It's come to the time to leave the student movement after being involved in one way or another for somewhere just short of 9 years. In that time I've met some amazing people, had some amazing experiences, and wouldn't change it for the world. In this post I want to reflect on certain events, explain a few things, and mention the people who have supported and guided me through that time.
In the Beginning ...
It all started in Exeter in 2001 when I was studying A Levels in Maths, Further Maths, Computing, and Drama & Theatre Studies. It was here at my FE college where I had my first taste of a student union. It was in a temporary building in the middle of the car park, with pool tables priced at 40p, some vending machines, and exec offices. I can confidently say I never went into the exec offices, but I did spend a lot of time on the pool tables.
Surely enough, the officer elections came around in the spring and my older sister ran for Women's Officer. There are two things to note here, firstly that I was able to vote for the Women's Officer (being male an everything), and secondly that I RONed my sister! She was, nevertheless, elected.
Running for Deputy President was a certain someone called Alice Bouquet. I definitely voted for her - she's hot after all. After a few issues at the start of the new year Alice became acting President, and by this time I was spending more time in the students' union then I was in lectures. Now I remember Alice (I even said how nice she was on Gemini FM, our local radio station), but I wasn't expecting Alice to tell me at NUS Conference 2009 that she remembered me playing pool in the common room!
I regret not becoming politically involved in the union whilst at college, but my experience was enhanced ten-fold by the hard work of the officers.
Winning and (Sometimes) Losing
So I move onto Manchester Met in 2003, initially studying Maths & Computing. It was here where I acquired my nickname, JR. The chair of the Cricket club gave it to me, and it just stuck. It was through the Cricket club and the Athletic Union that I got involved in the students' union. I volunteered to be on the club committee which meant I attended the AU meetings and so on. Unfortunately, at the end of the year nobody wanted to take on the running of the club, so I again stepped up and became chair in my second year, effectively planning the freshers' fair stall and organising training single-handedly.
I also stood for student council that year; very easy to get elected. There were 6 positions in my faculty and I was one of only two people standing (I would've effectively had to lose to RON four times to not get on)!
I stood because I wanted a better deal for sports and societies. The AU had just outsourced their Wednesday night entertainment which was bringing in £30,000 to the union, after offsetting this against what we'd usually take in the union bar on a Wednesday night it was an increase of around £20,000. However, the increase to sports and societies funding was just £5,000. This clearly wasn't proportionate, and it took an AGM motion (not binding in itself) which was ratified by council to bump up the budget by £15,000.
This showed me the power of students to get what they wanted in the union. By coming together they fought and won on what they believed was right. It also showed me that one way of getting such things through was by packing a meeting with supporters; not so sure that was as democratic!
I had caught the bug of student activism; this led me to stand for Sports and Societies Officer on the advice of that officer of the time (who also advised a few others to stand too). As an independent running against two slates, I lost, but was third from five with only about 50 first preferences covering the top four. Nevertheless, I retained my seat on student council for the next two years and ran for Chair in a by-election the following October, this time losing to a Jsoc candidate.
By this time I was being branded as unelectable on Ednet (you really know you've made it when you get slagged off on Ednet!) I proved them wrong, however, when I was elected as Chair of Student Council by a comparative landslide (in the first round against four other candidates) the next time around. By now I was also attending NUS regional conferences and we were in the realms of NUS Governance: Mark I; allowing me to geek out on constitutional matters.
Closer to home, MMUnion's own governance review was in full swing. I chaired the final meeting of student council when the measures passed – unanimously – although some of the votes on the amendments were much closer. The vote on the amendment to raise the quorum for referenda from 5% to 10% of students was tied, and remained so after two recounts. It was my duty to provide a casting vote and therefore, using
Speaker Denison's rule, I voted against the amendment and kept the quorum at 5%. In the bar after the meeting, my decision was approved by the proposer of the amendment as the fairest resolution.
Up until my time as chair, student council often did not have quorum and was particularly not well attended by students outside of the Humanities subjects. I'm glad to say that while I was chair, every meeting achieved quorum and no meeting finished early because of losing quorum.
Torying
I'm going to quickly move on from council now to my involvement with the Conservative Party. Having toyed with the idea for a while, I became a member of the party in April 2008. Those that know me well will understand that I come from a single parent, low income family; not the stereotypical Tory. I've always maintained that my involvement with the Conservatives was very much on the left of the party; about as far to the left as you can get whilst still being right-wing.
By no means have I agreed with everything the party has done, nor agreed with the views of some of their members, but it's important to remember that a political party is capable of change. No-one can deny that Labour changed dramatically under Tony Blair, and I truly believe the Conservatives have changed under Cameron. For example, I've yet to meet one member of Conservative Future who holds homophobic or racist views; although I'm sure those people exist. I believe this to show that the youth of the party are increasingly socially liberal (something that might come as a surprise to those that regularly listen to Labour propaganda) and that can only be a good thing for the party.
It is unfortunate that the Conservatives won't consider an alternative to tuition fees. As someone who signed the Vote For Students pledge to vote at the general election for a candidate that will vote against an increase in fees in this parliament, I agonised over who to vote for in May. I wanted to keep my pledge, but the Conservative candidate in my constituency, Manchester Withington, hadn't signed the pledge himself.
On polling day I voted for the Labour candidate, Lucy Powell. It wasn't a protest against the Conservatives or an endorsement of Labour – I simply wanted to keep my promise to students. However, my membership of the Conservative Party lapsed towards the end of April and I do not intend to renew it. The party must realise that there is credible alternatives to tuition fees, and not dismiss the NUS proposals out of hand. Until this happens I won't be considering rejoining.
The Sabb Experience
It's a cliché that a year as a student union sabbatical officer will change your life, but it is something that happens to hundreds of people every year. It is certainly true of my time as a sabb. From the moment I was elected as Vice President (Welfare), I was indebted to the students that voted for me. The experiences I had and the skills that I gained were those that money could not buy.
It is here I wade in with the first of my thankyous. I cannot praise the wonderful staff of the union enough; Paul, Becci, Gary, Lesley, Di, and Barbara are just a few of those ready to offer advice, help or guidance at the drop of a hat, but our Chief Executive, Matt, has been a real influence on me as an officer. His design of the training that was delivered during the summer was exquisite down to the fine detail (that detail being a pair of red rubber gloves for each of the officers to wear whilst completing tasks around Keswick on a busy Saturday afternoon). His engaging style and seemingly unbreakable enthusiasm for his job rub off on the officers and staff, and reflects back to him as a result.
Something that no member of staff can really help with is funding for the union's campaigns. Running campaigns on a shoestring is not much fun, as I'm sure many of you have first hand experience of; the good news is I managed to run a student safety campaign without spending a penny. The police tied in their campaign to that of the union and they paid for posters, flyers, drinks mats; I also ordered material from NUS (paid for by the Home Office) which included student survival guides, UV pens, and door hangers which read
"I don't want to be your mother, but you really should lock your door."
Of course the campaign is how you communicate the message to students. I, with a little help, went around all the university owned halls with the goody bags and a quick explanation of what the stuff in the bags was. You can't truly measure how effective the campaign was as you don't know what the stats would've been had it not taken place; however when you see the material still on students' doors and around their kitchens three months after running the campaign, you know it had an impact.
By far the most engaging campaign of the year was the general election NUS Vote For Students pledge. The first year sabbs led on the campaign and we set ourselves a huge target of getting 2000 of our members signed up to the pledge, a target that shocked our second year colleagues who said that 500 would be impressive. Nevertheless we set about getting those pledges and in the end got just under 1000 signed up.
On polling day itself I led around 50 students to their polling station, and directed a number of others. It was quite amazing how many students had literally no idea where their polling station was.
But I can't write this article without referencing my failed attempt to be elected as President of the students' union. Firstly it's important to mention a few things; the turnout for this year's elections was dramatically up on last year, almost doubling; I actually got more votes than I did to be elected as VP Welfare the previous year, and I only came third this time; and this was the first time two moderate slates ran in the elections since, well, the last time the hard left won sabbatical positions!
I'm not going into too much detail (you can read more in
this blog post), but suffice to say that it didn't have to be this way. In my original reaction to the results I didn't blame people, but instead the situation we found ourselves in. Now after a more reflection, and more evidence coming to light, I've concluded that the situation was created by a person who put himself before the union and its members. Knowing the intentions of this person for next year, it would be a disaster for the union if he ran again for the same position, and if his faction are smart (and have the guts) they won't back him.
Notwithstanding those events, it really has been a great sabbatical year and I've had the privilege of working with an amazing team, the best team of sabbs there's been at the union since I came to Manchester. Teamwork makes the dreamwork!
Special thanks must go to Rob for being a really good friend over the last few years, and giving me a choice of the positions when running for election with him (President excluded, obviously). His down to earth Presidency has been just what the union needed in a very uncertain time financially. He has been a great advocate for the union within the university and has received praise from senior staff. I'm sure he'll find success in whatever he wants to do in the future.
Beyond Manchester
Talking about friends, I can't miss out the ECSU Caucus. The semi-autonomous group of old SU hacks from Exeter College. I've had some amazing long distance support – hints and tips – from the gang, as well as a very enjoyable night out in Exeter at Christmas with John Cox providing the bed and breakfast, Natalie Tremlett and Alice Bouquet each providing the brains and the beauty, and the irrepressible Joe Oliver providing plenty of opportunities for us to advise him to '
avoid saying that in your election campaign'! Joe in particular went beyond the call of duty when it came to supporting me this year, nearly getting himself into trouble in doing so. He'll make an excellent officer at Sheffield this coming year.
Someone else who has been a great help this year, if not incredibly annoying at times, is Hollie Williams. She's kept me in check by being a one person accountability machine, but also providing plenty of campaign ideas and a huge amount of her time for the cause.
Last but not least is the national team at NUS. Many thanks to Susan and Aaron for coming up to support our campaigns, Ed and Usman for being super block members and also helping us out when needed, but most of all our (now former) National President, Wes. He really has been one of the most talented and successful NUS Presidents in recent years. His determination to reform the organisation, and his shear non-stop ethos. Doing wonders to improve the life of students for what seems like a lifetime. His new job at PWC is just rewards for his hard work, and I hope to see him in public office very soon.
And finally ...
To round up, I'm leaving behind an era in my life that has meant the world to me. I hope people realise how passionate I've been about representing students and what an honour it has been to do so. As a scout I have
a promise that I will do my best; I'm confident that's what I have done.
Best of luck to you all.
JR
