Joey Legge is one of the candidates for the role of Student Union President in this year’s SU elections. Forge Press sat down with him to discuss his motivations, the importance of the role and his manifesto, as well as his plans for his campaign.
When asked about his motivations for the role, Joey remarked that this stemmed from his work within Oldham council, where he realised “I could do quite a lot of change” due to having “the ability to creatively go into a situation and understand it”.
Joey’s main motivation for running for the role of president is to be able to run a campaign that is “completely reflective of mental health”, and recognises that he is helping his “own mental health just by going for this role because I want to help people and that makes me feel good.” This is the main priority for Joey within his campaign.
When asked why this role is important, Joey remarked that it is essential to be aware of “your skills and what you can do”, and also to recognise “other people, what they’re doing and what they’re good at”. The role of president is also essential to Joey as a reflection of “the student voice” with the responsibility to “make sure that the Student’s Union functions as a really effective team”.
Maintaining his priority of student mental health, Joey focuses on some seemingly “miscellaneous” topics in his manifesto that could provide a stress-free environment at university.
One of these is due to Joey’s own experience of “getting deliveries, as this an awful experience and very stressful.” This is an issue many students can relate to, and can add unnecessary pressure to the balance of academic studies and social life. To combat this, Joey has proposed to introduce “mail hubs … in areas such as the Student Union or the IC”. He believes this ““would be easy to implement” and could improve the student experience, even in small ways.
Another policy Joey aims to implement has the goal of “making things cheaper”. Inspired by his work in Oldham council, Joey aims to utilise “surplus stock… things that aren’t sold, to be put in the Student’s Union and sold at a significantly lower price”.
Joey also recognises that “another big thing that I want which we really don’t have, is a system to find flatmates for next year”. This could play a large part in helping “people to feel safe in themselves, because there’s so many different elements to living on your own and doing your own things”.
This “friction- free process” would include both online and in-person events, helping students find possible house mates as it is essential to live with people “who can genuinely care and look after you” during your time at university. This “constant support network” would make the process of “house-hunting” much easier and less anxiety inducing for a wide range of university students.
Throughout his campaign, Joey is keen to “delegate leadership” and gain “a lot of different input from people”, especially surrounding the marketing and branding of his campaign. Joey also aims to send out a survey to gain opinions on certain policies in his manifesto, proposing that “If there’s one policy that people don’t agree with, I’ll get rid of it”. He also places emphasis on the fact that “every policy has a plan”, and assures that there will be no “empty promises” throughout his campaign.
As his closing statement, Joey urges the student population to “look for other people’s skills in my campaign, because that’s how I will run the student’s union.”
