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Free Election Special March 26, 2012 waterfrontonline.co.uk
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t h e o f f i c i a l s t u d e n t n e w s p a p e r o f s w a n s e a u n i ve r s i t y LMFAO put Raja in education
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Team photos campaign 2012
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Meet your full time team
TOM UPTON LEADS NEXT YEAR’S FULL-TIME TEAM Tom Upton declared President following a huge majority in first preference votes by Jon May
waterfrontnews@swansea-union.co.uk SOCIETIES and services officer Tom Upton has become the new president elect of Swansea University students’ union in first preference votes. Mr Upton won his quota of votes in the first round with 1,607 while Mitchell Theaker took 949, which was 37% of the vote. There was a huge roar of applause in Diva’s as the result was announced, thanks to a large presence from both his campaign team and Josh Hayman’s who supported him through the week. Mr Upton said: “We need to put Swansea back on the map. “We need people to trust us.” He also said that creating the alumni cards would be the first thing on his list, also creating them for graduates who have already left Swansea University. The Facebook app “My Alumni Card” allowed users to create a mock up of the card with their profile picture and details. Mr Upton was backed by the current president Luke James in his bid for a successful transition from societies and services to president.
Mr Upton ran on the same colours as his previous victory in societies, also using the gimmick of photoshopping ‘Vote Tom’ onto recognisable university buildings like the library and Faraday. His campaign focused on restructuring the Union, by creating a ‘student hub’ on level two, replacing the Spar shop with the Travel Shop, the Box Office, Societies, Campaigning and Design services all in the one place. The Union shop is expected to be the renovated area where the ground floor toilets in Fulton House are, with construction expected from Easter. This election marks the highest ever turnout, with 3,209 students at Swansea University having their say. This is 23% of the student body and saw a huge turnout for the new position of sports officer, with 2,674 valid votes cast. In his post-election win interview, Upton stressed how he looked forward to working with the team and congratulated the winners: “I have to say, after watching all the election results, what we’ve got for September 2012 is a dream team, genuinely I can’t think of better people to work with. Well done to everyone.”
THE NEXT PRESIDENT: Tom Upton wins by a steep majority.
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ELECTION SPECIAL I 3
Seven round sweep for Josh Hayman
Charlotte Britton makes it back to welfare by Chris Flynn
waterfrontnews@swansea-union.co.uk
by Alice Eaton
waterfrontnews@swansea-union.co.uk
JOSH Hayman fought off competition from six other candidates to become the new societies and services officer. Tom Giffard was first out of the running, followed by Martha Kiff, Hamish Simmie, Owain Harries, and Steve Ralph. Dave ‘Mr T’ Townsend eventually lost to Mr Hayman who won with 869 votes to 630
and was ahead in every round of the results. There was jubilation in Divas as the result was announced, with the roaring of Team Tiger being heard across campus. An exhausted but ecstatic Josh said he was “so glad” at the results. “I want to thank my campaign team for helping me throughout the week. “We decided to change tactics after Monday as we soon
noticed people lost interest and didn’t take the flyers. “Instead we danced, sang, had a really good time and got into the whole experience of the elections.” Josh has a varied and extensive background in the students’ union, with work on the committees of Xtreme radio and RAG, on top of being a techie for the SU and working in JC’s. Mr Hayman’s manifesto
Charlotte Britton has won her second term as the welfare officer of Swansea University students’ union. She beat Ceejay John King with 1,523 votes compared to his 847 with 64% of the vote. Miss Britton, 23, said: “I feel relieved, tired and happy about centred on the revamping the result. of Divas, in order to “give the “I’ve had a chat with Ceejay, university the nightclub it and he was great to campaign deserved”. with because he’s been really Other manifesto points were the organising of a part-time friendly.” job fair for the beginning of Miss Britton, who has a BA and the year to assist the numerous MA in History, successfully met students seeking temporary her campaign promises in her employment to fund their last year in the post, including a lot of work on housing. university experience. A third point was improved Her manifesto showed similar training for societies and priorities to that were laid out in her first year in office. introducing rewards for them. This included reforming the SAS letting agency, holding a housing and advice fair and the ‘Rate Your Landlord’ survey; in an effort to fish out poor landlords that lease to Swansea. “Housing is always such a big priority for me, because bad landlords don’t just go away,” she said. An additional promise on Miss Britton’s manifesto was to improve the food provided on campus, through both quality and value for money. “I really want to make sure that [the food] is better healthier and more balanced,” she added. Mr King won 34% of the vote 2400 views. with less than a per cent going Mr Raja who has been to the motion of reopening the involved with the students’ nomination. union since his first year Mr King, set out an agenda has also been an NUS to help students with Wales national executive disabilities and tackle student committee member for two accommodation programmes. He also mandated better years. services in the Union, such as He has been involved in walk-in counselling and free many other areas of the welfare seminars. university, having been On the result, Mr King said: “It’s the vice-president of not do or die, I tried my best debating society, the Unicef and she tried hers. society and the Amnesty “I am happy for her.”
Raja takes education with majority win
by Alicia Nugent
waterfrontnews@swansea-union.co.uk
ZAHID Raja has been elected as the education officer for the next year. The final year medical sciences and humanities student secured the position after winning the elections with 64% of the vote to Ian Morgan’s 36%. “It’s an amazing feeling to be here as your education officer elect,” he said. “We didn’t stop until the very end, we carried on
knocking on doors, we carried on talking to students on Facebook, we had campaigners everywhere. He added: “The first thing on that to do list is to make sure that we are in a stable place to launch a set of policies which will revolutionise student education at this university.” In his manifesto, Mr Raja said he wanted to create student-led awards to promote better teaching and he would encourage
lecturers to make better use of Blackboard. He also intends to create an online map to help students find an available computer across campus, will campaign for more key texts to be available in the library and provide access to more online journals. His win was doubtlessly helped by his campaign video ‘He’s Raja and you know it’, a parody of LMFAO’s chart topping single which International society. at the time of print had over
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ELECTION SPECIAL I 5
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ELECTION SPECIAL I 6
Warrillow represents all women
Mahaboob Basha retains international role in a close result by Rahul Vashist
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by Gemma Parry
waterfrontnews@swansea-union.co.uk
REBECCA Warrillow has been elected to become the women’s officer of Swansea University students’ union. She won the position with 61% of the overall vote, beating Pearl Sangha in a final round of voting 1,206 votes to 772. Miss Warrillow, who is in her final year studying American studies, plans to expand on the existing policies for women’s rights and to raise the awareness of the role of
women’s officer. In her manifesto, Miss Warrillow intends to expand the awareness of sexual health and focus on issues concerning healthy eating, body image and safety of women on nights out. She also plans to introduce anonymous submission forms to make herself more approac hable to students. Miss Warrillow said she felt “100% shocked” about becoming next year’s women’s officer.
“The first thing that I’m definitely going to do is look at zero tolerance,” she said. “It’s been implemented for a year and none of the students’ union staff have been trained on how to deal with sexual harassment complaints. “Before the semester starts, I’m going to train all the staff. When asked if she would adopt the manifesto points of other candidates, she said: “If people come to me and want me to change things I am more than happy to do that. I’m open
to all ideas.” Pearl Sangha secured 39% of the vote, while Millie Balkan had 26% in the second round and Izzy Granville went out in the first round with 8%. Runner up, Miss Sangha said: “I’m so proud of my team for running on their morals. This is not the end of Pearl Sangha.” Early favourite, Millie Balkan added: “It was great to have such an awesome campaign team. I didn’t get elected but I got my voice heard.”
Stanley sneaks past Flash to take sports
by David Hendy & Craig Hadley
waterfrontnews@swansea-union.co.uk
IMOGEN Stanley has become the first Union sports officer in one of the closest elections to date. Stanley beat her closest opposition, Dan Ryan-Lowes, by 2%, in what was a nail-biting climax which saw her emerge victorious by only 46 votes, 1219-1173. A tearful Stanley said: “I haven’t processed it yet; I don’t know how to feel. “I think promoting the small clubs really helped. “My main task now is
organisation, finance, sorting out all the background to make the captain’s life easier.” After the opening round, footballer Zak Shayler and the re-open nomination candidates were eliminated from the vote with 690 and 41 votes respectively. Shayler’s excellent use of social media and attempted recommendations did not reflect in the final votes in which he failed to make it past the opening round. The athletic president was defeated in the final round of votes, for a position in which he has relative experience as the
sports officer role is a modified role of athletic president. He has worked effortlessly to promote women’s sport and to forge links with the Students’ Union throughout his year in the role. Stanley admired the work done by Dan Ryan-Lowes this academic year. “He [Ryan-Lowes] had some really good points, introducing new sports in Varsity and I hope to learn so much from him.”” Stanley’s pledge to improve the support to smaller clubs could have influenced the voters, with Archery club members Phil Dunn and Leah Woods whom have
voiced their concerns to the online media outlet ‘The Siren’. Speaking to The Siren, Woods and Dunn said: “The AU are severely lacking in the support and recognition that they so thoroughly deserve. “Now don’t get me wrong, the sports which receive the most attention certainly deserve it. “Despite this, there are many other teams that contribute to the ranking of the university that do not receive nearly enough recognition. For instance, the archery club saw Jason Yiu took gold during the BUCS Indoor competition.”
Mahaboob Basha has been reelected as the students’ union’s international officer, winning 57% of the vote. He beat fellow contender Kayla Bates with 1,333 votes compared to her 1013 votes. Mr Basha slightly exceeded predictions made during the exit polls, where he was estimated to win 54% of the vote. But he declined to give the Waterfront an interview after his victory. In his manifesto for this year he said he wished to set up an international students’ forum open to all students, and organise visits to places of historical and cultural importance in the UK. Mr Basha came to the UK in 2008 to pursue his Masters degree, and soon got involved in student politics. During his campaign Mr Basha had the support of many prominent SU figures, including current SU president Luke James, who said: “Mahaboob is a committed officer who has made the union more accessible to many hundreds of international students at Swansea”. He previously championed the recent multicultural festival, which Mr James called a “great success”, and saw several more cultural and national societies starting up this year.
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ELECTION SPECIAL I 7
YOUR FULL-TIME TEAM 2012/13 PRESIDENT Tom Upton
SOCIETIES & SERVICES Joshua Hayman
AGE: 23
AGE: 21
DEGREE: BA Geography
DEGREE: BA Politics
UNION BACKGROUND: Tom is the current societies and services officer and he has also been the deputy station manager of Xtreme Radio and Geography society President.
UNION BACKGROUND: Josh has worked for both ents and JCs as well as being head of music for Xtreme radio and the Swanopoly organiser on the Raise and Give committee.
MANIFESTO AIMS: Tom will be creating alumni cards as well as introducing 24 hour online votes for student forum manifestos and re-structuring the services of the Union in line with the changes in Fulton and Union houses.
MANIFESTO AIMS: Josh plans to organise a job fayre to help students find part-time jobs at university as well as revamp Diva’s and improve the training and rewards available to societies.
WELFARE Charlotte Britton
INTERNATIONAL V.R.S.A. Mahaboob Basha
AGE: 22
AGE:
DEGREE: BA and MA History
DEGREE: A series of Masters at Swansea.
UNION BACKGROUND: This will be Charlotte’s second year as Welfare officer. She was also Community and Housing officer and has sat on the History society committee.
UNION BACKGROUND: This will be Mahaboob’s second year as International officer. He has also held roles in the executive part-time officer roles within the Union.
MANIFESTO AIMS: Charlotte has aims of improving food on campus, as well as reforming SAS lettings service and helping students in money matters over the year.
MANIFESTO AIMS: An International students’ forum, multiethnic events and visits to places of historical and cultural importance in the UK.
WOMEN’S Rebecca Warrillow
EDUCATION Zahid Raja
AGE: 22
AGE: 22
DEGREE: American Studies
DEGREE: BA Medical Sciences and Humanities
UNION BACKGROUND: Becki has held many jobs in the SU including a role in ents. She has also been on the committees of both Raise and Give society and American studies society.
UNION BACKGROUND: Zahid has been involved with the part-time executive committee as Black Students officer as well as been involved in several societies such as UNICEF, Debate society and LGBT.
MANIFESTO AIMS: Becki wants to pressure taxi companies to give discounts to students who have to travel home alone as well as train all staff across the SU in the Zero Tolerance policies.
SPORTS Imogen Stanley AGE: 21 DEGREE: BA Human Geography UNION BACKGROUND: Imogen has been sailing captain this year and has also sat on the AU executive. MANIFESTO AIMS: Imogen plans to encourage the growth of small clubs and make financing and accounts more accessible to teams.
MANIFESTO AIMS: Zahid aims to train course reps and introduce student led teaching awards to improve teaching. He also wants to expand the careers services and extend it to recent graduates.
Record turnout in full-time officer elections for 2012/13 ELECTIONS this year saw a record turnout as online voting got into full swing. The voter count reached the total of last year by Wednesday evening and the number of voters by close of poll at 8pm Thursday was 3,209. Matthew Hurst, deputy returning officer, said: “We saw well over the 3000 mark of votes online this year, a record turnout. “I think the move of AU President to Sports
officer has helped to bring in new voters as well as the large number and wide variety of candidates across all the positions.” Exit polls conducted by The Waterfront were fairly accurate, predicting all the winners of first preference votes. Almost 500 votes were cast in the exit polls spread over the last two days of campaigning and all results came within the ten percent margin of error.