Linda Weber
Fraser Sutherland, Vice President of Student Support, has donated 32.9% of his salary from the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) to a charitable fund.
Sutherland pledged in a heckling meeting for the SRC spring elections in March this year that he would work for the minimum wage. The remaining money from his salary would then be used to set up a trust to aid charity fundraising within the University.
The SRC executive salary is £15,292 per year, pre-tax for a contracted 34 hours a week. Sutherland agreed instead to work for £10,254.40 pre-tax, leaving £5,037.60 to be put into a trust called the ‘Fraser Fund’.
The money from the trust is distributed at the discretion of a committee made up of SRC Sabbatical Officers.
So far they have unanimously agreed to help cover the costs of a bake sale raising money for an HIV charity as well as covering the printing cost for tickets to a charity evening for African relief.
Sutherland stated after his election that “This trust fund will then be open to students, club and societies of the University to bid into for charitable projects.”
Commenting on how the state of the fund, Sutherland said that: “Hopefully the charities that have benefited from the money will let us know how much money they raised at their events and this will allow me to gauge how successful the fund will be over the year.”
