Voting opens in GSA elections
Voting is now open in the Graduate Student Association elections.
Following hustings last Friday, voting is now open in the GSA elections, with only thirteen candidates running for the twenty-five positions available.
The following are paid part-time positions:
President - reporting by Alexander Prowse and Rachel Banning-Lover
Alistair Clark, twenty-four, is a first year MA student in the school of PEP. Alistair joined York this year following two years working for a law firm and a business development firm, having previously spent three years at Kingston University studying Law. Clark feels he has a wealth of experience for the role of President, having transformed the Bar Society at Kingston as President; “I didn’t want to get back into university politics unless it would be worth it”. His two years working allowed him to deal with people in senior positions; “I learnt different ways of approaching different people”, giving him maturity and experience. He wants everyone to get involved with the GSA, including the international students, making it more relevant to all graduates. This could include a ‘drop in’ facility for any problems or suggestions graduates have. Clark would like also further interaction with YUSU. He feels he is different in approach to his rival candidate, but is disappointed more people in general aren’t running for the positions available.
Rui Huang, a second year PhD student studying Computer Science, has the advantage of having experience of how York’s GSA works as he ran and was elected to the position of president in last year’s GSA elections. Huang was, however, disqualified shortly after for breaching election rules. Claiming to have learnt from his mistakes last year, Huang has adopted a confident approach, stressing that something needs to be done about the ‘gaps’ in Wentworth College where he belives there needs to be more involvement. As an international student, Huang voiced his concerns over the need for more assistance for international students in the first few weeks of the year, particularly about the ‘British culture’. Another concern of Huang’s is that international students have difficulties in attending events and that there needs to be more communication with different cultures throughout the GSA.
Academic Affairs Officer - reporting by Jessica Lowe and Sam Lawson
Kieran Alden gave an encouraging speech at Hustings on Friday night. Alden has experience as both an undergraduate and PGCE representative, and has spent the past three years working as a teacher. His goals as Academic Affairs Officer include the introduction of a “welfare clinic”, claiming that graduates have restricted access to the current Academic Affairs Officer.Alden also believes that communication between the University and graduate students is not, at present, satisfactory. He also spoke of his desire to reduce academic misconduct.
Candidate Seemal Asif, who was running for both the position of Academic Affairs Officer and International Students’ Officer was not present at hustings.
Welfare Officer – reporting by Angus Phillips
Students Tom Farnhill and Heather Rowley, running seperately for the position of Welfare Officer, both displayed enthusiasm throughout Hustings. Both candidates stressed what they could do for the welfare of graduate students at York. Farnhill, a former Trade Union Council official, argued that he had the ‘right set of skills’ for the position. He said that he was happy to define himself as a ‘change agent’ who enjoyed taking on authority – and winning. Conversely, Rowley has worked in Human Relations for the past three years and considers her core strength to be prioritising issues. She says she wants to help candidates who “feel a little bit lost, and don’t quite know where to turn”.
Finance Officer - reporting by Jacob West and Robin Synnot
Richard Rhodes, a second year York postgraduate, has experience within the GSA, including the post of Internal Officer, where he was Line Manager for three main budget areas, Rhodes believes this provided experience in how to budget and spend money effectively. In addition to this, Rhodes has been the acting President of the GSA for the past two a half months. Rhodes now wishes to step down and focus solely on financial matters within the GSA. As a candidate for Finance Officer, his main concern is spending money effectively and economically, preventing waste of resources and ensuring the largest possible number of graduates are benefited by the money spent on postgraduates. The main changes he is focusing on include buying new laptops to lend to postgraduates and the provision of a skype studio. Rhodes recognises the lack of interest and advertisement put into the GSA, and wishes to rebrand it, on a similar scale to YUSU.
Services Officer - reporting by Tom Whitehead
James Cousins is the sole candidate for Services Officer, the post responsible for co-ordinating graduate events and services, such as Welcome Week. Despite having no previous experience in events management, Cousins feels that his four years of work have helped him gain the skills necessary for the post, citing his administrative and diplomatic aptitude as two key strengths. Cousins’ plans for student services are primarily geared towards better graduate integration into the wider community, which would see more GSA events hosted in York and other cities in the area, a proposal which he admitted would have to be balanced with the GSA’s commitment to prioritise campus profits. In addition, Cousins proposed to increase Edge’s opening hours. He also raised the possibility of hosting more events at the bar, an idea which he accepted was conflicting with his aim to take more events into the city. Cousins also has extensive plans for the improvement of the music scene at the University, which include a better promotion of University bands as well as attracting more top quality acts to the University.
The following are voluntary part-time positions:
Campaigns Officer - reporting by Charlotte McCallum
Caroline Fielding is the Graduate Student Association candidate for Campaigns Officer. A graduate of the University of Leicester, Fielding was the President of the People and Planet group in addition to her work with OBJECT. She aims to utilise her experience in this Campaigns position and bring about “positive environmental and other changes.” She is an advocate of a wide range of policies including lockers for overnight storage and greater recycling projects. Highlighting the need to offer greater access to the GSA, Fielding’s first act in the position would be to open up surgeries in order to gain greater consultation with the graduate community.
Events Officer - reporting by Hannah Brearley
The position of Events Officer in the GSA is uncontested so far this year, with only one last minute joint entry of Kelly Sinclair, Lauren Sewell and Pip Rackstraw. All three candidates have experience in events organisation; from sitting on ball and decorations committees to working for an events company. The candidates’ focus was on creating a more inclusive graduate events programme. The question of student safety after events was raised, and the candidates considered the option of a student minibus service. The team felt that one obstacle to a more integrated graduate community, and therefore more successful events, is that many students live off campus, and do not necessarily socialise in the Wentworth Bar, Edge. The limited opening days of the bar was suggested as part of the problem, and the candidates’ were asked what they would propose as a solution. The candidates suggested a better feedback system for students.
Representative for Students with Disabilities - reporting by Victoria Lee
Louise Redsull, a psychology post-graduate, was the only student to run for the position of Representative for Students with Disabilities at this year’s GSA Hustings. Redsull believes she is the right candidate for the role. During her time as an undergraduate, Redsull gained experience as a course representative. She was also involved in the disability aspect of the “Aim Higher” initiative, which hopes to “encourage more learners from under-represented groups to participate in Higher Education.” Her work on this project took her on a placement to Sydney. When describing what she would like to achieve if she wins the position in the elections, Redsull talked about how the University of York Disability Services offices are often overrun at the start of the academic year, with Disabilities Advisor, Deb Taylor, having “too much on her plate”. Redsull will campaign for “more support workers, and temps at the start of the university year” to make a “more efficient service” for those with disabilities.
Representative for Gender Equality - reporting by Rebekah Johnston
Although new to York, Hannah Boast is confident that she has the experience and expertise required for the post of Gender Equality Rep. As an undergraduate at Nottingham University, Boast was heavily involved in the feminist community through reading and discussion groups as well as Women’s Network events. She also assisted in organising the East Midlands “Reclaim the Night” march to raise awareness about sexual violence against women. Boast has previously been employed as a case worker for her local MP, which involved discussing issues with constituents and representing these views to the local authority. Boast is uncontested in her bid to become the GSA Gender Equality Rep.
Representative for PGWT - reporting by Jamie Day
As a first year PhD student, Beth Watts is new to the University of York. If elected, Watts revealed “getting to know the need” and to “get a sense of the landscape” would be the initial paths that she would pursued. Currently a PhD student in the social policy and social work department, Watts claims to possess the necessary experience to undertake the position. When questioned on the poor representation of PGWTs in the past, Watts stated that “representation needs to be more focused.”
There are currently no candidates running for the positions of; Voluntary Officer, International Students’ Officer, Communities, Charities and Volunteering Officer, Sporting Activities Officers, Communications Officer, Representative to Senate, Representatives to Association Council, Representative for part-time students, Representative for LGBT students, Representative for students with dependents, Representative for racial equality, Representative for PGCE students, Representative for off-campus students, Representative for distance learning students and the two Ordinary Member positions available.
Results will be announced after voting closes on Friday.
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Guys, there are in fact people running for the following positions: Communities, Charities and Volunteering; International Students’ Officer, Sports Officer; Representative to University Senate; Representative for Students with Dependents, as well as someone standing for Chair of Association Council.
Can someone please email the Returning Officer, Dan Horsfall, to get this story corrected please?
Hi there, this article has missed a few candidates, which I hope can be rectified.
The office of Sporting Activities has one candidate team consisting of Samik Datta and Shanila Ashraff(delivered speech at hustings) (standing together not as opponents)
Xin Zhang (delivered speech at hustings)is standing for election to the position of Communities, Charities and Volunteering.
Matt Glover (delivered speech at hustings) is standing for Chair of Association Council.
Andrew Suggitt (speech read out on his behalf at hustings) is standing in the election for Senate Rep.
Natasha Khan (speech read out on her behalf at hustings) is standing for the position of Representative to Association Council for Students with Dependents.
Seemal Asif is a candidate for the position of International Students’ Office.
As such, the only Officer position that will require a by-election is that of Communications Officer. We will also run a by-election to fill the following representative positions on Association Council: Representative for part-time students; Representative for LGBT students; Representative for racial equality; Representative for PGCE students; Representative for off-campus students; Representative for distance learning students; 2 ordinary members.
Despite these few errors, we are extremely grateful for the coverage afforded to our elections.
All graduates can vote until 5pm on Friday (6th November) at: http://www.yorkgsa.org just click the vote now banner.
Dan Horsfall
Returning Officer
Omg! byline mania!
Please please with assorted fruits on top, could you update this article?
Did I mention, please?!