Candidate 1
At the college there is often a feeling that the university students don’t respect the college or want them getting involved with events. I want to change this idea, to show that the college students as full and equal members of the students union can join societies and have nights out.
With societies there is a very low intake from college students particularly in FE I want to get more FE students involved. Additionally I want to improve Rag and Action at the college.
For HE students at the college I want to access to the Pilkington library added automatically onto student cards so they don’t have to have to wait to use it.
For all loucoll students I wish to implement a 48hour guaranteed email response from tutors/lecturers as I know this is often mentioned (with allowances for holiday and weekends).
For college students who are living in Loughborough there is currently no dedicated student GP service like the medi-center on campus for the university students, I want to try and gain access for these students as some would prefer to have access here rather than having to register in town.
Finally the welfare services at the college need improving, currently the college does not offer a proper counselling service (after having removed it in December 2016). I want to re-implement one or failing that get college students the right to access the university counselling service as this is an important for student’s mental health and wellbeing.
Candidate 2
Having been a student of both Loughborough College and Loughborough University, I have personally seen the disparity in the UK’s number one student experience. The current experience offered to College students is not the best in the UK, I aim to bring the experience up to par by working on the following:
Developing the Committee
Building on the work that has been done this year, I would like to further develop the College Committee by increasing the number of roles, having representatives from the committee sit on their relevant union section committees, working with the section committees to further engage college students.
Improving the Learner Rep scheme
I will build a reward scheme for the Learner representatives to celebrate their achievements and recognise the huge difference that student feedback is making, as well as developing additional training similar to that offered to Programme Reps through Student Voice.
Incorporating Loyalty points
I will further incorporate the LSU loyalty point scheme into the college, working on the teething issues experienced by many students. By working with the college shop, they would be able to have offers tailored to the things students want.
Building flexible social spaces
Current developments around the College shop and the installation of Starbucks have made a large impact, but I aim to create a social space at the College similar to the Piazza at LSU. The space could be used for flexible working, and also for casual social use, thus creating an LSU hub for College students.
R.O.N.
Hi, I’m R.O.N and I stand for Re-open nominations. It’s my job to make sure you’re aware of candidate shortcomings. If you don’t feel that the candidates are applicable to the role, have a read of MY manifesto, and vote R.O.N.
It seems that whilst the points the candidates make have positive connotations, neither candidate seems to fully have control over the points and promises they are attempting to make.
Both candidates talk about the improvement of section relations with the college. Whilst this point in principle would be good. Neither candidate has been able to give any clarification as to how. Whilst candidate 2 talks about the college committee, have they considered the implications this would have on positions already within the section committees, and by sticking a position on the side would negate the responsibility of certain positions or the relative officer. Candidate 1 however hasn’t given any indication on how he would make improvements regardless.
Candidate 1 has mentioned how they would like instant University library access and quicker response times to emails. Access to the university library is already available to college students with an external user’s application. And Loughborough college staff have a 7-day response time as standard. The candidate should look into the possibility of an easier application process, but the email response times isn’t something that’s enforceable by the students’ union, so it will be interesting to see how they seeks to do this.
Candidate 2 talks about learner rep rewards, but fails to specify what they may be, which doesn’t seem to offer any incentive for the reps alongside their apparent success. It would be interesting to see some more depth to this. Their loyalty points improvement doesn’t seem to have much background either. The college shop already has relevant offers, similar to that of the Union shop. However, they don’t seem to cover any form of HE issues regarding loyalty on LSU venue nights.
Candidate 2 also bats around the idea of flexible social spaces. The area in which they suggest already acts as such, and they offer no examples as to what ‘piazza’ will offer besides it’s already current use. Candidate 1 talks about the services, such as the University GP and the counselling service. The counselling service is still in place through a text service so is this point redundant?
