Issue 34 - Elections Special

For full interviews go to www.cheesegratermagazine.org

No. 25March 2010

Elections Special - March 2012 www.cheesegratermagazine.org

Welcome to the first ever Cheese Grater Elections Special. The time has finally come to thrust the current batch of Union über-menschen naked and screaming into the real world. In doing so, we welcome in the next lot, eager to innovate, engage, and not men-tion the salary. A change in Union rules at

the end of last year means that we’re now allowed to report on ongoing elections, so that’s exactly what we’ve done! We have in-terviewed all candidates for full-time sabbati-cal positions, asking some fairly bland ques-tions, and some thoroughly nasty ones too. Full interviews are available on our website (since some of the candidates bang on a bit)

where you should all get involved in the dis-cussion of how horrible we’ve been to your friend. We hope you enjoy our coverage, but readers should remember that the smart mon-ey says next year’s UCLU is going to be as shit as ever. Most importantly, if you don’t like the look of the candidates, just vote RON to reopen nominations.

The Cheese GraterThe award-winning student magazine of UCL Union

Down Your Elections: Interviews with candidates

CHANGINGTHE GUARD

John Bell

2 The Cheese Grater March 2012

Ava Lloyd

Why do you think you’re the person for the job?I’ve worked extremely hard dedicating all of my spare time towards improving the stu-dent experience across the board. Whether as editor of Pi – the official UCL student

newspaper – or on UCLU Debating Soci-ety committee, or as a senior mentor, or as a project leader for a volunteering group (SRSH); the point is: I care. I have the drive and motivation to keep listening to students, represent them democratically and without taking sides, know what I’m doing, work hard and do it well. I’m a down-to-earth, approachable person that people can relate to, I don’t hold strong political views, and I think that’s really important. This position isn’t about politics, it’s about fair and impar-tial student representation, and that’s what I stand for.

What has the incumbent been doing wrong?While I think the incumbent has put a rela-tively decent effort into promoting union affairs such as the referenda and elections, it’s not half as much as could be done – or as I will do. ‘Relatively decent’ isn’t good enough, and nor is detachment. I also prom-ise to make UCL-wide emails-especially the UCLU weekly updates- a lot less boring than they are now: I mean, seriously!

What do you plan to do in this role?Students are largely unaware of how to get

their voice heard, or even that it can be heard at all. I’ll start a big drive to make union af-fairs more relevant and accessible to the average student, particularly through social media and video, but also just getting out there and raising awareness myself. I’ll make sure union positions are advertised properly, and in an engaging way people will actually notice. I will support referenda over Union Council – decisions affecting UCL need to be influenced by students themselves, not just take place on a union-level. So much goes on behind closed doors and that’s absurd.

You’ve never held a Union position before, and Democracy and Communications Of-ficer is a very complicated job. Do you ac-cept that you’ll be learning much of the job as you go along?Yes, I accept the fact that I’ll have to do a lot of learning on the job; I haven’t held a union position before. But, having said that, I’m editor of Pi, which to begin with involved an extremely steep learning curve. I’ve also spoken in-depth, for hours, with the current DCO, James Skuse, to ask him what it in-volves and what are the difficulties.

Democracy and Communications OfficerSam Gaus

Why do you think you’re the person for the job? Some of the censorship we’ve seen from UCLU this year has been very obvious and quite scary (see CG30). I’ve been involved in the response to this censorship in Trustee meetings, council meetings and in meetings with sabbatical officers – I’ve gleaned a very clear understanding of how the censorship was allowed to take place and what we need to do to change it. I’m faculty rep for engi-neering, which means I sit on UCLU Coun-cil. I have a very clear understanding of how the union’s democratic structures currently work, how they need to be changed and what makes them unfair.

What has the incumbent been doing wrong?An enormous amount of things. I’ve already mentioned James Skuse’s failure to secure freedom of the press at UCLU – censorship of student publications being something that he has often pursued unashamedly - but apart from that, the man has no understanding of his other key role: interacting with students. He writes long boring emails that no one wants to read. He doesn’t use social media. He’s unapproachable. He’s failed to encour-age participation: we’ve had two inquorate Members’ Meetings this year; whose failure can be attributed directly to James not engag-

ing the UCLU membership.

What will you do to change this? A number of things. Unlike Skuse, I would mention to our four and a half thousand fol-lowers on Twitter when and where democrat-ic meetings are taking place. I would branch out further and start using The Student Room, which is immensely popular for UCL students, and Reddit, which has a blossoming UCL community. We need to give democracy a physical presence on campus by leafleting and talking to people. I want to get people who are new to UCL, whether undergrad or postgrad, involved in the democratic process. The way I’m going to do this is very simple: I’m going to lobby the university to have our Members’ Meetings included on the Portico timetable. With the website I would like to see an online portal for society presidents to better administer their societies because as it stands if you’re a society and you want to check your society membership or book a room or if you want to manage your funds you have to go to three different places.

This year you passed a motion saying that sil-liness should be encouraged and you worked to changed EEOO (Ethics, Environment and Operations Officer) to EIEIO (Ethical Ide-ologies, Environment and Implementations Officer). Is this the right attitude for a sab-batical officer?Yes, it absolutely is the right attitude for a

sabbatical officer to have. Sabbatical offic-ers have a history of being stuffy and stu-dents aren’t like that. I think having a little bit of fun is representative of students; we don’t want people to be so serious about eve-rything all the time. This is especially true for the Democracy and Communications Officer whose job it is to communicate with students, which is often best done in a fun and light-hearted way. I would like to add that I’m incredibly happy that it’s been our Union’s formal policy for over two years that silliness is to be encouraged. For this reason whoever gets the role of DCO is somewhat obliged to be silly.

March 2012 The Cheese Grater 3

Natasha Gorodnitski

Why do you think you’re the person for the job?I’m the only candidate with experience rel-evant to the job: I am currently the part-time Ethics and Environment Officer, was a Social and Historical Sciences Faculty Rep last year, and was the Director of Sustainability at my college union. I already sit on the Finance Committee and the Environmental Sustaina-bility Steering Group, and have worked with UCL’s management to improve our universi-ty and union. I study Environmental Geogra-phy and have dedicated years to many of the campaigns and issues that I will be dealing with as EEOO, and do it because I genuinely care about having a positive impact.

What will you do in the role?My main goals are to put UCL and UCLU on the path to being more sustainably and ethically run, as well as giving students more control over their services, so that our di-verse student body gets what it needs-without compromising what is already good about our union. UCL is currently ranked as 83rd out of 138 universities in People & Planet’s Green League, which is embarrassing – with my experience I can improve the reputation

of UCL and lower our detrimental impact, while saving the university and our union money.

What has the incumbent been doing wrong?Tim Rees Jones has done a great job, but has really focused on the finance side of things, while putting his position as UCLU Green Champion to the side. As the part time Eth-ics & Environment Officer this year, I would have liked more support from my full-time sabbatical officer in working on E&E pro-jects and campaigns: there has been a lot of student interest in getting various campaigns off the ground that needed the support of a full time officer, not just part-time.

How do you hope to secure “cheaper, more varied and higher quality food options” at UCL?The high price of food on campus is absolute-ly unnecessary. A lot of the services at UCL have been outsourced, which means that pri-vate companies are running them for profit, marking up prices higher than necessary to make money out of students. UCL should bring its services back in-house and I will fight to make this happen. The food in the union itself is marked up: we are a wealthy enough organisation and don’t need to be ripping off our students. I will lower prices,

and also work with ULU and other London universities to get a cheaper bulk deal from a better supplier. Finally, I think it’s impor-tant for students to make the decisions about their services, and I will sell a wider selection of food from our outlets, chosen by the stu-dents democratically.

Ethics, Environment andOperations Officer

Jules Leclair

Why do I think you’re the right person for the job?Being both a final year student and an em-ployee at the student’s union, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know UCL operations very well. I care deeply about students be-ing fairly represented in the matters which affect them most. Through daily interaction with a large proportion of the student popu-lation, I am in an excellent position to serve as an objective proponent of their views and concerns. I have realistic and concrete to ambitions to raise environmental awareness around UCL campus.

What will you do in the role?I will fight to raise the reputation of UCLU to reflect UCL’s outstanding global repu-tation. I plan to improve UCLU’s online presence by creating an online facility run by students, which, on top of weekly sab-batical drop-in sessions, will facilitate the exchange of ideas between students and

management. Drastically improve recycling facilities around campus and promote and support grass-roots campaigns of this ilk.

What has the incumbent been doing wrong?At this point in his term of office, I do not think it is fair to pass judgement on his ef-forts so far.

You don’t seem to have any experience re-garding Environment and Ethics, 2/3 of your job title. Is this true?I have participated a range of pro bono ac-tivities ranging from running a bare foot 10km race to raise money for charity to heading waste reduction events at UCL. Furthermore, it’s hard to imagine a more di-verse environment than London itself and in particular UCL. As an international student I understand and respect cultural diversity. I will strive to maintain the high standards of equality that UCL insists upon as well as making students from different backgrounds feel welcome at UCL - in fact I recently gave an integration talk to new students.


David Bruce Morris

Why do you think you are the person for the job?I’ve given my heart and soul to this union for three years now and will develop every club and society. I was Social Sec and am Presi-dent of Lacrosse, I am also Sports Officer so I know what’s it’s like to be in control of a society. I was a really good singer and a choir boy but I chose the sports side over the arts side when I arrived at UCL. Being Sport’s Of-ficer takes you to a higher level of knowledge with Trustees and Council as well as Activi-ties Forum. My most important experience is being on the Sport’s Grounds committee. Shenley is a problem area at the moment, looking at whether to sell it, and I broadly know what the problems are.

What will you do in the role?The first thing will be to increase each socie-ty’s publicity and amount of online presence. I want to create, maybe, just a whole website, as I did for lacrosse this year, with more a descriptive biography than a just a blurb for each society. We have to make a decision over what to do with the grounds, whether to sell to Watford Town FC, and there is a school in-terested. There are the Olympic sites which although we can’t use until 2014 - 15 we can bid on for contracts: all depends whether we are tied up in Shenley for another 25 years. I have been talking to trustees and the

sportsgrounds and sports development com-mittiees about this: for the rest of the Olym-pis site [apart from the stadium] there is no earmarked beneficiary. Obviously we would share this facility with schools, but UCL do have a wide budget for this.

What do you think the incumbent has done wrong?She’s fulfilled her manifesto. There’s been a lot of bickering between the media and sabb team, this year. When they’ve written things about Mr Skuse, Amy has rightly or wrongly leapt to his defence and the sabb team have found ways to suppress the media, which I think is wrong. I don’t think Amy in her role has done anything wrong but as a sabb she should have more responsibility for her actions. If something gets reported and is fact I don’t see why it should be sup-pressed. There have been a few problems with external speakers, there is sometimes not enough notice or the Union hasn’t had enough description of what they are going to say so the speakers have to pull out. It’s an opaque kind of situation, especially if clubs or societies submit the forms a bit late and try to wing it, so they feel put off from inviting people, especially if it concerns extremism.

Some people have said you’re very compla-cent in your campaign, would you agree?No. I went around on Monday and Tueday and was speaking to people about the elec-

tions but they didn’t have any real concerns and wanted to put it off, so I wanted to go for a more shock and awe approach. I want large posters, large banners – they’re going up this week. I was planning on getting eve-ryone aware that the elections are happening and convincing people with my experience. If I’m campaigning right now they can vote right now.

Student Activities Officer

Abdul-Ahad Akbari

Why do you think you’re the person for the job?I’m very passionate and determined; I’m so determined to get this position. Being a mas-ter’s student, the experience I have from pre-vious years is essential. I think advertising for clubs and societies is essential. Publicity is es-sential as some people don’t even know certain societies exist, I’m very enthusiastic about this and would suit the role.

What do you think the incumbent has done wrong?I found there’s a lack of publicity and lack of advertising, getting more advertising out there is going to be a good thing.

What will you do in the role?I want more integration between societies and more recreational sports as people can’t always

commit to certain days, we need a time span where they can come and play when they’re free, which can still be competitive but has to be fun. We have a lot of societies and events but integration is difficult and I believe that integra-tion between everyone, especially faiths would help. Even when we have debates it’s quite seg-regated. I want everyone to show their own be-liefs and make others see why they hold these views. I wouldn’t say Amy has done this badly, but my experience will allow me to do this well.

You’ve said you want to create more space for sports teams, how will you do this?I want to find space and sports grounds which are closer to UCL, what I mean by finding more space for sports teams is training grounds. I’ve looked into Regent’s Park and Penton Rec, if UCL want to change their home pitch I could help with that. David Morris’ claim that we could get access to the Olympic sites post-2012 is unrealistic.

Contributors: John Bell, Hannah Sketchley, Oscar Webb and Madeline Wee.


Samantha Emma Page

Why do you think you’re the person for the job?Welfare is about making people feel happy and it needs someone approachable and I think I am that person. I think I know some of the problems that people face and I’m ready and willing to make them better. Ob-viously as a fresher I understood how hard it was to fit in, coming to London in the first year and that sort of thing. And having a de-manding course and joining societies. To be honest hockey’s taken up most of my time and I study law and it’s a pretty demand-ing course, so I had to kind of choose one society to make sure I put everything into it.

What do you plan to do in this role?I want to improve integration across the whole university. I want to do international events aimed at everybody so that interna-tional students don’t just meet international students. I also want to try to promote pas-toral care – I want increased communicaton between tutors and their students. We’ve got

great psych services – there are great things on offer like Skype chats with counsellers that I didn’t even know were on offer! I think tutors would be able to push people towards those things.

What has the incumbent been doing wrong?I don’t think Rachel Eyre’s been doing any-thing particularly wrong. I think she’s raised the profile of welfare. She’s done a lot to help with psych services and raising aware-ness about counseling.

You’ve never held a union position: won’t it be very hard for you to implement any of this as you lack experience in the ins and outs of union politics?Not necessarily. To a point I take that into consideration but there’s going to be suffi-cient training, which will ensure that if I lack anything I will quickly pick it up. I know it’s not the same thing as the union but I have held two committee positions on hockey; I was social sec in my second year and gen-eral sec this year. Even as hockey social sec you take into account everybody (who plays hockey) and you look after everybody. Peo-

ple, who play hockey, came to me with their problems. I think I can transfer those skills into the role of Welfare officer.

Welfare and International Officer

Candy Ashmore Harris

Why do you think you’re the person for the job? I’ve got loads of experience working with UCLU and UCL I’ve been an academic

representative on my course for three years as well as a mentor for two years. I’ve also been on Union Council for two years; this year as Women’s Officer and last year as union councillor. So I know how things work and how to get things done and I believe that all my policies are actually achievable. I’ve spoken to cur-rent officers about them and they’ve said that in general: yes you could implement them.

What do you plan to do in this role?All of my policies are achievable. I will work with the UCL Psychological ser-vices to restore previous levels of fund-ing and trial walk in counseling services. I’ll put a frequently asked question page on the Union website for international students before they get to UCL and set up a forum between current students and prospective students. I will set up a ‘feel-ing good’ campaign during exams and run yoga sessions in the quad, along with many other things.

What has the incumbent been doing wrong?Well I think Rachel Eyre’s done a fantastic job this year. She hasn’t had time to do everything she wanted to do, but she’s done great job working with estates to

improve the quiet contemplation room and we’re looking to see if we can further this. Maybe being around as a face more might have helped so students would have known who to approach.

You seconded the motion for making UCL pro choice, which recently was passed at referendum (see CG33), and were a strong supporter of the prochoice campaign; how will you represent those UCL stu-dents who are anti-prochoice?I’ve been working very closely with the Catholic society this year, and I know the president fairly well. I accept that there are people who are anti-abortion and they should be able to hold their own events with a pro-life speaker if that’s what they want to do as long as they make it clear that that’s what the event is when adver-tising it to other people. We don’t even know at the moment whether the clause (which states that whenever a UCLU so-ciety discusses termination they must in-vite both anti-choice and pro-life speak-ers and an independent chair) is going to stay in; it’s going to trustee board and it’s quite likely that they’re going to remove it, which we’re totally fine with. I hope to help Catholic Soc get past this referendum as they found quite tough.


Jordan McBee

Why do you think you’re the person for the job?Because since my first week at UCL I’ve been heavily involved in everything in the Union and other activities beyond it; I was a stu-dent trustee and was on the Financial Ser-vices Committee. I’ve organised events for all types of students from first years to post grads to medics and I interacted with dozens of clubs and societies in that time so I’d say that I am very experienced with the Union and that I’ve listened to the demands of both the post graduates and the medics, which could not be further apart.

What do you plan to do in the role?That’s a very long answer. As far as medics go I plan to defend sports from merger as seri-ously as I possibly can. Sports are important for a medic’s identity and what it means to be a RUMS student. I’d like to try to replicate the kind of involvement in activities that the medics have in the postgraduate community, considering that the medics are probably the most active group at UCL and the post grads aren’t really active. I’d like to, very early in the year, get a welcome week, on par with the freshers fortnight, but targeted at post grads – and even if you’re not a postgrad this

could be a very helpful thing for all students and would promote the general spirit of the community of post grads which as I said is a very weak community at this point. Beyond that just to touch on my final big point: I re-ally want to help to reach out to undergrads and help them find money for postgraduate studies at UCL but not specifically at UCL – anywhere in the world where there’s a good budding opportunity for people to continue their studies and focus on their passions, what drives them to learn.

What has the incumbent been doing wrong?I wouldn’t say that he’s necessarily been do-ing anything wrong. But I’d say that he has room to improve as far as reaching out to postgraduates. Because, while RUMS is this amazing community - the medics having these existing networks built up they have everything going right for them as it is – the post grads really need to have a community built from the ground up because they don’t have any of these long lasting traditions or frameworks already in place. As far as I can see, that would be my main point that I want to improve.

Last year you ran unsuccessfully for FSO; why are you running now for MPSO?Because FSO doesn’t exist anymore does it [...] But I’d say that in the past few years my views on the union have expanded and varied and I’d rather do something where I can actu-ally make a change in student life. In part of my time as student trustee and on the Finance and Services Committee I was able to push through my main ideas and I think I could do a decent job in the role of FSO (now EEOO) but I’d say that I really don’t have the same amazing ideas that I had last year as all of my goals were able to be accomplished without getting that position.

Medical and Postgraduate Students Officer

Dante Micheaux

Why do you think you’re the person for the job?I’ve been working with the med and post grad sabb officers since my time at UCL; I got involved right away within the first month of starting as a PhD student and I’ve had a chance to see how the role can be en-hanced. I think most Medical & Postgradu-ate Students’ Officers look at the role as a sort of social secretary for the two quite di-verse groups and I think it should be about

much more than that. And I’m qualified for that. I’ve been working on postgrad issues at the national level for the past two years in my role as Postgraduate Representative for research students on the NUS National Ex-ecutive Committee and I think I can bring a lot of experience to the position. It requires working with, obviously, the senior manage-ment of the union but also engaging quite a bit with the management at the college. And I think the candidate who’s been work-ing with these people already is best engaged and equipped to hit the ground running.

What do you plan to do in the role?I want to work specifically with engaging the two groups that I’m called to represent. My big, big goal is to work on separating the role of MPSO so in essence abolishing the job so that there’s a medical sabbatical of-ficer and a post graduate sabbatical officer. I think there’s room within the budget of the union to do so and I think both groups really want that; I’ve been helping to work on it in the past and I think its something we’re mandated to do, unless that mandate changes.

What has the incumbent been doing wrong?Well I don’t necessarily know what, from a

medic position, the MPSO has been doing wrong. I just think that one of the problems with the position as it stands now is that can-didates don’t know enough about the two groups. Either they’re very strong in one, I am certainly guilty of that with my work with the postgrads and don’t know very much about the other and haven’t taken the time to engage with the other group. Medics seem to be quite happy with what the cur-rent MPSO has been doing. So I think it’s just a matter of getting the balance right.

You’ve been out of the country for the last week and have thus missed half of the time allocated for campaigning; what impression do you think this gives to voters?Well I think my manifesto is clear in where I want to be and I think the people who sup-port me have been doing an excellent job of getting my message across. I think though that the impression should be that it was just a matter of timing; I happened to have scheduled to be out of the country at a time that I didn’t know I’d be standing for this position; I don’t think that should change voters’ minds about my level of commitment and they certainly shouldn’t have any doubts about the experience that I’m bringing to the role when they’re looking for the best can-didate.


Education and Campaigns OfficerEdwin Clifford-Coupe

Why do you think you’re the person for the job?I believe I have not only the experience of being in Union office for two years but also the experience of being an activist at UCL for two years as well, campaigning for the London Living Wage and against the govern-ment’s agenda in higher education. I have, what I think are, some good ideas about changing the governance structure of the Union. I’d like to: seat the Union around fac-ulties and get it more interested in education issues; get students not only to have more say in how the departments and faculties are run but actually organise the Union on fac-ulty basis. Ideally I’d like to see assemblies happening in faculties with those assemblies being the binding legislative bodies of the Union when combined with other faculties. But this will take more than one year.

What will you do in the role? I would like to see the London Living Wage implemented. UCL are planning on doing it in the middle of next year if the pressure is applied they will do it earlier. Students need to be informed that this is still an issue. Some students were taken in by UCL’s press releases and stuff in the papers that said they were going to implement it – a lot of people thought that meant they had implemented

it. However a lot of staff and students are still on poverty pay. I think the key to this is providing people with the knowledge and understanding and arguments.

What has the incumbent officer done wrong?I would have liked Luke Durigan to have maintained better links with the activist net-work on campus. Though I think this is a problem with all bureaucratic jobs.

You’re running unopposed: how much of a mandate is provided by beating RON?This is a difficult one. Unfortunately this shows the nature, not only of UCLU at the moment, but also of the society we live in; most people feel disenfranchised and they don’t feel the union represents them or that they have a stake in it. This is something that needs to change. I think reorganising the governance so UCLU has more involve-ment on a faculty level would be one way to do that. To some extent though people will get involved when they think issues involve them. Education and Campaigns Officer has become cemented as a left wing role. And UCL has a centre left consensus, which ex-ists in general amongst students and young people.

Well, Michael Chessum, former holder of this position, once described UCL as a “To-ry-Liberal marginal”. How will you repre-

sent these students he was referring to?It’s a misconception that in a body of 24,000 students that an officer can represent eve-ryone and it’s a misconception that an of-ficer should represent everyone. I think I can represent the majority of students but it depends on how informed the students are. An important part of this role is to inform students so that I can represent them. I do fundamentally believe that what I believe in would appeal to the majority of students if they were informed; information is key. I can only campaign for what I can believe in.


UCLU Cheese Grater Magazine Society

President and Editor: John BellEmail: [email protected]

Assistant Editor (Humour): Samuel GausEmail: [email protected]

Assistant Editor (Investigations): Hannah SketchleyEmail: [email protected]

Student Publication of the Year - UCLU Union Arts Awards 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011

Postal Address: UCL Union,

The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of UCL Union or the editor.25 Gordon Street London WC1H 0AY

RON

Why do you think you’re the person for the job?UCL students are disaf-fected. They’re tired of being jerked about by to-tal chancers with one eye on the job, and both hands on a free coffee from Gor-don’s. Students want a can-didate who’s been through the mill a few times, and I’m that guy. I’ve got more Union experience than any other candidate. I’ve seen it all. I know the ropes. My hands are dab. I’ve got my hands dirty. I’ve kept my hands clean. I know where UCLU hides the Nazi gold. Most impressively, I’ve

been SSEES Faculty Rep and Brain Sciences Faculty Rep at the same time.

What will you do in the role? I’m definitely going to stop things getting any worse. No more of this pathetic tinkering with the way things are run – every-thing’s basically fine any-way. People should put up, or shut up. With RON, your Union is going to be strictly laissez-faire. What has the incumbent officer done wrong?The incumbent officer has, as expected, done every-thing wrong. That’s why

I ran against him/her last year, and I’ve been utterly vindicated. I’m running again because I’ve had enough of amateur hour. The clowns aren’t funny – give RON a chance.

Why do you keep losing?Because the Union is a dis-gusting popularity contest. It’s not about how many much experience you have, or how good your ideas are. More often than not, the contest boils down to whether you’re a real per-son or an electoral concept. And it makes me sick. Vote RON.

Sabbatical and Non-Sabbatical Officer

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Issue 34 - Elections Special

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