6th November 2023
Listen
Listen
15 candidates are in the running for this year’s Student Officer Elections, where they will be campaigning to be the next Guild President. We interviewed each candidate with 6 questions, so that you, the students of UoL, can make an informed decision about who you would want to be your next Guild President. Here’s what they had to say…
1) Hi, I’m Sam Lange. I am 21, turning 22 tomorrow (28th January). I am from Jersey in the Channel Islands. I am a fourth year astrophysicist, currently doing an integrated masters. I work on the dance committee and I have been on the committee for the past year. I also work for the Christian Union on their events planning team.
2) My campaign is about fixing different things that I have found need improvement over the years that I have been here. It’s about listening and improving everyone’s lives around campus in every way that I can, every way that I thought of and every way that people come up and tell me what they need to do. It’s about working together to tackle the biggest issues on campus: mental health, climate change and inclusivity.
Sam Lange
1) My name is Sanjana, I’m a third year Psychology student.
2) Ultimately, my campaign is people centered. My policies are for students, they’re what I believe students want and what I have spoken to students about. Ultimately, my campaign is there to help make change and to help make University a better experience for everyone.
Sanjana Pattar
1) I am Baptiste and I am a fourth year French student, studying computer science and electronics. This year, I am part of the Liverpool Wilderness Medicine society. Medical students are very, very cool people.
2) I want to make the guild actions and societies more accessible to everyone – because I don’t think we can carry on more campaigns and actions as long as students aren’t aware of what exists around them.
Baptiste Audidier
1) I am Anna-Maria Hartley, I’m in my first year. I do psychology and I’m in the Christian union and rugby league.
2) My campaign is about fitness, increasing fitness, lowering the prices of fitness and increasing mental health awareness.
Anna-Maria Hartley
1) Hello, my name is Adnan Hussain and I am the current Guild President. I studied history and I’m from Birmingham.
2) My campaign focuses on student life: When you arrive in first year accommodation, you’re not aware of hidden costs such as laundry – I’m there to sort it out. If you’re living on Smithdown or Greenbank halls of residence, sometimes you need to get the bus into uni, but you don’t need a bus pass for limited hours, so I want to try and get ‘my-tickets’ for students so that it is cheaper bus travel. I am also focusing on student welfare, improving disability support, drugs harm reduction and cheaper gyms.
Adnan Hussain
1) I am Ely and I am a second year geology student.
2) My campaign mostly focuses on the minorities in the University: getting better access to mental health and pronouns/name changes for transgender students, renegotiating gym prices and tests for learning difficulties e.g. dyslexia/dyspraxia. At the moment, you have to pay for it first and then get it reimbursed and not many people can afford that.
Ely Votaw
1) My name’s Ffion, I’m a final year student studying sociology and history. I’m a member of the kayaking society and the treasurer of the arts society, and I also co-direct the Liverpool University Singers.
2) My campaign is based on 4 key manifesto points: The first being reforming module selection to make it a fairer, less stressful process. The second being cutting the sports costs for the gym and making sure we can pay in monthly installments. Thirdly, I want to increase mental health provision through increased funding to the counselling service and also supporting male mental health nation wide campaigns. Finally, I want to improve guild impact by creating a society calendar and also make sure the society storage is improved and better organised.
Ffion Thomas
1) My name is Atina Ndindeng, I am a Human Resource management student, doing a masters degree.
2) My campaign is my name:
A- Accountability
Atina Ndindeng
T- Transparency
I- Inclusion
N- Nurturing
A- Action
1) I’m Chloe, I’m a third year politics undergraduate student, and I’m social secretary for the Liverpool Labour Students.
2) There’s a lot about keeping students safe and protecting them, and just making sure everyone gets the best experience they can out of University, because I feel like the University sometimes forgets the needs of students at the moment.
Chloe Fields
1) Hi, I’m Che, I’m a third year History and Sociology student and I am the women’s officer for Labour Students, and the President of Beekeeping and Conservation. I am also on the women’s rugby team.
2) My campaign is essentially about holding the University to account. I think it’s time that they start putting student’s interests first and that we can stop being scared to tell them when things are going wrong.
Che Spencer Pote
1) I’m Hafiz, I’m a first year student studying mechatronics and robotic systems. I am part of the coding and robotics society, as well as the American Football team for the University.
2) Firstly, me, among other students, believe there should be greater variety in food in both the canteen as well as the guild shop, such as halal and kosher food. Easier or cheaper payments for the gym or AU – it not only helps people’s well-being, which I think is at a crisis right now [mental health] for students but it is also difficult to afford gyms these days.
Hafiz H Barakzahi
1) Hello, I’m Olivia, I’m a second year Classical Studies with Archeology student also studying Irish. I’m in about half the societies in the guild, but the main ones are debating, amnesty, film soc, RPG soc, salsa, art history society, and maybe a few others I haven’t been to in a while.
2) So, my whole campaign is based on fixing things that shouldn’t even be broken in the first place. It’s about finding all the little things that need to be done and haven’t been done and building up to make one big long lasting change.
Olivia Mackender
1) I’m Lily, I’m a third year physics student. In my spare time I go climbing and I do Salsa and I’m actually on the committee for Salsa society.
2) There are four key parts of my campaign: Firstly I want to create a safe student taxi scheme, so if you’re out on a night out and you don’t have any cash, you can get a cab home and pay for it at a later date. I also want to improve guild facilities to increase the amount of seating and make food and drink cheaper. I want to improve support for societies, because I think booking a room can be a bit of a nightmare, and just streamline that process to make it a bit easier. Lastly, I want to have more events in Mountford Hall, I think it’s a huge venue that doesn’t get used as much as it should.
Lily Denny
1) Hello, I’m Brad Rees, I’m a second year law student at the University, and I’m also the international ambassador to Canada, I’m a member of the Canadian legal society, and you’ll also find me working with various fundraisers around campus. I like to help out other societies, and my dream is to have guild led fundraisers at the University.
2) The big one is I want to see lower gym membership costs, and to do so I want to offer a weight room only membership. Additionally I want to see more student spaces out on campus, basically I want to see buildings open, all of them, until 9pm. I think this is a realistic change where we can keep all study spaces accessible to students. The final one is I want to see upgrades to Brownlow, and I want to campaign for it, I want to advocate to see walk-ins return and see a massive overhaul of our current clinic.
Brad Rees
1) I’m Imogen de Castro Gray, I’m a third year law student at the University of Liverpool. I’m the President of the Advocacy society, half Brazliaian and I’ve spent my life in Dubai.
2) Mine is all to do with having W.I.R.D.S, and it’s spelt wrong on purpose, I promise! It’s about improving well-being, having innovative ideas, cause a reduction [reduce cost with online textbooks] on campus, improving diversity and safety.
Imogen de Castro Gray
We hope you this has given you some insight into the running candidates for this years’ Student Officer Elections! Look out for the next article in this 3-part installment, which will be informing you about the reason why the candidates decided to run and how they think their campaigns/policies will impact the students at the University.
See the highlights of the Student Officer Candidate Interview via the link, made by our TV team at Liverpool Guild Student Media.
Co-authors: Beth Ure, Hannah Webber, Mila Vasey and Gemma Watson.
In-text and Featured Image Credit: Liverpool Guild Student Media
