We met with the EUSA President and asked him what he actually does

With this year’s EUSA elections on the horizon, we sat down with this year’s President, Alec Edgecliffe-Johnson, and asked him about what EUSA have done this year and about what the EUSA President actually does on a day to day basis.

What got you into student politics in the first place?

Like a lot of people, you see changes you’d like to make. If you don’t have a position it can be hard to make those changes, so I ran for a position on the Trustee Board (the board that governs EUSA) and from there I had a good understanding of what being a Sabbatical Officer would be like. I thought, just do it. 

What were the changes you wanted to make?

Stuff to do with transportation, the digital experience with recorded lectures, bringing in the EUSA app, getting timetables easily accessible on people’s phones. There’s only so much you can do as a Student Union, but one thing that you can do is to help people who are already here from financially disadvantaged backgrounds and help give them as many opportunities as possible to get them involved in student life. We can’t control the bursaries, we can only lobby the university but we can certainly make people feel more included when they are here.

What do you think you’ve achieved this year?

Transportation – nine month rider card, which helps people who live outside the city come into it cheaply, particularly those who are financially disadvantaged. The free use of the 41 bus to Kings’ Buildings as well, we’ve been working really hard to get that implemented for about eight months.

The EUSA app, timetable on the phone, all lectures to be recorded next year, which might sound quite minor but these things will make people’s lives easier just by a little bit.

The app is something that will develop over the next couple of years.

KB students have been the major beneficiaries of the changes this year

How much can you actually do in a year?

It’s only a one year post, so you can start things that won’t come into fruition for a few years. I’m more of a steward than someone who can make a whole host of drastic changes.

Ok, what’s the average day in the life of a EUSA President?

There are three sides to the job. Working with EUSA, a £12 million charity to which I have a number of duties, sitting in tons of committees with senior management in the university, lobbying them to get things done and then there’s working with external organisations like societies, the council and the NUS.

It’s generally a series of meetings who tend to be a lot more clued in than you are. All the people who work for the university have been doing it for so much longer than you so you are completely outclassed. They know exactly what’s going on, so I’m just trying to keep up and not get too carried away with myself.

Do you think the most important issues to students get talked about?

There’s a difference between the perception of student politics and what it actually is at Edinburgh. We really try to listen to what people want. You want more seats in the library? We’ll get you more seats in the library. You want a 24 hour library? We’ll get you a 24 hour library.

Housing. It’s super expensive, Jenna Kelly has been working with the council to get somewhere with that.

Rent really is ridiculous, what can be done about it?

There are pressure points that people with power have to listen to. There are 35,000 voting members at the university in this constituency. Particularly this year when there are council elections, those sort of numbers are easily enough to swing it. If you get them to make credible commitments to rent caps and to keep landlords honest, then these small things in election years can make a difference.

What would you say to people who think EUSA only cares about safe space policies?

I think that’s an old model of what EUSA used to be. Things have changed. What I would say is, if you have been impacted by some of the positive things we’ve done, we would ask you to please come out and vote. These are the people who’ll be delivering similar things next year.

Finally, how much influence do you have on the pricing of the Big Cheese and Teviot?

Unfortunately, none. Which is a shame, but it tends to be a staff decision and they’ve been working here far longer than us so there must be a reason.