Deputy News Editor
Olivia Robertson seems a good person to represent the values of GUSA, with her passion for sportsmanship, particularly her dedication to the hockey club, which she has been a member of since she was a fresher, and has risen through the ranks to become a central part of the running of the club. She is confident that she will be able to manage this alongside the responsibilities of the Vice Presidential role, which can be extremely time-consuming, and this shows that she has an unwavering loyalty to the club that got her involved in GUSA in the first place. I think that this commitment to her GUSA roots makes clear that she is not simply a career candidate, but someone who cares about the success of her team.
That’s not to say she won’t be able to handle the demanding nature of the VP role. As 2017/18 Publicity Convenor, Robertson came up with the hugely successful ‘Glasgow Girls Can’ campaign, which encouraged girls to participate in sporting activities and join clubs. She doesn’t plan to stop in this regard: Robertson is hoping to get the most underrepresented groups in sport to participate in more exercise, and will work in tandem with the Publicity Convenor and the SRC to identify these groups and encourage them to participate in more sport. Another aspect of her continuing publicity work will be the promotion of struggling and underperforming clubs, starting from Fresher’s Week, and she aims to include these clubs in the GUSA Ball, the organisation of which is a key part of the VP role.
Whilst the underlying issue behind underperforming clubs is a lack of funding (something that Robertson is aware of, having sat on Council), publicity and promotion is undeniably a central part of getting people involved in GUSA, and Robertson has shown that she is more than capable of bringing about change.