The Courier - Election Special 2013

1The CourierElections 2013

THE COUNTING of votes in the Presi-dential race was suspended on Thurs-day 7th March following the reporting of a “serious complaint” to the Elections Committee. At the time of this publica-tion being sent to print, the complaint is still under investigation. The nature of the complaint will remain confidential until the outcome of the investigation is an-nounced. It is not yet known when a deci-sion will be reached and the outcome of the Presidential vote announced.

Counting of votes was halted by the Elections Committee at around 4:30pm on 7th March. Students were able to con-tinue to vote for their preferred Presi-

dential candidate until 7:00pm, the of-ficial closing time of the voting period, but these votes will not be counted until the complaint has been examined by the Board of Trustees at the Students’ Union. This did not affect the counting of votes for any other positions, and the results for all other roles were announced from 8:00 pm as planned.

This complaint is not the only one to have been placed throughout the cam-paign and voting period. Presidential candidate Ioan Rhys Evans was required to take his promotional video down for 24 hours as it contained content only avail-able to him due to his current position of Activities Officer at the Union, which

COMPLAINT SUSPENDS PRESIDENTIAL COUNT

FREE

Founded 1948 aberstudentmedia.com Year 63 - Election Special March 2013

RESULTSRUNDOWN

PresidentN/A

Dep. Student SupportJosh James

Education OfficerGrace Burton

Equal OpportunitiesRobert Sean Davies

Activities OfficerLiv Prewett

Guild ChairpersonThomas Keane

SportsAdam Curtis

UMCA PresidentMared Ifan

Non-PortfolioJamie Evans

Student SupportLaura Dickens

SocietiesMohammed Sa’ad

ELECTIONS SPECIAL: MORE ONLINE AT ABERSTUDENTMEDIA.COM

Rhian EvansElections Editor

NUS DelegatesFind out who’s representing you at NUS Conferences

OpinionA good year to be involved in the Students’ Union?

> Read more, page 3

The candidates at the Presidential Debate, from left to right- Zachary Virgo, Ioan Rhys Evans, auditor Roberto Sarrionandia, Ryan Brown, Guy Drury and David Ingles

Daniel Quigley

2 The Courier Elections 2013

Our front page story in this Elections spe-cial attests somewhat to just how hectic campaign week was for all involved, from candidates to campaigners to those who worked with me to provide coverage (and a final big thank you to all of you!).

For some, this crazy process continues.But luckily, the campaigns to fill the other Sabbatical positions were relatively less controversial than that for President.

And let’s not forget that part-time offic-ers were also elected on 7th March. Equal Opportunities, Societies and Non-Portfo-lio were all uncontested. Two people ran for Union Chairperson, Sports, and the position of Postgraduate Student Trustee.

These campaigns all had a much quieter presence on campus, particularly with re-gards to the sheer number of posters not forming a new wallpaper on the Union’s walls (hey, we wanted it madeover, right?)

Some interesting facts - the number of voters was identical to the number last year, but more of these voted for multi-ple or all positions than did previously. It is also notable that, although only male candidates ran for President, the other Sabbatical positions have all been filled by women. In a world where an Inanimate Carbon Rod can be accused of being sex-ist, surely that means something?

All in all though, I think most are glad that their long days and nights of cam-paigning are over and the posters are down. Until next year...

abersm

/aberstudentmedia

Any opinions expressed in articles in this newspaper are solely those of the contributors and are not to be attributed to the Aberystwyth Student Media committee, Aberystwyth University Students’ Union or Aberystwyth University.

The acceptance of advertising by The Courier is not an indication that The Courier, its editors or contributors or anyone associated with The Courier either supports or opposes any activity in which the advertiser may participate.

The Courier is published by Aberystwyth Student Media, an unincorporated association. Union Building, Penglais, Aberystwyth, SY23 3DX. © Aberystwyth Student Media 2013.

Aberystwyth Student Media is the integrated student media organisation for Aberystwyth. We produce The Courier, Bay Radio and Bay TV.

We operate independently of the Students’ Union and University; all of our content is produced by Aberystwyth students on a voluntary basis.

We’re always looking for new members - however you want to be involved, Aber Student Media is the place for you! To find out more, come to our fortnightly meetings at 6:30pm on Wednesdays in the main room of the Students’ Union, or drop by our office, G2, on the ground floor of the Union between 10am and 4pm weekdays.

If you’ve got any queries about joining, email our Membership Manager, Amy: [email protected].

You can find all the articles from this issue of The Courier, and more, online:

aberstudentmedia.com

Elections EditorNews EditorSub-Editor

Rhian EvansLaura SayKathryn Hill

[email protected]@[email protected]

Elections coverage produced with thanks to Andy Burridge, Jonny Downs, Ollie Spar-ling, Pete Le Riche, Joe Landers, Llion Bevan, Sam Halford, Ben Holihead, Daniel Quigley, Harry Taylor, Callum McDonnell, Tomos Nolan, Anwen Hayward and Joe Fairweather

Rhian EvansElections Editor

EDITORIAL

sabbatical officers 03

part-time officers 05

nus delegates 07

opinion 08


THE SUCCESSFUL candidate for the Welsh Affairs Officer and UMCA Presi-dent was Mared Ifan. She gained 815 votes, which awarded her a comfortable victory as the only other candidate, Jacob Dafydd Ellis , the current Welsh Language Officer, gained 654 votes. 91 voters opted to re-open nominations.

Ifan stressed in her manifesto her inten-tion to return UMCA to its roots as a Welsh students’ union to represent students in the university as well as on a national lev-el. She also stated that she intends on re-viewing plans for the new Welsh medium student accommodation (which will take the form of a village similar to Pentre Jane Morgan), intended to replace the popular Pantycelyn halls of residence.

The announcement of her victory was met with rapturous applause from the solid support base that sustained her campaign. Ifan was visibly emotional when she thanked them for their support throughout both her campaign and the voting period.

After recent census results showed a drop in the number of Welsh speak-ers, (particularly in traditionally Welsh-speaking areas) the campaign promised to be hard fought as efforts continue to stem the reduction in numbers. Ifan’s campaign seemed to resonate with the strong senti-ment in the Welsh-speaking community

in the University, particularly as it cen-tred on keeping Welsh in use throughout the University and the Union in order to maintain it as an active language.

Speaking after the announcement, Ifan said she was looking forward to cooperat-ing with students as well as the University to strengthen the Welsh language.

SABBATICAL OFFICERSELECTIONS

was in breach of Elections Regulations. A complaint was also made with regards to a comment on Twitter by a member of Presidential candidate Guy Drury’s cam-paign team during the Presidential Debate hosted by the Aber Debating Union. The complaint found the Tweet to be in breach of the anti-negative campaigning rule and Drury’s candidate Facebook page was made inaccessible for a number of hours

until the complaint was seen through. MA Kaimesan, a mature student candi-

date for the role of President, ran his cam-paign as a “peaceful protest” against the “biased” Elections process. He removed the posters he had put up around the Un-ion and campus before the voting period opened on the 6th March.

Third year Geology student Zach-ary Virgo’s campaign presented a different kind of protest, with Virgo putting himself

forward as the “apathetic student” intend-ing to make students interested and aware of the Union and the democratic proceed-ings.

Ryan Brown and David Ingles, the other Presidential candidates, promoted mani-festos speaking of student support and availability of the President to students.

The Courier, as part of Aber Student Media will be publishing the result of the Presidential vote as soon as it is available.

PRESIDENT

ACTIVITIES

THE UNCONTESTED position of Ac-tivities Officer was won by Liv Prewett, with 1524 votes to 254 votes to Re-Open Nominations.

In her manifesto, Prewett pledged her intention to double the grant pot for sports and societies, to create and hold a unified Old Boys/Old Girls weekend called ‘Re-Union’ for sports and societies alumni, and to introduce an activities ac-creditation and awards scheme in order to improve students’ employability.

The number of candidates running for the position of Activities Officer this year shows a marked contrast on last year, when five students nominated themselves and ran for the role.

This will mark her second year working in the Union, as Prewett was elected last year to the part time position of Deputy Student Sup-port Officer.

UMCA & WELSH AFFAIRSJacob Dafydd Ellis 654Mared Ifan 815RON 91

Liv Prewett 1524RON 254

Tomos Nolan

Daniel Quigley

(continued from front page)


SABBATICAL OFFICERSELECTIONS

EDUCATIONIN WHAT was one of the closest competi-tions of the night after six rounds of vot-ing, Grace Burton was narrowly elected as the Education Officer with a total of 832 votes. In the first five rounds it looked like Purna Venkatesan-Ogin was on course for a victory, but in the last round of voting, when all of the other candidates had been eliminated, Burton took the lead.

The Education Officer is responsible for providing support to students in general academic issues, which involves monitor-ing local and national issues. They are also responsible for attending course rep meet-ings and sitting on the University senate, and ensuring that students get the best educational experience possible.

Burton has been a course rep in the International Politics department during

her time at Aberystwyth, as well as Presi-dent of the International Politics society.

As Education Officer she intends to in-troduce continuous module feedbackand to make it possible for students in every department to choose their seminar slots when multiple sessions are available for the same module.

One of Burton’s other main policies is to lobby the University for a study space in town, by looking at unused buildings which the University own, such as in Lau-ra Place.

When asked how she felt following her victory, she said “I don’t know what to say! It’s been a very overwhelming week. I just wanted it to be over, I was not expecting to win, there were some fantastic candidates running with some very strong support.”

On being involved in a particularly tight race for Education Officer, Burton said “there were people with very very strong support and some people with very strong policies so I think I probably had a good enough mix of the two.”

Despite winning most of the rounds, Venkatesan-Ogin lost out in the final round with 760 votes to Burton’s 832. The other candidates knocked out (in order of the stage they were eliminated in) were Andrew Tindall, Claire James and Will At-kinson. Altogether there were 2039 votes cast, an increase of 531 from last year.

STUDENT SUPPORTLAURA DICKENS was re-elected as Stu-dent Support Officer with 956 votes. The Student Support Officer is responsible for the general welfare of students, as well as representing students who have particular disability issues. Over the past year, Dick-

ens has been campaigning on issues such as housing and mental health, in addition to many other things. Her work on hous-ing has been nominated for Campaign of the Year at the NUS Wales Awards 2013, where she is up against University of Glamorgan for their work on further in-tegration of domestic and international students.

According to her manifesto, she intends to continue her work on housing prob-lems by creating a comprehensive housing guide and creating a list of approved pri-vate housing, have regular meetings with the County Council and Accommodation Office to make sure standards are kept, and to host a Housing Fayre in October before students start looking for private-

sector accommodation. In an interview following her victory,

Dickens said that she felt overwhelmed by her victory and that “it hadn’t really sunk in yet”. When asked what she plans to do in continuing her work for a second year she said “I’m going to give the university Hell! I hope they’re watching”.

The other candidate for the position, Rhiannon Morris received 596 votes and RON received 113 votes.

The turnout was a 542 vote increase from last year taking the total number of votes cast to 1665.

Grace Burton 832Purna Venkatesan-Ogin 760 Will Atkinson (5) 540Claire James (4) 323Andrew Tindall (3) 199RON (2) 31

Rhiannon Morris 596 Laura Dickens 956RON 113

The results above show the round each candidate was eliminated (in brackets). Their votes were redistributed to the remaining candidates.

Daniel Quigley

Tomos Nolan


PART-TIME OFFICERSELECTIONS

DEPUTY STUDENT SUPPORT

IN A CLOSELY run race, Josh James was elected Deputy Student Support and Campaigns Officer, winning more votes than his contender, Ian Plested. James was elected with 752 votes, to Plested’s 573. RON received 382.

The policies James intends to instate include an accreditation scheme for land-lords, better mental health provisions in-clusive of a crisis counsellor, and a better structure for emergency financial support for students.

James, who ran for the position last year, was surprised to have been voted in, saying “I guess I was just lucky this time and you know, people really reacted to my campaigns over the last two years.” He said that he was “really looking forward to working with the next Student Sup-port Officer”, later announced to be Laura Dickens, in the coming year, adding “I’m sure that between the two of us we’ll work out the accredited landlord scheme which will actually be a really good thing for the housing crisis at the moment in Aber.” Josh James 752Ian Plested 573RON 382

SOCIETIES

THE NEWLY elected Societies Officer is Mohammed Sa’ad. The Societies Officer is responsible for representing the member-ship of student societies to the Union Ex-ecutive Committee, and is also expected to arrange monthly meetings of the Soci-eties Forum in which society committee

members can raise issues of concern and network. Sa’ad was the only candidate for this position, and took 1076 votes, to 360 votes for RON.

Sa’ad aims to work with the Societies Ex-ecutive to promote “easy membership” for all students; to market that students can join a society at any point throughout the year and not just at Freshers’ Fayre and to make this process easy. He also intends to promote the idea that students are free to join in with a society’s activities and events as they choose, and not feel pres-sured to attend everything, but take part as they choose.

Mohammed Sa’ad 1076 RON 360

SPORTS

IN THE FIRST of the contested results to be announced, Adam Curtis was elected to the positions of Sports Officer. Curtis received 727 votes, to Joshua Tumbridge’s 588, whilst RON was eliminated in the first round with 161 votes.

Second year Interpol student Curtis’ manifesto laid out three main policies- to increase the support and funding provid-ed by the University and Union for sports team, to encourage and improve the ad-vertisement of sports matches and events, and to give priority of sporting facilities to students. In an interview with The Cou-rier, Curtis stated that he was keen to start implementing his policies; “if you look at universities around Wales, the facilities they have are ridiculous, so I’m going to work obviously with the sports centre. I’m not going to shut out members of the public but I’m going to make sure that stu-dents get that chance to make use of those facilities.”

Adam Curtis 727 Joshua Tumbridge 588 RON 161

VACANT POSITIONSTHE PART-TIME positions of Sustainability and Ethics Officer and Welsh Language Officer are vacant, as no student nominated themselves to run for the role. It is possible that a by-election will be held before the end of the academic year in order to fill these empty seats.

Tomos Nolan

Tomos Nolan

Tomos Nolan


PART-TIME OFFICERSELECTIONS

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIESROBERT Sean Davies was elected Equal Opportunities Officer for the 2013- 2014 academic term, with 1248 votes.

Davies, the current LGBT+ Students Officer, ran uncontested. His manifesto, headlined as ‘preventing discrimination and promoting equal opportunities’ fo-cuses on providing support for all Libera-tions Officers and their campaigns, as well as increasing awareness of groups which may experience discrimination and pro-mote the need for equality for all. He also states that he will work alongside mem-bers of the executive committee and Uni-versity staff to ensure that equal opportu-nities policies are upheld in order to make Aberystwyth University a “safe space” for all students.

223 voted to Re-Open Nominations.

Robert Sean Davies 1248 RON 223

NON- PORTFOLIOHAVING campaigned for a second term in part-time office, Jamie Evans was elect-ed once again to the position of Non-Port-folio Officer.

The Non-Portfolio Officer is respon-sible for the duties not covered by any of the other Union Sabbatical Officers or part-time Officers. Evans has pledged to make himself available to students to lis-ten in on their concerns, and to be there to help Officers with their campaigns and other work. He also pledged to be reliable in both continuing his work from this year and being available to help out executive and Sabbatical staff.

Evans received 1449 votes. 252 voted to Re-Open Nominations.Jamie Evans 1449 RON 252

UNION CHAIRPERSON THOMAS Keane has been elected as Un-ion Chairperson with 746 votes. His op-ponent, Craig Price, had a total of 372 votes and RON came in third with 190.

In an interview with The Courier, Keane stated that he was “delighted to have won” and that he “wasn’t expecting it”.

On the subject of his policies regarding documentation translation, he explained his plans to “move the deadlines for mo-tions to be submitted”, as at the moment “there isn’t enough time for policies to be translated for people to read”. He also re-inforced his plans to create an ‘assembly guide for dummies’, saying “I’ve got a lot to learn before I come into the post, so as I learn I can make notes”.

He stated his plan to make the notes ac-cessible by “hopefully getting them on the Union website”.

Craig Price 372 Thomas Keane 746RON 190

POSTGRADUATE STUDENT TRUSTEECHRISTOPHER Lloyd-Jones has been elected for the role of Postgraduate Stu-dent Trustee with a total of 31 votes. Si-mon Cameron came in a close second with 28 votes, and RON with 8.

Lloyd-Jones, a Postgraduate from the Department of Law and Criminology, promised more integration with the Un-ion and the ability to make Postgraduates “feel as much a member as undergradu-ates”.

In his manifesto he states his want to “keep [the Postgraduate students] in-formed, and up to date with [the] Union - ensuring it remains transparent, and ac-countable”, as he believes he is “well placed to objectively scrutinise the actions of the Union”.

The low number of votes in comparison to the other election figures is due to the

fact that only Postgraduate student are eli-gible to vote in the election for the role of Postgraduate Student Trustee.

Simon Cameron 28 Christopher Lloyd-Jones 31 RON 8

Tomos Nolan

Daniel Quigley


NUS DELEGATESELECTIONS

UK (National)

WALES

Grace Burton 278 Laura Dickens 207 Will Atkinson 255 Steffan Storch 157Andrew Tindall 138Josh James 55Guy Drury 172RON 31

Grace Burton 274 Laura Dickens 229 Will Atkinson 261 Steffan Storch 188Andrew Tindall 146Josh James 44Guy Drury 173RON 74

THE NATIONAL Union of Students, the body representative of students in the UK on a national level, and to which Aber-ystwyth Students’ Union is affiliated, hosts annual conferences in which the priorities for the year ahead are set. Each Students’ Union President attends these conferences, alongside three stu-dents elected to represent the interests of the students of their Union and University.

This year’s National Conference will be held from 8th – 10th

April. It is here that policy will be set for the year ahead in each of the five zones, and votes will be held for the President, Vice Presidents and block of 15 representatives on the National Ex-ecutive Council. In addition to this, the budget for the 2013 - 2014 academic year will be decided through the Annual Gen-eral Meeting.

Seven candidates ran to be delegates to the UK Conference. Grace Burton, Laura Dickens and Will Atkinson were elected to attend the UK National Conference alongside current Union President Ben Meakin. Josh James was eliminated in round one, followed by RON in round two, Andrew Tindall in round three, Steffan Storch in round four and Guy Drury in round five.

The NUS Wales Conference looks to debate the future of NUS Wales and, as with the National Conference, to elect new leaders and set working priorities for the 2013 – 2014 academic year. This event will this year be held in Newport on March 13th – 14th.

The same seven candidates nominated themselves to be del-egates to the Wales Conference as did to the National Confer-ence. Grace Burton, Laura Dickens and Will Atkinson were again elected to attend. Josh James was eliminated in round one, followed by RON in round two, Andrew Tindall in round three, Guy Drury in round four and Steffan Storch in round five.

Tomos Nolan


ONE WEEK of endless harassment on the University concourse. Posters strewn across buildings and lollipops in return for votes. This was our Students’ Union Elections.

Never before has the right to work for our Students’ Union presented such an opportunity to shape the long term future of the organisation; the responsibility to put students at the heart of the Universi-ty’s new institutes, the new student village and plans for the regeneration of the Old College is of huge importance. And to put students back at the heart of the Union is even greater.

A Starbucks, some pizza and a revital-ised Varsity weekend have been improve-ments, yet the fundamentals remain the same. A tired Union under severe finan-cial strain must change to survive com-mercially, but it must also address the feeling of disenchantment amongst stu-dents. The closure of Cwrt Mawr bar, the movement of departments to Llanbadarn

and the end of Pantycelyn halls are all decisions made without proper student representation. They are the actions of an obnoxious university, but also bear the hallmarks of a defunct Union leadership. Sports teams struggle for facilities. Socie-ties feel neglected and Postgrads have all but been forgotten. Nights at the Union are rarely full. Change is much needed.

These were an Elections of opportunity. Some grabbed it. “Let’s release the fuck-

ing masses” said Presidential candidate Zach Virgo at Hustings. Innovative ideas such as a Freshers’ Festival, continuous module feedback and an activities ac-creditation scheme are what win their votes. Policies such as a Union space in town, Wednesdays off timetable, a student letting agency and a 24 hour library were ambitious. However, they should not have been shown such disdain by rival can-didates. There is no doubt that these are tough pledges to carry out, but they reflect a desire to fight for students’ rights, and that should be welcomed. These were can-didates with a vision. Others could not see the wood for the trees. Why stand for elec-

tion if you stand for nothing? Pledges to develop a study space in the Union, a pro-ject already being delivered, were laugh-able. One candidate said he would “make sure students needs are catered for”, with no explanation of how or why. Did these candidates think? I am not sure. If people are going to vote on policy then they need to know exactly what these policies are.

What is clear though, is that the cam-paigns were all very strong. Canvassing was unavoidable on campus and online- something to which the high turnout is a testament. It is a great shame that all those who voted will not hear the Presidential result until investigations conclude next week. Allegations of malpractice have marred these Elections. Several campaigns underwent investigations throughout the process. Allegations, whether unfounded or not, should never be welcomed in a Students’ Union Elections.

It will be of deep regret if these elec-tions are remembered for their controver-sies. At their heart was great opportunity, and all of those elected must now take it.

OPINIONCallum McDonnellOpinion Editor

The Courier - Election Special 2013

Documents

Transcript of The Courier - Election Special 2013