Warwick SU’s Spring Election Results Overview

The results of Warwick SU’s Spring Election were announced on Friday 2 March at 8pm.

The elections saw the fewest number of voters in the last five years, with only 4,550 students voting. The number is down from last year in which 5,620 students voted.

The general trend has been that voting numbers have decreased over the past five years. The 2013 Spring Election saw the largest student participation in the last five years, with 6,699 students voting.

Liam Jackson, the current Education Officer on the sabbatical team, was elected as the new President of the SU, succeeding Hope Worsdale, who was also Education Officer the year before she ran. Liam ran against first-year History student James Butler.

His manifesto points include continuing to tackle the issue of study spaces by developing a study space finder tool and pushing for new facilities, as well as lobbying for subsidised transport and working with the university to tackle “dodgy landlords”.

He promises to be a President “who stands up for students, continuing to fight for liberation, accessibility and a quality student experience for all”.

My key aim for the year is bringing postgrads into Warwick life a lot more, and building the bridges between the undergrad and postgrad community

– Ellie King

Larissa Kennedy was elected as Education Officer for the next academic year. She is the first Afro-Caribbean woman to become a Sabbatical Officer.

Policies presented in her manifesto include the implementation of a Director of Student Experience and Progression for every department, fixing international students’ fees, and securing additional study space in the second library.

When speaking to The Boar about what she aimed to achieve throughout the year, Larissa stated: “The intentions of all that I do will be to make Warwick a more accessible and inclusive place, and to maximise the quality of our education.

“I’ll be working hard to ensure that marginalised students have an ever greater voice in shaping policy, and to give us all the opportunity to make the most of our experience here.”

Ellie King, a History MA student, will be the new Postgraduate Officer in the next academic year. She beat current Postgraduate Officer Emily Dunford to the post, as well as the other two candidates, Awati Mohammed and Wanjiku Murage.

Speaking directly to The Boar, Ellie stated: “My key aim for the year is bringing postgrads into Warwick life a lot more, and building the bridges between the undergrad and postgrad community by implementing policies like PG society reps and an ‘ask a postgrad’ system for those applying to postgrad study.

“My two biggest key pledges were ending library fines and getting late night street food on the piazza, so a lot of my attention will be focused on those.”

Ideally, I’d like to get more people involved with societies as they are a great way to meet new friends, discover new activities and is a welcome break from the University life

– Leo Palma

Ben Newsham beat fellow candidate Ella Newton to become the next Democracy and Development Officer (DDO). Ben has been the president of Politics society president this year, hosted a Radio Warwick (RAW) show, and previously passed a motion through All Student Meeting (ASM).

His main policies include working on the SU app, improving bus services and making democracy more accessible.

Jemma Ansell has been elected as Welfare and Campaigns Officer for the next academic year, beating fellow candidate Amy Moores. Her main policies include expanding and improving mental health training for staff, increasing transparency surrounding mental health issues, and creating rest and relaxation zones.

Jemma has stated that she is “determined to create and sustain the most enjoyable university experience for every Warwick student”.

Leo Palma was elected as the new Societies Officer for the next academic year, after running unopposed for the position.

When speaking to The Boar about what he aimed to achieve throughout the year, Leo stated: “Ideally, I’d like to get more people involved with societies as they are a great way to meet new friends, discover new activities and is a welcome break from the University life.”

One of the way he aims to do this is by creating a Warwick Online Calendar, so that societies can better plan events, as well as ensuring that big and small societies have equal publicity.

Most importantly I want to get more people into sport, I want to make it easier to run a sports club, and I want to make Varsity much bigger! (however hard that all may be!)

– Balraj Dhingra

Balraj Dhingra has been elected as Sports Officer for the next academic year, beating four other candidates in the most contested race of the election.

When speaking about his overall aim throughout the year Balraj stated: “Most importantly I want to get more people into sport, I want to make it easier to run a sports club, and I want to make Varsity much bigger! (however hard that all may be!).”

The Spring Elections also involved the election of part-time officers. Melissa Martin was elected as the Disabled Students’ Officer, Alex Lythall was elected the Trans Officer, Josh Johnson was elected the LGBTUA+ Officer, Emma Worrall was elected the Undergraduate Arts Faculty Representative, Adeel Baig was elected the Undergraduate Physics and Formal Sciences Representative, Sam Polhill was elected the Undergraduate Social Sciences Faculty Representative and Alex Baker was elected the Postgraduate Research Science Faculty Representative. The students will fulfil these part-time roles whilst continuing their studies at Warwick.