One of two candidates running for the position of Students’ Representative Council’s (SRC) Vice President of Student Support (VPSS) is Julia Hegele. Having been Gender Equality Officer for the SRC for the past two years and worked as a University court assessor throughout the past year, Julia offers a wealth of experience relating to student welfare in the SRC. Additionally, Julia has experience with welfare in on-campus societies, having served as community and welfare officer for Student Theater at Glasgow (STAG).
Julia’s manifesto makes clear her vested interest in redefining representation within the SRC; she highlights her awareness of the representative power that the VPSS role entails, and vows to utilise the platform in order to make students’ voices and concerns heard and raise these issues to the University’s senior management, particularly placing focus on issues faced by marginalised students such as estranged and home students. In her manifesto, Julia also commits to establishing a delegation program from within the SRC, which she says would allow for more effective communication between societies and mobilise student voices on a grassroots level.
Like Eva Simmons, the other candidate for VPSS, Julia has highlighted her goal of improving psychological services at the University. Julia states that she will lobby for increased funding for psychological and counselling services if she is elected as VPSS, criticising current long waitlists to receive such counselling and inadequate quality of advice provided to students.
Overall, Julia’s manifesto promises to improve student welfare at the University. With her extensive experience pertaining to welfare at the University obtained from working with the SRC and STAG, Julia is dedicated to centring students’ experiences and, if elected, promises to lobby to improve counselling services and communication between students and University staff.
You can watch Rebecca’s interview with Julia here. Julia’s full manifesto is available here.
Voting opens at 9am on 3 March and closes at 5pm on 4 March. You can vote here or on the UofG Life app.
