gair rhydd Monday May 21 2012 | freeword – Est. 1972 | Issue 980
It’s a sabb sabb situation
Sheri Hall News Editor Questions have been raised about student awareness of elected Sabbatical officers after only a third of students recognised them, according to a survey conducted by gair rhydd last week. Only 32.5% recognised their faces when they were shown a photograph of them, and only 19.5% knew that they were sabbatical officers of Cardiff Students’ Union (CSU). Out of those who knew that they were sabbatical officers, only 12.5% could tell us their names. gair rhydd surveyed 200 students in and around Cardiff University campus, asking them if they recognised the faces and if they knew who they were or what they did. Most shocking was that only 12% recognized the CSU President, whose job description reads ‘the public face of the union’. Mar-
cus told us “I do not think it is particularly important whether officers are well recognised by students. What is crucial is that students know what the Union can do for them and where to go for help!... Being the public face refers more towards external stakeholders.” Athletics Union President, Ollie Devon, was known by the most students, as 44% recognized him as a sabbatical officer, and 36% knew his name. Head of Student Media, Oliver Smith, was one of the least well known as he was recognised by just 12% of students and only 4% knew his name. However, he was mistaken for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg by a number of students. Welfare and Communications Officer, Chris Davies, who was recognized as a sabbatical officer by 40% of students, was remembered for his ‘care bear’ campaign and
students had witnessed him in action. Fourth year City and Regional Planning student, Cheryl Morley said: “Chris Davies came to our house to warn us about our bins because there were too many and we could have been fined.” Chris Davies said: “I am pleased to see that almost half of all people asked recognised me; however that still means there is room for improvement. I do a lot of behind the scene stuff so I’m actually quite surprised that I score higher than other more prominent Officers. “To be honest, I have such a wicked job, looking after our 29,000 students is more important to me than recognition.” Some thought that as sabbatical officers are elected by students to work for CSU and get paid an annual wage of £19,000, they should at least be recognised by the student population, but they also realised that expo-
sure isn’t everything. Second year business student Joshua Herbert said: “As long as they’re doing their job properly I don’t think it should matter if people recognize them or not. But I do think the president should be more visible. “I also think that a lot of people don’t know what the roles stand for unless they’ve read the manifestos and, let’s face it, most of them haven’t.” Societies officer, Harry Newman, who has been elected as next year’s President said: “Personally I’m quite flattered by my result, especially in the context of the scores of my teammates. My remit does lend itself well to becoming fairly well known, being that the Societies Officer is a particularly ‘student facing’ role.”
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Check out part two in next week’s gair rhydd to see how well sabbs stuck to their manifestos