The QMU 2021 Spring Elections open at 9am on Wednesday 3 March and close at 5pm on Thursday 4 March. Here’s what went down at the Non-Executive Hustings, as well as the links you need to find candidate manifestos and where you can vote.
Yesterday, the QMU held their Spring Elections Hustings via Facebook Live, allowing candidate’s to briefly introduce themselves and take questions from the virtual audience. Of the Non-Executive candidates, only one is contested and one is vacant. You can still vote against uncontested candidate’s by voting to re-open nominations, or select RON.
We have provided a quick run-down of what happened at the Non-Executive Hustings to help you decide during this week’s vote. For the uncontested candidate’s we have provided a link to their online manifesto. Votes can be cast at gla.ac.uk/vote or via the UofG Life app.
CURRENT STUDENT REPRESENATIVES
Current Student Representatives A – (12 months)
Iona Valentine
Iona is a first-year, who wants to improve the experience for future first-years. She wants to make the QMU a more environmentally-friendly place, such as by introducing a Recycle4Charity and Terracycle drop-off spot for ink and stationary in the Union. She also wants to reach out to individual students and societies to improve QMU’s environmental policies. Iona is a veterinary student, and as such wants to improve the connection between the Union and the veterinary campus, by increasing advertising, as well as making it clear that vet students are welcome at the Union. Iona also suggested hosting QMU events at the veterinary campus, partly due to the open spaces available at Garscube. Iona likes all animals except spiders.
You can view the candidate’s manifesto here: Manifesto
Current Student Representatives B – (6 months)
Vacant
CONVENORS
Tech Convenor
Tom Burnip
Tom has prior experience in sound engineering and organisational experience from working within the tech team. Tom would like to continue the online podcasts that were started this year, but would prefer for most events to be in person next year if Covid allows. Tom would want to bring external training in for the tech team, which would include more health and safety training for working at heights and rigging. Tom wishes to incentivise joining the tech team by running lighter-weight shifts that are still interesting, but are not too daunting. Tom’s favourite event to run at the QMU is either STAG nights or the Friday Night Music Quiz.
You can view the candidate’s manifesto here: Manifesto
Ashleigh Reece
Ashleigh first joined the QMU tech team as a first-year. She has vast experience in tech, with a focus on lighting events. Ashleigh wants to expand the tech team, partly by widening recruitment beyond Freshers’ Week and increasing the amount of training. Ashleigh also wants to create better relationships with other groups across campus, as well as running workshops with other tech teams from throughout the University. She also plans to continue some of the initiatives undertaken by QMU during the pandemic (such as QMU Live and the QMU podcast), but intends to hold them in-person, in a hybrid approach. Ashleigh also wants to reform the financing system for the tech team and create more incentives for junior technicians.
You can view the candidate’s manifesto here: Manifesto
Campaigns and Charities Convenor
Rebecca Friels
Rebecca has been involved in the committee for the past six months. Rebecca’s manifesto focuses on increasing interaction, especially when discussing topics such as sexual health and mental health. Rebecca wants to expand the buddy system started this year to help students if they are struggling with starting University. Rebecca would also collaborate with Elephant in the Room on joint events targeted at discussing mental health. Rebecca would run small scale events that do not need to take too much from the budget; she stated that she would never take a cut from proceeds without explicitly publicising a cut would be taken first. Overall, Rebecca wants to increase engagement in the QMU, fundraising face to face with bake sales and quizzes running in collaboration with other QMU committees.
You can view the candidate’s manifesto here: Manifesto
Events
Fatima Saeed
Fatima has been a member of the QMU for over a year. She started the cultural subcommittee. Fatima recognises that coordinating events will be challenging, as expectations are sky-high following the past year. She wants to hold both in-person and online events, to help transition out of the pandemic, to ease potential anxieties around in-person events. Fatima aims to strike a balance between big club nights and more niche events, which are more likely to attract groups such as international students. She believes that a lack of proper promotion is what led to the retiring of once-big QMU events (such as St Andrews Day), and highlights that members of QMU need to put more energy into promoting their events. As the founder of the cultural subcommittee, Fatima wants to support other cultural societies across campus.
You can view the candidate’s manifesto here: Manifesto
Publications
Maria Kostoulia
Maria has been involved with Qmunicate the past year and has seen how rewarding it is to work as part of a team. Maria enjoyed the addition of a creative writing editor this year, and would not change the Qmunicate positions aside from adding a welfare representative to the team. This role would involve ensuring the welfare of editors on the magazine. Maria wishes to reinforce the relationships with other committees by reviewing events within the Union and promoting charities, benefitting the QMU as a whole. Maria aims to break-up the serious stories of Qmunicate by including more light-hearted pieces. She wants the magazine to appeal to a varied range of readers, especially post-pandemic when more fun stories may seem more appealing. Maria will appeal to younger students by promoting the magazine on campuses as well as accommodations, providing access to issues of Qmunicate within central services in halls. Maria’s personal goal is to have an issue launch party/art exhibition within the Union that will publicise up-and-coming Glasgow acts, as well as collaborating with other societies within the University.
You can view the candidate’s manifesto here: Manifesto
Social
Chris McNally
Chris has been involved with the QMU for over a year. He has previously hosted events, including QMU quizzes. Chris does not want to continue online quizzes and events as he does not think they are entertaining. He has previously introduced themed nights around ideas such as “The Florida Man”, and wants to introduce more themed events of this sort. He also wants to make sure that all GU students feel welcome at QMU events, as well as allow anyone, not just board members, to host quiz nights. Chris is a zoology student, and has a tattoo of a bird’s wing on his left arm.
You can view the candidate’s manifesto here: Manifesto
