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ISSUE 755 21 FEB 2024 exepose.com @Exepose
THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1987
Turnout in Guild Elections remains low at 13 per cent
LGBTQ+ History Month: our best moments Page 13
Image: University of Exeter Students’ Guild
Senior Editorial Team
Eating Disorder Awareness Week Page 16
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N the 2nd February, the results for the Guild Leadership Elections were annouced. with only a 13 per cent turnout. The election saw 4,173 students cast their vote with over 31,000 votes cast overall. The voting period for this election was moved forward in the academic year, in comparison to it occuring later on in preivous years, with the results night being in early March last year. The Guild Offi-
cer positions that were up for the elections were Guild President, Sport President, Education Officer, Communities and Equality Officer, Societies and Employability Officer and Student Living Officer. The results followed a four-day voting period in which students at the University of Exeter had the opportunity to vote for the candidates that they wanted to see as their next Guild Officers for the next academic year. The Guild Elections were conducted through the proportional Single Transferable Vote (STV) system which allowed students to rank candidates in order of
preference from their first choice downwards. The candidate with the least votes is eliminated at the end of each stage and their second choices redistributed. Students could also vote to re-open nominations (R.O.N.). Multiple stages of voting tabulation took place for each position with a specific quota of votes necessary to be elected in each round. The quota is calculated by adding the total number of votes, dividing by two and adding one. The quota also decreases after each stage when a voter’s first choice is eliminated, and they choose not to rank any more candidates.
The Guild President-elect Alex Martin became the clear favourite to win from the first round. He achieved 1410 votes, only 33 less than the quota. Martin received twice as many votes in each of the three rounds than his next closest opponent — Captain Hook Tallon. In the first stage, R.O.N. was disqualified and in the second, the lowest ranked candidate, Jack Barwell, was eliminated. Martin was elected in the third stage, receiving 1438 votes against a quota of 1353.5.
Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, and Russia illegally annexed Crimea, in 2014. Despite widespread expectation that Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, would fall to the Russians within days, Ukraine put up stiff resistance, aided by western military support. Despite rapid Russian gains, Ukraine launched a number of successful counteroffensives throughout 2022. However, in 2023, the war ground to a stalemate, with Ukraine’s counteroffensives failing to regain Russian-occupied territory in the south and east. Throughout its illegal invasion and occupation, numerous war crimes committed by Russia have been recorded, including murder, rape, attacks on civilians, deportation and torture. A 2022 report by the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights warned that there was a “very
serious risk of genocide” in Russia’s invasion, and the International Criminal Court last year issued an arrest warrant for Putin. Millions of Ukrainians continue to live under constant threat of air strikes on civilian areas, with thousands already killed over the past two years. In this context, the British government opened a visa scheme for Ukrainians to come to the UK. The most recent government statistics from the 15th February indicate that over 250,000 Ukrainians have come to the UK under various visa schemes, with the majority indicating in an ONS survey that they plan to remain here in the long term. Devon in particular has a strong Ukrainian community, with around 200 Ukrainians settling in Exeter in 2022 under the government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme.
Exeposé spoke with Olena Mevsha, Publicity Officer of the University’s Ukrainian Society, on her experience as a Ukrainian refugee studying in Exeter. She came to the UK two months after the war began, after completing her first year of studies at a Ukrainian university, as part of the government’s programme. She has since remained in the UK to continue her studies at the University of Exeter. Mevsha recounted that the experience was “unexpected” and that she “applied for a visa and then in three days I basically flew away.” Mevsha’s family remain in Kyiv, and she has frequently visited them, including over the Christmas holidays. She recounted the experiences as being “quite good, except for everyday missile attacks.”
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Exeter reflects on two years since the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Harry Craig Deputy Editor
THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS CONTENT RELATING TO WAR AND TERRORISM WHICH SOME READERS MAY FIND DISTRESSING
Exeter come out on top in Anglo-Welsh clash Page 32
Images (top to bottom): Elvert Barnes, Flickr; Amberly Wright; Eloise Grainger
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ITH this Saturday (24th February) marking two years since Russia’s invasion, Exeter’s Ukrainian community have given their reactions to Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine. On the 24th February 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin launched a military invasion of Ukraine, challenging the country’s right to exist. This came eight years after Russiancontrolled separatists established two breakaway republics in Donetsk and
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