EUSA’s Blurred Lines: Can Kirsty run for President?

OK, so we’ve done a bit more research into this to make all you lovely people happy once again.

Kirsty Haigh, EUSA’s current Vice President of Student Services, will announce on Sunday that she will be running again for EUSA President. This will make her the first member of EUSA to campaign a second time for a position.

Kirsty Haigh, our feminism loving, Robin Thicke hating VPS

EUSA’s Regulations for Elections explicitly state that in order to be eligible to run, “candidates must be Ordinary Student Members”. EUSA offer four sabbatical roles per annum on a salary of £20,000 which means that you are no longer a student studying at The University of Edinburgh.

This is were the confusion of student politics steps in. The new 2012 EUSA constitution states that “Student Trustees shall be elected for a term not exceeding 2 years and shall be eligible for re-election for a second and final term not exceeding 2 years.” So this puts Haigh is in the clear for re-election. But how does this work when a student is not an “Ordinary Student”? And is “Student Trustee” the same as student on Sabbatical? Oh the joys of student politics.

Further more, the University’s Laigh Year Regulations stipulate that “No student may be granted more than one Laigh Year” in which they are not required  “to fulfil the normal academic requirements of his or her course.”

With the election opening officially on Monday, the Presidential race is against Kirsty Haigh, Briana Pegado, Jacob Webber and Dan Scott Lintott.

So, no-one really seems to know WHAT is going on with this. If anyone can clear this up for us and the rest of the University, I’m sure we’d all be extremely grateful.