The new Glasgow University Sport Association (GUSA) council was elected in March, for the 2024/25 term. The Glasgow Guardian spoke to several of the new council members to learn about their passion for sport, ideas for their upcoming time on council, and to get to know them a little bit better.
Lilly Roy – Culture and Inclusion Convener
Lilly is going into her third year of studying Medicine at Glasgow and was inspired to run for her position in order to further the university’s sporting inclusivity. “I believe that sport should be inclusive and accessible to all individuals of every ability”, she said. “GUSA showed me a different side of sport to that that I had been exposed to previously. It showed me that as well as being competitive, sport has so many benefits – it is a great way to destress, make new friends, build confidence and skills and keep fit and healthy. I want to ensure that sport is as accessible as possible to everyone so that they are able to reap these benefits.”
Ahead of her new position as the Culture and Inclusion Convenor, Lilly shared some of her key goals she aims to achieve.
“To run more Inclusion and Culture events throughout the year for campaigns such as Black History Month and LGBTQ+ Month to raise greater awareness about them!” She added, “I’m going to achieve this through working with my Inclusion and Culture Sub-commitee, a group of likeminded students who will help spread awareness about campaigns and run and organise events.”
Lilly’s other ideas include working together with the other sporting bodies at Glasgow, and collaborating with Publicity Convenor, Ed, to ensure students feel represented across GUSA’s social media pages. “From my personal experience as a woman of colour, I know that I’m far more likely to give a sport a try if I see myself represented by them.”
How would others on GUSA Council describe you?: “I think that others would describe me as outgoing and energetic. I’m always enthusiastic and love getting involved and helping out with everything that I can on council!”
Advice for students considering sport at university: “Just go for it. GUSA opens up so many opportunities to you- no matter what level of athlete you are- and will give you so much confidence that you will carry into every part of your life. You will make lifelong friends and have the most amazing experiences, so give sport with GUSA a go and see where it takes you – because it will be somewhere great!”
Alex Wong – Outreach Convenor
Alex is heading into his third year, studying Biomedical Engineering. He’s a part of the Badminton club and was born and raised in Mauritius. Alex discussed what inspired him to run for Outreach Convenor. “I wanted to be involved in being in charge of GUSA’s growing outreach programs and get more international students involved in sports at uni,” he explained. “Having done outreach before with the badminton club, I found it rewarding and fun that I get to teach the sport that I love doing to primary school kids. Most of these kids would not have the opportunity to practise a sport otherwise. It’s an amazing initiative taken on by GUSA and I wanted to be further involved through the role of GUSA’s Outreach Convenor.”
Alex also shared his main goals for the upcoming year, including getting more clubs involved with outreach programmes and improving international student participation. “GUSA’s outreach program has seen a huge growth this year, expanding to not only helping schools but also the community. GUSA has collaborated with via as part of their sports program helping students from age 8-18. I plan to continue this collaboration and possibly introduce more sports via outreach.”
Another of Alex’ goals is: “advertising sports to incoming and current students outside of the Sports Fayre, collaborating with numerous cross-campus SRC societies that celebrate diversity and culture.”
Favourite memory from being involved in a GUSA club?: “Winning the ‘Club of the Year’ award at GUSA ball with the badminton club and winning the ‘Club member of the year’ award as a fresher a couple of weeks later. This solidified for me that my efforts were recognised by the club and encouraged me to further help the club by being on committee for years to come.”
If you had to do another sport, what would it be and why?: “I love playing volleyball. I think there are a lot of transferrable skills that can be used from badminton in terms of movement and spiking and serve techniques.”
Eilidh McQuillan – Alumni Convenor
This year, Eilidh, who is from outside Glasgow and has just finished her second year of university, was a coach and committee member for the Trampoline Club. She is furthering her engagement with GUSA with her role on next year’s council. “I knew I wanted to continue my involvement in sport at university due to how much I had enjoyed my previous two years, and one of my close friends encouraged me to run for GUSA Council. Being Alumni convener allows me to organise events and work closely with clubs, members, and the university to remain in contact with and develop our alumni network.”
As GUSA’s new alumni convenor, Eilidh is focused on maintaining and increasing the involvement of GUSA’s alumni across the academic year, benefitting students and alumni alike.
“My first goal is to plan and organise successful events for students and alumni to connect. I want to ensure these events are well-promoted, inclusive, and most importantly, beneficial and enjoyable.” She added, “To achieve this goal, I aim to provide extensive notice of events and provide a form for accessibility requirements to ensure these are accounted for in the planning.”
“Secondly, I want to improve the visibility of our Alumni Campaigns, developing the accessibility and presence. I plan on doing this by creating more promotional content and utilising social media to share this. I also want to work with the Development and Alumni Office to promote our unique GUSA Alumni Network.”
Eilidh is also looking to improve the connections between student and alumni. She plans to do this “by promoting the benefit of our network, providing support to clubs organising alumni events, and communicating student and alumni success to alumni through the form of a newsletter.”
If you could be another GUSA Council member for a day: “I would be Lilly Roy. I am terribly clumsy and so could never do beam at gymnastics. Lilly was a Team Scotland gymnast, so I would spend the day in her body to be able to finally do a backflip on the beam without falling off!”
Favourite memory from being involved in a GUSA club?: “My favourite memory from being involved in a GUSA club is attending the Scottish Student Trampoline Open 2023. This is the biggest student trampoline competition held in Scotland and it is so fun. You get to compete against and then go on nights out with people from universities in Scotland, Ireland, England, and Wales.”
Edward Corbett – Publicity Convenor
Ed has just finished his third year of Aeronautical Engineering and is taking on the role of Publicity Convenor for a second successive year. He said, “GUSA has been responsible for my greatest memories and closest friendships during my time at university, which is why I decided to run for GUSA Council. Giving back to the sporting community and growing awareness of GUSA can lead to many more students having as positive a university sports experience as I.”
Ed discussed his ideas for 2024/25, with the first referring to his plans for media content. “I aim to continue with regularly scheduled content using the theme and aesthetic created for last year, while increasing the quantity of short form video content”, he said.
Ed also has plans to continue supporter engagement “With the completion of the new sports hall I would like to continue the ’Show Your Stripes’ posts highlighting games people should go and watch and support our teams at, while creating a cohesive team brand through the design of new fan merchandise.”
Looking to the future, Ed wants to make the Publicity Convenor role as accessible as possible. He said, “Myself and the publicity convenor before me have both already been photographers/videographers with experience and our own equipment. This year I will build on the purchase of GUSA owned publicity equipment to allow anyone who runs for the role to create high quality content at any level of experience.”
Advice for students considering sport at university: “Do it. Whether you have experience in the sport or not, friends in the club or not, just go for it.”
If you could be another GUSA Council member for a day: “Karl Kirkpatrick, hands down. His position as GUSA president takes him all over campus meeting some of the most interesting people in Glasgow. Whether it be GUSA alumni who have gone on to achieve great things or sitting in on university management meetings and being able to better the student experience at Glasgow must feel so rewarding. Plus, it couldn’t hurt to look as dashing as he does for a day!”
Dan De Luca – Finance Convenor
Dan’ is an Economics and Business Management student and a member of both the Hares and Hounds and Squash clubs. He commented on wanting to make a positive change as GUSA’s new Finance Convenor, “I want to get people more involved in sport and I feel being closer to the decision making within the organisation will allow me to do that to try and make a real positive impact for our students.”
Dan’s targets for the upcoming year include improving awareness of GUSA’s finance options and communication within club treasurers.
Dan said, “I want to help students who are unable to afford sport gain access to the facilities and wonderful clubs we have on offer. This would be done through our hardship fund that is dedicated to helping these individuals.”
“We have so many opportunities for students to take part in whether they’re a recreational or professional athlete. Unfortunately, these tend to go unnoticed which I want to change through the increasing our social presence and advertising the funds we have on offer on these platforms.”
“Within GUSA, every single club has a treasurer that has a huge job in managing finances for the club. I want to ensure that they are given up to date information about the funds that are on offer and any questions they have can be seamlessly directed to myself to be answered”, Dan explained.
How would others on GUSA Council describe you?: “A hard working genuine guy that simply wants the best for our members.”
Advice for students considering sport at university: “I would say go for it! Sport has so many mental and physical benefits and I can tell you first hand that every sports club is so so welcoming and is an amazing opportunity to make lifelong friends at university while competing in something you truly enjoy.”
