Chair of Students' Council Candidate- Kirsty Styles

First published at http://www.pluto-online.com/?p=1665

Name: Kirsty Styles

Year: 2

Course: BA Journalism

Position Running For: Chair of Student Council

Why are you running for this position?

I’m quite surprised that I’m running uncontested. However, I want to represent the student body, give something back to my university, hold all of the people in power accountable and try and get some stuff done!

Experience and Skills?

I studied Politics at A-level and also for a year at Sheffield University and right now I’m studying journalism so right now I think I’ve got the two things that best help towards the position – politics and media.

Top 3 goals whilst in office?

I’m kind of running on the ticket of making university better for men because I realised that there isn’t actually a Men’s Representative on the Student Council. Obviously I want to represent everybody, but I feel that men are being under-represented in today’s society and their problems would be something that I would try and focus on.

What are your campaign plans?

I’m going on the ticket of: “Kirsty Styles: making university better for men”. It was a bit of a joke. I had noticed that there wasn’t a men’s representative so I thought that that would be the theme of my campaign. I want the students to have a voice; I want them to know there’s someone there who can vocalize what students are thinking.

What are your negatives?

I don’t have a Council as such to put anything into place. I am very political, whether that is a negative…I don’t know.

How can you improve on your predecessor?

To be honest I’m not sure who my predecessor was, I’m not sure if they ran a campaign or if they were drawn from one of the various student forums. I’d like to make myself more well-known than them – make a mark.

How can they cope with the responsibility and pressure?

I’ve got quite a lot of responsibilities this year – writing for Pluto and being part of a pan European blogging competition run by the EU in Brussels. It’s all about having a diary, knowing when you’ve got to get things done and meeting the deadlines.

Why should people elect you?

I think I’ve shown that I’m committed to university and students because I put myself forward for position

Anything to add?

Just a bit disappointed that no other students have come forward; not only is student politics a springboard for national politics, but it’s also something we should do because people should put across things that are important to them, so that things aren’t stagnant and we can move on into the future together.

Student elections- where are all the men?

First published at http://www.pluto-online.com/?p=1264

Student Elections have come around again, as you may, or quite easily may not have noticed. Nominations opened on Monday 2^nd of February, so if Britain’s Obama is out there, please get yourself down to the union for an election pack.

Having a look down the twenty or so posts available, I can’t help but wonder why there is not a position for Men’s Representative…

For those graduating this year, there are five full-time elected officer posts on the Student Affairs Committee (with salary, don’t all scramble at once): President, Education officer, Activities and participation officer, Media officer and Campaigns officer.

Yep, all non-quality specific.

And for those of you still battling through your degrees who are left feeling you could be doing that bit more for yourself and your peers, the Students’ Council has five voluntary positions: Chair of Students’ Council, Women’s Representative, Students with Disabilities Representative, LGBT Representative and Black Students Representative.

Looking at the list above, I can only assume that the lack of a bloke-specific position means that male interests are intrinsically represented in the ‘Chair of Students’ Council’ position, thus, the position might be more accurately described as ‘Male Representative of Students’ Council,’ and therefore, that there must always be a patriarchal slant put on proceedings. Hmm… all sound a bit too familiar ladies?

The point of a Chair is surely to be without biased?

If this is not the case, then in the great bid for equal rights in a (still, let’s face it) male-dominated world, men either feel they have already been able to achieve all the things that they set out to, so a position is not required (job done, let’s go down the pub), or, if the Chair is not necessarily male and is acting in a neutral role, that men are becoming underrepresented.

The Chair of Students’ Council should be drawn from any student who decides to run, so obviously including anyone from any of the groups given their own position above. They are all equally capable of acting in an unbiased way.

But this would of course mean an overrepresentation of one group with the absence of a white-able-bodied straight male student on the board.

Surely there are areas of university life peculiar and of importance to the male student population in the same way that there are for women students, students with disabilities, LGBT students and Black students?

The only solution is to have a Men’s Officer as well, to identify issues relevant to male students and to ensure the needs of male students are reflected in the activity of the Students’ Union, just as all the other officers do for their respective represented groups. And the Chair, by merit alone, be drawn from anyone who applies.