SU Spring Elections 2025 Interviews: Adam Skrzymowski, VP Societies

In the run-up to the Warwick Students’ Union (SU) Spring Elections, The Boar and RAW 1251AM collaborated to offer all Full-Time Officer (FTO) candidates the opportunity to be interviewed.

Adam Skrzymowski, one of two candidates standing to be Vice President for Societies, spoke to The Boar about his platform and policies. In particular, he emphasised plans to reduce the cost of societies on campus, improve accessibility for society members and exec, and streamline SU processes.

What are your key manifesto pledges?

Skrzymowski stated that he has six key pledges comprising his manifesto: firstly, and most centrally, a commitment to cut the Societies Federation fee to £10 from its current level of £16, and down from £8 to £2 for postgraduates, “or even further than that”. He also proposed a second Societies Fair to be held in Term 2, to bolster the current one a year.

For exec members, he pledged to establish a societies marketplace “to exchange services and resources”. This, he said, would stop people “having to buy the same things over and over again”, as well as provide a useful networking venue for society officers. In terms of society resources, he promised to look into reviewing SU spending rules and guidelines, “because a lot of them don’t really make much sense, or contradict each other”. Skrzymowski pledged to overhaul these, as well as rewrite all exec resources on the SU website to be “actually usable”.

Finally, in his last key pledge, the candidate vowed to “regularly go out into the University and talk to students, talk to exec members, find out what’s working and what’s not working with societies”. Currently, he noted, there “isn’t really any way” to get informal feedback from societies short of people physically coming into the SU to complain: Skrzymowski’s promise, therefore, was to go out and fulfil that niche himself.

What would you do to increase a sense of inclusion in SU societies for students from marginalised groups?

Skrzymowski referred back to his pledge to lower the Societies Federation fee, an action that he said would remove the financial barrier preventing many students from engaging with societies at the SU. The decision, if followed through, would continue a trend set by former Societies VP Max Pike, officer for 2023/24, who reduced the membership fee from £20 to £16 at the start of this academic year.

Beyond that, Skrzymowski voiced his desire to involve postgraduate students more as they are “currently not really being included in societies”, with incentives for societies to cater towards the group. He also mooted the need for “generally publicising societies more” to increase accessibility of information, tying this into his pledge for a second Societies Fair in Term 2.

What would you do to improve the way the SU handles welfare issues within societies, and on society execs?

The central problem for welfare issues, Skrzymowski posited, is the lack of publicity by the SU for the procedures in place to resolve them. He noted: “It’s all very hidden and makes it very difficult to engage with.” Citing his own experiences, he said that students “don’t know who to go to”, and suggested this could be resolved by promoting awareness of welfare officers, which every society is currently obliged to have.

How would you seek to improve the SU’s approach to managing society finances and make it easier for students to make payments and access reimbursements?

This issue splits into two main parts, Skrzymowski suggested. The first is that the SU isn’t clear enough about how the process works: “The SU really doesn’t tell anyone how to do it. It might get five minutes in the initial training online, but there’s not a page telling you how to do it, and I’ve had to show loads of people a way how.” Just adding a page to Exec resources explaining how the society reimbursement process works step-by-step, he proposed, would go a long way to resolving the issue.

The second part of the problem is fear of finance requests being rejected by the SU, and the uncertainty around this, claimed Skrzymowski. The opaque nature of reimbursement applications, not making clear the need for details like receipt requirements or card numbers, creates a fear of the whole process. Explaining the process, he said, would resolve this, as would ending interference in requests from the SU finance office: “It’s not their job, it’s not their place, it’s not their money. It’s the society’s money,” he affirmed.

How would you ensure people are able to get involved with societies, especially with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis?

Skrzymowski noted that by-and-large, the activities of most societies are affordable for students: “If they have a membership fee, it’ll be £2, £3, to £5, so it’s accessible, and weekly activities don’t cost much.” The real expense, he argued, is society balls, and so he suggested he would look into reducing the cost of these, possibly with a grant system similar to existing frameworks in place for sports clubs.

The other part of this issue, he said, was looking to increase funding for societies at Warwick overall: “It’s very clear that the University doesn’t take societies as seriously as sports clubs, they get loads more grant money than we do […] it’s completely disproportionate.” Therefore, the candidate said he was looking into increasing the grants available to societies, and clarifying the processes behind applying for funding so that student groups could “do more activities at less cost to their members. Just go bigger and better.”

What makes you stand out from the other Societies Officer candidate?

Finally, Skrzymowski touted the “breadth and depth of experience” that he suggested he could bring to the role of Societies VP. He showed off the “countless” execs and groups he had been in, including starting his own society, and founding the Warwick Student Arts Festival which he noted is a “huge event”. Other experience, he said, included participation in “TEDx Conference-type things”, Tech Crew, a show on RAW 1251AM, and playing an instrument in Brass Soc.

Such a diverse experience, Skrzymowski suggested, gave him “so many different perspectives” for how societies can be run. Adding on to that, his position this year in the SU Societies Forum meant he has seen “the other side of that process”: “I’ve seen and understand the needs and different ways that different societies do things.”

This interview, along with all other interviews for Vice President positions, can be watched in full using the link here, courtesy of RAW 1251AM. [coming soon]

Read Adam Skrzymowski’s manifesto here.