Cardiff Students’ Union will be running in full swing soon after the election of six non-sabbatical officers to CUSU’s Executive Committee.
The elections saw three competitive races with an especially tense battle for Health and Welfare support officer that saw no candidate reach the quota to win outright.
Five candidates were up for the position which went to the maximum five stages of counting with Lydia James eventually being elected to the position as all four other candidates were eliminated under the rules of the Single Transferable Vote system, the preferred method of voting by NUS Wales.
Lydia said: “I didn’t think I would win. There was stiff competition from the other candidates. I’m just really excited about getting it and starting the job.”
“I want to campaign for a night bus for Cardiff University Halls of Residence especially for University Hall and halls in Cathays. I’d really like to campaign for free Chlamydia testing for students as well as the current campaigns the union runs like ShAg and Health Month. I was going to run in the elections last year but I kind of chickened out.”
Another closely fought race was that of Intra-Mural Games Chair which was won by Andy Button-Stephens who campaigned as a monk. He’ll be in charge of running the IMG netball, football and rugby leagues.
Sally Wood was elected to be Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender by a landslide 202 votes. She said, “I really have to be realistic about what I can achieve this year. There’ll be a backlog because there was no one in the position last year.”
“My main goal for this year will be helping to make people feel more comfortable going into Solus. A lot of people feel better going into town instead of the Students’ Union.
There were also three uncontested positions with Joy Kirini elected to Postgraduate support officer, new mature students officer Ruth Jones and Alys Mumford becoming the new Women’s Officer.
Joy said: “I feel really humbled and honoured to be elected. I’d really like to increase library hours for postgrads and publicise postgraduate activities more so postgrads know what’s going on. I didn’t really know the elections were going on last year so I didn’t enter then.”
Women’s Officer Alys told gair rhydd: “I’d really like to look into discrimination, whether towards men or women. I’d also like there to be a night bus from the union, as many other students’ unions have these. Raising awareness of national and global issues would also be one of my priorities because we’ve got so many students willing to make a difference. “
Ruth Jones, Mature students’ officer said: “My main aims are to increase the involvement of mature students in Union activities and improve the flow of relevant information where it’s needed. It’s easy as a mature student, especially a mature undergraduate, to feel alienated.”
