EXCLUSIVE: LEAKED email from union president reveals SUSU is back

After 70 per cent of students said they preferred the old union name

alex hovden rebrand union union president

The Soton Tab can exclusively reveal Union President Alex Hovden will push for SUSU to be reinstated as the name of the students’ union, after an email was anonymously leaked to us.

He writes “Clearly the results on the branding questions provide a strong mandate to change the name of the Union back to SUSU”.

An email sent to the union trustees, VPs and student representatives by Alex Hovden was anonymously leaked to the Soton Tab

More than 70 per cent of Southampton students said they preferred ‘SUSU’ to ‘Us.’ after the all student vote results were released yesterday.

Alex Hovden also confirmed he believes the union should stick to the new branding after it won with a smaller majority of 54% of the vote. He said “we have been clear all along that we will respect whatever result the students present us with.”

Many students took issue with the lack of student consultation regarding the rebrand, and in his strategy outline said the new brand and identity will “necessarily need to be based on wide-ranging consultation”.

The Union President also suggests coming up with a timeline for the change to be made, as well as letting students know “how they will be consulted moving forward and…over what timescale they can expect to see the result of the vote implemented”

He reiterated that “above all else, we must make sure we that we are listening throughout”.

Nearly 5,000 students participated in the vote.