ELECTIONS: ZAHID RAJA BECOMES NEXT PRESIDENT
By Lauren Phillips
ZAHID Raja made history after being elected president of Swansea University Students’ Union for the next academic year.
The current education officer won his campaign in a landslide victory with 77% of the vote, beating Lexi Woodward on 21%, making him the first black president of the Swansea SU in over two decades.
At the announcement, there was a unanimous cheer and chanting of his name. Mr Raja said: “It’s still not real.”
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- Zahid Raja (third from left)
Mr Raja’s manifesto pledges to freeze the price of drinks in JC’s, increase the number of postgraduate bursaries available to Swansea students and reward students who take part in societies and sports in their university transcript.
Mr Raja also aims to extend the university’s wireless network EduRoam across Swansea, enabling students in private accommodation to have free broadband.
As education officer, Mr Raja has introduced the role of Subject Rep for students in each of their departments; delivered 78,000 new e-books into the library and has ended evening and Wednesday afternoon lectures for the next academic year.
Mr Raja’s campaign focused on the institutional review, which affects the university every six years. He vowed that his experience as education officer was necessary to lead the Union and university through this review in the next academic year.
He said: “My biggest priority is to make sure that our university gets through that institutional review and to secondly put our students’ union in a good place for when we move to the bay campus.”
“We need to have a real debate about how many sabbatical officers our students union should have, what they should be and how they should be spread between two campuses.
“I’d like to say thank you to all of the subject reps for anybody who had a doubt about the subject rep system, they are awesome. “
In other results, five out the six remaining sabbatical officers elected were women, including international officer Eva Donoghue and sports officer Charlotte Peters.
ELECTIONS: BECKY CLINCHES WELFARE
By Catrin Lewis
BECKY Grimes has won to become the next welfare officer of Swansea University Students’ Union.
With 54.3% of the vote, Becky beat Josh Gaskell in the last round, who came second with 31% of the vote. The re-open nomination option received 2.3%
Becky, a medical sciences and humanities student, has promised in her manifesto to increase the provision of healthy and affordable food choices within the university’s food outlets and create an online advice service run by the Advice Centre and trained students.
She also promised to improve the wellbeing service: “We really need to sort out the wellbeing service. Only 1.35 counsellors for the entire student population is ridiculous and I really am a big fan of making sure that everyone is mentally well.”
Meanwhile, Mr Gaskell said: “Becky had a really strong campaign team, she’s fantastic… I’m really proud of my friend base and support team, but at the end of the day, she really put the effort in.”
Having worked for the Students’ Union and being a part of the St John LINKS committee for the past two years, Becky claims that she knows what will make a difference to the university experience.
CHARLOTTE WINS SPORT
By Jon Griffiths
CHARLOTTE Peters has won the election to become sports officer of Swansea University students’ union.
Charlotte took victory with 51% of the vote compared to her opponent Joel Stevens Leach who received less than 45% of the votes for sports officer. Votes for RON received 2% of the remaining vote.
Charlotte promised in her manifesto to maintain equal levels of help and support for all clubs, no matter what their size. She wants to have intramural leagues between colleges to help promote sport throughout the university and the student body. She also wishes to continue the current work of education officer Zahid Raja to keep Wednesdays free.
Charlotte has also promised to lobby for a greater subsidy for facility fees to help reduce costs for individuals, aiming to also improve match facilities for clubs currently feeling dissatisfied.
She said: “I’m just in shock a little bit. Obviously I’m massively, massively happy but it just hasn’t sunk in. I’m just all over the place at the minute.
“I’ve been campaigning all this week so hard and that’s all we’ve been focused on and now it’s all over.”
EVA FOR INTERNATIONAL
By Alice Eaton
EVA Donoghue has won the election to become International Officer of Swansea University student’s union. The final year law student won with 41% of the overall vote. She beat close contender Eleanna Mountaki who won 33.4% of the overall vote.
Gahtan Algahtani was first out of the running with 3.5%, followed by Hassan Hamdoun with 14.6%, and Seveone Ye with 22.4 % of the vote. Eva’s key manifesto promise is to introduce a Welcome Pack for international students upon their arrival at Swansea University. Other manifesto points include an Erasmus Support Group for past and future Erasmus students as well as an International Student Satisfaction Survey. Miss Donoghue said: “My biggest priority is definitely student involvement and getting the international students involved. “I thought Eleanna did incredibly and I definitely thought she was going to win. The biggest issue we had was getting students to vote. I would like to thank Kelly Jervis and her whole house, Becki Warrillow and my campaign team.” Eva has previously worked with the Black Students Committee after being elected to the position last year. She also has experience working with societies, a feature she intends to use as International Officer in order to make sure all of the cultural societies gain all the support they need.
SWARAN TAKES ON EDUCATION
By Rahul Vashisht
SWARAN Singh has won the election to become the education officer of Swansea University students’ union for 2013-14. The triathlon captain took 50.17% of the vote, gaining 10% more than runner up Nick Hoad, who took 40.02%.
Swaran promised in his manifesto to campaign to keep the library open over the weekends during exam time, and to ensure students receive personalised timetables emailed to them. He also said he would set up monthly workshops between all Subject Reps and the Education Officer. He described his victory as a “weight being lifted off [his] shoulders”, thanking his “small but clearly very effective” campaign team. He stated that he will be incorporating some ideas from his fellow candidates into his manifesto, though his biggest priority is a “work placement scheme for every course”, where students will be able to gain work experience relevant to their course. Mr Singh has had previous experience as a College Rep and a Student Ambassador, both of which help qualify him for his new role.
ELECTIONS: ROSIE IS NEW WOMENS’S OFFICER
By Emma James
ROSIE Inman has won the election to become women’s officer of Swansea students’ union. The second year Ancient History and Politics student took victory with 41% of the overall vote compared to her opponents; Keryn Jalli, Megan O’Connell and Fran Ferguson. Miss Jalli came in a close second with 35% of the vote.
Miss Inman promised in her manifesto to create dedicated Equality Forums to discuss all issues affecting people as well as promising to introduce a night bus service. She also promised to make sure that pregnancy tests and sanitary products are more accessible to all students and would ensure that the Zero Tolerance policy against discrimination would be pursued, especially within sports. Miss Inman said: “I was really happy [with the campaign] but at time there was so much of it and I didn’t think I could do it. “A lot of the reasons I won was because of the referendum about Equalities Officer, I think a lot of people are passionate about that. But I think it probably will take quite a bit of work.”
CEINWEN IN FOR SOCIETIES & SERVICES
By Alan Daventry
CEINWEN CLONEY has been elected as Swansea University students’ union Socıety and Servıces offıcer for the academıc year of 2013/14.
She won the overall vote by 48%, compared to the runner up, Sion Durham, who won 33% of the vote.
When her tenure begins, Ms Cloney will work closely with the Student Union’s Finance Manager.
Among some of Ms Cloney’s pledges are to introduce a second job fayre, introduce a shuttle bus service to the bus and train stations at the beginning and end of each term, and to produce a Society Handbook to ensure continuity for societies.
Miss Cloney, a BSc Medical Genetics student, said: “It is very surreal at the moment. Currently quite in shock.”
Runner up Sion Durham said: “To be honest I feel absolutely amazing as long as somebody won.
“I think Ms Cloney has done exceptionally well. Although I’m second that doesn’t matter to me…hopefully she will take on what I’ve done.”
Hustings will be broadcast here from midday on Monday 4th March: