Label’s Culture Editor, Courtney Ricketts, met up with Alex Williams in order to find out about his history with LSU Societies as well as getting to witness Williams’ breakdancing skills.
Why are you running for this position?
Why am I running for VP societies? Well basically at the moment it’s all I want to do… it’s what I hope my next year can be. I started breakdance society in my first year and I’ve loved it ever since. I have made friends from other societies, such as pole dance society and Rawkus and I see other people love societies as well and from that I realise that it’s not just about your degree at university, it’s about the whole experience that you have and societies provide you with such a great opportunity. It’s something that I really love. I want to do my best to carry on.
What new ideas will you bring to this role?
From my manifesto you can see I really want to push promotion and performance for societies. I want the societies to show off their talents and interests. I want to get them performing at nights in the LSU, and in the day at workshops. I want to bring people in. As I know from my experience that some of the societies especially struggle with getting enough members to their societies. I want to give them more opportunities to promote themselves and bring more people in.
What makes you more suited to this role than other candidates?
What makes me the most suited is my fun character and I’m easy to get along with but at the same time I’m hardworking. I’ll make sure that I’ll get the job done, whether it would be a job, whether it would be my education, whether it would be hobbies. Last year my friends nominated me for societies stripes award which I went on to win as well. I make sure things get done and I think that is what you need. You need someone who works hard yet also you need someone who is able to relax and have fun at the same time.
Can you tell us about your campaign theme?
I am going as Obama. How I ended up with this theme I don’t even know. My nickname was Hovis. Originally I was going to trying something about that, but trying to find a costume and stuff like that was too hard and too expensive. Using the Hovis theme, I just knew that it was not going to work and my friends posted a picture on groups and it’s a picture of a black guy in suit. At the bottom it says ‘vote for the black guy’. That’s where it started and then I was like I could go Obama from that, and it all just fit. Everyone thought it was good, because of our similar skin complexion I guess. I’m really enjoying it so far. I think it’s definitely the right choice.
What’s the most important aspect of your manifesto?
Hard to distinguish which is the most important part, but I’d choose to say university isn’t just about your degree it’s about the experiences which make your time valuable, and give you a greater student experience. We’re in a society now that so many people get degrees, and so many people are going into university, you need something to make you different. Not only that you need something to take stress away. I like to go to breakdance to take some of the stress away from exams. Take a break.
In one sentence why should people vote for you?
Vote for me. Let’s make the societies’ experience the best it can be!
To find out more about Alex’s manifesto, click here.
