Guild activity space renaming winner announced

Last week voting opened to rename one of the Guild’s activity spaces, following a Change It proposal. The Guild asked for students ideas to rename the Aung San Suu Kyi room, the Guild’s smallest meeting space on the top floor, mostly used for meetings.

The aim of the name was for it to represent people coming from under represented groups, or those who fought for adversity, human rights and equality. Over 1400 votes were submitted and the winner was revealed to be Kitty Wilkinson.

Kitty Wilkinson was an Irish migrant, otherwise known as the ‘Saint of the Slums’. During the cholera epidemic Wilkinson opened her home to those with infected clothes or lines as she was the only one in the neighbourhood to own a boiler. This simple action saved many lives, whilst her efforts went on to create the first public washhouse in Liverpool. Ten years later her work lead to the opening of the first combined washhouse and public baths in the United Kingdom.

The competing names were April Ashley, George Brancker (Theo), Abdul Sattar Edhi, and Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim.

The Guild website reports that following the decision Vice-President Yasmin commented ‘I’m really glad that students had the opportunity to contribute to the name change. It was the right decision to change from Aung Sang Suu Kyi to instead recognise the work of a local Scouse hero.’

The Guild was called to rename the room by Raisah Chowdhury, she stated her reasons as to why in her Change It proposal: