Meet Ellie Mitchell. She’s running for Community in the SU elections, and wants to change student experience for the better! She tells Her Campus about her experience and manifesto in some more detail.
What made you want to run for this position?
I’ve always been a political person and someone who is constantly campaigning for change, and this is a chance for me to do so on a much bigger scale, on behalf of thousands of people. I know it’s a massive cliché, but I really do want to see students at uni enjoying themselves more and having a better time!
What is the proposal in your manifesto that you’re most proud of?
Ten refugee scholarships – I think that in this unpredictable political climate the university really needs to be putting itself out there as a progressive and inclusive place. In the last year, especially, I’ve done lots of work with Amnesty on the topic of refugees, and to go from raising awareness and a relatively small amount of money to actually making a massive difference in ten people’s lives would be great.
Where did you get the inspiration for your manifesto points?
Everywhere – from my own experience at uni, from my friends, and from all the societies and sports clubs and individuals that I spoke to before writing my manifesto. Some points (e.g. night buses in exam season) got repeated over and over again, so I knew that these were the most pressing issues for students. Pay as you go bus card is inspired by my annoying housemate, who wakes me up most days at 8.30am by banging on my door to ask for a pound for the bus. The housemate finding app was thought up after me and my friends left finding a house really late last year, and ended up asking three random guys we met at the estate agent to live with us (it ended up being great though).
What previous experience do you have will help you most in the role?
Even though I’ve been involved in lots of societies, community work, and placements outside of uni, I still think that the experience that will help me the most as a community officer is the three years I’ve spent here as an average, typical student. I think this is the beauty of the job – you’re taking on jobs that would normally be done by someone much older and higher up than you, but tackling them from a student’s perspective, with new and unorthodox ideas.
What do you think makes you/your manifesto different from others?
My manifesto has two sides – the student side (bus passes, nightlife etc) and the bigger community side (living wage, refugee scholarships) which balance each other out well. I’ve also tried to make my manifesto specific and to the point, steering away from vague terms like ‘improve this’ without saying how or why.
If elected, what would be you main focus/first thing you would try and achieve?
I think the refugee scholarships as this is something which I’m really enthusiastic about – I believe that it should have been done a long time ago and would be easy for the university to do, but it’s just a matter of pushing them.
Vote here: http://www.studentleaderelections.co.uk/
Edited by Jenine Tudtud