The University of Central Lancashire recently held their student elections and congratulations go to Beth Woodthorpe-Evans who was elected the Student Union President.
Despite such a modern day approach to election voting, out of just under 30,000 students eligible to vote, only 5.2 percent of Uclan students actually voted.
In the first of her regular column on Click Lancashire, she explains her fight to power and why student politics are so important, and should have everyone listening.
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UCLAN STUDENT UNION PRESIDENT & CLICK LANCASHIRE COLUMNIST BETH WOODTHORPE-EVANS.
Student elections are like any other. You meet people who genuinely care, listen and want to get involved in having their say.
But then you meet the people who just as genuinely believe that even if they did vote nothing would change.
I will give them a reason to voice their opinion.
I faced this battle when I was campaigning to become the next Student Union President at Uclan, and what a tough battle it was.
Despite the challenge I fought on, and after a long campaign found myself elected SU President for the forthcoming year.
Even though I’ve now been elected, the battle has only really just begun.
One of my main priorities as SU President is to increase participation in our union, from the elections to the use of services and facilities that the university offers it students.
This is all very easier said than done however. The view of ‘my opinion won’t make a difference’ won’t change overnight, but given time I can change that – as they say two heads are better than one!
What we need to do is make our students aware of the issues that are affecting them, but also how we intend to resolve them.
However it’s not just how the union intends to deal with them that’s important, it’s also how the students, who are part of the sixth biggest union in the country, want them to be changed. We must then prove that these opinions do make a difference, and use them as our foundation of change.
Students are increasingly classed as being the ‘iPod’ generation, and the union took great steps in promoting the elections through social networking sites like Facebook to appeal more to students this year.
Nevertheless, just over 5 percent of the whole university voted this year.
This low number was an increase from last year’s figures, with an extra 450 students taking the time to use their vote and elect the student body they wanted, evidence that a new modern approach to get students interested in politics has the ability to work.
This is a great building block for us now to work on, but the election increase needs to be bigger for next year, if not only to ensure that the student body elected is a fair representation that students want to govern their union.
It’s not just me that will be helping to change this. The Student Affairs Committee are elected representatives of the student body at UCLan, made up of my own role and four others; Education officer: Campaigns officer: Media Officer: Activities and Participation Officer.
Between these five positions, we all ensure that the SU ethos is maintained, which quite simply is: making life better for our students.
On top of this, the union has its own student council, made up of current students as a place to get their voices heard and acted upon. Any student is welcome to these council meetings, and can propose any new policy, a simple but highly effective way to become involved in student politics.
One reason I put myself forwar for SU President position was because I wanted to help ensure that every student who attends this fantastic university gets the first class education and university experience they deserve.
I intend to encourage a greater involvement from all students in their union, so that together we can succeed.
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