Meet your new Women’s Officer

Following her success in the hotly contested election for Women’s Officer, I met up with Chloe to discuss controversies surrounding the election and her plans to help women on campus.

Chloe Wynne (Credit: Twitter)

What is the first area you would like to tackle as our new Women’s Officer?

I’ve already started this week. I’ve been speaking to a few officers from SOAS, Nottingham and Cambridge. One of the things actually that I’m going to meet up with the Welfare Officer about tomorrow is bringing National Period Pride Day to Warwick, which is on February 18^th.

Can we address some areas of your manifesto?
Firstly, the point about introducing a ‘code of conduct’ for security staff and external contractors. How will you achieve this?

There are so many complaints, on a weekly basis, of wolf- whistling and harassment. We’re going to review the options on that, and whether it is necessary to do a code of conduct, and try and create some kind of guidance for the contractors on how to behave appropriately.

For Rootes Grocery Store, for them to make a profit on it [sanitary products], is really just not ethical.

Also ‘Sanitary products for free’- Why do you think this is important?

For Rootes Grocery Store, for them to make a profit on it, is really just not ethical. The SU is mandated to lobby on living costs, and this is one way they can do that for people with periods. On campus there’s also a lot of accessibility issues. What we’ve come up with is an idea for a sanitary dispenser idea in every block of accommodation, to eradicate that problem.

There appeared to be a bit of controversy surrounding the nature of the campaign for the by-election. One issue surrounded your use of posters, whilst others were not allowed to. Is this accurate, and would you like to comment?

It is more clear- cut than it seems, in the sense that the reason all candidates were told not to put up posters is because posters that were put up on Wednesday morning started to be taken down illegally by security. So this was why that email was issued. For me, I took that to mean outside areas, so I abided by that completely. The only thing I did do was put posters in Rootes kitchens, but an adjudication panel decided that I hadn’t really broken any rules- basically I didn’t win because of posters.

Last year, you lost the same election by a small margin- what do you think has changed for you to have won this year?

I had fresh ideas this time, and more achievable ideas because I’ve had time to think. Something that I will hold my hands up to in my last manifesto is the lack of intersectionality. I was completely naïve to that at the time. I also reached out to people that I didn’t know.

I disagree with George. I think ‘I Heart Consent’ is something that is really taking off. He wrote that with immense privilege.

George Lawlor’s article for The Tab last term caused controversy on campus for his negative appraisal of the ‘I Heart Consent’ workshops. Firstly, what did you think of his opinions on the subject?

I disagree with George. I think ‘I Heart Consent’ is something that is really taking off. He wrote that with immense privilege. As an assault victim as well, I have my own views on it on a personal level. He misunderstood some very basic things and there are people on campus who agree with him as well. Going forward with ‘I Heart Consent’, it’s those people we need to engage with. And, to an extent, take their views on board in terms of they don’t feel welcomed by the workshops- they feel attacked.