Last week Label had the opportunity to interview Dave Tingle, a Loughborough aeronautical engineering student who is running for the role of VP Welfare and Diversity against Maz Haider and Izzy Ford. Dave grew in confidence throughout the interview and showed he had really put thought and effort into his manifesto points through the answers he gave. We asked Dave the five big questions and these are his answers:
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What do you think of the current Welfare and Diversity and is there anything you would plan to do differently if you were in that position next year?
"I get on really well with Georgie and I think that she has done a fantastic job. I don’t know how on earth she manages everything that she is doing starting the role from the first time because it takes so much more work to start something completely new. Whereas once you have the blueprint its fine, you can adjust it and develop it, but developing that initial blueprint is really impressive. If I was in the role I would develop it further away from the roles of SocFed and Global Development Officer which arguably it has kind of got into. A lot of the diverse events were always a part of the remit of the Global Development Officer and Socfed and that has created a bit of friction where no one knows whose event it is. I was on the committee that set up the position and it never meant to do that. It was meant to instead help international students with their visas and help them to integrate for example and that is not really international events. It is more meeting people off buses and telling people where things are whereas currently I think that we are drifting off into the role of Global DO and Socfed, which we have done a great job at , however if I was elected I would take it away more towards what it is meant to be."
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What is your one main manifesto point?
"One of my main manifesto points is speaking to 500 students a week, which sounds unachievable, but if you think about it, it is only about 70 students a day which is two bus stops and a hall so it is easily achievable. I think that this is crucial because all of the welfare, and potentially the diverse issues of getting more diverse groups involved, are all to do with a lack of contact and students not knowing about the services that are available. This will never be achieved unless you are talking to students and you cannot just do this sitting in an office doing it on facebook because you are talking to the people that are already engaged, which is a lot of people but they aren’t really the people that you need to specifically target. So one of my main points is spending more time out of the office and being accessible. If I stick to that I think that it is easily possible to talk to 500 students or more. I think that the bare minimum for every exec member is for every student to have the opportunity to speak to their Exec."
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Why should students vote for you to be the next head of VP Welfare and Diversity over anyone else in Loughborough?
"I’m very self motivated and I actively, genuinely, care. I also stick to my manifesto points which is fairly rare. You can see this in all of my Exec reports: I’m the only exec member to post my manifesto points on there and tick them off as I go along. If something is not working out I post that it isn’t and how to resolve it; I did that last year and all of them eventually got ticked off. I’m very honest and think that I would be the best person for this role because I stick to what I say that I am going to do. Someone might say that they would do the same thing as me but I would actually do it. If you look at a lot of the manifesto points from last year a lot of them have not been done but I would genuinely stick to everything."
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In one sentence, can you sum up what you think the role of VP Welfare and Diversity involves?
"I think that the role involves keeping everyone happy, motivated, involved and healthy in every way."
All answers given are those of the candidates, recorded and transcribed word for word, and are not influenced by our writers.
Dave is running as Dave 'Pringle' Tingle is this years Executive Elections against Maz Haider and Izzy Ford. To read their responses to the big five questions click on their names above.
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