Candidate 1
IMPROVING STUDENT FEEDBACK:
Loughborough Students’ Union has an exceptional system providing us with data that I feel could be better used for communication purposes. I would like to use this data to provide students with more precise surveys, to obtain specific and regular, in-depth, student feedback. This would provide the Students’ Union with more accurate and detailed student opinions.
Student participation and attendance at Student Forums has been limited. Subsequently, a truthful reflection of student opinion campus-wide is not being attained. I would have a complete overhaul of the current process of student forum and develop a strategic plan to ensure that the correct people attend and participate within the data collection process. This would provide a stepping stone towards making the Students’ Union a more desirable and more effective student environment, that would continue to uphold its established reputation.
TRANSPARENCY:
I would publicise the work of Union Affairs Committee, highlighting the importance of the decisions they make and the effect this has on the overall Union. I would include information regarding the committee and Student Forum increasing awareness of Loughborough’s prominent student democracy.
I would encourage more transparency with the Executive, releasing fortnightly videos from each section of no more than 90 seconds, notifying students of upcoming events and what the respective Executive member has accomplished. For those students who are unaware of what occurring within the Student Union, an increased social media presence would engage more of these individuals, alongside remaining current, creative and efficient.
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.
The role in which the candidate is standing for is “Affairs & Development” and they’ve given no mention of LSU’s new strategic plan and how they would intent to implement the new objectives, which is now an integral part of their role. So why has the candidate failed to discuss what is now half of they’re job title?
Their idea of surveys could be beneficial, but they’ve failed to explain any idea on what “precise” could mean. With the Exec typically going out and getting any student filling in the survey, how can the candidate guarantee the quality or response rate of feedback their claiming to be able to create?
The candidate also talks about Student Forum, and their point is, in premise, a considerable one. They haven’t given any inclination towards their proposed overhaul, and it’s a concern that the candidate would take down a format that at least functions, without having a suitable structure set to take its place. They have also not defined what ‘correct’ people attending would be? Student Forum has voting members who are elected from and by their bodies to make sure the most engaged students attend; which people would deem to be ‘correct’, I would like to see more clarification around their ideas.
When the candidate discusses transparency, they cover some formats that are already in place. The Union Affairs Committee produce reports at Student Forum and their minutes are published online. The information in which the candidate seeks to provide is already present on the relative page of the LSU website, so this point seems somewhat redundant.
Their idea of 90 second videos could develop into something fruitful, but the 2012-13 Executive attempted this to only take 30-50 views a video. The candidate hasn’t explained how they would market or put out these videos, with many people watching clips over media without sound.
The candidate doesn’t seem to have any mention of the Executive Elections, or in fact any elections within their manifesto. Is this not something that concerns them, due to this year having 3 large election seasons.
