NUSU Elections: Meet the Athletic Union Officer candidates

It’s that time of the year again, when Sabbatical Officer candidates campaign to win your vote.

To make it easier for you we have put all the Athletic Union Officer candidates in one place. Voting is taking place from right now until Thursday.

Elle Bloor

Studies: Marine Engineering

Her manifesto’s main points:

1. Aims to develop an organised and accessible programme for club volunteers, enabling the individuals to develop skills throughout their work with both course and their sport’s governing bodies, while also making sure they have a support network to maintain this.
2. Introduce Welfare Officers into clubs, providing members with the education on how the Welfare Officer can help and how to utilise what they have to offer.
3. Hopes to investigate the possibility of shuttle services for intra-mural teams playing on university facilities off-campus.
4. Hoping the new kit supplier for next year is influenced by the students who wear it, ensuring that they have the capacity to accommodate larger teams.
5. Further investment into schemes such as Go Play, Give it a Go and Hall Sport, and implement a plan that puts students first, while also continuing work to help ensure that Wednesday’s lectures are fully recapped to minimise the impact that sport has on studies.

Lastly, she aims to properly inform students of the grants and rewards that’s are available to clubs and teams.

Elle’s full manifesto

You can watch her video here

Jack Hunter

Studies: Politics & History

Jack is Vice-President of American Football, serving on his club’s committee for two years and the Athletic Union Exec Committee for the past year.

His manifesto’s main points:

1. Additional grant money for clubs, aiming to establish Team Newcastle as a top-10 BUCS University with the hope that more money will result in being able to freeze, or even reduce membership fees for student athletes.
2. Hopes to make headway with the fight against Wednesday lectures and seminars so that student athletes don’t have to miss out on either.
3. Aims to work with the university and Student’s Union to remodel the Freshers Fair, helping to recruit new members for sporting teams, furthermore continuing and extending the schemes already in place that promote the participation in both intra-mural and hall sports.
4. To increase meetings with club committees, so that any problems can be sorted quickly and efficiently. Jack will also making himself available to help at any hour, furthermore ensuring that all clubs get the recognition that they deserve.
5. Ensuring that all clubs have a dedicated Welfare and Equality officer, who would speak regularly with the AU Officer, ensuring that all student athletes’ voices are heard and their concerns acted upon.
6. Finally, he hopes to remove the alcohol ban on coaches for all Newcastle University sports clubs, so that they may enjoy their away days even more.

Jack’s full manifesto

Watch his campaign video here

Peter Mairs

Studies: Business Management

His manifesto’s main points:

1. To keep Wednesday afternoon’s university free
2. Revitalise Stan Calver, which is one of the biggest university event’s, while also increasing spectator numbers for all sporting events in general.
3. To maintain the sporting activities that were funded by Sport England, such as badminton, netball, table tennis, touch rugby, football and the campus sport tournament. He hopes to maintain these current sporting activities, preventing a significant decrease in the participation levels of sport at university.
4. Introduce a sport volunteer programme, with the hope of improving the smooth running of intramural sports and liaise with selected community sports clubs.
5. Lift the alcohol ban on the journey back from away fixtures with the potential use of a deposit system where teams give the driver a deposit which would be returned upon arrival back into Newcastle if the bus if in the exact same condition as it was.

Read Peter’s full manifesto

Clara Pettitt

Studies: Mathematics

She has represented the university for Cross Country and Duathlon for the past 2 years, placing 2nd Newcastle student in both BUCS events for these sports. She was the first senior woman in the Town Moor Half Marathon and was part of the winning team at the Edinburgh Braids University Fell Race.

Her manifesto’s main points:

1. Hopes to work with The Courier, to ensure all sports are recognised equally, creating a termly newspaper that’s dedicated to recent sporting achievements only.
2. Post fixtures results on Twitter, and broadcast achievements on university screens, while also creating a calendar of regular fixtures that teams are playing at, in order to enable students to spectate and support.
3. Work with Northumbria University, to increase the sports that are represented in Stan Calvert. Create a list of all taster sessions and trials for teams and publicise these so that no student misses out on the opportunity to join a team.
4. Make all taster sessions free in Freshers Week.
5. To further the work Sophie has done this year, ensuring that students competing in Wednesday fixtures do not have their studies affected and hope to carry on the deal with Mizuno for kit.
6. Analyse the AU budget, distributing money fairly, ensuring all scholarships are given out fairly, while also attempting to make it non compulsory to have a silver membership at the Sports Centre to join all sports clubs, while maintain a strong relationship with the Sports Centre and organise a successful AU Ball available for all sport clubs.
7. Work with the sabbatical officers to encourage the introduction of welfare officer and ensure that measures are put in place so that all clubs have welfare officers by 2020.

Read Clara’s full manifesto

Watch her campaign video here

Click here to cast your vote.