Guild Elections Special Edition - 15 Feb 2023

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GUILD ELECTIONS SPECIAL

Welcome to Exeposé’s coverage of the 2023 Exeter Student’s Guild elections. Our coverage includes interviews with candidates for all of the six positions and also a summary of each race. We want to thank all the candidates who participated and also all the contributors for giving their time — we hope you enjoy reading! Make sure you follow all of Exeposé’s social medias to keep up to date with the latest news on the elections and on campus.

contributors

current officers:

Front page images: Joshua Hughes, Angelus Wikimedia Commons, University of Exeter Accommodation Facebook

images: Rachel Cunningham, Exeter Guild & Exeter University

Isabella Ankerson • Megan Ballantyne • Anabel CostaFerreira • Harry Craig • Ewan Edwards • Charlie Gershinson • Megan Haynes • Joshua Hughes • Livvy Mason-Myhill • Gracie Moore • Amy Rushton • Amelie Thompson

guild president Lily margaroli Au president james coffin

VP Opportunities izzie dyer

vp education jack liversedge

VP Liberation + Equality Emma De saram

Designed and edited by Joshua Hughes and megan ballantyne

Image: Rachel Cunningham

Guild President

Jack liversedge

Course: LLB Law and LLM Law

Hobbies: Rowing and Tennis

Interests: Football and Gaming

Jack was unable to participate in an in-person interview with Exeposé and answered his questions over email

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE GUILD PRESIDENT?

WHAT IS THE NUMBER ONE THING YOU’D LIKE TO DO IF ELECTED?

Being fortunate to observe the work of the current Guild President and a desire to carry on this good work, with the objective of improving the student experience for all students.

Overhaul of assessment process at University, by giving students the choice of what assessment empowers them to fulfil their promise.

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the ROLE?

Ensuring that the voice of all students is heard.

What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?

Organisation and finding it hard to say no.

HOW WILL YOU make sure that you represent all students’ views?

Work closely with the Guild’s insight team to develop new innovative ways to gathering data.

What is your MOST MEMORABLE NIGHT OUT IN EXETER?

TP Wednesday (every week)

Guild President

I am doing a Masters here in MSC Finance and marketing, and before this I was working as a student counsellor, where I used to counsel other international students, so 50+ students going to the University of Exeter from India, Pakistan, Nigeria etc. So I used to counsel those students about universities and which university is right for them. Before this I also graduated in Business administration.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE GUILD PRESIDENT?

WHAT IS THE NUMBER ONE THING YOU’D LIKE TO DO IF ELECTED?

I want to engage with student ideas. I am very good with networking so I want to be a part of the Guild so I can go and meet students and do something different in the University, and stand out from the audience. So I want to be a part of this.

I will be getting in touch with the students, every student, and I will ask what change they want. And when I get suggestions I’ll review and go do what it is they want.

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the ROLE?

I’m new here, I came here five to six months ago, so I’m trying to get to know what different types of students from different parts of the world want. Because this is something new to me, but I’m trying to get involved, and I know a lot more and I’m growing I’m growing day by day and learning day by day. So definitely by one or two months after this I’ll be able to face this challenge even better.

What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?

HOW WILL YOU make sure that you reprsent all students’ views?

I don’t think I really have a weakness to be honest. Definitely I’ll try to express every student view and cater to every student view. First I’ll take the views and then I’ll go to the higher authority and tell them about this and try and demand they take these actions.

(did not answer)

What is your MOST MEMORABLE NIGHT OUT IN EXETER? EXCLUSIVE

Tejas nagpal

Guild President

Mathias

My name is Mathias La Pira. I am a third year studying international relations. I love countries and the world in general. That’s why I am President of the French society and Publicity Officer of the Italian society. I also love sports like football and tennis as well as singing. Generally, helping people is one of my main goals in life.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE GUILD PRESIDENT?

WHAT IS THE NUMBER ONE THING YOU’D LIKE TO DO IF ELECTED?

Relating to my experience in societies and being on committees, I love organising things for people and helping people. I want to be part of a team which goes forward to help students to have a better life and experience at university.

Cost-of-living. Really trying to push the University to reduce prices as much as possible. The £2 meal is really, really important but I also want to expand it to other places on campus on both Streatham and St Luke’s campuses. I would also want to try other projects like £1 coffee to help students spend as less possible.

I think my biggest challenge will be pressuring the University to ensure that the Guild gets all the help it can from the University

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the ROLE?

What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?

I would say probably talking. Not talking in front of people but knowing exactly what I’m saying. I think it’s really important to know exactly what you’re speaking about when you talk.

HOW WILL YOU make sure that you represent all students’ views?

This will also be one of my big challenges. One of my main aims will be to make sure that the international students feel as represented as the home students.

What is your MOST MEMORABLE NIGHT OUT IN EXETER?

I would say when I won a VIP booth at Unit 1. I got it for free so it was a really nice night with my friends.

La Pira

Guild President

I’m Emma and I’m a history graduate. I’m the current VP for Liberation and Equality and I came into the role and the student activist team as a climate justice activist — that’s my background! My hobbies? I’m a runner, and I just love nature.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE GUILD PRESIDENT?

WHAT IS THE NUMBER ONE THING YOU’D LIKE TO DO IF ELECTED?

The student activist movement has so much to give in terms of making society and the world a better place. And I’ve had a year to help some students so I’ve realised the power that they have through various campaigns and on a daily basis, making changes to their lives. I campaign for sustainability all the time, and I think it’s important that there is sustainability throughout the Guild and throughout the Sabbatical officer team. I really want to make some sustainable changes at the University: The £2 campaign was just a very decent example of how much of an influence a decent officer and leader can have when they work with students.

I’d completely change how the Guild works internally. I think the main source of a lot of problems that societies and students have comes from a failure of the Guild to be student led. The successful campaigns that I’ve launched this year have been about cutting through the red tape at both the Guild and the University level, and I think to have a successful campaign it needs to be completely empowered by the Students’ Guild rather than the Students’ Guild putting obstacles in the way. But apart from that, it’s wellbeing: I think the Wellbeing Services at the University are shocking and as President, that would be my next big campaign focus.

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the ROLE?

To be brutally honest, it’s going to be balancing my role as an activist and what I believe in versus having to fulfil other compulsory duties like keeping the University running. I think this is both a challenge and an opportunity because I very much see that the social climate and economic crises that we are in require fundamental shifts in business as usual and this trickles down to university level. So, I think as President I’m just going to have to be consistently challenging the status quo in the way in which the university runs, which is a broad reflection on currently how society runs. We do need people speaking up and saying business as usual doesn’t work.

What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?

HOW WILL YOU make sure that you represent all students’ views?

What is your MOST MEMORABLE NIGHT OUT IN EXETER?

It’s probably learning to say no as I take on and care about everything because I want to help everyone in so many ways. Sometimes, this is a failure because obviously you spread yourself so thin. It’s being able to direct people and know that you can’t solve everyone’s problems. Not to get too deep into it, but I think it’s about unlearning a lot of things as well. You can’t always help with everything and even thinking you can is like a supremacy mindset that you need to get over. Learning to care about certain things and learning to be able to say no is a balance I want to have. Being with students and talking to them, getting out of the echo chamber, which I think I’ve been able to do this year. This has been really important for me as an activist as well as a human being. If I wasn’t doing this, I would have gone into climate campaigning and been a bit more secluded from the broad spectrum of lovely politics that are out there. And I think it’s about learning how to stick to your principles, but also knowing that not everyone is going to care about the climate and all that jazz. Again, like the £2 meal campaign, that was a way for me to demonstrate that I’m not just interested in changing what I personally care about. I actually just want to do things that help everyone.

I would say it was the Lemmy in Freshers’ Week because I met and had a good chat with Rat Boy. He had rugby punch bags and he gave me one which was quite memorable. But then second to that would be camping in Dartmoor because that was great and who knows, when I leave, that might not be legal anymore because of the new laws!

Emma de Saram

Guild President

Manan Shah

My name is Manan and I’m a final-year law student. I’m a mature student and an international student. I’m from Canada, Toronto, I came here in 2020 right in the midst of COVID. I’ve loved my time here in Exeter and I’m hoping to stay here as long as I can. I’m a big fan of like just regular like very cliche activities like mini golf and bowling and I like photography on the side. Just whether it’s people or our nature events.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE GUILD PRESIDENT?

WHAT IS THE NUMBER ONE THING YOU’D LIKE TO DO IF ELECTED?

Something that I’ve always been very interested in is EDI (Equality Diversity and Inclusion) work. It’s something that remains a passion of mine and I want to be Guild president so I can make more meaningful change at the University which is something that I’ve always thought is possible. I think having a voice of someone that is so passionate about certain topics can make actual change and it can make a better university experience for students. I know I have a little bit of a special experience having two different university experiences one in Canada and one here and I know the pros and cons of both and I think I can bring a unique experience to the role and hopefully make it better and make the university experience better for years to come.

I’d like to focus on the cost-of-living-crisis. I want to offer more support to international students. Like myself, international students here don’t get any type of funding from the UK Government — we don’t qualify for things like student loans or bursaries. I feel like more can be done, not just for international students specifically, but for all students because this cost-of-living crisis has been painful. I know that it’s difficult doing a degree amd working at the same time, but a lot of us don’t have that choice. I would like to carry on the work in my first year I got involved with through the education incubator here at Exeter. It’s a great way for students to get involved and get some funding for their activism projects, whether it’s active anti racism, or guided work to create safer spaces for LGBTQ+ which are all great causes that we should put more money towards.

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the ROLE?

I think the biggest challenge would be trying to figure out a way to get around pushback. As Guild President, one of the bigger things that I need to be aware of is that not everyone is going to be sharing the same vision that I have. I can have as many ideas as I want, but it’s not necessarily always going to be as feasible as I think it will be. So, trying to work with the University, understand how the logistics work and try to get as many of my goals accomplished as possible. While also taking into account what other students want, because what students want this year may change next year.

What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?

I think one of my bigger ones is trying to accomplish too many things at once while not putting enough focus on bigger tasks. I know from past experiences because I have such a passion for wanting to get things done, I’m going to try to get as many things done as possible and it sometimes makes it more difficult to get them accomplished because I’m not putting my full thought and effort into one at a time.

HOW WILL YOU make sure that you represent all students’ views?

What is your MOST MEMORABLE NIGHT OUT IN EXETER?

I think by uplifting voices. I cannot speak for every minority group because I don’t belong to every minority group, whereas although I’m a student of colour, I can only represent my own experiences. As my experience will be different from a student of color who’s female or nonbinary. All of that would be different, the same way how I can’t speak for disabled students, for example, because I don’t have a disability. But in that case, rather than me trying to speak for them, it would be better to uplift their voices and hear directly from them what they want from the Guild.

The first time I went to Cheesies? I love a good night at cheesies as well as attending the Law ball last year. I was a member of the Law Society Committee last year and the law ball is always a great time — I enjoy dressing up and suiting up.

EXCLUSIVE EXEPOSÉ COVERAGE

Guild President

My name be Captain Hook Tallon. For many years I sailed the South Devon Seas, plundering and searching for treasure and booty across the land. Yet just three months ago my ship got marooned on the sands of Exmouth. Now I find myself trapped here in Exeter, searching for a new crew to lead to adventures beyond.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE GUILD PRESIDENT?

WHAT IS THE NUMBER ONE THING YOU’D LIKE TO DO IF ELECTED?

I seek to recruit beyond the stereotypical pirate crew you see. The pirates that I sail with are predominantly too old, too unable to do the agile work needed to work on a ship, and so I seek new blood to aid my journeys, travels and booty hunting.

See my ship, The Red Jenny, was wrecked upon the shores of Exmouth as I already said. And so, using the money and resources of the Guild, I would build myself a new ship: The Trey O’war. I would coat it in the finest gold leaf, arm it with the most powerful cannons available to man and go plundering across all of the South Coast.

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the ROLE?

Students across this university are facing a cost-of-living crisis. And obviously as a pirate captain I care for all those under my command. This is the biggest issue in me opinion and so along with supporting initiatives like the £2.00 meal deal, I would also provide limes for all to combat scurvy. Because scurvy as you know, is a scourge to all pirates and in such a time of economic crisis, if me crew ain’t eating healthily, then scurvy could easily creep up and plague my men, women and non-binary fellows.

What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?

For many years in my dreams, I see a demon, a goat coated in white fur. It’s sent shivers to me core. And finally I found it: The vote goat. My terror of it is all consuming. And I fear that if I ran into it, I would be paralysed and so to conquer my fear I will challenge the vote goat to a duel to the death so that we may end its tyranny across our campus.

HOW WILL YOU make sure that you represent all students’ views?

As pirates, we operate the most open-door policy we can on the ship and that is something that I would ensure to bring on to the Students’ Guild. Through a mixture of drop-in sessions where all pirates can enter my cabin, sorry, all crew members or students as you might call them, can enter my cabin or office as you might say, surveys and continuing the coffee mornings. Ensuring that students have the maximum opportunity to engage with their Pirate King at all opportunities.

What is your MOST MEMORABLE NIGHT OUT IN EXETER?

One night me and my crew had just hauled in the greatest beastie of all time. We were hunting a giant narwhal bigger than this whole building. One night when we were off guard, it swallowed us whole. And so, after preparing ourselves by consuming plenty of rum, we hooked and caught the narwhal from the inside and towed it back to shore, still inside the belly of the beast. The subsequent celebrations will stay in my heart to the day I am put to rest at sea. For I drank so much rum, that everything else in my body evacuated itself.

Captain ‘Trey’ Hook Tallon

AU President

Hi I’m Gee! I’m a third year studying Sport Science at St Lukes and I’m currently doing a placement with the Sports Park doing a rugby sport performance analysis. I also play bench ball regularly; I’m the vice-captain and we’ve currently got a varsity coming up so there will be a lot of organisations for that. I go to the gym regularly and I’m very much into my fitness and health because I’ve studied that at college, did personal training and nutrition as well.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE AU PRESIDENT?

I wanted to be AU President because I think it would really be nice to see women’s representation in the AU up high. I know that a couple of years ago there was another female AU President, but I definitely think it’s time for another one to come in. I think that there are a couple of things that definitely could be changed and just altered to really get people to all work together and all be friendly with each other. I know there is a lot of competition and seeing as much support at games because everybody has come together would be a lot nicer.

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the ROLE?

I’m excited for the role to take up a lot of time and I’m excited for the organisation of it but I think running events as that’s quite new to me, I think that will be something that will take a little while to get my head around. But I’m really excited to just go headfirst, and I am really excited to get to learn it all. Just more the process of it there is a lot of background work with the role, and I’m just not used to that but I’m excited to do it at least.

What will you do to combat toxic cultures in au societies?

how will you ensure both men’s & women’s sports are supported by the au?

This is actually one of the points that I’ve put down in my manifesto. One of the things I am running towards is diversity. I think a lot of people when they join an AU sport stay with just that AU sport and they definitely think if they came together and mixed a lot more instead of being very much “I am this sport and that is all I am going for”. If they got to know each other, have joint socials that weren’t very heavy and actually were to get to know each other, I think there would be a lot more community. I think there are a lot of people and groups that will say a lot of things about each other but if they got to know each other a bit better, it’ll be a lot more people just actually coming together as one and working towards the same goal. We all want to do well at uni and we all want to do well at sport.

I think both women’s and men’s sports are supported by the AU, but I think there’s definitely a divide when it comes to sporting events. There is a lot more support for example in rugby, I think there is a lot more support with the mens as we sell out the whole of Sandy Park. We all knew this was an issue last term. Move on from it but I definitely think with mens and womens, the way that I want to support it, I want to make sure it is as well known, big promotion, make sure people are aware of it and make sure nobody is talking badly about any sport, whether it is mens or womens sport, I just want people to see it all as equal. If its womens football, its football. If its womens basketball, its basketball. They play by the same rules, they play the same game, the same tactics and there is no reason for it to be any different just because of the people playing it.

what is your biggest weakness?

What is your MOST MEMORABLE NIGHT OUT IN EXETER?

I’m very upfront and I know that can be quite intimidating to people, but I mean it in the best way. People always know what they get with me. I will never lie; I will never sugar-coat things and I know to some people that’s a lot, but I want people to know that my door is always open. I want people to realise what I’m standing for and what I’m saying is the truth and that’s what I’m running with.

So I went on this massive pub crawl around the Christmas market, getting the free shots. I then went and had a Christmas dinner midway through which sorted me right out and we continued partying until about three in the morning at one of my best mate’s houses. There was about 20 of us and we had such a great night. We regretted it the next morning, but it was so much fun!

Gee Burnett

AU President

brianna cummins

I study geography BSC and I play women’s rugby. I started women’s rugby when I first came to uni after being a swimmer for all of my life — I just decided to find a new challenge and just that was that. Sport has always been a very massive part of my life from growing up. I used to play in the garden with my grandad a lot, so he’s definitely pushed me to be the sportswoman I am today.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE AU PRESIDENT?

One, I just love Exeter. I love it a lot. So obviously if there’s an excuse for me to stay, then I’ll stay. But also I think I am very passionate about sport in general — I believe that sport has the ability to really help people from a wellbeing perspective to an actual physical health perspective. And I’m a firm believer that everyone should have the option to join a society or play some kind of sport just to kind of improve themselves. To bring it back to the rugby club, I’ve never felt as accepted before and I’d love for other people to feel that kind of acceptance with really any kind of society, though obviously, I’m going to be more inclined to sport societies because I’m running for Sports President. And also it would be nice to get a girl in there!

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the ROLE?

I think people do have a bit of mental block sometimes against sport and some people feel like they can’t do it and like they have to be really good and there’s a big gap between like the highest level athletes to people that just do it like regularly and like just for fun. So I think that’s the biggest challenge, encouraging people that you don’t need to be amazing at it. Like it’s just going to have fun and just release a bit of like steam and like, get some endorphins and things like that. You’re not there to become a professional like you’re there just to have fun and make some friends. And it’s just yeah coming from that angle probably — so trying to get people over that, stigma that might have been from school that “I’m not sporty I don’t wanna do sport” when in reality there are so many sports out there that people can get involved with.

What will you do to combat toxic cultures in au societies?

how will you ensure both men’s & women’s sports are supported by the au? what is your biggest weakness?

What is your MOST MEMORABLE NIGHT OUT IN EXETER?

Well, I think I’d love to have regular meetings with all like society Committee members, just like regular updates about how they’re doing intake in their, in their societies themselves, and the kind of like I’d like to go along and just like, witness the culture myself. Just getting a real feel and obviously like flagging up things which come up. I’d also probably want to release more regular surveys to clubs just so we can get a truthful anonymous opinion on what they’re doing well, what they’re doing wrong and how we can work with that.

So one of my main points is women’s empowerment within sport, and that’s something I’m very passionate about. I’ve been involved in the ‘This Girl Can’ campaign for the past couple of weeks. Obviously playing a male dominated sport, and for the other male dominated female sports, it’s very difficult. But then you can’t take away from the fact that like, they’re also sports people too. There has to be a level of like mutual respect, obviously you’ve heard about all the stuff that has been going on this year with the women’s sports in general. I would just strive just for equality cause at the end of the day, okay potentially you can’t always equally compare the sports. They’re men. We’re women. But it’s the same. If you love sport there should be no questions asked.

I have raging ADHD so being organised. Literally like it will be everything flying everywhere, so definitely at the start, I can imagine it being pretty manic. But I think I’ll get used to it quickly. I think it’s just a big step up. I was a social sec and then captain of the team, and it’ll be a huge step up. Like suddenly, like you’re this figurehead for the uni, essentially — the sports world of the uni. I think it’ll be a lot of pressure, I might have to brush my hair a little bit more as well!

It’s always gonna be a night where you end up in the Lemmy (and you don’t remember getting there). This was my first year (years ago) I’ll just say it didn’t end well. But other than that most TP nights always end in some kind of VK rushing and shaking. But yeah definitely the Lemon Grove cause that place should be strictly just for Freshers! It’s got school disco vibes.

EXCLUSIVE EXEPOSÉ COVERAGE

AU President

sophia reitano

I’m a second-year marketing and management student. Sports have always played a humongous role in my life. I’m from the US and we have a massive sports culture, so growing up, I was involved in lots of sports. I took part in club volleyball for five years, and we travelled all around the States. I was also a competitive dancer and we actually won the national title. My other main sports would be tennis, golf, track and field, football and softball. I’m also a student ambassador and an International Welcome team-member.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE AU PRESIDENT?

I want to bring my passion for sports to Exeter, I really want to get people involved and engaged in sport. I’ve got a few ideas to get more people excited about sport, I think that we need more events. In the US, before any kind of game, we have tailgating, a massive pre-sport festivity to get everyone in the spirit, everyone excited to root for your team. I think if we could have activities like that, that would get more people involved. Also, I think we should have an ‘Exeter Olympics’ where anyone who wants to be involved gets randomly split into groups to compete. We could have an opening ceremony at Timepiece, and then throughout the weekend there would be a round robin of everyone playing all the sports and all levels could be included. Maybe we could talk to the University gym and see if we can have a prize of £50 off the sports membership? Freshers’ Week is often the main week to try all of the sports and societies, but it’s crazy because you’re moving and settling in and trying to make friends. So, I think that if during Reading Week, once everything has settled down, we have a Refreshers’ Week, to allow more people to try different sports and societies.

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the ROLE?

What will you do to combat toxic cultures in au societies?

how will you ensure both men’s & women’s sports are supported by the au? what is your biggest weakness?

What is your MOST MEMORABLE NIGHT OUT IN EXETER?

I think it would be trying to represent everyone’s voices. I know there are over 20,000 students here at Exeter, so making sure that everyone’s voice is being heard could be difficult. But I think everyone should have a chance to contribute their opinions on things that they want fixed.

I think toxicity could be combatted by bringing everyone together through large events. We could have all the club captains meet together, to ensure a united culture. If there is the opportunity to become friends with everyone, then people would not want to spread negative energy around.

I’m a female, right? So you might think that I would prioritise female sports, but I’ve been involved in all kinds of sports. I believe that everyone needs to be able to have a chance to be represented. I would talk to all of the club captains to make sure that everyone is included in decisions and that everyone in the student body is heard. I assume that more girls might follow the Student Guild and other University Instagram pages, as it can be more of a girl demographic. So, although I mentioned doing polls on Instagram, we could also stand outside of the Forum and take a convenience sample. This could ensure that we have an equal sample of boys and girls.

My biggest weakness is probably that I’ve got a lot going on in my life; I like to do a lot. Every day is busy, I have lots of things going on. But from this, I have learnt how to prioritise, and how to multitask to get things done. I know that if I get the chance to take on this role, there are lots of meetings, sports and things to do, but I feel like my previous experience of always being involved in multiple things will help me out with that.

A few weeks ago we had a tennis match against the Cardiff Twos. We were supposed to lose because they were two levels higher than us. We lost the doubles but three out of the four of us won our matches in the singles. That was a really amazing experience and going out after was great!

Education Officer

Alex Stanley

Hi, I’m Alex. I’m a third year PPE student and I’m running for Education Officer. In my spare time I’m the General Secretary of the Labour Society, I am also a member of the Futsal team. A lot of what I do is very much based on student activism; I’m involved in the £2 meal deal campaign, I was also on the picket line earlier today so yeah very much orientated around student activism and how I can help students at the University.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE education officer?

So primarily I think the first thing that comes to mind was the University’s decision to bring self-certification mitigation from seven days back to three so that’s something that really sparked my interest. I actually spoke to Jack (current VP education) about that earlier in the year and he recommended I think about running and from there I’ve realised that I just don’t think the University is doing enough for students’ education. In fact we’ve taken steps back, so it’s all about just coming up with clear policies on how I can help improve the lives of students.

what do you think the responsibilities of education officer are?

Obviously sitting in meetings with the Vice-Chancellor and other key figures, but I also think it’s important that I haven’t clear strategy. I know the Guild are very much focused on the idea of the individual, but I want to talk about what I would do if I got elected and what I want to make sure is that I’m putting forward policies that are actually affordable and that I can argue for when I go into these big meetings. I’m focusing on six key main pledges: Bring self-certification mitigation back up to seven days, scrap Saturday exams, introduce a fairer late submissions policy, include an opt-out option for exams or modules where that’s possible, include part time jobs as evidence for mitigation, and bring in new trained academic wellbeing officers.

how will you bridge the gap in attainment between students from different backgrounds?

how would you have supported students during the ucu strikes?

What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?

What is your MOST MEMORABLE NIGHT OUT IN EXETER?

I went to state school my entire life, I’m from East London and never went to private school. If we look at the pledges for instance, I had a part time job throughout second year and I really, really struggled with that meaning I didn’t do as well as I did in first year or as well as I’m doing this year. So, for me it is really important that people are not disadvantaged because of their economic background. I think the Guild have done a good job in lobbying the University for a hardship fund, but I do think that the part time jobs as evidence for mitigation could really help with this because I just felt so much pressure in terms of managing my time with work and university deadlines.

Okay so my personal position this time round has been that I support the strikes since I think university staff have not been treated well by the University. At the same time, I recognise that not everyone will agree with me, so I would recommend that the University has a referendum, for students, on whether they should be supporting the strikes or not. At the end of the day the job of the Students Guild is to listen to students.

Biggest weakness? That’s a good one! I would say, that sometimes, I probably take on a bit too much and I need to get better in terms of prioritising. I very much like to involve myself in all the activism, sports, and societies, but at the same time that can get a bit overwhelming especially going into a role like this. It would be useful to have a better understanding of time management and what I should be prioritising to help students.

So, I played in five aside league last year and my team managed to get promoted on the last day of the season and that also happened to be the same day Exeter City got promoted. I remember going to TP and bumping into loads of the players and that was just completely surreal you know. Venom in one hand, taking a selfie with the other! That was fun!

EXCLUSIVE EXEPOSÉ COVERAGE

Communities & Equality Officer

mia robillard-day

My name’s Mia. I do Art History and Drama with employment experience. I was supposed to do study abroad, but COVID, alas. I’m in my final year and I go to the gym a lot, I do a lot of advocacy online — I do a lot of social media stuff to do with mental health and eating disorders. So I work a lot in that area. I do a lot of charity, I work with Beat a lot, which is the English eating disorder charity.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE communities & equality officer?

I’ve had a lot of negative experiences at the Uni myself as a disabled student and also watching how my friends have been treated a lot by the University, not just by students but also by lecturers themselves. I think that we have a huge issue in the way in which lecturers who are supposedly meant to be really educated in their fields, even lecturers who are lecturing on race theory and similar topics saying totally inappropriate things. My very close friend was asked multiple times how she speaks such good English when English is her first language. It’s just a continual issue within the university and on my year out I ended up making the equality and diversity and inclusion strategy for the company, which was the first strategy they’d had of that kind. I was able to put in place monthly training sessions on how to talk about certain topics, and that’s something that I would really like to put in place in the role; platforming different students voices to make it a better and more educated space in general, so that students feel safe.

how will you ensure all groups and communities are represented by the guild?

I think what’s really important and an issue that continually happens in roles like this, especially taken on by white students, is we tend to homogenize different minority groups, when actually their concerns are all very unique. Rosemary Campbell Stephens termed the term ‘Global Majority’, which includes Black, Asian, Brown, dual heritage, indigenous to the global South and all have been racialized as ethnic minorities. These groups make up around 80 per cent of the world’s population but I think we often overlook what a huge role these groups have in our student body. I would like to find ways to make sure that their unique voices are platformed such as holding more forums and training sessions and give that as paid opportunities for students.

what do you think is one underrepresented group which the guild could be doing more to support?

I think that almost every minority group is underrepresented in their own ways. I think because the ways in which we talk about different ethnic groups and different minority groups we bunch it into one issue. I represent the disabled community, but am only representative of a very small part of that community because I’m autistic, so I’m not physically disabled, so I don’t understand entirely the concerns of other students who may have physical disabilities. For me with autism, I know that I’ve had a lot of really negative experiences, once a boy shouted across the class ‘You’re so autistic’, and when I told my lecture about it he didn’t deal with it, I had to deal with it myself. There’s a massive issue with putting it back onto that group to do that labour of explaining ourselves when really we should be protected by the Guild and by staff members. It’s really important that in the Guild we have people who are part of minority groups that can understand, and even if they’re not from that group, can listen with empathy.

What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?

What is your MOST MEMORABLE NIGHT OUT IN EXETER?

I would say my biggest weakness is that I do struggle sometimes with crowds. Because of my autism I have to do things a little bit differently, so I think that I can struggle in bigger groups and sometimes with public speaking. Some things coming up in this election such as hustings I might find really difficult and may have to ask for accommodations, but I think it’s important that we show those accommodations, especially in the spotlight of different people.

Oh my gosh. I’m not a big clubber, but my one night we went to Unit 1 and my friend found an inflatable microphone which was quite funny. She was was going around talking to everyone with the microphone and asking them ridiculous questions, that was quite fun.

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Communities & Equality Officer

Khurram Usman

I am a PhD student, and my research is in Law. I am also the currently the incumbent President of The Diplomatic Hub. It’s an amazing opportunity to work with the uni students who come from different parts of the world to understand their narrative and think what we can do better for them. I am qualified from Pakistan, and I came to the UK, where I did an LLM and now I am doing a PhD.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE communities & equality officer?

I have an Asian background and I come from a place which was part of colonies for some time. When you come from this part of the world, you interact with the West so there is a big gap between the understanding of the people. So, if someone turned up from these communities, they would represent them and that could make a big difference at the uni. They could express the views of the students in a manner that explains how these communities think, or what we need to make better institutions. These are students who will come from different communities. They will feel better, and it will create a more inclusive society rather than a divisive society. Division is a big problem in the world; people see each other from their colour, their language, and their background, but they do not see the human being.

how will you ensure all groups and communities are represented by the guild?

what do you think is one underrepresented group which the guild could be doing more to support?

For the past year working in the World Society, I got experience in how to engage the views of students. It’s really difficult to accommodate them, but I will show flexibility. I will give them honour; I will listen to them and provide them with full opportunities that they should take on. You invite the students and say “okay, we are working on this task” or “we are working together”; you will take the lead and they will follow your instructions. So, in this way, you will accommodate other people, you will build their trust. You will help and work with them, and this is a way of engaging people.

I think that the Guild should focus on master’s students because they come to university for one year, and they are financially squeezed because Exeter is a difficult and expensive place in terms of accommodation. The Guild should focus on how they can engage these students. They are working part-time and are coming to uni classes and when they start working outside, they will lack the focus on their studies and will often not turn up to lessons. So, they should think about how they can improve their experience and help them focus on their modules, whilst creating a more inclusive society and giving them more opportunities.

What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?

I can feel the pain of other people. When we see a dilemma or disaster, such as the War in Ukraine where people were just running away. It was a terrible moment to witness. It is very difficult for me when I see something bad happening and people are crying but I’m not able to help them. It’s very big weakness of mine where I want to accommodate and help people, but I cannot do that.

What is your MOST MEMORABLE NIGHT OUT IN EXETER?

Last month, we invited the Spanish Ambassador to Exeter. He came here and we talked with him about his experiences as a seasoned diplomat for forty years. We walked around the city with him, and it was very nice. We also introduced many students to him at a networking event. I think that’s the best experience that I’ve had in Exeter so far.

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Societies & Employability Officer

Rhys Wallis

I’m Rhys. I’m a third year, well, final year -crikey it feels real now- doing PPE. I say “doing PPE”, I’m mainly in the societies and I also sometimes attend PPE courses. I’m quite heavily involved in XPression FM, but I also like my football and do a bit of refereeing on the side. And every now and then I play quite badly at netball.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE societies & employability officer?

I think at university you have the two sides of the university experience: You’re there for your course but you’re also there to get involved in things that take your interest. My aim is to be on the side of society committees and to ask and implement change where needed, especially with some of the issues we’ve seen in recent years. On my candidate statement, I said that I wanted to address the room booking system, which was very annoying and frustrating to use. So being able to be that intermediary between what needs to be done and the people who need to be doing it was an opportunity I couldn’t say no to.

how will you make sure societies can rely on the guild to support them effectively?

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the ROLE?

It’s all about ascertaining where student society priorities are. I think that’s why I’m a little bit concerned about how far away the election is from the start of next term. With the physical election campaign being from February 20th to February 23rd and the voting taking place over those last two days, it’s going to be quite difficult to maintain the same set of student priorities going into when the elected officers term starts on June 26th, when the actual academic term starts in September. It’s all about being a position to use that time in-between February and the start of taking on a role, if i were to be elected, to go around and make sure that those people who are in the best position to tell us where we can help get that comment across, so we can really hit the ground running. A lot of the work has to be done in the university “off” season. There’s only so much that elected officers, and anyone, can do during the university term. Often, a lot of it is fighting fires that appear, and then you’re so busy fighting one that you don’t have time to look at the long-term goals. So, that’s why it’s so important to hit the ground running and make sure you use that lead-in time really effectively.

Probably being able to balance the needs of all 300 societies at the University such as ensuring that all societies have equal access to facilities around campus. This role will have to be a listening exercise, learning in the role but I’m hoping to draw on my experience working on XPression FM to be able to balance where we need to focus the attention and resources at the Guild’s disposal to make sure we can call ourselves a properly inclusive and accessible area.

What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?

If I’m not doing something, then I’m probably just sitting around waiting for something to happen. I need to get a little bit better at the proactivity side of things. If I’m on a roll, then I’ll keep going and going - good luck getting something on a to-do list! But if there’s a bit of a lull between points, then it can be quite hard to think “oh yeah, no, that’s the next thing I need to be doing. Let’s drag that one in here”. I think, hopefully, that can be masked by never really having any down-time as Societies and Employability Officer. There’s always going to be something going on, so I’ll be able to keep jumping from task to task.

What is your MOST MEMORABLE NIGHT OUT IN EXETER?

It’s a bit of a contradiction because my most memorable night out was probably the one I least remember. It was the most recent XMedia Christmas Ball and it was a good excuse to let loose after what was a taxing term. When you’re in Fever with people who had their shoes off, you know you’re in for a good night.

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Student Living Officer

Pip Shaw

I am a third year, I’ve been doing English, and I absolutely love it, it’s been really fun! But I also have a maths background, so the finance aspect of this role should be okay. I am also Director of the Exeter Soul Choir so I do a lot of music in my free time.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE student living officer?

as this is a new role, how will you help define it?

what do you think the guild can do to help students with housing issues?

I had some real nightmares with housing last year in my second year, and this is actually a new role, and I was scrolling through the emails and reading all about the different roles, and when I read about this one, and being responsible for student finances, housing, living and wellbeing, I thought that is exactly what I would have needed in second year. So I thought about it for a while and thought I could do a really good job. I know all the struggles of housing, all the struggles of finance, and I think that might actually quite help me in the role.

It’s quite a big bracket — student living is a massive thing to tackle. But in the polls the Guild did recently, finances were the main concern for students going forward, because we aren’t getting bigger student loans but everything is getting more expensive, and housing was second because there are so many more students, it’s gone up by 25 per cent in the last five years and there’s not much more student housing, so it’s been really difficult, and I’ve found it really difficult in the last few years to balance financing and housing, so I’m not surprised that those are the two main concerns. So that would be the main focus that I would go into it with, but that might change.

I think the first thing we need to do is have a really specific lecture or advice platform, particularly for freshers, because we all went into it totally blind, and once you get into second or third year you know how it works, you know when the rush is, you know when to start looking. But I remember as a fresher being so confused and so overwhelmed, and not knowing, so I think we need really specific advice and support for that October period when everyone starts looking at housing. Also I think it is really important that everyone knows going into it the really basic HMO regulations and standards because we were living in a horrible house in second year and we had no idea that it was all completely illegal and against the law.

what can be done to improve night safety for students?

What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?

What is your MOST MEMORABLE NIGHT OUT IN EXETER?

I think Campus Security are really valuable but perhaps are not used in quite the right way. They are there to keep students safe but people don’t like Campus Security — I think it probably goes back to when us third years were in first year, I think no one liked Campus Security then! But I think they are a really good idea, I was thinking of a service to escort students home or something, actually utilising Campus Security for safety things, particularly for freshers in accommodation, if you’re feeling unsafe. I think we should try to change the way people look at Campus Security and actually utilise them for student safety which is what they’re there for, rather than just day-to-day stuff.

I take on way too much as I think anyone who knows me will tell you! I do tend to stretch myself quite thin, but I think that’s why I would be quite excited to fully commit to one thing, because at uni there’s so many things that you can do that I feel guilty if I’m not doing all of them, whereas that this is actually a full-time role and is really specific and targeted, I think would be really good for me, because I fill up every minute of my day!

It was a friend’s birthday, Chev was completely full, so we went to George’s Meeting House, just having a few drinks and we realised on the table next to us there were these two people showing each other magic tricks. I asked “you guys are amazing, are you professional?” and they replied, “yeah we are, do you want to see?” they came over and gave us an hours’ magic show for free!

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EXEPOSE VERDICT

Guild President

The Guild President race this year has six candidates making it a busy yet highly contested race. Candidates gave a flavour of some of the policies they would enact with the cost of living being a key issue that nearly all of them highlighted. Candidates also underlined the importance of connecting with students in order to listen to and represent their views. When asked about the biggest challenge they would face, candidates consistently referred to the likely opposition they would face when trying to enact change within the Guild — this view was even held by a current officer. While some candidates talked about representation and financial support, one candidate spoke about their desire to build a new ship, find a crew and protect students against scurvy. Certainly, this will be a race which will raise a wide variety of policies and issues and who knows? We might be under the rule of a ‘Pirate King’ come the next academic year.

AU President

The contest for the position of AU President features three candidates. Each candidate spoke about engaging more people with sport at the University with one talking about the positive effect it can have on wellbeing. One candidate suggested establishing new events and altering the calendar in order to allow more people to get involved. The candidates also addressed the issue of supporting both men’s and women’s sports and ensuring that both sports are viewed equally as sports rather than being men’s or women’s. Speaking on combatting toxic cultures in AU societies, the candidates proposed engaging with society committee members and challenging the culture through leadership across the AU. One candidate spoke about creating an AU-wide culture and suggested encouraging people to mix with other sports in order to support a greater sense of community across all clubs. It is likely similar issues to these will continue to be raised during the race and the eventual winner will be faced with a sizeable task.

Education Officer

While the position of Education Officer is being contested unopposed, the issues raised by Alex Stanley will be important to the student population and this race will likely serve as a way to publicise his proposed changes. The University’s decision to change the self-certified mitigation from seven days to three was a key issue that Alex brought up. He also listed his key policies which included the change on self-certified mitigation and also allowing part-time jobs as evidence for mitigation. Alex also proposed ditching Saturday exams and introducing an opt out option for exams or modules. He also spoke about his desire to introduce a fairer late submissions policy and bringing in new trained academic wellbeing officers. Speaking on the recent UCU strikes, he suggested that the University should hold a referendum for students on whether they should be supporting the strikes or not.

Communities & Equality Officer

The election of the next Communities and Equality officer will break new ground as it is the first of the three new roles that we’ll look at. There will be a number of issues facing the winning candidate with each contestant highlighting the need to connect and engage with the student community. The candidates discussed how some students had been left out of the conversation with one discussing the importance of focusing on master’s students, and the other highlighting the need for representation in the Guild. Each candidate also discussed their own experiences and how they would bring this to the role. Overall, as a new role, the eventual winner will have a large impact on defining the role and how this shapes out is yet to be seen.

Societies & Employability Officer

While we were only able to speak to one of the candidates running for the role of Societies and Employability Officer, the issues raised and the ones that exist make it a crucial role for societies going forward. We spoke to Rhys Wallis, who discussed the recent issues societies had faced with the room booking system — something that many societies have struggled with over the academic year. Wallis also discussed the challenge of balancing the needs of all the different societies on campus which he suggested could be a difficult task due to the sheer number of them. He also mentioned his frustration with the short campaigning period (with physical campaigning taking place between February 20th and February 23rd). Wallis did not mention the ‘Employability’ aspect of the role and again, as this is a new role, the eventual winner will have a large impact on defining the role.

(Exeposé were not able to speak to Honey Bharat Somaya who is also running for the role)

Student Living Officer

Similarly with the previous role, we were only able to speak to one of the candidates for this position and while the other ‘new’ roles have existed in some form before, the position of Student Living Officer is completely new. We spoke to Pip Shaw who spoke about her own personal experiences of finding housing, suggesting that the Guild should provide an advice platform and also possibly a lecture for those wanting to find a house. She also raised the importance of students being aware of HMO housing regulations and standards. Shaw also spoke about night safety and how she believed Campus Security could be put to better use protecting students at night. Student Living is a key area that the Guild have looked to focus on and, yet again, it will be interesting to see what impact the new officer will have in the next academic year.

(Exeposé were not able to speak to Cavanagh Davis-Holmes who is also running for the role)

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Image: Rachel Cunningham