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GUILD ELECTIONS SPECIAL 2024
LEADERSHIP ELECTIONS 2024 | EXEPOSÉ
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Statements have been reviewed by the Guild to ensure election rules compliance and any elements that are non-compliant have been removed Introduction
As the academic year continues to speed by, we are back again to cover the 2024 Exeter Student’s Guild elections. Our coverage includes interviews with 21 of the candidates, covering all the electable roles. We have also included an Exeposé verdict at the end, alongside details on how to cast your vote. We’d like to give a special thanks to all candidates who participated and for contributors for giving up their time to help. Keep any eye out on our social media and website too for the latest news on the elections and on campus. We hope you enjoy reading this issue! contributors
Anabel Costa-Ferreira • Harry Craig • CHARLIE GERSHINSON • ELOISE GRAINGER •OLIVER LAMB• CALLUM MARTIN• Livvy Mason-Myhill • Gracie Moore • JOSHUA SMITH• AmÉliE Thompson• charlotte zeyssolff Designed and edited by ANABEL COSTA-FERREIRA and LIVVY MASON-MYHILL
@Exepose @Exepose @Exepose
current officers:
EDUCATION OFFICER: ALEX STANLEY
COMMUNITIES AND EQUALITY OFFICER: MIA ROBILLARD-DAY
STUDENT LIVING OFFICER: pip shaw
SOCIETIES AnD EMPLOYABILITY OFFICER: RHYS WALLIS
Sport PRESIDENT: GEE BURNETT
Front page images: Exeter Guild, png.img.com, Anomie, Wikipedia Page 2 images: Exeter Guild
GUILD PRESIDENT: EMMA DE SARAM
LEADERSHIP ELECTIONS 2024 | EXEPOSÉ
3 Image: Anabel Costa-Ferreira
contents: 4
Guild president
7
sport president
11
education officer
14
communities & equality officer
18
societies & employability officer
22
Student living officer
25
ExeposÉ verdict
26
HOW TO VOTE
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Guild President Alex martin
My name is Alex, I am a MA Middle Eastern Studies student. I also did my undergraduate degree here, where I did BA History. In my spare time, I co-run the Debating Society. I’m also involved with other projects like the Guild’s Gender Safety Working Group and sitting on the Guild’s Board of Trustees. My hobbies also include board games and Formula One.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE GUILD PRESIDENT?
how would you approach the role of guild president?
Well, I’ve been a student here for four years now and done two years working with the Guild, so I know both a lot of the issues students face, and how, when the Guild is well-run, they can help deal with those issues. So when this position came up, I thought it would be a good opportunity to use my experience and hopefully help students in Exeter solve some of those problems. I think the core thing you have to decide as a philosophy is what’s your relationship with the University going to be. I think I’d like to strike a balance between being friendly, which is important because the University needs to provide us with resources and you can’t completely isolate them because we’re so dependent on them, and being aggressive because you need to be pushing them on things. And I think my goal would be trying to strike a good balance there where I can maintain a friendly relationship with people there, but also push them on student issues. If we’re being entirely honest, the Guild does not have an enormous amount of leverage
What is the biggest over the University. They provide us with all our funding, and unlike a normal labour challenge you will union, we don’t work for them, so we can’t go on strike. So, I think the greatest chalface in the ROLE? lenge I or any other candidate would face, would be using the relatively small levers available to us, things like public opinion, things like the University’s own internal politics, to try and drive them to commit to change for students.
What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS? HOW WILL YOU make sure that you reprsent all students’ views?
What is your MOST MEMORABLE experience IN EXETER?
As a person, probably social anxiety, but I tend to be able to get around that in professional settings. So, I think there’s two things. I think relying more on some of the things we have set up in the Guild recently, so the Advisory Boards, which are selected to be directly representative of the student body. And I think particularly useful are the fact the Guild are exploring setting up specific Advisory Boards, for example for international students, I think that’s a really great thing. I’d like to empower those more to be able to hold Officers, like I hope to be, to account. Alongside that, I’d like to give a more direct line for student leaders and community leaders to have direct access to senior figures in the Guild and in the University, especially those who exist around underrepresented communities. I think my funnest experience is probably any of the Debating Society comedy debates I’ve spoken at. Most recently arguing for why we should turn Buckingham Palace into a Wetherspoons. Whether I remember a large chunk of those is a different issue!
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Guild President Captan hook tallon Yarr me hearty! Me name be Captain Hook Tallon and I be the third fiercest pirate to sail the seven seas. I was thought lost last year after coming second place for Guild President. But after fighting my way up , out to the Bermuda Triangle, from the oceans darkest depths, I have returned to honour me pledge and make our Guild the talk of the seas.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE GUILD PRESIDENT? How would you approach the role of Guild President?
Well, a vote for Captain Hook Tallon be a vote for the piratisation of the Guild. I see a Guild today with no jewels to settle dispute, no gold doubloons allowed on campus and no rum ration. I say no more. If elected I be making this campus a haven for all scallywags and landlubbers. Like a true pirate king, I be having many decades of experience, manning my ship, the Trey O’War. Together, I’ve only faced three mutiny attempts, but I never be technically captured by his Majesty’s navy. I’m an experienced captain and I would bring these skills aboard, boarding you onto Exeter’s pirate Guild as your pirate king.
When I was a boy, me father told me of a fearsome beast that wandered the What is the biggest shadows. It’s name he whispered ‘the vote goat’. One day me father disapchallenge you will peared, leaving only a patch of white fur where he once stood. I chased this creature to the ends of the Earth to avenge him. But in the battle between me face in the ROLE? and that darn beast the vote goat, he stole me eye. If elected, me biggest challenge would finally be putting a stop to this creature’s scourge of all swashbucklers.
What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?
HOW WILL YOU make sure that you represent all students’ views?
What is your MOST MEMORABLE experience IN EXETER?
My biggest weakness be that maybe I care to much about you all too much. As your pirate king, I be looking to create a haven for pirate kind. I have many ideas. I want to be commandeering the Ram and giving you all a rum ration. I be wanting to transform our Devonshire House offices into a brewery, churning out sustainable grog for all ye students. I even want to be flooding South Devon so I be easily accessing me new pirate kingdom. Me biggest weakness, I want to do so much for ye all. Well as I said, I be already having many years of experience as a trusty captain. I be knowing how to have an open-door policy in my office. So, anyone can come and express their views. I be believing in the democratisation of the Guild. For too many years have we be seeing our Guild officers stripped of power. Of ye all no longer being able to have a say directly about what ye be thinking. A vote for Captain Hook Tallon, is a vote for democracy because that be way that all me crew can be represented. Why, this campaign. I be having what you might call, an existential crisis. I be asking me self: am I a man, or am I a pirate? Ye best be keeping an eye on me online, because there you will witness the culmination of this quest of discovery. That be me most memorable time, finally knowing who I am.
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Guild President Jack Barwell
My name is Jack Barwell and I’m a third year politics student here at the University of Exeter. Some of my hobbies are watching sport — I absolutely love Liverpool and the Seattle Seahawks in the NFL — I hope that doesn’t put anyone off voting for me, it probably will. Also catching up with friends and going for a drink, being that casual and social sort of person who I think really fits in well at a University like Exeter.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE GUILD PRESIDENT?
how would you approach the role of guild president?
What we’re not getting is anyone who’s brave enough to talk truth to power. I think we want a Guild President candidate who’s actually going to call out the sham that is the Student’s Guild at the moment. I’m going to put myself out there. I totally respect that some people on campus are not my biggest fan and are not likely to vote for me — I hope some will consider to vote for me. I’ve grown up in a political household, I love politics and for me the reason that people are annoyed nationally at politics is that nobody speaks truth to power, and I think it’s the same on University campuses. I think there’s a couple of things we can do that most candidates don’t do and the number one thing is actually to represent students. Proper representation starts by representing different student cohorts and let’s start by talking about a cohort that never gets any representation and that’s the freshers. I started my own society and I’ve got a huge number of freshers on my committee — the highest percentage of freshers on any political committee. I do get freshers, I get freshers issues, I understand what they want and that is why a number of freshers are already publicly backing me. Quite simply, the Guild themselves. Year after year after year they don’t have any rep-
What is the biggest resentation so they don’t have an opportunity to have input and they don’t feel that their challenge you will issues are talked about. Lets depoliticise the Guild so that everybody feels welcome. We’ve got to work in the Guild system and that’s frustrating. But at least I’m actually face in the ROLE? calling the system out and at least I’m not just pandering to unelected adults.
The biggest weakness that I have, and I’m very honest about it, is that I’m very opinionated, I’m out there, I’ve got a view about everything and I want to push my ideas forWhat is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS? ward. And that can be difficult, because I’m not great at hearing other opinions when they clash with mine. But I think it’s better to have someone opinionated, who wants to push for things, then a yes man, who literally just does what he’s told.
HOW WILL YOU make sure that you represent all students’ views?
I think the way that we represent all students is that we are in touch with all students. So firstly, we actually want to build a team of people that are going to advise me and are going to have some input that come from different year groups. Every society matters. Every society counts. Remember, loads of people want to make new societies, and I’m the only guy in this race, who actually knows what it’s like to make a new society and try to get new opinions and new views and new ideas listened to.
What is your MOST MEMORABLE experience IN EXETER?
I’m going to go for starting the Speakeasy society, because there’s been a lot of talk about it on campus, a lot of people have pushed us down, and I know why – they’re worried that we’ve found a gap in the market. That’s okay, there’s no need for arguments. For me setting up a society and leaving it in the hands of other capable people, some great freshers to take it forward next year, has been a great joy of mine.
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Sport President Alice Mundy I’m Alice Mundy and I’m running for Sports President. I’m in my final year so I’m doing Sports and Exercise Science. I’m a HPP athlete so I play in the ladies’ cricket club. I’ve also played intramural sport with hockey and netball, and I also did beginner’s lacrosse last year as well. So a couple of sports!
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE Sport PRESIDENT?
What is the biggest challenge you will face in the ROLE? How will ensure you represent all sports groups, regardless of level, gender, prestige, etc.?
what is your biggest weakness?
What is your MOST MEMORABLE experience IN EXETER?
I’ve always had a massive passion for sport and to get people as involved as possible. It’s meant my university experience has been so much better, I’ve made some of my best memories and some of my best friends, and I want as many people as possible to get involved.
I think getting everyone’s voice heard and making sure everyone is happy. That’s what I want to happen really.
So I want to be a friendly face and make sure people can approach me. I’d reach out to as many clubs as possible and just make sure that they could find me approachable and I can deal with their problems as they want.
I would say, this is quite a niche one, but I want people to be as happy as possible. Obviously I don’t know what budget I’m working with, so I’d probably say, I want everyone to be happy, so finding the possibility for that.
Cricket varsity, it would be. I loved it so much. I loved having the support, seeing a couple of thousand students be here and supporting our big club was really nice, and to play that major game was incredible. I loved it, it was a great day.
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Sport President CHLOE WHITWORTH I’m Chloe Whitworth and I’m a third year History student going for the role of Sport President. I am the current club captain of the Women’s Football Club and also EDI Officer on the AU Executive Committee.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE Sport PRESIDENT?
I am really passionate about making positive change and I think the role will facilitate that. I think there are definitely changes that need to be made and I also just absolutely love Exeter sports.
I think the biggest challenge I will face in the role is that obviously there are around 52
What is the biggest sports clubs at the University and I think I want to facilitate a good relationship with all of challenge you will them which I am pretty confident I can do. But I do think that will pose the biggest chalface in the ROLE? lenge as it is so many people to communicate with but I am confident that I can pursue an open relationship with every club.
HOW WILL YOU ENSURE THAT YOU REPRESENT ALL SPORTS GROUPS REGARDLESS OF LEVEL, GENDER, PRESTIGE, ETC.?
This is something I am super passionate about! Inclusivity is my main ethos as current club captain of Women’s Football. In that club I have first-hand experience of creating an environment where people regardless of gender identity, ability, socio-economic background can come and play football. I think I do that quite well and I’d love to represent everyone.
I think my biggest weakness as a Sports President would be getting to know every sport. We all have our own kind of special sports, but would I feel confident in saying I know a lot about like Water Polo for instance. That would probably be my biggest weakness, specifically to the role of AU President. But I think that I back myself as a what is your person quite a lot and I’m really passionate about this, so I think a weakness doesn’t biggest weakness? come to mind because I am so passionate about what I do and about sport. So I guess
my own knowledge would be a weakness as I still have paths to explore, subjects to explore; just kind of gauge an insight from every club and what people want I guess would be a biggest weakness in the role.
What is your MOST MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE IN EXETER?
There are quite a few to be honest. Last year I was foots-one captain where I had a really good run in our cup and the league. My best experience is probably setting up the disability football sessions. So I applied for a grant with the Men’s club captain and we successfully got given £7,500 to set up a para-sport programme. Seeing that and seeing people attend that and learn how to coach disability football has been pretty amazing to be honest. It’s so cool to see people passionate and creating that space for students with disabilities.
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Sport President Harrison Dibble My name’s Harrison. I’m a third-year sports science student and first-team basketball captain at the moment, and we’ve been having quite a lot of success with that – only losing one game so far this year. I’m also the Vice President of AU, so I’m Gee’s [Burnett, current AU President] right-hand man at the moment and so I’ve had really good insight into what she’s doing. I also play badminton and did athletics when I was younger.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE sport PRESIDENT?
As a sports science student, I’ve always been interested in sports excellence and how I can improve sporting performance. As Exeter is such a high-performing university for sport, the ability to be able to contribute and affect that performance is very appealing. So anything I could do to be able to push us into the next level with performance, whether it’s rugby or football, I will personally do whatever I can. It will probably be the organisation of keeping track of everything I would have
What is the biggest to do. There are 52 clubs in the AU and I would be the first port of call for all of challenge you will those clubs, so the amount of emails and contact I would have with all of them would be a lot more workload than I’ve currently got from university. I think face in the ROLE? I would need to get used to how much other workload there is and also time management to make sure all the important things get done correctly.
How will you ensure that you represent all sports groups regardless of gender, level, prestige, etc?
what is your biggest weakness?
What is your MOST MEMORABLE experience IN EXETER?
One of the big things I want to focus on is participation, so I’ve already put feelers out to different AU clubs’ welfare accounts to try and see what they view as needing to be approved upon for participation. As a first team captain, I’ve not really struggled with participation, so I would rely on the social sport teams and try to support as many AU club teams. I would also want to focus on Guild clubs and their involvement and participation with sport. Through a couple of conversations with them, they think it’s a struggle or they don’t feel quite as able to access sport, so I would ensure there are open lines whether it’s to emails or Google Forms or something like that for those who aren’t as interested in the performance side of sport to register their interest and see how they can get involved. I’d like to think that I can pick up stuff pretty quickly and that sometimes causes me to overlook certain details or certain aspects of jobs as a whole, so I would need to focus on picking certain things up and trying to cram in as many things as I can to focus on the smaller projects and the finer details of things. That would be the basketball varsity in first year. Our team played against Plymouth down at Exeter College with the whole basketball society and around 300 people watching.
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Sport President RUZZA SHEIKH Hi- I’m Ruzza, I’m going for Sport President. I’m a fourth-year mechanical engineering student. I’m the president of the badminton club, and the events coordinator on the AU council. Since I’ve joined the university, and since we were allowed to do sports (I started during the covid year) been as involved as I can. In first year, I was first men’s team WHAT MADE YOU captain, and so with that, I had to go into the office a lot and I got to know James (the WANT TO BE SPORT sports president of that year) and the work he was doing and I got to see the effect that PRESIDENT? they had. Considering how important sports are to me and considering how over the years I have become more and more involved in it; I’d like to keep doing that. There’s a lot of variations in the size of clubs, and with that there comes a lot of different priorities that clubs have. A lot of the smaller clubs want more publicity, What is the biggest more support. A lot of the bigger clubs want the same thing, but they already get a lot more. It’s a lot of compromise between what different clubs can get. I know challenge you will the smaller clubs have specific problems, whereas the bigger ones tend to be more face in the ROLE? self-sufficient in the way they run. It’s hard to solve all the problems with blanket things, you must deal with things individually. Which is nice as you get to know everyone but makes it a role you must get right.
How will you ensure that you represent all sports groups regardless of gender, level, prestige, etc?
A good idea from last year, was how Gee got endorsement from humanities societies and a lot of the societies represent different cultures, religions etc. The representation that they are trying to have right now, is very much based on what the AU was doing. For instance, Gee was trying to come up with ideas about what to do for Black History Month. It was good obviously, but it doesn’t seem like there was much talk with those societies, it seemed like she was trying to do a lot and then make sure that they liked it. I feel like something that might be a slightly better way of doing it would be getting those societies to work with us rather than us making sure we don’t step on their toes.
If I have an idea sometimes, I’m too set on that. Something I’ve been trying to do with my presidency this year (and it has taught me) is that using the team around you is important. It has helped me a lot to deal with that weakness as obviously if I have an idea, I’m not going to implement an idea by myself, I what is your biggest weakness? need the support of my committee. When you come up with these ideas you can get slightly carried away. However, when you talk to your committee you get brought back down to what is reasonable and what people actually want rather than what you might want. One that was really important to me was my first BUCS game. I was coming into second year, and I was elected as men’s first team captain. We had about 45 people come to the game. There were a lot of people I hadn’t met before, What is your many from the Badminton club and lots of squad members. It was probably MOST MEMORABLE the first time I really felt like I was part of Exeter. As going into a covid year, I EXPERIENCE IN was kind of just in my room, doing a degree by myself. When I joined the BadEXETER? minton club and started getting involved, it felt like a real community. I think that’s something that’s very important to me, that feeling of community.
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Education Officer jack barry Hi, yeah, my name is Jack Barry, I am running for the role of Education Officer for 2024/25. I study English and I am in my third year. The Education Officer I think works closest with the university. It has the biggest say over how our academic side of things is covered and this is often something that is WHAT MADE YOU WANT neglected when it comes to the Guild. You often consider the Guild to be representative of societies and activities and support but you sometimes forget that we also have a say TO BE education over how our actual courses are run. Sometimes people forget that there are channels of officer? feedback that are run through this Education Officer role. I want to make a real difference in that sense because I know that I have been through different experiences and I’d really like to be the next person who does it.
what do you think the responsibilities of education officer are?
what do you think the university could do to help reduce the awarding gap at exeter?
What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?
What is your MOST MEMORABLE experience IN EXETER?
I would say the top one is probably to be in the know. So not only with students in terms of how student life is currently operating, you know what people are going through across all degrees, but equally in the know in terms of the council side of things. Obviously, the role is very involved with the university board, you work with the Vice Chancellor, you work with counsellors. Being aware of that there are two sides to every debate, being very conscious of both perspectives and understanding that change doesn’t happen just like that. You know, you’ve got to be very careful in that sense. So, being able to compromise, being very aware is a top skill definitely. I would probably start with the process in terms of when you’re actually studying for your degree as opposed to reaching the final part. There is an ingrained kind of imbalance in terms of how people are viewed. Often personal circumstances aren’t taken into account when we consider things like personal tutors who may not have the sufficient training or mitigation is another huge point. Often it is insufficient in supporting people who work part time jobs. These kinds of processes that can harm student life and make things a little trickier, these are things we should look at first in terms of fixing this gap.
I take on too much sometimes. I am quite good at saying yes to things and not really considering the impact that might have. So I’ve certainly had to learn, especially in my past two years, both with societies and committee and working for the Guild, and coming into this, doing theatre. I’m balancing a degree alongside all of that. . But it is certainly something I’ve come to deal with very strongly in the past couple of years.
I found out that a play I had written for the Theatre with Teeth society, which is a student theatre run society, had been selected to be taken to the Edinburgh Fringe, and I was going be co-director of it, which was just shocking. I was so excited and I am hoping that as the process goes along it will become an absolute highlight of society life
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Education Officer kieran moore
I’m Kieran, I’m a fourth year Maths student, so I’ve spent four years directly here studying Mathematics at masters level. During that time I’ve had COVID teaching, and then in-person teaching and have been interacting with lots of different societies and clubs, being sports with badminton or with the more academic side doing Photography Society and Exeposé. I chose to apply because of my work previous year as an academic representative on the Student Advisory Board. I worked with Jack Liversidge and we focused on mitigation WHAT MADE YOU WANT because we had that change, and we’re actually able to make meaningful change with the mitigation system, by getting it re-rolling on an academic year as opposed to an annual TO BE education year. Having that change within the university being achieved by students was quite officer? inspiring. After Alex went, I thought I’ll do it now, to continue making change.
what do you think the responsibilities of education officer are? what do you think the university could do to help reduce the awarding gap at exeter?
What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?
What is your MOST MEMORABLE experience IN EXETER?
So, education officer has quite a direct aim compared to the others, it is focused on the education. Obviously, they’re going to be helping the other officers out with any issues there. But the key part is trying to make sure all students, regardless of the campus they’re based on, regardless of the course or their background; get equal representation to the university so their voices can be heard, and changes can be made to make a positive impact for different groups of students. Trying to get the student voice heard for all aspects; that’s what I see the impact being. My instinct would be focusing on support which you can get, because depending on your background, you may be quite eager to go up to your lecturers and get feedback and input. If you grew up in like a area which has lesser education, or you didn’t trust your teachers at that stage, you may not think ‘Oh, I can go talk to them if I’ve got problems.’ You need to find the ways to support and encourage those students, or at least provide the services, so students could engage with that, they could. It’s about providing that facility for them to work with it.
Probably public speaking, that’s something I’m looking to work on. Being with PhotoSoc, I did a beginners workshop and I got up in front of all of everyone and spoke. Also doing this interview now, it’s kind of just trying to get the words in!
I’ve done lots of sports photography, both with the AU and the Guild. I’ve been able to attend different sports matches; the rugby varsities and different fixtures on campus. Attending the summer and winter graduations, taking photos of every single graduate. I know what that will mean to some students, because my sister graduated, and the people from the sports clubs voiced that opinion. Feeling that very positive impact on the other people around you, just makes you want to do more of it!
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Education Officer SEBASTIAN RACISZ
Hi, My name is Seb, Seb Racisz, sounds a bit confusing because its Polish, but I’m sure you’ll get used to it, and I’m running to be education officer.
So, as boring as it sounds, I really like educational policy, I mean I really like educational policy, it’s kind of something I’ve always been interested in. Ever since I was 11 I’ve WHAT MADE YOU WANT wanted to go into teaching, and way before that I’ve been engaged in school proTO BE education grammes, and that goes all the way back to primary school, to sixth form. I’m always officer? fighting for a system that’s good for all. Whether that be locally in my local state school doing little things such as campaigns to make sure students from under-privileged backgrounds have access to extra resources like tutoring, or even things more nationally like talking to MP’s, going to offices, stuff like that.
what do you think the responsibilities of education officer are?
I feel the responsibilities of the Education Officer are to be the face of students, it’s fighting for educational policy for all, on behalf of every single university student, and it’s representing our interest, making sure we are heard, making sure the policy works for us, and have a voice that speaks to the university.
what do you think the university could do to help reduce the awarding gap at exeter?
It’s a wide range of things, sometimes it’s just as simple as making sure that there is adequate wellbeing support for things such as mental-health, or access to ILP’s. Things like that can make such a huge difference. I know so many friends who started out without an ILP got one later in University, and it was so immensely helpful. For some groups its really hard to access, for example a diagnosis with various mental conditions are really hard to access. I think a lot of people come to university and feel really helpless about their future prospects, so offering opportunities such as graduate schemes and summer schemes can be immensely helpful. Also having a look at how other things are run, because all of them come together to contribute and create a system which makes it easier for some people and harder for others.
I am a really bad over worker, I sometimes have the tendency to get done on something and overwork it which is really bad because sometimes the quality of my work suffers, and well, my objective is, well at least recently I’ve been trying What is your to, work on that and take these breaks and space my work out a lot more and BIGGEST WEAKNESS? guarantee a consistent level of quality.
What is your MOST MEMORABLE experience IN EXETER?
I’d probably say a lot of the amazing debates put on by Debating Society and having the chance to appear in some of them. I think that’s probably my highlight: being able to speak in front of hundreds of students and tell them how I feel about issues, and have them respond at the end is the most exciting part.
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Communities & Equality Officer Annie Ransom Hi, I’m Annie, I’m from Orlando, Florida, I’m here at the University of Exeter studying Social Research — the master’s course. I’m a postgraduate student. I’m also a mature student, I just turned 30 last year, so yeah, that’s super fun. I have two cats. And that’s pretty much the basis of me.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE communities & equality officer?
When I was accepted for my postgrad programme here, I was super excited. I had a really long and kind of turbulent experience during my undergrad programme back home. My mum unexpectedly died and I had some really bad mental health challenges as a result of that, and I faced homelessness on numerous occasions, and coming here for my postgrad really felt like a chance to have the university experience that I wasn’t able to have before. But when I came here for my first term, it was actually really difficult and I had a really difficult time. I have mobility challenges and getting to campus as a commuter was really complicated and just getting around campus was very arduous and difficult for me. I had people yelling hurtful comments at me about my body size in and around campus. That was really tough. And just being from a really low socio-economic background, and being the first person from my family to even go to university has made it kind of difficult to relate to people and make friends, and all of it together just made it feel like I didn’t fit in or really belong here at the University, and I think that’s really what drove me to run, because I feel like university should be a place where students shouldn’t have to worry about things like accessibility on campus, and we shouldn’t have to be worried about being rejected for what we look like, or looking different, having different abilities or coming from different backgrounds, and I really want to try and create an environment here where diverse students can have a sense of community and feel supported so they can succeed and have a good university experience.
how will you ensure all groups and communities are represented by the guild?
I think, one, it’s really difficult to boil it down to one thing to improve inclusivity, but I feel like spending time and engaging with the many diverse communities that create the University of Exeter is really important. I think engaging with these communities, listening to them and learning from them, and learning what each individual community needs, is one way to hear how they can be better represented and supported by the Guild and by the University.
What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?
My biggest weakness? That would be the Forum Hill. Just kidding. I would probably say my social anxiety is very bad. It can make me feel isolated and afraid to try out for things or talk to people. I try to put myself out there as much as I can, and this campaign is going to be almost like an exposure therapy thing with the in-person campaigning parts. But it really does make me second-guess everything I do and say and often holds me back from a lot.
What is your MOST MEMORABLE experence IN EXETER?
It would definitely be the first social that I helped put on with the Postgraduate Society, when we all got elected for the new committee, it was such a rush trying to fit it all together, because we got elected and handed over the society so late in the term. There was a while we didn’t think we were going to be able to make that social happen, and we were able to do it, and it was a huge success.
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Communities & Equality Officer THOMAS TRAN
I’m Thomas, I’m running for Communities and Equality Officer, I’m from the States– Washington DC in particular. The main thing about why I’m running for the role is after being here for three years I really want to give back to the community and dedicate a whole year to trying to make Exeter a better place. When we feel the feeling that we’re about to leave a place you still remember all the things that were difficult for you and want those coming after you to not have to go through the same things. Most of the time, ever since growing up, I’ve been the only Asian person in the room, and growing up in a really homophobic environment as a queer person really like forced me to advocate for myself, but then the older I got, I found the confidence to speak up for others. It’s not just about pushing back against hate or discrimination, but also making WHAT MADE YOU WANT communities more vibrant, and encouraging different people to learn more from each TO BE communities & other. There’s so much you can learn from other people, especially people who don’t share equality officer? your background. When communities are splintered off into these groups that don’t really talk to each other, it makes the community worse, and it’s nobody’s fault for different parts of the community not really talking to each other. It goes back to exclusionary policies. If I could sum it up into two different things, they’d be to make Exeter less exclusionary, and the community more inclusionary, and part of that is again encouraging participation in the community from everyone. When we talk about inclusivity we talk about making things less exclusionary. It’s very hard to encourage people to be more inclusive, the most glaring problems are people who are acting exclusionary. In my campaign I talk about radical allyship, and part of that is what conditions we have to make to encourage people to want to become allies WHAT IS ONE THING to others. If we only talk about fighting exclusion, it’s a very top-down policy, not built THE GUILD COULD from the ground up. One thing the guild could do is offer more educational resources, the Guild already has resources to access different resources such as wellbeing, and offers DO TO IMPROVE INCLUSIVITY AMONGST resources for taking care of your mental health. Not diversity training in the sense, but giving people access to resourses to learn more about the queer or disabled communities, ALL GROUPS AND or about different cultures and history. The Guild does a good job with things such as COMMUNITIES pride month, and black history, but having a permanent fixture if people want to learn more about marginalised community is really important. Just making the ladder easier to climb to become informed about issues and about communities is a thing which benefits everybody and makes it easier for people to become informed. Wanting to do too many things but knowing I can’t do everything, I think there are so many things I want to do, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I’d like to go back to my What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS? priorities more often. I feel myself pulled in many different directions, but working with teams always helps me with that, and with thinking about who are we doing things for and what can we get done.
What is your MOST MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE AT EXETER?
It was this creative writing open mic event which I hosted. It was quite a nice experience because most people that went weren’t necessarily interested in writing. It was a moment of community because we had a huge variety of writers, many sharing very personal pieces about things they had gone through or personal stories about loved ones. After lots of people came to me and said they didn’t realise how personal writing could be, and how they know knew more about people in their community.
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Communities & Equality Officer Waleed elnaim My name is Waleed and I’m a third year Law student running for Communities and Equality Officer. A little bit about me is that I’m from Sheffield and I like to read!
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE communities & equality officer?
The story started last year when I was running for the student of colour consultor of the EDI board, and along with my normal application I remember writing a cover letter to let them know a bit about what equality, diversity, and inclusion means to me, and the interviewer liked my answer so much she decided to recommend me for this role. Once I’d seen the stuff about this role, about equality in general, and about just how marginalised a lot of communities are at Exeter, I decided that it was my responsibility to make things better for people who come after me, and that the best way to do that would be to run for Community and Equality Officer.
A very simple thing for that is just to have more events where it’s not just society run, but guild held events for minority communities to allow them how will you ensure to meet each other and allow them to speak outside of societies. Obviously all groups and we have societies, and that’s really good, but the university itself, the infracommunities are structure of the Uni, can also do more, and the basis for doing that would be represented by the to hold more events like this. Right now they can have a culture festival, and guild? that’s good because that would allow people from certain cultures to actually meet and get to talk to each other outside of general society events.
What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?
What is your MOST MEMORABLE experience IN EXETER?
I would say that my biggest weakness would be that I’m autistic, and because of that I can’t handle crowds as much as other people. If I’m going to be in a place where I’m going to be answering a lot of questions, I have to know before hand, and sort of brace myself for the situation and prevent a meltdown from happening.
It would probably be the fireworks at Plymouth during freshers, that was really nice being really colourful and bright.
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Communities & Equality Officer ZIXIAN (JANE) LIU Hi, I’m Jane, my Chinese name in Zixian Liu. I’m from China mainland, and I’m a postgraduate student studying Psychology conversion here. I was working as management trainee in my home country, and I used to work in student union in career develop. I gained a lot of experience communicating with students and different personalities. I saw there are a lot of different backgrounds students, and we come together to promote a better tomorrow together and we notice that year by year the majority of officers are all white people. I think the intentions may be noble, WHAT MADE YOU WANT but I don’t think they can diversify a different background people. I think TO BE communities & there should be a different race and different cultural people to face different questions. equality officer?
Three things, firstly, look at mental health. As a psychology student I noticed that the people around me they have mental health issues, struggling with the pressure, anxiety and nervousness. I tend to hold some activities like the board game night and handcraft and cooking activity to enrich their life, but WHAT IS ONE THING also, they can do those things to reduce pressures. Also, I can hold a social and invite some psychology students to talk about the therapies and mental THE GUILD COULD health. Also, as an international student I notice that people only talk about DO TO IMPROVE INCLUSIVITY AMONGST their cultural, not communicating with other cultural people. I want to hold activities like international student meetings, coffee meeting or board games, ALL GROUPS AND to play and share laughter and different cultural things. Through this maybe COMMUNITIES people will know each other better and become more integrate. Also, focus on a security channel for people who want to complain about an experience and create community. My biggest weakness is I am from another country, I also need to be more open-minded and to learn other cultures. Also, maybe I need to improve my English. That is what I am trying to do, and I believe I can do it. I have a dream What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS? and I want to make a change.
What is your MOST MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE AT EXETER?
The first day I came to Exeter, I went to the Guild, they held some activities. I joined the board game, and we were playing UNO together. I finally felt like I was belonging together with other international students. Although at that time my English was not good, people still were very friendly and played with me. We did enjoy that moment, they took a lot of photos of me and posted them. In my country, we play uno too.
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Societies & Employability Officer Henry clement-jones Hi, I’m Henry, I’m a third year PPE student and I’m running for Societies and Employability Officer. I’m active in loads of different societies, I’ve been in lots of sports clubs, I’ve been in politics societies and at the moment I mainly do Law Society and Debating Society. Being in senior positions in two of the largest societies on campus who operate under the Guild has really exposed me to some of the inefficiencies, but it’s also made me aware of some of the wider issues that need to be fixed. I’ve been the treasurer for the Law Society WHAT MADE YOU which has got 940 members to deal with roughly £50,000 worth of revenue every year. WANT TO BE societies We have huge issues with how we spend money, my committee members are often hun& employability dreds of pounds out of pocket because there were access issues so there are huge barriers officer? to societies being able to need to be what they need to be for their members, membership money is hard to spend. So fundamentally having seen these issues I have decided that I’d be in a good place to run and I’ve got the experience to help fix the problems. So representation within the Guild has been the difficult issue and there’s been restrictions on how officers can act operationally. I understand we have the new student how WOULD priority system which mainly bases on surveys that go out through the spinny wheel YOU APPROACH sessions you might have seen in the Forum. I think a really interesting way of doing REPRESENTING this is maybe looking at how that system targets societies. When we are talking about SOCIETIES EFFECTIVELY representation a key thing here, I am an experienced individual who understands the issues, knows lots of different people in societies who can then be sitting in the trustee IN THE GUILD? board working with the Students’ Activities team and being there in how we implement student priorities under the current Guild system. I think the biggest challenge is that I am really committed to transparency, so I want to make sure everyone understands how the Guild operates. The biggest challenge is makWhat is the biggest ing sure the Guild is held accountable and open to everyone in the University so that we challenge you will all know why they are acting the way they are. With an informational gap that we see, we have a classic agent principal problem here. People don’t understand why the Guild face in the ROLE? is operating in the way it does or what it does sometimes. The biggest issue is going to be forcing the Guild to be public with why they are making decisions. My experience stems a lot from very large societies, and I understand a lot of the complicated systems. The systemic barriers to access for some of these large societies with large committees face and how doing large complex problems is an issue. In terms of smaller What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS? societies, they face huge issues being registered. One of the things I am very conscious of is that I have been a part of established societies. So, one of the weaknesses that I hope to fix is being sure that I can be open about representing those smaller societies on different issues.
What is your MOST MEMORABLE experience IN EXETER?
They took 150 of us from the Sailing Society to Corfu for a week sailing around Greece. I spent a lot of money and consumed a lot of alcohol. I lived off Greek kebabs and chips for a week. It was absolutely incredible. I think those sort of life changing experiences with students are epic are going to change how you view your life, giving you levels of independence.
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Societies & Employability Officer INDIA WALTON-SALMON
Hi, I’m a third-year Film & Television student. When I’m not doing my university course, I love knitting but also running society events. I’m on the committee for the UniBoob team, Sexpression and the 93% club. I also work at the career zone as one of their student information officers, so I’m booking all student appointments and giving university and career advice. It’s a natural progression, both from working at the career zone and being on committees. I’ve been on 4 committees in various roles, so I feel like I’m WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE societies really equipped for it. I also have such a passion for helping students get to where they want to be through career support or society support, helping to & employability break down barriers. I want to use this role to promote inclusivity and get officer? everybody to where they want to be.
how WOULD YOU APPROACH REPRESENTING SOCIETIES EFFECTIVELY IN THE GUILD?
So this is one of the things I mentioned in my candidate statement. I’m passionate about highlighting smaller societies; as someone who runs 2 or 3 quite small societies, it’s important to boost visibility for those societies. Also, it’s important to champion our international societies that focus on widening participation and championing inclusivity.
I think it will be juggling both the societies and employability aspect of it. What is the biggest It’s a wide role, but I think it’s so good how connected they are. I want to use challenge you will the role to bring societies to both the career zone and the careers team. I also want to bring the career element to societies, so everyone can work together face in the ROLE? as a combined effort.
What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?
I would say my biggest weakness is time management. I have a habit of taking on a lot of responsibility, but I do think that within this role I will be able to help balance the two roles and make sure that I’m giving enough energy to both of them.
What is your MOST MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE IN EXETER?
Definitely, the freshers fair, carrying a giant boob around everywhere, I’m obviously the Uniboob team president. We do breast cancer awareness on campus and with societies. I just love seeing people’s faces when they see a giant blow-up boob and then they are like “What’s this?” and I’m like explaining it. It’s a good way of engaging people, and I want to bring that excitement into the role.
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Societies & Employability Officer Mathias La Pira Hi, my name is Mathias, and I am a master’s student in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management. I am the president of many societies: French Society, Italian society, and Olympic Games Society. I am also the General Secretary for Eurovision Society, taking over from my role of president last year, and I am Publicity Officer for Polish Society.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE societies & employability officer?
how will you make sure societies can rely on the guild to support them effectively?
Societies have been a big part of my university experience. I have witnessed how they can really make or break a student’s experience. I want to help make societies bigger and better run so that they can be more enjoyable for students to take part in alongside their studies. I’ve realised that societies help students a lot with the stress they encounter with their studies and that they require a great deal of organisation to work effectively and to enhance university experience, both academically and socially-speaking. Over the last four years I have realised how important being myself is and working in every sense collaboratively with presidents and committee members of societies to help them as much as we can because societies need a good organisational structure and proper support to be able to run effectively. We need to set up different steps to facilitate the leadership of societies. In all my roles as president for various societies, one of the big challenges was in preparation and of getting through lots of the bureaucracy such as risk assessments. Sometimes students on committee didn’t have enough training to complete these long preparation documents before events. We need better support for committee members so that they feel prepared for their role.
Probably dealing with societies that could be controversial. I’ve had to deal with a lot of difficult situations which has influenced my approach to these kind of challenges in the past when leading societies, especially when dealing with societies with an international focus and how they are treated on campus. We need to make sure that all societies are What is the biggest treated fairly. There have been other instances where I have had to solve incidents of challenge you will drunken assault at a society event. I had to find a solution with security and bring back face in the ROLE? order. So I think it’s important to have an approach of diplomacy to deal with problems that inevitably happen within societies. This strategy will also enable societies to get the help they need.
What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?
When you are president, or even on committee, you work as a team. Without teamwork and collaboration between committee members, a society cannot function. I’m someone who really enjoys taking on a challenge and doing the most I can to help the committees I’m a part of. I try to make sure that not too much pressure is put on people and that everyone enjoys their role within the society. This can lead me to dwell on all the things people might need from me or how they will react to what I tell them to do. So, I think that delegation is something I have struggled with, but is also a weakness I have been working on a lot.
What is your MOST MEMORABLE experience IN EXETER?
There have been a lot! I’d say that Exevision 2023 has got to be up there. I don’t think I have ever felt the same emotions and the same energy with so many people. It was my first time working on a project for such a long time. From the preparation to the performance, I felt a huge amount of achievement and an amazing sense of community.
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Societies & Employability Officer VICTORIA LOPEZ I’m a final year law student and I’m applying for the role of the Societies and Employability Officer. Not just because it’s an excuse to stay in Exeter for another year, but also because I’ve worked within societies this year especially Angel Soc and Law Soc and I’ve worked with the Guild. So, I just want to be on the other side and see what I can do as Societies and Employability Offcier to refine the little things that are missing within the Guild and just do the best that I can do.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE societies & employability officer?
I think when you work with the Guild, you realise that there are things that need fixing. I appreciate that they do a lot. It’s just little things like the expense system or the way that it may not be accessible to students from a low-income family for example. That’s what I’d want to fix and why I wanted to become a Guild officer. I could be proactive and change those things for future students. I think it’s very important to be approachable. So, in terms of the way you come across
how WOULD with other students, there should be that close connection and a bond that they feel YOU APPROACH like they can approach you and say “Look, this isn’t working within my society” or “I’ve REPRESENTING had these problems with employability.” The best way to be approachable nowadays is SOCIETIES EFFECTIVELY through social media and to be seen around regularly, maybe attending some of the social events as well and know that people are aware that you’re there if they need you, so IN THE GUILD? that’s the way I’d like to come across: Approachable and let people know I’m always here.
In terms of the biggest challenge, I think it would be going up against the university. Even though students might want a certain change, to actually execute that in front of regulations, policies, universities, and people that are higher up that are not letting you What is the biggest do that, would be the biggest challenge. But in terms of overcoming it, it’s about showing challenge you will and emphasising that the student’s voice is important and that is the reason we have a face in the ROLE? university is because there are students and students need to be heard. So that would be the only challenge I perceive or assume that will happen in the future where there might be a clash between students, what students want and what the university wants. I think my biggest weakness is not being able to delegate and that’s why I’ve chosen to not to go for Guild president and instead to focus on something more narrow where I don’t feel like I have to be telling people what to do or how to do it, but it’s definite weakness because then I get too overwhelmed doing a lot of tasks and then I’m not performWhat is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS? ing my best if I’m handling too much stuff. So, instead of doing that, I just decided to go for one narrow route and that would be Societies and Employability. Then, I don’t have to have all my fingers in all the pies and worry about what’s happening with academics etc. Yeah, I’d say not knowing how to delegate. I don’t want to say “manage” because I do have management skills, but I’m referring to taking on a bit too much sometimes. Just off the top of my head lately, any event that I’ve hosted has been so special. To have people that are bonding and having friendships and female friendships especially with What is your Angel Soc, seeing that people are having fun, that you can go to university, you can get MOST MEMORABLE that degree, but also, it’s very important to have a work life balance and have so much fun. experience IN So all of these events, if I had to name them: the Christmas ball or the pub quiz we did EXETER? with The Tab and Angel Soc, these sorts of events when you’re working with other people and you see it executed that night where everything’s going to plan, I think it’s wonderful and it’s gorgeous. And I love it when people make friends!
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Student Living Officer Chloé Burluka I’m studying International Relations and I’m in my final year. My parents are foreign, my mum’s French and my dad’s Ukrainian/North Caucasian, but I’ve lived in the UK my whole life, up north. I hope to be able to relate to a lot of people from different backgrounds. In terms of hobbies, I like singing, I like music. I play a bit of piano, bit of guitar.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE student living officer?
Mostly because of my own experience and hearing about other people’s experiences; with housing, specifically because I feel like it affects everything in terms of finances, safety, the distance you are from campus. If you’ve got a lower budget, obviously, you’re going to be further away. It just seems like there’s so many issues with housing; everyone I’ve spoken to at least once has had some sort of broken appliance, whether it’s a broken boiler, a broken washing machine. Landlords don’t really seem to care if you mention it, they will act on it maybe, but very slowly. I also had a really bad experience with estate agents. They tried to take part of my deposit and put the property back on the market. I honestly knew nothing about my rights when it came to renting, so I’m really passionate about changing it for other people, because I’ve been through so many bad experiences with housing.
I think definitely acting upon the student priorities, because that’s sort of what our focus as this is a new role, is as an Officer. I can’t make any sort of promises, because we’re not allowed to make manifestos. But I really hope just to act on the main features of the role, which I would how will you help say are housing, finance and security, and improve that for everyone, based on my own define it? experiences. The priorities and what people say is important.
I think obviously trying to sort of meet expectations and deliver things, but also be
What is the biggest realistic with it. I think we’d all love to promise that we can do all these things and act challenge you will on every single priority, but it’s just not realistic. It’s only a role for a year. I hope I can face in the role? change some things, but also see what’s realistic, and act on that.
What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?
Maybe building confidence in going to see people in meetings. I think I’m quite good with public speaking, but I do always feel a bit anxious about it. Also, like I said, I try to deliver things because I am very much the sort of person who wants to fix everything for everyone, but I know it’s not realistic to try and do that. So it would be managing expectations, working on my confidence, and speaking to people, especially at big meetings, which I will be expected to go to.
What is your MOST MEMORABLE experience IN EXETER?
Maybe an Abba Night that me and my friends went to. It was at Move and the music cut out, the club was not amazing, but it was just a really good experience to have everyone around. We all dressed up a bit and it was just a really fun night. Hopefully some other people were there and can attest that it was really good as well. But yeah, I’d probably say that.
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Student Living Officer Kira Brookes
I’m Kira, I go by she/her pronouns and I’m 21. I’m in my third year of BA Psychological studies and alongside that I am the president of the Feminist Society and I’m Press and Publicity Officer for Exeter Model United Nations. I’m really into books, music, and fashion.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE student living officer?
I actually made this decision quite a while ago. When I was in my first year, I had an absolute nightmare with finding housing and things like that. I ended up signing on to somewhere very expensive and very late. Already for me there were some problem areas coming through. I’d already set my sights on being on the Guild in some way so when they introduced the role of Student Living last year, obviously Pip being the first one to do it, it was like ‘yeah that’s the one’. Since then I’ve been set on it.
As far as what I’ve gathered from the role, it’s really quite broad and it can be what you make of it. The kind of attitude that I am taking into it is that I’m going to be How will you help working on things that I am passionate about and things that I have found that have to continue defining been problems with the University. But also alongside that, really making a point of the role? listening to students and what they want. Obviously there is a job description but if the job description isn’t what the students want, then for me its way more important to listen to what the students want than what the job description says.
what do you think the guild can do to help students with housing issues?
One of the biggest things that I would struggle with in the role that I have struggled with in FemSoc as well this year as well is setting all these goals and then potentially facing the pushback from that. One thing that I did definitely going into this year with FemSoc is making all of these huge plans and then coming to terms with the realisation that it doesn’t always go that way. So I think potentially facing the barriers would personally be a big struggle but I also know that I am more than capable of overcoming them.
What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS?
Predicting that there are going to be barriers. I think I’m very much the kind of person that really wants to make the most of everything that I set my sights on and that I accomplish. The possibility of not being able to make the most of it is something that I really struggle with sometimes. But again, the role is going to be more about the student experience than my experience. So, facing the barriers and letting students down would be the worst part of it.
What is your MOST MEMORABLE experience IN EXETER?
Last year with FemSoc, we ran the Sexual Empowerment ball with Razz for SHAG week and it was hosted by one of the local drag queens. In that, we played a sex positions game so I took part in that which was really funny. I also loved the LGBT Pride month event that was held at the Botanist.
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Student Living Officer Siddharth Nagesh Salvi My name is Siddharth Salvi, and I’m pursuing my master’s in Digital Marketing, and I have a keen interest in social media marketing and search engine marketing, and my hobbies are to get more and more and more into environmental projects and study nature. So right now I’m volunteering in an environmental project as a leader, and finding more opportunities for the volunteers to contribute towards nature.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE student living officer?
As this is a recent role, how will you help continue defining it?
My keen interest is to get students the best experience in Exeter. For instance, students struggle in finding good accommodation or difficulty in managing their finance or mental health in Exeter. One of my friends, he unfortunately didn’t find on-campus accommodation and he had to book in private accommodation. He paid a deposit of around £200, but when he landed here, the landlord didn’t pick up his card, and he was homeless for a day. So I helped him, he was there in my room for a day, and he was struggling the very first day. I just want to make sure this doesn’t happen to any other students. I want to give the best life to the students. The role will be to work towards the best experience for the students, finding good opportunities, engaging more towards cultural activities, organising a cultural event or a multicultural event. So just by doing more for the students which affect directly towards their daily life. So if they feel happy by doing so, it will help.
The biggest challenge I will face is probably the communication. As a new student, What is the biggest sometimes they might feel very introverted or very shy to ask for help, so sometimes it challenge you will might feel very difficult to give the best possible help to the student. But by just organising an event or a networking event or meetups in a particular place or a club, they face in the role? might feel very open towards them, they might be very friendly towards the student and might open up.
Probably statistics. I’m not really good with calculations, I find it very difficult to track it, but the thing I know is how students feel very happy.
What is your BIGGEST WEAKNESS? What is your MOST MEMORABLE experience IN EXETER?
Recently I started volunteering for an environmental project and I just went to the Exeter community garden. Over there I was planting trees and collecting plastics and throwing it away, so just by doing volunteering I felt very very happy. And I’ve also found very similar interested people.
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EXEPOSE VERDICT
Guild President
With five candidates in the Guild President race it makes it a busy yet highly contested race. 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. While some candidates talked about representation and financial support, one candidate spoke about their desire to give students a rum rations, their battle with the vote goat and churning out sustainable grog. 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. (Exeposé were not able to speak to Mohammed Saifuddin and Vagarth Bhatt who is also running
Communities & Equality Officer
The election of the next Communities and Equality officer will break new ground with it being a recent role. 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 education resources, and another 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, the eventual winner will have a large impact on defining the role and how this shapes out. (Exeposé were not able to speak to Jehanzeb Kaleem who is also running for the role)
for the role)
Sport President
Societies & Employability Officer
The contest for the position of Sport President features four 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 that they want to ensure that students’ voices are heard and making sure that everyone is happy. Another spoke about how the AU can work more with societies to represent the varying culture, religions etc. One candidate also spoke about focusing on participation and work heavily with the social sport to teams to achieve this. Working to include as many groups as possible within sporting opportunities at Exeter continues to be a top priority. Whoever takes on the role has a big responsibility to consider.
We were able to speak to four 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. One candidates suggested that they are passionate about highlighting smaller societies. Another also commented that they want more representation within the Guild and that they are determined to remain committed to transparency. Similarly, a candidate mentioned that the most difficult aspect would be going up against the university to bring about certain changes.They also mentioned the need to find a balance between the two aspects of the role.As this still remains a fairly new role, the eventual winner will continue to have a large impact on defining the role.
(Exeposé were not able to speak to Khusrav Rohinton Bharucha who is also running for the role)
(Exeposé were not able to speak to Priyal Pajwani and Sennen Addinall who is also running for the role)
Education Officer
Student Living Officer
The contest for position of Education Officer is between three candidates. One candidate spoke of working with students throughout their degrees. As well as this they referenced providing more mitigation support to students and providing more support specifically for students who work part-time jobs alongside their studies. Another candidate spoke about ensuring there is equal representation on campus between all students regardless of their course or background. Similarly, another contestant also spoke passionately about mitigation, mentioning the existence of ILP’s and the immensely helpful benefit they continue to provide students with. As well as focusing on working on post University career options: working with graduate and summer schemes specifically.
We were able to speak to all of the candidates for this position and with this being another role that has been recently introduced, the candidates were eager to explain how they would continue to define it. Most of the candidates spoke about their own personal experiences of finding housing. One candidate highlighted that they are eager to act upon student priorities. Another candidate suggested that they aim to listen to students surrounding housing issues. Another candidate mentioned the importance of managing finances. 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.
EXCLUSIVE EXEPOSÉ COVERAGE
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HOW TO VOTE OPENS: 10AM, 29TH JANUARY CLOSES: 4PM, 1ST FEBRUARY RESULTS ANNOUNCED: 7PM, 2ND FEBRUARY (FORUM STREET)
Step 1: 1: Head to www.exeterguild.com/Elections Step 2: Click the ‘vote’ button Step 3: Login with your myexeter account Step 4: Click your elections dashboard Step 5: Click ‘vote now’ Step 6: Go through each position and rank the candidates in order of preference Students can vote via www.exeterguild.com/Elections OR https://my.exeterguild.com/student/login Any issues they can email digital@exeterguild.com Image: Exeter Guild
LEADERSHIP ELECTIONS 2024 | EXEPOSÉ
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Image: Anabel Costa-Ferreira
@Exepose @Exepose @Exepose Image: Exeter Students’ Guild