Lucy Green for Director of Representation

[ludy]

Just a quick introduction:

My name is Lucy Green, I’m a fourth year Sustainable Development student and I’m from the North. I’m running for Director of Representation because I’m determined to show that ordinary students can make a real difference to the Association, and that the Association can make a real difference to them. I may never have been a hack, but I have been a student, in lots of departments, in private accommodation and in halls as senior student. I’m willing to listen and learn from every student in this university, and find ways to make sure that you are all heard when it matters.

These are the policies I’m committed to:

Representation
• Making sure students are consulted on new developments, not just for the sake of it, but so your priorities are met.
• Encouraging every student to get involved with the bodies that represent you, from classes up to national level, by promoting more face to face meetings.

Accommodation
• Campaigning for affordable accommodation for as many students as possible, and keeping students involved with planning processes.
• Keeping the union involved with private landlords to get the best value and service for students.

Environment
• Supporting the university’s aim to become a leader in sustainability, and making sure the Association is a key part of that.

Education
• Engaging the academic staff of the university with the students to make teaching more responsive, by strengthening the class reps and staff/student council systems.

Please feel free to post any questions you might have below and I'll do my best to answer them.

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http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37105476

[Bizarre Atheist]

"Representation is the least sexy thing we do." - Tom d'Ardenne, local magician.

Discuss.

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[ludy]

Thank you for the question, it's good to get some debate going!

First of all I think it would be a mistake to assume that because representation is less 'sexy' than other things makes it is less important. There are many important services that we think of as being a bit dull but are glad that they're there when we need them. So while students might not be too thrilled by the amount of meetings that goes in to something like negotiating accommodation prices, they'd be rightly hacked off if price hikes went on unopposed. The problem seems to be that they don't know what's going, or what they *could* do to get inovlved.

So are there things that we could do to make representation 'sexier'? Almost certainly. I for one would like to see the workings of the union made more public, ideally by getting people face to face with their officers. The work that's been done on slimming down the SRC is a good start, hopefully it will make meetings more succint. Similarly moving SRC meetings into halls of residence is a good way of making them more easily available to students. I'd like to ensure that meetings are publicised in as dynamic a way as possible so that students know when issues that concern them are up for discussion. I'd also like to see time set aside each week for the sabbaticals to meet students, not just one on one (which is of course important too), but in an open forum where we can get some debate going about what they've been up to.

On a similar note I think it's important that we try and address all students, not just those that are already involved in union politics. While not everything the union does is relevant to every student, something that it does is. We need to be sure that we're getting out the message that representation involves everyone- and I really do think people would care, if they knew more about what goes on.

So, to conclude - representation may not be sexy, but it could be if we got enough people involved, and the way to do that is to let them know that representation IS relevant to them.

Hope that goes some way towards answering your question, if you want to know more/ disagree with me in a public forum then please come along to hecklings tomorrow in Venue 2, DoR candidates are heckling from 11.30 onwards.


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http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8775799612

[Jono]

Hey Lucy.

Pretty much the same question I Gave to Harry. There are a lot of apathetic and apolitical Students out there who, quite legitimately, want to be left alone to enjoy their time at uni without members of the SRC piddling on their consciences about environmental issues, free education and participatory democracy. What will you do this coming year to accommodate these people?

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Jonathan Davies for SSC Societies Officer

[Harry Giles]

> Similarly moving SRC meetings into halls
> of residence is a good way of making them
> more easily available to students.

Just a quick note: we have actually tried this a few times in the SRC over the past two years (it was either my idea or Tom D'Ardenne's idea to begin with, I think), and it turned out not to work very well, which was a shame. In the end, people found it harder to know where the meetings were going to be each week, many students were unable to attend because they couldn't get into halls, and hall residents were annoyed at us using their common spaces. It was a good idea, but one that just didn't work out, we eneded up deciding.

[LK Today]

Question to all DoR candidates...

Engaging with students is a two-way process. Discuss.

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http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37102636

[munchingfoo]

Do you find the slogan, "Students not Slogans" ironic?

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“Argue with an idiot long enough and people will fail to see the difference”

[duckgirl]

You have not mentioned Equal Opportunities and Welfare, despite it being one of the 4 committees and covering a huge number of issues that affect students. Do you think Equal Ops and Welfare is important as an area of representation, what do you think the key issues are, and what would you do to address them?

[the Empress]

There are some things inherently wrong with this 'question'. The assumption that students who are not involved in 'student politics' are somehow 'apathetic' and 'apolitical' in general is ridiculous. 'Student politics' is not the only, or even the most legitimate way, to express your ethics and politcal affiliations. Activism may occur in many ways, for example protests, other organisations, simply in how you conduct yourself and whether you live your life in a sustainable manner. The presumptive statement that students who do not involve themselves with or engage with the SSC/SRC simply don't care about democracy or environmental issues is frankly wrong, and exactly the kind of attitude that alienates people from student politics.

Quoting Jono from 15:12, 10th Mar 2008
Hey Lucy.

Pretty much the same question I Gave to Harry. There are a lot of apathetic and apolitical Students out there who, quite legitimately, want to be left alone to enjoy their time at uni without members of the SRC piddling on their consciences about environmental issues, free education and participatory democracy. What will you do this coming year to accommodate these people?

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Jonathan Davies for SSC Societies Officer

[ludy]

(Apologies for the delay in answering your questions guys, hecklings rather stole my life for the last couple of days.)

I hope you won't mind if I try to answer the questions about 'apathetic' students and the two way process of engagement together, they're clearly about the same issue.

First of all I'd like to say that I agree very much with the comment theEmpress made on this thread about involvement with student politics not representing the be all and end all of an active political life. However, returning to a point I've made repeatedly, I do think that the work of the Association IS relevant to each student, at least some of the time. I think that the example given here (free education) is a good one, in that it is something that applies to everyone. Some of the least political people I know were really interested in the graduate endowment issue, because it directly affected them. So in terms of policies as DoR I think we need to expect both more and less form the student body- we need to be realistic about things like SRC meetings, they're never going to be the social event of the semester. Saying that I think we could expect more participation on issues that are really important to individuals if we could communicate to them appropriately - so let's email the fourth and fifth years about the graduate endowment and make it easy for them to express their views.

To sum up, I think it's important to recognise that students are not so much disintereseted as disaffected by the perception of student politics as irelevant. The role of DoR is to facilitate involvement by informing students of what is relevant. And if we're doing something that really isn't relevant then let's look at why we're doing it.

Right, question 2: Welfare and Equal Opportunities.
It's true that I haven't really mentioned welfare and equal ops, not because I think it's less important than other areas but because I think it is one where it is more appropriate to respond to things as they happen. In many ways welfare is something the majority of students can forget about until they need it - to me the role here is about facilitating access to services, many of which we already have in place.

That said one issue I have come to think of as particularly important is how we facilitate the representation of minorities in the Association (and thanks to some of the candidates for other posts for getting me thinking on this!). By this I mean not just international students, but also groups like post-grads who can feel marginalised. In terms of addressing this issue I think it's important to recognise that representation at the society level is already happening in a lot of instances (eg. LGBT, Asian Soc). What I would like to do is work with those groups to find out exactly what issues they face and what the Association can do to address them. I'm sorry if that doesn't sound very concrete, I think welfare/equal ops is a tricky one to talk about before you have the experience of dealing wtih it day to day - which is why I'm really willing to learn from not only those with more experience, but those directly affected.

Final point - Mr MunchingFoo Sir, I believe firmly in irony, but am crap at thinking up slogans. That is all.


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http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8775799612

[Jono]

Quoting the Empress from 20:31, 11th Mar 2008
There are some things inherently wrong with this 'question'. The assumption that students who are not involved in 'student politics' are somehow 'apathetic' and 'apolitical' in general is ridiculous. 'Student politics' is not the only, or even the most legitimate way, to express your ethics and politcal affiliations. Activism may occur in many ways, for example protests, other organisations, simply in how you conduct yourself and whether you live your life in a sustainable manner. The presumptive statement that students who do not involve themselves with or engage with the SSC/SRC simply don't care about democracy or environmental issues is frankly wrong, and exactly the kind of attitude that alienates people from student politics.

Quoting Jono from 15:12, 10th Mar 2008
Hey Lucy.

Pretty much the same question I Gave to Harry. There are a lot of apathetic and apolitical Students out there who, quite legitimately, want to be left alone to enjoy their time at uni without members of the SRC piddling on their consciences about environmental issues, free education and participatory democracy. What will you do this coming year to accommodate these people?

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Jonathan Davies for SSC Societies Officer

I didn't say that anyone who refuses to join in the conga line is a habitual apathetic! Quite the opposite (perhaps apathetic is the wrong word). I was referring to those actual students who don't want anything to do with the SRC. Whether because they disagree with the line the SRC pushes (on green issues for example), or for whatever other reason, they don't feel represented by the work of the Association, and don't engage with it as a result.

My question is, how will you, over the next year, come to represent the views of these people without forcing them to associate with campaigns they might disagree with?

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Jonathan Davies for SSC Societies Officer

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2 ... 144&ref=mf

[Mr Comedy]

Ok. As former Student Support Officer (which I believe might now be called something different, like Equal Opportunities & Welfare) and a DoR runner in years gone by:

- What do you think are the major issues impacting access to learning for physical and learning disabled students?
- What do you intend to do about these issues?
- How will you work in conjunction with Student Support Services?

I think this is one of the biggest areas that needs impacting, as far as my understanding goes. What do you intend to do about it?

Dave Vinton
Nominated for Milk Monitor at School

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"I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea. " -Lu Tung