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!