Forge sat down with Student’s Union Presidential candidate Paul Miller to discuss his campaign and manifesto.
Paul said that his motivation to run stems from how the strikes have affected his education.
He said: “Being a foundation year student, our cohort was the most affected. It sort of re-ignited a fire in my belly to get back involved with youth politics, I spent 12 years doing it previously from youth councils to the European Youth Parliament.”
“I guess being in the environment, being able to get back involved in it regardless of age, was the driving factor.”
Paul went on to say that the strikes are the biggest issue affecting students at the moment. He said: “Although it affected, say, the foundation year cohort most, there’s still that knock-on effect, because those tutors are still teaching other lessons and other years.”
He also said that students are being affected by the cuts and lack of staff, due to uncertainty surrounding the future of different degree pathways.
Paul clarified that the main points of his manifesto will be improving students’ understanding of “housing standards and what they can do, employment rights and youth unemployment.”
He also said he wants to build “social cohesion between the students, residents and the wider Sheffield public and get them heard” via surgeries and local MPs.
“We make up a significant amount of the population in Sheffield but we are far underrepresented in terms of choosing matters locally.”
If elected, the first thing Paul would do is “host surgeries with students, to increase their knowledge of things. I think a big issue is around knowledge and understanding in terms of housing and employment rights.”
Additionally, if given an unlimited budget, Paul would increase staffing to “ensure everybody can get what they paid for,” and would “like to run a second scene for neurodivergent students, because I feel there’s a lack of support for neurodivergent students, speaking from experience.”
Paul said that meeting new people at university has made his life “significantly richer,” and has changed his “outlook and perspective of certain people.”
“I think the whole don’t judge a book by its cover or don’t make assumptions, I think it’s easier said than done, but when you’re in this sort of environment I think it’s easier to navigate that and actually put that into real experience.”
Finally, we began discussing much more pressing matters. Paul said that if he had to choose a celebrity to play him in a movie about his election campaign he’d like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Additionally, for those curious, his go-to meal deal is a tuna pasta salad, a sugar-free strawberry Volvic water and a yoghurt flapjack. Paul also says his favourite train station is King’s Cross St. Pancras in London.
