“ “ “ gair rhydd page 18
Monday June 06 2011 | freeword – Est. 1972 | Issue 953
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I want to do th i but how on ea s rt would I go abo h ut doing it?
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o more n e r a e You than th d e fi i l u qua ound yo r a m a te
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y manifesto m e t o r w I n e h W uld have o w I t a h t t h g I thou ose things h t n o t u p in n a
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You a re the one w looked ho is to for answe all the rs
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page 09
Science put together a solution to climate change page 20
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Features explore married life at university
Opinion: Should Twitter be censored?
After a series of in-depth interviews with this year’s Elected Officers, gair rhydd asks
Did they deliver? Morgan Applegarth News Editor Over the past two weeks, gair rhydd has investigated the extent to which Cardiff Students’ Union’s Elected Officers have fulfilled their manifesto promises, relayed during last year’s campaign week. Through a series of in-depth interviews, this year’s Elected Officers team were questioned over their pledges and promises made to the Cardiff University student population in their hope of getting
elected. The investigation revealed that the majority of this year’s team believed that they had been ill-informed as to the requirements and realistic capabilities of their position before being elected. The investigation also revealed that members of this year’s team accept that not all manifesto points can be fulfilled due to a lack of knowledge about the full extent of their responsibilities and what is achievable during their term. Head of Student Media and gair rhydd Editor Sarah Powell admit-
ted: “I don’t think that I achieved everything that I set out to achieve in my manifesto. “You write this manifesto in March which is five months before you are actually meant to come in and do the job, and you can only really hypothesise about what the job is going to entail.” She also noted how Elected Officers can be “no more qualified than the team that are around you,” yet are looked to for all the answers. Finance and Commercial Officer Darryl Light told gair rhydd that during the election process, his
thoughts on what the officer in his position did were different to what he later learnt having been elected: “It’s interesting because when I wrote my manifesto I thought that as Finance Officer I would have more input on [certain] things.” Such findings raise questions over the election process and the ability for any student to run for any position with little to no knowledge of their desired position. Using IMG Rugby as an example, AU President Jack Perkins revealed that in some cases, not until a student becomes elected do they learn
about the possibility of fulfilling their promises: “Because I am the figurehead of the AU, if I sign off IMG Rugby, it is my responsibility. “[IMG Rugby] is quite a serious thing and I think that when I wrote my manifesto last year I didn’t necessarily know that.” He also said that IMG Rugby can be more of a “buzz word” used by candidates who may not have done their research, but include it in their manifestos in a bid get votes.
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