Exec Elections Leaflet Two 26. 02. 16
Campaign Week Overview What are the Bubble Debates and are they necessary? Education, Finance, College and Media Manifesto Critiques
MANIFESTO CRITIQUES
We’re now onto day five of campaigning, and what a week it’s been! This week Label have been providing you with daily round-ups of what’s been happening during campaigning, whilst Beatrice Quarshie has been treating you to a variety of sweet things on campus in her daily articles. Not only have we had daily updates concerning campaigns, sweets and “eyecandy”, we’ve also been keeping you up to date with all the bans of Elections so far. Various candidates have breached parts of the Elections handbook, resulting in campaign bans of several hours. We keep you posted in our “Who’s banned NOW?!” article online. But how is campaigning going really? Nothing too controversial has happened, there have been a few big stories but overall, it seems like we can’t pick out winners for most positions just yet. In this leaflet, we have articles on the Bubble Debates, a look at RON Manifestos and more Manifesto Critiques on Education, Media, Finance and College EO candidates. Our writers look into a few points from each manifesto to see what they’re outlining whilst also raising a few questions to consider the viability of some of the ideas presented. For further questions with replies from candidates, check out our interviews and be sure to check out our coverage on the Bubble Debates from 1pm on Sunday! Our final Exec Elections update leaflet will be available this Monday as voting opens and we look forward to results night! Katie Wilson Label Editor
CANDIDATE
As this year’s only Education EO candidate, Lewis Wood has compiled a comprehensive manifesto and does well to appeal to a wide range of students. The experience Lewis has as a Hall Chair, Programme Representative and member of Union Affairs Committee shows a range of experience. However, some may question that because he has not been a Programme President he may not have extensive experience in the knowing how departments are run. Lewis places great emphasis on increasing the input Postgraduates have. Through consulting with Postgraduates Lewis strives improve their university experience. The fact he acknowledges that their input is crucial should aid him in making their voices heard and fundamentally making their university experience better. Increasing the transparency of where departments are spending tuition fees is potentially one of Lewis’s most ambitious yet commendable points, as it is something the student population as a whole will see the benefit of. However, only time will tell if the university will cooperate with Lewis and aid him in his endeavour to produce the report. The penultimate point of Lewis’ manifesto states how he hopes to increase the reputation of the DSF. Unfortunately Lewis is rather vague in how he hopes to increase their reputation so let’s hope he can elaborate and clarify just how he plans to do this in the Bubble Debate. The idea of a “Collaborations Officer” in departments could prove very beneficial for students as it would work with the various sections of the union, thus improving your CV while remaining relevant to your course choice. Beatrice Quarshie Label Features Editor
Illustration by Alice Bindloss
LEWIS WOOD
EDITORIAL
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EDUCATION
Illustration by Kirin Crooks
FINANCE CANDIDATES MELISSA LANGAN
JAMES ROWE
Melissa Langan hopes to be your next Finance and Commercial Services Executive Officer. Her first proposition is to create an “LSU app”, whereby advertising for activities, events, deal offers and LSU’s calendar of events will be available for all students to access.
James Rowe hopes to be your next Finance and Commercial Services Executive Officer. With a refined list of objectives, this proves his mind is set on achieving specific goals: to “develop accessibility, transparency, innovation, engagement and awareness”.
This would definitely make communications with students more direct and effective – but how much work will it take to maintain and update the app on a regular basis? Would this require another team member? If this proposition did materialise, it would undoubtedly see the technological advance which could give LSU that innovative boost in this department.
Rowe intends to introduce an app to “make loyalty points and offers more accessible and rewarding”, which would no doubt encourage more student interaction with LSU. The app, Rowe says, “would allow you to keep track of your loyalty points and platinum deals”, which may well be an idea long overdue – but is there a potential to use this app to a greater extent?
Langan furthermore hopes to “develop relationships between departments at the Union” which will make LSU run more smoothly. By proposing a “Wild Card” evening at the end of the year, this would encourage halls to come together to “create all types of events and activities through the day and night”. Langan also proposes “Union Hall Events” which “would give halls an opportunity to take advantage of the LSU facilities” with events such as “open mic night, beer pong tournaments, live music or pre-drinks” – though this would inspire the opportunity to make the most of LSU, are the activities diverse enough for those who prefer daytime activities, should we be promoting drinking in this way? Furthermore, Melissa Langan suggests the involvement of “performance, art and music societies to entertain the students whilst also increasing exposure to their society”. With some great ideas concerning LSU’s future, will Melissa Langan get your vote to be your potential Finance and Commercial Services Executive Officer?
Rowe intends to make budgeting for committees across the union easier so they can “easily view their budgets and money remaining in their accounts”. This would make manageability much simpler, but how effectively would this be done? With his “transparency” objective, Rowe “will continue to develop the long-term financial plan for the development of the union building, publishing any changes regularly”, which will “fully engage students”. With the Commercial Committee, he also plans to “open it up to campus-wide elections”, ultimately involving more students. Rowe also wants to “explore the viability of a bike transport network around the university, similar to Boris bikes in London”, increasing student activity both on and off campus. Additionally, he plans to “create a Hall Alumni fund in order to increase hall budgets and allow alumni students to demand better alumni events” and “create a weekend dedicated to getting placement students to return to the university, providing specific commercial deals as an incentive” – emphasising the importance of all students. Taking all of the above into account, will James Rowe be getting your vote? Alice Priestley Features Editor
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COLLEGE CANDIDATES JOSHUA TOMPSON
Unfortunately it takes Nathan a while in his manifesto to get round to saying what he will actually do for College students as the first two paragraphs are taken up by rather generally saying that he wants college students to “get the most out of their Loughborough experience” and outlining his own experience at the university. This experience is relatively promising however, from being involved with AU to RAG and Action. These obviously aren’t specific to the college but it proves a familiarity with the union and its processes that is always helpful.
Joshua begins his manifesto by making clear that he has been a student at both the university and the college and notes that there is a difference between the Loughborough experience for a college student and a university student. This is a promising start and his experience is clear but what differences he has noticed, he doesn’t describe in much detail (although he does name some specific differences in his manifesto points). A quick summing up of the general differences would perhaps reinforce that Joshua’s experience will help him the position.
Nathan’s first point is to give college students more of a voice by encouraging them to take part in LSU democracies. A bit more detail would be helpful here, as to what steps or initiatives Nathan will take to implement this. Despite this he lists some of the “democracies” he mentioned, such as Union Affairs Committee and Student Forum, which shows he knows where to start, he clearly felt he didn’t have enough words left to more clearly outline the idea.
Joshua’s decision to outline his three main manifesto points clearly is a good one, and focuses on the specific things he will do as College EO. The first of which is to affiliate students in The Gables with other halls on campus for freshers week. Although this does seem like an achievable goal, its impact on the college experience following freshers week could be non-existent. His second manifesto point of introducing a card college students can use in the union to collect points is a positive idea, but is perhaps too small scale to drastically impact the union experience of college students in a way Joshua promises to in his opening paragraph.
He goes on to say he would schedule events at college during the day to improve attendance as many students will go home straight after lectures. The likely success of this idea seems suspect, and it could take a lot more than time changes to encourage more college students to attend events. Overall Nathan’s manifesto seems to mainly be a list of ends without the means. Although this is likely in no small part due to word count restrictions and perhaps too much of a focus on his previous experience, which some may argue is not especially relevant to the role, Nathan’s main task whilst campaigning will be to speak more clearly on the action he wishes to take.
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Joshua’s final point of setting up a “system whereby clubs and societies can run taster sessions for FE students” seems a bit more long lasting than his other two but the viability of it remains to be seen. It also seems based on a ‘build it and they will come’ attitude and it may take more to entice college students to attend. Overall, Joshua’s manifesto benefits from its clarity but he may need to come up with bigger, broader policies to win the public vote. Jamie Hutton News Editor
Illustration by Sarah Rathbone
NATHAN FLYNN
MEDIA
Jennifer ‘JT’ Taylor hopes to be your next Media Executive Officer. Being the current Assistant Station Manager of LCR, former Hall Media Chair, former Media Rep and Towers Hall Chair, she has plentiful experience in and across a range of departments. If elected, Jennifer will encourage a “restructuring of current media committees”, which will encourage more cross-platforming. This will be done by “making use of content coordinators” ensuring a more balanced delegation of responsibility. Additionally, Taylor wants to “work to create a link with all other sections of the union and their media teams”, having a “large focus on Sport” and ultimately “bringing all union media output to one LSU Media website”. Though this will unite all media departments and potentially improve online presence, what will happen to the other sections?
Illustration by Alice Bindloss
JT also puts emphasis on volunteer contribution and proposes to “create more internal media opportunities based upon interest of content, and build teams of volunteers” – but what exactly will be done differently to recruit those all-important volunteers? Jennifer also promises to build employment opportunities regarding media work experience, “put in place a training plan” ensuring that this is “executed throughout the whole year” and finally, “increase the presence of LSU Media on campus with an aim to market the correct content to the correct student groups”. Media is a huge element of Loughborough Students’ Union, and it’s great to see that Jennifer Taylor has considered the aspects which ultimately form the foundations of Media, during and post university. Will you join #TeamJT or consider RON? Alice Priestley Features Editor
As this week draws to a close, Label looks back at what the candidates got up to this week. Sunday saw the live launch in the Piazza. However before the live launch had even started Luke Thomson re-running for Sport EO received the first ban of #EE2016 due to pre-campaigning and received a 12-hour social media ban. Sunday night saw a flurry of notifications on Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat after candidate themes had been announced. Following the live launch candidates and their campaign teams headed to Firefly before the first full day of campaigning begun. Monday morning saw campus receive the first Exec Elections Leaflet released with manifesto critiques of the Union Affairs, President, Action and RAG manifestos. Students were also greeted with the first appearance of candidates’ posters and sweets all week long. The second ban of #EE2016 went to Societies EO candidate Esther Malkinson who received a 6-hour ban following the Disney Society posting on Facebook in support of her. Monday night also saw the battle of Sport candidates’ videos with Jack’s virtual beanstalk video going up against Luke’s Sky Sports News announcement.
CAMPAIGN WEEK OVERVIEW
JENNIFER TAYLOR
CANDIDATE
MANIFESTO CRITIQUES
Day two saw the candidates extend their campaigns to the college. Tuesday evening saw Jack Mynott receive a 4-hour ban after failing to include the beanstalk part of his costume in his budget. The evening also saw LCR’s Tom Haslam and Kushal Shah catch up with JT and Jon Ako. After the third day of campaigning we heard LCR’s Kushal Shah and Dannie Jones chat to Charlie Dale, Joe RossNelson, Mel Langan, James Rowe and Lewis Wood. Day four saw the announcement of Media members heading down to the capital and gauging the opinion on the elections from the London campus as well as a ban for James Rowemance. Beatrice Quarshie Features Editor
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O F O R F O R F O R
They may see the odd person in a rather extravagant costume march through a few lectures, but they’re essentially missing out on everything going down on campus, and so, are less likely to get involved. It’s fair to say how much effort each candidate puts into everything will pay off and is the most important aspect, and not just social media interaction, but this undoubtedly has become an integral element in today’s day and age and will only boost awareness of individual campaigns further. Alice Priestley Features Editor
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Not only does social media provide a wide variety of platforms to interact with their potential voters, but a range of ways for the voters to interact with their favoured candidates as well. There’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat (and more I’m sure) where all candidates take to the stage to show their involvement and activity during the hectic campaign time. Guaranteed, you’re bound to have at least two of these apps on your phone. It’s almost difficult to not see campaigns across
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all for campaigns and can encourage bias, let’s not forget the students who live in town.
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as we all know, we’re pretty much run by the internet and our beloved devices. And with that, campaigning is, too.
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social media, simply due to the plain power of it. But this isn’t a bad thing at all. Though some would argue social media is not necessary at
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Campaigning involves a lot of effort from a variety of different angles and approaches to secure those all-important votes. Nowadays,
Social media is one of the main ways in which the Exec Election candidates reach out to the majority of students. For the 10 days of campaigning, students are bombarded with Facebook notifications, clogged up newsfeeds, Snapchat stories and tweets all letting us know what the candidates are up to and why we should vote for them. This social media bombardment is on top of stopping students on the way to lectures and knocking on hall doors. Arguably, there is so much content everywhere that students simply switch off and don't respond to it. Having already talked to candidates and their campaign teams on campus, I do not want to go home and read about it when I'm trying to have a study break. This year it seems that
campaigners are more persistent than ever, with them following students on twitter and inviting them to like endless Facebook pages. There is simply too much content being posted, and it is hard for even the keenest Exec Election fan to keep up with it. I would propose that a much better solution is to have one Facebook page that candidates can post in, then people can seek out the information if they want to, rather than having it forced upon them. Many students aren't taking an interest in the Exec Elections whatsoever, and they should be. By toning down the social media posts, I think students may actually be willing to get involved, and not tune out. Ellie Mackenzie
News Editor
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Design by Lam Hopley
A G A I N S T A G A I N S T A G A I N S T
Is social media campaigning the most important part?
A Serious Challenge or Child’s Play? This Sunday Loughborough Students’ Union puts on the biggest show of the Exec Elections, the Bubble Debate. Not quite the Fox News debates but something along
opportunity for the candidates to talk about their manifestos. However now that everyone has been given a greater opportunity to view and analyse the manifestos, the impact of them at the Bubble
those lines. Each candidate will have an hour to sell their ideas whilst students have the opportunity to scrutinise manifestos and analyse the serious person behind the campaigns.
Debate becomes null and void.
In recent years the bubble debate has been the defining moment in elections where candidates appear to make it or break it. Deciding on who The Bubble Debates stand as a platform away from to vote for can often be a difficult process with so the day to day jovial side of campaigning and gets much media and door knocking constantly in your down to the nitty gritty of what face. Giving the candidates What are the each candidate has to offer. a platform to get their points across and see how they perform But is the Bubble Debate now and are they necessary? under pressure is an important pointless? The Bubble Debate part of deciding who to vote for. is now entering its 4th year in one form or another. This year Max Crawford, VP Union Affairs has It’s a beautiful addition to this wild topsy turvy 10 tried to make this elections more weighted on the days we call Exec Elections. It brings it back down candidates’ manifestos rather than the popularity to earth and can make a hero of a candidate or status of candidates, which is what has happened in bring them crashing down from cloud nine. We look elections past. forward to seeing what happens this Sunday.
Bubble Debates
But who cares? Do people need to care? In previous years the Bubble Debate has been an
Is campaigning worthwhile on a weekend?
With the weekend in sight and campaign week coming to a close, the candidates have a decision to make. Without the regular footfall of students walking to and from lectures, and with basically all night outs covered, is it worth campaigning over the weekend? By this point, many of us know the ins and outs of each candidates manifesto, have sampled all their sweets and chased them for stamps, and, let’s face it, we’ve all pretty much made our minds up. Unless of course we are saving our final decision for the Bubble Debate, where their performance against a questioning from experts in their area could be key in securing support before voting opens at 9am on Monday.
Tune in and read articles live from 1pm on Sunday on execelections.lsu.co.uk Ed Radford The reality is that this late in the day little can realistically change students’ minds. If a candidate has made an extra special effort to come and knock on your bedroom door in halls, or has come to chat to you over lunch in your dining hall, you are highly likely to favour that candidate over those that haven’t. Personal contact with candidates is so vital, and by the weekend this work has already been put in. Students aren’t all congregating in dining and lecture halls anymore, and it’s no longer easy to target a large number of students at any one time. It seems to me that focusing on the Bubble Debate is the best thing the candidates can do over the weekend, as the grilling they receive can be rather overwhelming! But realistically, what more can they do to win your vote? Leanna Kightley
Assistant Editor 7
What do we learn from the RON Manifestos? In 2016, the Election process has been altered to giving RON (Re-open Nominations) more of a presence. Max Crawford, writing in the Exec Elections Handbook claims: “There should be some viewpoint as to why RON is better than any of the candidates.” And that’s why yesterday RON manifestos were published - RON hasn’t won an LSU election in a very long time. Even if RON doesn’t win the manifestos should positively fuel debate in two ways: by providing an explanation from Candidates about the detail behind specific points of their manifestos; and by raising questions for discussion before and during the Bubble Debates. Many RON manifestos suggest a lack of detail. Candidates are forgiven for this as the 250 word limit leaves little time for the finer elements, which are expected during in-person campaigning, on Social Media and when quizzed in the Bubble Debates. The one caveat with the RON manifestos is that they were written by individuals who themselves have an opinion on how LSU should be run and may have been written by current Exec members. Some candidates are wishing to continue the work done by their predecessor and some want to change direction all together. Candidates wanting ‘business as usual’ may be missing huge opportunities, but may well be justified in doing so. Where candidates rerun this is a direct vote of confidence on their first 8 months in office. Where the two disagree and you agree we need a slight change then a vote for them is more powerful than a vote for RON. However, if you believe a candidate can offer no more than what we currently have, do they deserve your vote? Dan Leedham
Overheard Loughborough
“I am the best thing that’s ever happened to me” “I guess I’ve always been controversial, I’m a bit like Marmite people either hate me or like me.” “Maybe he likes a bit of rough”
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TWEETS @B_trisss Feb 23 “Enjoying reading your sugar reviews! Stroke of genius right there!” - The people asked for it so here’s day 3! @labelonline Feb 22 The first Exec Election leaflets are looking SUPER cute around campus! Excelling ourselves @labelonline as always!! @allymc29 Feb 22 @_katiejw so much content! I’m struggling to keep up! Disclaimer: Label is the publication of Loughborough Students’ Union. The opinions contained are those of individual contributors, not of Loughborough Students’ Union, the editorial team, or any other officer of the union unless otherwise stated. Cover Design by Katie Wilson