TW: suicide, self-harm
What inspired you to run for SU president?
This time or the last time?!
This one!
I suppose I have to answer both. The first time I ran was partly in response to what I saw as the mishandling of the Hong Kong student dispute which I was quite actively involved in, but also because I had larger concerns about the general direction of the Students’ Union. In my eyes, it has moved away from being a political entity towards a more corporate entity. Obviously there’s no one individual to blame for this, this is something that’s been happening for decades now. As someone that’s politically not that corporate and is more union-focused, I found it quite a disappointing trend in how the Students’ Union was approaching issues. That’s the crux of why the SU has been quite ineffective in enacting a lot of change for students and securing all sorts of rights and benefits for students that I think will be beneficial.
This year, I probably wouldn’t have run again if it hadn’t been for Coronavirus. It has had a massive impact on students’ mental health and their housing which are issues I was focusing on very heavily in the previous year. They were massive issues before which is why I ran, but they’ve become more key this year. I knew some of the other candidates that were running in advance and from what I knew of them, I didn’t think that housing and mental health would necessarily be at the top of their manifestos which is where I think they should be. The general theme of the direction of the SU and the relationship with the University is also something that I’m quite focused on, which I wasn’t necessarily expecting some of the other candidates to focus on so much.
If you were elected, what would your main priorities be?
If you look at my manifesto, some of the policies are targeting things that are actively ongoing, such as the rent strike. From day one, this is something that I’d be heavily involved in supporting more aggressively than the SU currently is. My long-term priorities are to do with reassessing the relationship with the University: repositioning and redirecting the SU to a more political union. On the issue of housing, I really want to make this website where we can rate the performance of our landlords. I want to secure more funding for the University Counselling Service. Then there’s some smaller things as well, like suicide awareness training, which I’m quite big on. There’s a brilliant course run by the Zero Suicide Alliance and I’d love to see that thrown in with the mandatory e-learning package when you move into halls. At the moment you do fire safety which is great, no one likes fires, but I think it would be great to include suicide awareness. It’s something that impacts a lot of students, even if they don’t directly know someone that has committed suicide, I’m sure most people will have a friend of a friend or be aware of someone that has been suicidal. You don’t want students to be too interventional in mental health because it places a lot of burden on them, but to be aware of the signs that they should be looking for if they’re concerned about the wellbeing of a friend, that is something that we could institute.
What qualities and experience have you got that other candidates might not have?
In terms of my experience, I’ve been quite heavily involved in SU Council before as I was the Vice Chair last year. That gives me a bit of insight into the inner workings of the procedural aspects of the Students’ Union. I’m also involved in the Societies Committee which has given me insight into the financial aspects of the University. I’ve been involved in several other committees as well, such as Mental Health Matters. Being a medical student, I have a bit more exposure to and awareness of some of the issues surrounding mental health and psychiatry, especially as it’s what I want to specialise in.
In terms of my qualities, I’d describe myself as being tenacious in that I can be quite politically aggressive when it comes to challenging authority. When the authority that we’re challenging is the University, we do need to be more aggressive in how we go about it. It comes from a good place, but a lot of candidates just talk about asking the University for things, or requesting things from the University, or lobbying the University. This is all well and good, up until the point where the University doesn’t want to give you what you’re asking for. You need to be willing to put the University in a position where it’s not just a case of asking, it’s a case of telling them ‘We need this and if you want our support, our branding and all the other brilliant things that the SU provides to the University, then you need to do this’. That political streak is one of the qualities that I would bring to the role.
What would you say to people who aren’t planning on voting or don’t care who’s elected?
I would understand why they feel that way. Especially this year, if you look at the actual involvement that the Union has had on people’s lives, I can see why people wouldn’t care to vote. I’ve felt that way before. I felt that the SU was powerless to affect any kind of real change and I think that’s the root of apathy. People are apathetic because they think regardless of who they vote for, it probably won’t change anything. Historically, they’ve probably been right to feel that way. I’ll say this and every other candidate will say this, but I genuinely believe I will impart change. For that reason, I think people should vote.
The Union has let students down and not just this year. I’m not talking about the actions of any specific Officers or Officer team, individually they all do the best that they can with the cards that they’re dealt. A lot of how the SU is run, and how a lot of the Officers have run, is they recognise that we play a game with the University and they’re willing to play that game to the best of their ability, but they’re not willing to change the rules of the game that we play. What I’m offering is an alternate system and procedure for how we deal with the University. Asking only gets you so far, and I’m fed up of asking.
Is there anyone that you look up to politically or has anyone inspired your campaign?
There’s quite a few people that I look up to, all for different reasons:
Andrew Yang. I’m very disappointed to see he didn’t get as far in the primaries as he did. I think a Yang-Bernie presidency would be a beautiful thing. His policy platform is very progressive, which I like, but he also recognises that it’s not the same-old politics that we need. We need to be coming up with big solutions for the big problems that we’re going to be facing. He has genuine solutions to these problems and I admire his forward thinking. He ran an effective grassroots campaign considering he came in as a complete outsider to the Democratic National Committee.
Woodrow Wilson, for his role in founding the League of Nations. He campaigned very heavily for the formation of the League of Nations, which I think if it had been done properly could have prevented a lot of the sadness that we saw in the years following the First World War.
Clement Attlee, for his role in the formation of the NHS, which obviously is something I’m quite keen on being a medical student hoping to work for the NHS for most of my working life.
Simon De Montfort. I don’t know an awful lot about what De Montfort thought about other things, he probably had some pretty dreadful ideas, but just his historical role in the formation of British parliamentary democracy.
How have you found campaigning during a pandemic and how have you adapted to it being all online?
It’s been different. In some ways I’ve preferred it to last year because I’ve found it to be a lot less tense than in-person campaigning. You’re not standing on the concourse for hours and hours and you’re not having to traipse around Endcliffe giving leaflets to people that really don’t want them. I’ve found this style of campaigning quite nice, but I do have concerns about what it means for engagement. I don’t think this has helped with voter apathy. When your entire ethos is about increasing political engagement with the Union it does seem a bit disappointing that on the year you may be elected you’re going to be starting with even lower political engagement than you thought you might otherwise be. There’s not been the same level of election visibility that you’d have if you had a whole group of people stood on the concourse. I found it a little disappointing in that sense, because I do like to actually get out and talk to people and I’ve not really been able to do that this year. But it has been a lot more laid back and I’ve got on really well with all the candidates, including the ones that are running from my role, which is nice.
How will you help the Students’ Union, and its societies and its activities recover after the pandemic?
This isn’t something that is down to the President alone. A lot of the work, especially with activities, is going to fall on the Activities and Development Officer. I’m willing to say that I think the Activities and Development candidates know more about activities than I do. Obviously I’m on the Societies Committee, so I’ve got a bit of an idea, but I would rather listen to what they had to say on it. In terms of bringing back the SU we need to really push for first-year engagement when they start arriving in halls, Covid-allowing. I want to see all of the Officers and loads of society representatives flooding down, helping people move into their houses. From the moment people get to University we need to be informing them about the opportunities they have within the Union. With regard to finances, we don’t know what next year’s revenue is going to be like, but I’m hoping that people will have a lot of partying to catch up on and that’s going to be fuelling the bars and the restaurants. Fundamentally, we need to assess the amount of money that the University is giving us and assessing how the University and the SU interacts financially is a big part of bringing us back to life.
In your manifesto you say that you want to fight against staff cuts, how do you plan on doing this?
When it comes to staff cuts, there already is an organisation that is specifically focused on that, the University and College Union (UCU), and we should work closely with them and provide them the support and assistance that they require. When the UCU is protesting or striking, I think we should refer to how they want to negotiate that. We should offer support, when it’s asked and how it’s asked. If they want us engaged and actively supporting pickets, then I’m happy to do that. We can also use our influence as the SU to put some pressure on the University. The University uses the SU branding and marketing, for example, if you go to the website it says ‘best SU in the country’. This is a big focus of their student recruitment and I think we would be within our rights to deny them access to what I see as our intellectual property. We can say ‘we don’t want to give you that support because you’re not supporting us’. In some ways we don’t want to be helping the University by encouraging more students to come here if we know that the University is just going to screw them over. I think we need to be more careful about not blindly following the University in what they ask of us. I do want to be friends with the University but a friendship is predicated on mutual respect and supporting each other. At the moment, it feels like we do an awful lot more for them than they do for us.
You also want to create some anonymous support groups for students struggling with addiction and self-harm, how would these would work?
Someone said to me that it would be really nice if they could talk to other students about self-harm because it doesn’t feel like the student community is actively talking about these things and helping support each other. In some ways, it would work similar to something like Alcoholics Anonymous in that you go into a room with people that want to talk about their experiences, and receive the mutual support that comes with that kind of group therapy. It might be something that runs once a week and there would be strict rules around confidentiality. It’s a very cheap thing to run, but it is something that would help a lot of students. A lot of students can feel quite isolated with the difficulties that they’re facing and I think they would take great comfort from being able to talk to other students in a similar position.
You’ve said in your manifesto that we need to fight back against abusive landlords and that you want to create a rate and review system. How would this work and how effective do you think it can be?
Every year we will have an annual student housing survey where people will be asked to specify the property they’re in, their landlord and letting agent before giving a review. We would process the results and put them onto the website. When students are looking for a home they can look at experiences past students have with their landlord, their letting agent, even perhaps with a specific property. A lot of the problems surrounding student housing comes from the fact that there’s a very high turnover rate of students. You might have a good landlord or you might have a dreadful one, but once you graduate that experience has been lost. Landlords don’t really have to worry about their reputation, but the website will preserve these experiences and make it very clear to see. If we can reinstate reputation as a market force, then hopefully that can incentivise some landlords to not be quite so dreadful.
Why have you decided to run again? And how have you adapted your manifesto to student needs this year to ensure your success?
The problems that I saw when I ran the first time haven’t gone away. Issues surrounding housing and mental health have become more visible. Even if I didn’t get the job, I’m still hoping that having a public discussion about it raises the profile of some of the things in my manifesto. One of the things I had in it last year was a Mature Students Officer which mature students have been lobbying for for years, and they never got it. A lot of the current officers said we didn’t need one, but what have they brought in this year? You don’t actually have to get the job to have some impact on what’s on the table in order to benefit students. Even if I don’t win, I’ll still be happy to the extent that I think I would’ve made some impact on forwarding the discussion surrounding housing, mental health and the nature of the Union. There’s a benefit just to running.
In one sentence, why should people vote for you?
I want to create a much more vocal and adversarial Union, which is louder in imparting its demands, and stands up with pride for the rights and dignity of students.
All President candidates were offered an equal opportunity to participate in an interview with Forge Press. To find out more about the elections and the candidates, please visit: https://su.sheffield.ac.uk/student-leadership/officer-elections
Image credit: Dominic Fairbrass
