York SU elections to change in 2026 as sabbatical officer team is restructured

Students will elect five sabbatical officers rather than seven for the 2026/27 academic year.

Two current roles, Equality & Inclusion Officer and Union Development Officer, will be retired following an independent governance review.

The SU says the change is designed to embed equality, inclusion and sustainability across all officer roles.

York SU has confirmed further details about how the new sabbatical officer structure will work from the 2026/27 academic year.

From March 2026, students will elect the following five full-time, paid sabbatical officers:

• Union Affairs Officer
• Activities Officer
• Sports Officer
• Academic Officer
• Community & Inclusion Officer

The Equality & Inclusion Officer and Union Development Officer roles will no longer exist in their current form. The decision follows an independent governance review, which was approved by York SU’s Board of Trustees and formally signed off at SUmmit on 9 December 2025.

The SU says the decision is about how responsibility is shared, not about reducing the importance of equality, inclusion, or sustainability.

Rather than having these areas owned by individual officers, York SU wants them to be core responsibilities across the entire organisation.

Every officer will be expected to consider equality, accessibility, and inclusion as part of their work, rather than referring it to one specific position.

Alongside this change, York SU has also committed to additional staff support for equality and inclusion work. The aim is to create a more consistent approach, rather than relying solely on elected officers.

‘Extremely bittersweet’

In a statement to The Tab York, Abi Harrison, the current Equality and Inclusion Officer, said the decision had not been taken lightly, and that there had been strong arguments both for and against changing the existing roles.

Image via Youtube

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Abi said: “Ultimately, the rationale behind the removal of the Equality and Inclusion Officer role for the 2026/27 elections was that having one person in charge of EDI for the whole union wasn’t enough, and that honouring the Union’s commitment to EDI required it to be embedded in the role of every staff member and sabbatical officer.”

She said the newly renamed Community and Inclusion role would still play an important part in keeping equality, diversity and inclusion at the centre of the Union’s work.

Abi added: “That being said, the Community and Wellbeing role is taking on new responsibilities under the new name of Community and Inclusion to ensure there will still be somebody within the sabbatical officer team who keeps EDI at the forefront of decision making.”

She said it was especially important that students from minority backgrounds continued to feel represented within the sabbatical team.

Abi said: “In a society where students from minority backgrounds are being encouraged to come to university and engage in higher education, it is paramount that they still feel represented by their elected officer team.”

Reflecting on the work carried out during her time in the role, Abi highlighted a number of recent changes and initiatives.

“This year has already brought York’s first ever Relaxed Graduation, a commitment to better wheelchair access at all graduations, an improved accessibility offer on the Viking and Roman Raids, and the creation of Sensory Survival Kits for neurodivergent students to loan from the SU when needed.”

“Having so much activity in the EDI space has been truly wonderful, and being your Equality and Inclusion Officer will always be one of the greatest privileges I’ve ever had, and it’s disappointing to know nobody else will get to experience it.”

She concluded: “The changes to the sabbatical officer structure are extremely bittersweet for me. On the one hand, I think that encouraging a more organisational approach to EDI can never be a bad thing, but on the other hand, I am sad for the work this role could’ve inspired if it had been given longer to develop. On the whole, I am just hoping that the changes we’ve already seen will be enough to keep momentum going in this space.

Here’s how the Union Development role is changing

The current Union Development Officer role is held by Anna Lindberg-Newby.

Image via YouTube

Some responsibilities from the Union Development Officer role will be moved into the Community & Inclusion Officer position, which has been updated and expanded.

Under the new structure, the Community & Inclusion Officer will take on responsibility for volunteering projects, which previously came under the Union Development role.

York SU says this change is intended to ensure that volunteering continues to have a clear and consistent voice within the sabbatical officer team, rather than being spread across multiple roles.

The position will also include a dedicated focus on sustainability, which the SU says is designed to strengthen its work on social responsibility and long term impact.

The SU has said that bringing these areas together under the Community & Inclusion role will help create clearer leadership around student volunteering, community engagement and sustainability initiatives, while also linking this work more closely with inclusion and representation.

While the Union Development Officer role will no longer exist in its current form, York SU says the work previously supported by the role will continue under the revised structure, alongside the wider shift towards shared responsibility across the sabbatical officer team.

Featured image via Instagram