Misogyny and social media: LUSU candidates slam ‘increasingly hostile’ campus

During the Candidate Questions, which took place on the 2nd March, candidates running for the upcoming LUSU roles, were asked multiple questions regarding issues on campus and what they expected to see from the upcoming Student Union representatives.

Candidates touched on topics such as, misogyny and safety on campus, mental health support and social media.

Misogyny 

During the presidential questions, one member of the audience questioned the candidates on why the candidate pool never seems to be equal in gender, stating: “Why is it that LUSU keeps getting it wrong?”

Whilst multiple candidates agreed that it would be necessary to research the reasons considerably more in depth, each candidate contributed a unique perspective.

In response to this, presidential candidate, Sam Burgess stated her belief that one of the reasons for this imbalance “is the rise of misogyny, and that we’re fed up with it, and we want to take a stand and see women empowered to be able to tackle these issues.”

Christina Mallinson stated a reason for this could mirror the current “political climate,” and similarly believed “women have just decided, lets step up and actually try and make a change and activate some sort of campaign against what going on at the moment with the rest of the far right and everything else in the world.”

Similarly, Kate Bracewell stated: “I am quite pleased that all four presidential candidates are women’s plus representation. I think it’s a testament to how the Union at least does something right and is empowering women to run for positions like this, and feel as though they have the opportunity to come forward, speak their minds and to run.”

Social Media 

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Given the recent discussions surrounding social media posts and free speech, particularly in relation to the Reform Society and widespread disapproval across campus, the candidates running for Activities Officer were asked whether they believe the Reform Society should be allowed to affiliate with the Student Union.

In response, Emily Houston-Woods emphasises the Student Union’s inability to block any societies from affiliating due to political interest. She continued, “I think that this campus is such a beautiful state, and there’s so many different communities here, and that should be protected. And I think that if anybody is limiting that, or making anyone feel uncomfortable that there’s no space for that here.”

Anna Muchardt similarly expressed, “there has to be a space where they can express their views, provided that their views are not encroaching on other people’s rights.” She concluded, “it’s a difficult topic, but, I think you can’t put a sort of blanked ban on something like that.”

Mental Health 

via YouTube

During the questions directed towards the candidate Wellbeing Officer, David Grice, a member of the audience asked David if he had any ideas for “improvement or campaigns targeted specifically at improving support for students.”

David was eager to address this, voicing his desire to encourage the university to provide additional mental health support. He acknowledged the issues within the current mental health system at the university. He stated: “It’s something that I really want to work on and encourage that students that need the mental health support can get it instantly, rather than having to wait a long time, because even a week is way too long for students who are facing severe mental health crisis.”

The University were contacted regarded these remarks, the statement is as follows:

“Lancaster University is dedicated to providing gold-rated teaching and maintaining the high-quality student experience expected of us as a top ten University.

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“The needs of our students sit at the heart of our decision making, The SU Full Time Officers do an extremely important job in representing the student body. We are following the SU elections with interest and listening carefully.

“University leadership shares the concerns raised, such as cost of living, welfare support and student representation and continue to focus on these issues.

“By working closely with the SU in our decision making, we are committed to ensuring the student voice is heard at every level.

“We are immensely proud of our students and have much to celebrate at our University.”

Safety 

In regard to the safety of students at Lancaster University, David was asked if he had any ideas of how he would work with city councillors to improve Lancaster for students.

David discussed street safety and his passion to “ensure protection for students in town.” He pitched the possibility of “making sure, especially around bars, that bars are trained on security, providing and spiking provision.”

Since the debate on Monday night, Presidential candidate Usul has dropped out of the race.

The Lancaster Tab contacted Jack Eccles, Lancaster student and president of Student’s for Reform. His response is as follows:

“I am concerned that Lancaster University Students’ Union has failed to act in an impartial manner in relation to political matters on campus. While I recognise that the Union may be legally unable to restrict lawful political parties such as Reform UK, it is concerning that affiliated societies appear to have collaborated with Stand Up To Racism to publish material characterising both myself and Reform as ‘racist.’

“To date, I have not seen any acknowledgment or corrective action from the Students’ Union addressing these concerns. As a registered charity, the Union is required to operate in accordance with charity law, including maintaining independence and avoiding partisan political activity.”

A statement from the Student Union responded to these claims:

“LUSU has been in contact with the affiliated societies involved in this message and has reminded them that individuals should not be targeted in any political messaging, and that individuals should not be mentioned in this way in social media campaigns.

“LUSU supports a diverse range of political societies, all of whom have freedom of speech to make political statements. Our support has included, for example, facilitating the Conservative Society hosting a speaker from Reform at a meeting last month.

“Prior to this we had already arranged for training to be given to society heads on the implications of the Freedom of Speech Act for robust campus debate.”

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Featured images via Youtube