Its Student Officer election time again! My cynicism towards student politics continues, but by now it wouldnt be election season without me having a bit of a rant on your News Feed. Firstly, let me express my utter relief that the proposal to merge the Activities and Sports officer-roles appears to have been defeated. Thank God: the one aspect of student politics that has actually affected me was the work of this years Activities Officer, Alice Lord, and the Societies Committee, in assisting the Sheffield Assassins Guild to host a big multi-university event in the Union. Those people were tireless in assisting us and I cannot thank them enough. The support of the Union for niche societies like the Assassins Guild is what I would name as my personal best feature of our Union, and had Activities been merged with Sports, you can bet your bottom dollar that Special Interest societies would have been the first to suffer. I am relieved that this pernicious proposal has been defeated. Right, lets move back to shitty puns. Maybe I just havent been around the Concourse as much this year, but there seem to be an encouraging number of candidates NOT USING PUNS. Thank the Lord; my brain couldnt take anymore. Nonetheless, special mention must go to Activities Officer candidate Clio Symingtons slogan Let Clio take the wheel, on the fairly weak basis that Clio is the name of a car and that Clio rhymes with wheel if you ignore the fact that it doesnt. Meanwhile, Presidential candidate Chris Smith has taken for his slogan Putting the U in Union, apparently accepting of the fact that he has the worlds most boring name and therefore using a clichéd pun that has nothing to do with it. Jade Hearsum, slogan Can you Hearsum-thing?, deserves to be broken on the wheel. Next week, when voting opens, I may make public how I voted and encourage you to vote the same way. In the meantime, I simply want to speak against encouraging Minority representatives on society committees. Membership quotas are not the way forward for equality: they are patronising and pointless. Any member of NoDDSoc, which has been struggling with a proposal to create women-only role-playing games (seriously), can attest to this. The role of Activities Officer is one that can actually do a lot of good for the Union. Lets elect someone who will do -useful- work of behalf of -all- of the Unions many societies. This applies also to the position of Womens Officer. Im sorry, Saskia, but I cannot see that having women-only social events is the correct way forward to equality. More possible musings next week when I vote (stop groaning). In the meantime, think, vote for people who are actually putting forward policies as opposed to going Good student activism and fairness and stuff, and lets try for once to not make this a popularity contest.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 13:50:51 +0000
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