When asked about his motivations for running, Eli Axcell said: “People saying that I’d be good at it. Once I’d kind of had that feedback I was like oh, actually I care a lot about the SU, about marginalised students, and I feel like I have quite a lot to contribute.”
On the main obstacle facing students, Eli underlined “engagement” and “communication”, explaining that: “there are issues with communication within the SU, within the university, and within societies and I think that makes it harder for students to get involved and know what’s going on.”
Eli also added that “we’re in a cost of living crisis”. He said: “I know people who have been turned away from accessing financial help because they don’t meet one specific category or criteria.”
His manifesto’s first key aspect is improving “communication” between different parts of the SU and student societies or groups.
The second aspect focuses on “inspiration”. Eli said: “I think students have so much going on and they’re doing absolutely incredible things but there isn’t much visibility for that so I want to make the amazing things they do visible by letting them take up space in the SU, be that having poster boards with a campaign that students are running.”
Finally, the last aspect is “inclusion”. He explained that “a lot of students are quite isolated at the moment and so I want to introduce regular well-being spaces just for marginalised groups.”
Eli added that “I also want to alongside that have advocacy sessions. It’s very difficult to access healthcare for disabled people and you constantly have to advocate for yourself so I want to make sure that students feel like they have somewhere that they can go for advice.”
On his plans for his campaign, Eli said: “My main plan is just to be loud and be visible and be authentic. I want to really engage with students where they’re at.”
He also added that “maybe there might be some little dinosaurs popping up around the SU.”
When asked about his first plans if he were to be elected, Eli said: “The first tangible thing would be I want to implement a completely sober welcome week programme.”
He explained that “There’s a lot of people who get very carried away with the drinking element of freshers week, but then there are a lot of people who kind of get left behind by that, especially if sober socials aren’t as advertised.”
Forge asked Eli what he would do if granted an unlimited budget, to which he said he would focus on infrastructure, underlining that “a lot of physical spaces are very inaccessible.”
He also added that “it would be great to offer students the financial help they need”, highlighting the difficulties for students to find and maintain part-time jobs alongside their studies. He said: “If you’re doing a full-time educational course, it should be able to be full-time. Students shouldn’t have to work to afford the bare minimum.”
When asked about what he has enjoyed most from his time at university, Eli mentioned “getting involved in student politics has been incredible… I love being able to feel like I can make a difference.”
Forge asked Eli which celebrity he would choose to play him in a movie about his campaign, to which he answered: “I feel like saying Elliot Page would be too much of a basic answer but I just think that he’s done great things for visibility for trans men.”
Finally, Forge also asked for his favourite UK train station, to which Eli said: “I hate Leeds train station because it took me about ten minutes to find out where the platforms were… I quite like Nottingham station just because it feels quite big and airy but not in a scary way.”
