Interview: Leo Boe, Welfare Officer

**How are you feeling?**

I’m absolutely shocked, as I was getting ready in my friend’s room I was saying to her ‘I’m not nervous, because I’m not going to win’, and I said that over and over again throughout the week, because there are other candidates who are much stronger than I am. I am happy that I’m here and I’m happy that I won. I hope I manage to deliver on the policies that I have promised. I want to congratulate the people who were running against me. They all had fantastic ideas, some of which I’ll obviously take up, when I am Welfare Officer.

**How did the campaign go?**

It was really fun. It was really fantastic. It sounds really corny, but the one thing I gained from it was a group of amazing friends who I hadn’t met until Sunday or Monday. I went around the kitchens. I had a fantastic time. There were great people I met along the way, especially my fellow candidates.

**What was the hardest part about campaigning?**

Thinking that I might loose. I love Holly Rae, she’s a fantastic girl, and we immediately said if anyone wins, it has to be one us. It was hard competing against your friend. At the same time I had my dissertation, which I’ve done very little work on, and I thought if I loose this what will I do with my time. The hardest thing was keeping up my morale, and making sure I kept going no matter what.

**What first motivated you to be welfare officer?**

It was a mixture of things, I’m an international student and I know how hard it is for international students to get attention and to be incorporated, and I also worked with Sami over the last few weeks on student community reps, and I’m one of them. And just from my personal experience I think that things could be a lot better, not that Sami’s done a bad job, he is, I think, arguably one of the best sabs at the moment, but I think simple things like the website could be improved.

**You talked a lot about minority rights, do you think that they are underrepresented at Warwick?**

The truth is that 14% of students at Warwick are disabled, I think a lot more can be done for them; they can be incorporated into student events and so on. Deaf and hard of hearing students have not had much focus over the last few years. In terms of international students, they’re barely a minority group, 43% of students are international, and one thing going into the kitchens is that I was the only candidate who spoke about international students, and how important they are to the reputation of the university.

**How do you think the positions you have held as a student will help you in the role of welfare officer?**

I am president and founder of the Co-exist society, which is the inter-faith society on campus, talking about how religion affects society. I have spoken and dealt with most of the 12 religious societies on campus, what facilities they need and what problems they have. So I think that the communication I’ve had over the last year has really helped, part of my job will focus on their rights. I went also to international orientation week and then lived with British students, so I’ve seen the issue from both sides.

**How is the Complaints webpage promised in your manifesto different from the services offered by Nightline?**

Nightline only operates from 9pm to 9am and the students’ advice centre, which unfortunately many students aren’t aware of, is open until 5. The website would enable students to email in at any time. People will be able to communicate with the students advice centre without having to come onto campus, if they live in Leamington or Coventry.