SU president launches defence of controversial street marshals

Ben Sundell, President of the university Students’ Union (SU), has criticised the misrepresentation of the street marshal scheme introduced in Leamington.

Working closely with the District Council over the past year, the University agreed to fund the extension of the current street marshal scheme operating in the town centre to student nights out.

Ken Sloan, registrar of the University of Warwick, said: “We have agreed to fund the street marshal scheme in order to support our students living in Leamington, and to respond positively to the concerns expressed by some members of the local community.

“The scheme is one of a number of investments the University is making in Leamington, to the benefit of students and other residents.”

Starting in term one of last year, the scheme aims to protect students and curb anti-social behaviour in Leamington.

The roles of marshals includes helping students usher taxis, calling the ambulance service if a student requires to be taken to hospital, walking people home who are alone or feel unsafe and resolving any conflict.

The scheme was recently covered in the Leamington Courier, which stated that the marshals were brought in due to the disturbance caused by Warwick students during nights out.

Mr Sundell said: “The facts and reasoning behind the scheme have been completely misrepresented in order to get a snappy headline.”

Denying the Courier’s claims that the marshals were introduced to “control” disorderly students, he emphasised that the scheme was set up to protect student welfare.

“Students are far more likely to be the victims of crime and anti-social behaviour than the perpetrators,” he added.

“It is beyond infuriating when someone is happy to sensationalise the real situation in order to sell papers, and jeopardise all the good work we’ve actually been doing in the local area”.

Mr Sundell said that student reaction has been wholly positive.

Students have reacted to what the SU president called the Courier’s “lazy typical anti-student rhetoric.”

Miguel Costa Matos, the Undergraduate Social Sciences faculty representative at Warwick SU the Boar: “This is not about noisy students. It is about making people safe on nights out […] everyone should welcome this.”

Nick Buxey, a first-year Italian and English student said: “[students] tend to go out a lot, but to make us all out as disruptive is unfair.”

Warwick is understood to be the first university in the country to support a street marshal scheme.

Ben Sundell said: “I’m proud of my University for funding this scheme because it cares about our students’ welfare.”