Forge Press sat down with Lola-mae Till, who is running for the role of Education Officer in this year’s Student Union Officer elections.
Lola-mae said that she found her motivation to apply through her own experience with the University’s education services: “I personally had a rough start to university and I got so much amazing support from people that made me get the grades that I deserved and just the university experience that I also deserved,
“ I just really like promoting the resources that we have available- like it’s not embarrassing to use them.”
The 3 main points of her manifesto are to streamline the complaints and refunds process, to find more routes into post graduate study for disadvantaged students and to push for more learning support plans and better communication with students who need them.
When asked what she feels is the most important issue for students at the moment, Lola-mae said she thinks the impact of the strike action and the way it is being overlooked is something that is really impacting students- especially disabled students.
She said: “Its really unfair and it feels even more unfair as someone who was impacted, my friends in other courses didn’t miss an hour and I missed 5 weeks and had nothing. You deserve to be taught and if not that you deserve your money back.”
If successful, the first thing she would do is get students into the strike processes to make sure that students are being heard.
We asked what her favourite thing from her time at university, Lola-mae said joining women’s rugby was “the best decision [she] ever made” as they especially helped her through her tough experience with the strikes as she could “still have training and still have matches and still see my friends and get outside.”
Over the next week, you will find Lola-mae on campus talking to everyone about what they need from their education- after she finishes writing up her dissertation.
