Luke Chafer analyses Sam Malis’ manifesto for VPSA following their interview.
The position of Vice President for Student Activities is hotly contested this year, with three strong contenders. Sam Malis has a great breadth of experience from reviving the Geography Society as president, to subject roles within the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) as well as being part both the Electronic Music and Salsa committees.
Sam’s manifesto covers the usual ground for someone running for the position. He talks about increasing cross-campus collaboration with the unions but he has been vague with ideas in terms of how this could be achieved. This is unlike his plan for student clubs and society partnerships, which under his plans would benefit from centralised social media campaigns and platforms.
His manifesto does look ahead to the unique opportunities available to students this coming year, in particular COP26, where he plans to organise activities to raise awareness and fundraise for environmental causes.
Most importantly, his freshers week proposals: like us all Sam is looking forward to a return to a normal Freshers’ Week whenever that may be. He does acknowledge the positive impact that the sustained use of online events could have particularly for students from non-traditional backgrounds and this is a tool that will be utilised under his leadership to create a more inclusive week.
You can watch Luke’s interview with Sam here. Sam’s full manifesto is available here.
Voting opens at 9am on 3 March and closes 5pm on 4 March. You can vote here or on the UofG Life app.
