SU Spring Elections 2025: Part-Time Officer Q&As
As part of Warwick Students’ Union’s (SU) Spring Elections 2025, The Boar offered all 17 candidates for the seven Part-Time Officer (PTO) positions an opportunity to answer two questions setting out their experience, motivations for running, and key manifesto commitments.
Six candidates across four positions responded as follows:
Environment and Ethics Officer
Helena Ratcliffe (she/her)
What makes you best suited for the position you hope to win? 
I think I would be great for the role as I’m truly passionate about the environment and fighting the climate crisis. My campaigning background means I’m able to fight for student’s wants, standing up to the SU to ensure they are held accountable to their climate targets. I also have experience working with institutions on climate policy from when I ran my secondary school’s climate committee. We implemented initiatives such as school-wide clothes swaps and ran mental health sessions to support younger students who were worried about the climate crisis. As well as giving me experience with planning events and pushing through my sustainable agenda, I work and communicate well with others which is also shown by my current position on the PAIS SSLC. So, overall, I am a great negotiator and have experience pursuing sustainable and ethical agendas on a large scale, making me well suited for this role.
What is one thing you want to achieve in the position?
As EEO, my main priority would be removing barriers created by university policy that prevent students from leading sustainable lives. Rather than restricted, students should be enabled and encouraged to help the environment. Some of these enabling policies in my manifesto include providing more outlets for students to recycle, whether this be food waste in campus accommodation, vapes, batteries or even gum (which is often made of recyclable plastic) and holding more green careers events so students can choose to work or internship with ethical, sustainable companies. As well as introducing more green companies, I will campaign to remove university sponsors that pioneer unethical and unsustainable practices and increase the availability of information about these companies for students, for example by making the BP archives more accessible.
Bhumika Sachdev
What makes you best suited for the position you hope to win?
I am very passionate about the environment and its impact on the society and also being a nature lover I am always interested in conserving our biosphere. In my school I actively participated in workshops on sustainability. I am very determined and focused in achieving the goals I have promised for to form a healthy and safe living environment with its aim to bring sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethical governance at its priority. I will be actively collaborating with various departments and students to be a part of my campaigns and fulfil the goals in have stated in my manifesto. I also possess strong communication skills to well engage with everyone and responsibly perform my duties.
What is one thing you want to achieve in the position?
One thing I want to achieve as an Environment and Ethics officer is to not only implement sustainable development and ethical standards at my university but also spread awareness to the whole community to be a part of it and preserve our valuable environment. I would want to achieve an efficient lighting system with minimum energy consumption and also replace all plastic materials with paper and thermocol so as to avoid usage of non-biodegradable products which harm the environment and also health of human beings. Also, I would organise workshops and increase awareness among students to focus on ethical environmental practices in order to maintain a green and sustainable campus.
Ethnic Minorities Officer
Riann Mehta (he/they)
What makes you best suited for the position you hope to win?
I think what is most unique about me as a candidate is my convictions in the necessity to bring about structural change. It does not suffice to “spread awareness” about the challenges faced by ethnic minorities – in order to truly tackle racism, xenophobia and other setbacks to a fair, diverse environment, we must tackle underpinning causes. I will insist upon integrating BAME Officers into societies to tackle these structural issues and offer curriculum adjustments to prevent the spread of prejudice. I have had experience working in protests against oppressive and exploitative systems and I believe that this is the primary function of a Students’ Union – to stand in solidarity, and voice the will of the masses (of students). I have personally worked on DEI at sixth form and am in a position to diagnose systems wherein injustice arises. My radical politics will enable the fight against mistreatment of ethnic minorities.
What is one thing you want to achieve in the position?
I intend to strengthen the democracy of the seeming bureaucratic SU by providing platform for students to voice their views and preferences. In order to do so, I will host monthly drop-in sessions and encourage protest in the face of the rise of the far-right in and off campus. Ethnic minorities have been the target of developing fascist scandals in the university and I will insist on not tolerating this, in eradicating it entirely. Without the platform and opportunity to address these structural issues, racism in its many forms will only continue. On the topic of the protection of ethnic minorities, I wish to hold the university accountable for its complicity in ethnic cleansing abroad that stems in their profit-seeking. As a union, we have the prerogative to resist the morally defective system and I will encourage togetherness at every stage of this pursuit.
LGBTQUA+ Officer
Jessie Yu (she/her) and Mattie Oke (he/they)
What makes you best suited for the position you hope to win?
Jessie: As an international student and Outreach Officer for PLAN, I’ve worked to support queer students from diverse backgrounds. I understand the challenges international LGBTQ+ students face and want to ensure Warwick is a welcoming space for everyone.
Mattie: As Social Secretary for PLAN, I’ve organised inclusive events and collaborated with Pride to strengthen our queer community. Being active in welfare forums has also given me insight into student concerns and how to push for real change.
Both: With our combined experience in student welfare, advocacy, and event planning, we’re ready to make Warwick more inclusive, fun, and supportive for LGBTQ+ students.
What is one thing you want to achieve in the position?
We are both really excited to see a new queer culture campaign come to fruition, helping aid students struggling to deal with the effects being queer have on their lives and mental health. The overall well-being of queer students on campus is always our main focus, so anything we can do to improve that is of the utmost importance and ultimately the one thing we want to achieve.
Women’s Officer
Khadija Malik (she/her)
What makes you best suited for the position you hope to win?
I know firsthand the barriers women face in pursuing higher education. Coming from a community where studying abroad isn’t encouraged for women, securing the Global Excellence Scholarship, covering 50% of my tuition fees, was a testament to my perseverance and belief in equal opportunities—values I’ll bring to the role of Women’s Officer.
As Vice President of the Youth International Law and Diplomacy Association in Pakistan, I’ve worked to bridge information gaps, making legal opportunities more accessible, especially for women. This role developed my organisational skills, helping me manage multiple projects—skills that are directly transferable to creating initiatives for women’s advocacy and inclusivity.
Lastly, as Editor for the Warwick Undergraduate Law Journal, I’ve honed my attention to detail, communication, and leadership skills, reviewing academic papers and fostering collaboration. These experiences have equipped me to listen, address concerns, and create a supportive environment as a Women’s Officer.
What is one thing you want to achieve in the position?
One of my main goals as Women’s Officer is to help women feel more confident and empowered when it comes to securing equal opportunities, both academically and professionally. I want to organise workshops on salary negotiation, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship to give women the tools they need to manage their finances, negotiate fair pay, and pursue entrepreneurial ventures if they wish. I know firsthand how important it is to have this knowledge, and I want to make sure women have the confidence to ask for what they deserve and make informed decisions about their careers.
Alongside this, I’ll advocate for pay transparency and equal opportunities in both academic and professional spaces, helping to close the gender pay gap. Ultimately, my goal is to create an environment where women feel equipped, supported, and empowered to take control of their financial futures and break down barriers that hold them back.
Katie Todd (she/her)
What makes you best suited for the position you hope to win?
I have a clear vision for changes for student’s experiences on campus- from making Warwick safer, cheaper and easier to navigate for women and non-binary students to encouraging more engagement with the SU- and the experience to make it happen.
As both a forum and student council representative I have seen first-hand how to turn ideas into action and navigate SU structures to make things happen. I have experienced the barriers to this, a lack of information and complicated procedure. I have already used this to organize large scale events, like Warwick Drag Race, bringing people together for important causes, it is important to me that more women on campus feel empowered to make that happen.
What is one thing you want to achieve in the position?
If I could do just one thing as Women’s Officer, it would be to make campus and SU venues genuinely safer. That means stronger anti-spiking measures including free drinks covers- because safety should never come at a cost, a focus on inclusivity so everyone on campus feels supported and protected from discrimination, and making sure we are all listened to within the SU and not just spoken over. Together, we can make Warwick safer, stronger and fairer for women on campus.
Read candidate manifestos here.
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