Interviews: VP Welfare

As part of our Elections 2013 coverage, The Tab has been catching up with all the sabbatical candidates and hitting them with our own brand of questioning. This instalment features Josie Torrice, Josh Cox, Beckie Thomas who replied to a set of questions last week.

It’s worth making voters and Soton Tab fans aware that Sophie Brewer refused to respond despite seeing the questions and myself in person several times. Consequently waiting for her to reply has delayed the publishing of this article until the final day of voting. These candidates are all contesting for VP Welfare.

Sophie (the non-answerer), Josh, Beckie, Jared (who dropped out), Josie and RON

What has made you want to run for welfare specifically?

Josie: For me, Welfare is the most important role in the Student Union. Your happiness and well-being are absolutely crucial in ensuring you both do well in your degree, and also have a great time while in Southampton.
I have experienced how difficult Uni can be at times and I have supported friends who have similarly struggled. SUSU already offer so many fantastic services to help student welfare but the problem is letting students know about and feel able to access this support.
I have been on both sides of the fence with welfare, both seeking help and support myself and providing it to other students and so I think I am in a good position to improve, extend and promote the services SUSU currently offer.

Beckie: I’m passionate that everyone should be really happy at uni and should know about the support systems in place to ensure this! The role of Welfare VP provides me with an amazing opportunity to positively tackle the issues that affect students everyday.

Josh: My passion for welfare started before I came to University. I have always been very active in promoting welfare issues and supporting close friends and family when any issues have arisen. Since coming to uni I have tried to increase my involvement in the area by running for Campaigns Officer and Union Councillor in my first year. I have always been quite vocal about areas that I believe are right and wrong and this has only spurred me on to do more. My year as E&E Officer has only developed my passion further and I have realised this year that there is not enough sabbatical lead on sustainability issues and is one of the main reasons for me running to be VP Welfare. I am also running because I have had a lot of ideas come to my mind this year and there is no point in sitting on them, this felt like the right time for me and I feel I can make a true difference to Welfare in SUSU.

What can you bring to welfare that SUSU has never seen before?

Josie: When I first came to Southampton I was disengaged with the union and I saw how frustratingly closed off and inaccessible it was. Since then I have run a society, been elected onto Union Council and become a Welfare Officer. I’ve seen SUSU from both sides, I know how the system works, and more importantly, how it doesn’t work!I want to consult students on what they want by going to society meetings and being on campus, not hidden away in the Sabbatical office.
I’m already working on creating a monthly Sabbatical ‘Question Time’ in the Concourse or Bridge so that the Sab’s are more visible, approachable and accountable. Finally I think my manifesto is very different to previous ones. I’ve taken a more hollistic approach to Welfare, rather than focussing solely on green issues or the counselling service, I’ve tried to tackle the causes of students welfare problems. I want a more inclusive, representative, relaxing and welcoming campus environment – with a proactive welfare policy which reaches out to students, rather than waiting for them to hit rock bottom and have to search for support.

Beckie: I’ll bring the fight that’s needed to get students what they deserve; ongoing pastoral support (removing the current 6 week counselling cut-off), providing kettles/ microwaves on campus for student use (particularly in exam period), sturdy bike locks available cheaply from the SUSU shop, a bottle bank on campus for easier access to glass recycling, and much more! . . .

Josh: I have focused quite strongly on ensuring that I am a sabbatical who is truly in touch with the student body. A lot of controversy has arisen this year about sabbaticals not being in touch with their student delegate[sic] and I have promised as part of my manifesto that I will go out and represent what the STUDENTS want is to be shouting about. It is important to go out and talk to our students. SUSU is the voice of 23,000 students and the students should be telling us what we should be representing not us telling the students what we want SUSU to represent. Let’s move away from internal politics and get back to being a true Students Union.

What is the worst part/idea in your fellow candidates manifesto’s?

Josie: I think the main problem with the other manifesto’s is lack of research. Many of the suggested policies, such as more recycling and fair trade products in the shop – are already in place. We already get automatic council tax exemption and awareness ‘weeks’ have been proven ineffective – I think we need more substantial solutions to students welfare needs. I have spoken with the current VP Welfare and students to establish what key welfare areas are problematic and how I can establish realistic, achievable policies to combat these issues.

Beckie: Declined to answer, how dull

Josh: If I had to pick parts out, I would say that Sophie’s policy on recycling wouldn’t really work within our students union. Recycling has become a big part of the Union and there is no way we can justify reimbursing/paying our students to recycle as there just aren’t the funds for it. We also run the risk of incentivising everything…which definitely isn’t the way forward! I think Beckie has some great ideas but they need some development, the idea about bikes and their safety isn’t necessarily appropriate as the university does provide bike sheds that are locked at halls and on campus we may just need to point them out more and ensure students have signed up to use them! The thing to say about Josie is she has a lot in her manifesto and I am not sure how much of it she could achieve in one year in office, Jared once again brings up some excellent points but I am not sure how developed the ideas are and how easily achieved they would be.

Should SUSU have an ethics policy and will that run the risk of disengaging certain students such as DTUS?

Josie: SUSU is YOUR Students Union, our job is to represent your views, not to push our own agenda (whatever that might be). Before any decisions are made on a SUSU ethics policy there needs to be wide consultation with all students to make sure that the policy reflects their views.
It’s important that SUSU listens to what students want and many have expressed an interest in ethical issues such as which companies we promote on campus. However in promoting ethical values we need to make sure not to alienate groups such as DTUS students, or impose the view of a small minority on all 23,000 students in Southampton.

Beckie: SUSU should definitely have some sort of ethics policy, I’ve already taken part in discussions at the open union council and am working in the business ethics policy discussion group to find a way forwards that won’t harm the welfare of our students such as those in DTUS in terms of career prospects.

Josh: I think there is scope for an ethics policy in SUSU, but I don’t think it is something that we can rush! It needs consultation for A LOT of students in A LOT of different ways. We have an issue in SUSU where we try one way of engaging and if it doesn’t work we stop. We need to try every method possible to engage and ask students what they want from this ethics policy. As a students union we need to be careful that we do not disadvantage our students. Banning is not the way forward, as a Union we should be educating and allowing our students to make the choice themselves as opposed to making the decision internally without full consultation.

How do you plan to reach disengaged groups such has health sciences, post grads and international students with your campaigns?

Josie: I would tackle general student disengagement by making SUSU more transparent. Moving the Sabbatical office out of the basement, implementing a monthly Sab[sic] ‘Question Time’, and going along to as many society events as possible, focussing on disengaged students groups, and asking them what they want.
To promote individual campaigns I think the most important first step is to involve students in the campaign-making process. Campaigns need to be student led and Sab-supported, not the other way around. I want to use social media, facebook polls, twitter & student surveys to determine which issues really matter students and how I can best support them in running campaigns and making policy.

Beckie: By forming a strong network of communication encompassing the welfare student leaders, course representatives within the health sciences, the postgrad students officer and the international students officer. In addition to this I will encourage them all to attend the many exciting union wide events that I will be organising!

Josh: Another one of my big campaign aims is to ensure that we are taking our campaigns to the students rather than expecting the students to come to us! I want to ensure that campaigns aren’t only based on Highfield but where possible we take them to SGH, NOC, Winchester and Avenue. We can’t assume that all our students will engage with our campaigns and online campaigning can be really useful here. Social media has become such a powerful tool and is a great way to engage with students quickly and in huge volumes. I want to ensure that we increase our campaign presence online so we can engage with a lot more students from a lot of areas. Postgraduate cake and coffee is a fantastic way to engage with postgrads and simply chat about the campaigns they want to see. I am keen to take events like Tea and Talk to our sites to ensure we are truly reaching out to the masses. SUSU isn’t just Highfield campus yet a lot of people seem to forget this.