What do your Sabbs actually do?

With Week 8’s Sabbatical officer elections rapidly appraching, the _Boar_ was interested to see how much Warwick students really knew about the people representing them.

This year, seven candidates will run for the positions of President, Welfare, Education, Societies, Democracy and Development, Postgraduate and Sports. The Sabbatical Officers (Sabbs) are the main representatives of Warwick’s student body. Their primary responsibility is to promote the interests of Warwick students at an institutional, national and local level in order to benefit students.

A _Boar_ survey conducted last week found that the majority of students interviewed did not know what a Sabbatical Officer was. There was confusion about how many positions there are, with only 22 per cent knowing that there were 7. There was a high degree of apathy over elections, with less than one third of those polled saying that they would vote. The most recognised Sabb was Matt Rogers, Societies Officer. Some students felt that the Sabbs were effective, and others questioned their necessity. One second-year History student said that they “are a group of people who need to get real jobs”.

In a bid to clear up some of this confusion, the _Boar_ spoke to three of the incumbent Sabbs about what their roles really involve.

**Chris Luck – Democracy Officer**

Luck is responsible for overseeing the Union’s democratic processes, such as Union Council, elections and referenda, in addition to being the main point of contact to the National Union of Students and delegate to the NUS Conference. He also works with the Board of Trustees and the Democracy Committee.

“I have regular meetings, but it’s a constantly changing environment… On Monday I always have a democratic meeting in the evening, normally Union Council, sometimes Steering. Last Monday we had an Executive Committee meeting, which checks that we’re fulfilling our manifestos.”

Tuesday saw a Democracy Review working group meeting, which discussed the officer role reviews. Wednesday started with a Part-Time officer role-review presentation, but after that there were no meetings.

“Being a Sabb is about more than meetings. I used the out-of-meeting time to prep for the Officer Elections. I went through the website, and contemplated how we’d use social networking in the elections,” he said.

Thursday began with a One World Week presentation – “Students expect us to be the oracles of knowledge on everything that’s happening, so it’s crucial we’re up to date… Friday concluded with a weekly meeting with Democratic Services over elections, regulations and freeing up the rules to make voting easier for students.”

Luck also talked about the highlights of the role. “Election week is the best week in my job by far. It’s one week of pure insanity. _The Guardian _ called being a Sabb the best graduate job in the world, and for me it genuinely is.

“It puts you as a trustee of a £7 million organisation, which is a charity that represents over 22 thousand people; the amount of skills you learn are incredible.”

Finally, he discussed the worst aspects of Democracy Officer: “We get criticised for students not knowing that we exist, or what we do – we need to work on that.”

**Leo Boe – President**

Boe represents Warwick students’ views to the University and campaigns for institutional and education change. He is the first point of call as the primary Union representative and point of liaison on University Committees. Boe oversees the Union’s long-term strategies, from their execution to their development. This involves directing campaigns which are relevant to the whole student body.

He also has the greatest number of one-to-one meetings with University staff. On Monday he participated in a Union Council Meeting. He also attended a graduation ceremony, consorted with presidents of other Students’ Unions, started a report on a high number of inexplicably canceled classes this term, and spoke with the Jewish/Israeli Society about the organisation of Holocaust Memorial Day.

His aims for this term include opening a question and answer with the Vice Chancellor, introducing more internationalism schemes, trying to put together a TED talk for postgraduate research students to integrate them more fully into the student community, and constructing a student charter.

Boe also spoke about misconceptions of the Sabbs. “Most people identify the Union with nights out or the outlets.” Thus, most of the questions the Sabbs often receive are complaints on issues such as the price of alcohol in the Union, although Boe said that social events are a good opportunity to make “students aware of what our jurisdiction is”.

**Chris Sury – Sports Officer**

Sury is the public face of student sport at Warwick. He is responsible for engaging with student clubs and the student community at large to promote sport and healthy living. He also works to develop Warwick Sport, and collaborates with the Student Sport Committee, tasked with organising and promoting a range of events including Sports Fair, Sports Council and Sports Ball.

Sury’s meetings this week have included meeting with Joe Barr from the Sport Communications Office to discuss the running of a festival, and another centred around the Varsity ice hockey competition. This included details such as the match officials, as well as organising the recording of the game. A further meeting involved a review of Warwick Sport with discussions on finance, kit and membership.

Sury said that the core elements of his job were “day to day activities, where you can have students that want to get involved in sport asking you about the opportunities”, as well as “supporting the executives of 73 sports clubs”.

Sury’s future aspirations include the introduction of Respect in Sport, a collaborative project with Welfare Officer Izzy John, to ensure Warwick Sport promotes an inclusive environment to cater for all students.

Discussing his time as Sports Sabb, he said that this year “has been a really good and really exciting time to be Sports Officer”, largely due to the 2012 Olympic games, which saw the Olympic Torch arrive on campus. There have also been collaborations with Inspire, an initiative set up with the NUS to have your work recognised by the Olympics.

A typical day involves answering e-mails and meeting with sport execs. He sees a highlight as being on Warwick Sport Management Group, where “you put the student voice out there”. Further aspirations for the rest of term include expanding the leagues, working with hall groups and societies to ensure more opportunities for people to play sports and making Varsity more successful.