitely learn an awful lot - I definitely did!