Meet your candidates: Sports Officer

Meet the candidates running to be your next Students’ Union Sports Officer in this year’s spring elections.

Viditi Bhatia

Hello! My name is Viditi and I am running for the position of full-time sports officer. I am in the first year of my three-year LLB course and intend to pursue a career in sports law. Sports have always played an integral part in my life, as a Deputy Sports Captain of my high school, I found that my ability to bring people together grew. Growing up, my hobbies were always inclined toward sports such as cricket, basketball, and adaptive throwing sports. Apart from reading 300 pages a week and trying to get my spins right, I enjoy Kart racing.

Why are you running for this role?

Being a part of Warwick’s sport committee gave me an insight into the role of a full-time officer. Running for this role would allow me to devise and implement strategies to make Warwick sport inclusive and welcoming for now and the coming years.

What, in your opinion, most needs changing at Warwick?

To bring change, there need to be incremental steps taken towards it and in my opinion, there needs to be a stress on the need for effective communication between the university and students. This would allow conflicts to be resolved reasonably with fairness on both ends.

What has been your favourite memory from your time at Warwick?

Being an international student, moving to a whole new continent was an experience of its own. The first sports club I decided to join was cricket and being lucky enough to experience the sport at university level was more than I could have asked for. The circles organized by the exec has to be one of my most memorable experiences and something I bought back home.

Will Brewer

I’m a 4th year MMORSE student who’s been involved in sport since I arrived. I was social secretary of Tennis in 3rd year, before becoming President this year. I’ve worked closely with many Warwick Sport and SU staff over the years and have a clear view of what needs tackling. I want my time in office to be truly collaborative and democratic. I am running to represent you, to get your voices heard and deal with the issues you care about. I will work closely with club presidents, who I will offer monthly meetings to, to tailor my role to what they need most. 

Why are you running for this role?

Over the last four years I have seen first-hand where university sport can be better and care about making change where I can before I leave. Throughout my time here I have identified problems and looked for positions from which I can fix them, and this is what I believe to be the next step. I think there’s ways the SU can change its approach to sports to ensure there is more money for clubs, distributed in a fairer way.

What, in your opinion, most needs changing at Warwick?

Sport must be a central part of the university’s project. Seeing sport as an integral part of a holistic vision of our future here benefits everyone. We have seen membership prices rise as student satisfaction has dropped in the priorities of Warwick Sport. I will take them to task for more funding and support. For instance, fighting to scrap the club pass, which puts up barriers to students from disadvantaged backgrounds, in return for a negligible sum to the University.

What has been your favourite memory from your time at Warwick?

This would undoubtedly be my tennis tour to Portugal. I had just been elected social sec and it was when I really started to feel a part of my club and the sports community at Warwick . I got to share some great moments with a lot of my friends before they graduated or left for a year abroad and I got to end the week with my first trip to Wimbledon when we landed back in the UK.

Disclaimer: candidates’ answers have not been edited. The opinions featured here do not reflect the opinions of The Boar.