SU Spring Elections 2026: Tyler Wang Sabot, VP Welfare & Campaigns

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

Tyler Wang Sabot, one of the candidates running for the position of VP for Welfare and Campaigns, sat down with The Boar‘s Tom Ryan and answered questions related to their campaign.

Why did you decide to run for this position?

Sabot cited their experience as a neurodivergent student that has experience with the welfare system at Warwick. “I’ve had times where they’ve been really helpful, but also times where they haven’t”, they said. “I think when students are struggling and we go somewhere to get help and come out feeling worse than before, it’s only going to detriment us further.”

They said that they were passionate about a lot of things when it came to campaigns, reflecting on their experience being a part of Animal Rights at Warwick for pretty much their entire university life. “I’ve seen a lot of issues around welfare and the culture at Warwick that I think need to be addressed if Warwick is going to be as good as it can be.”

What they think sets them apart is that they are very willing to talk about their own mental health struggles. “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to keep them to yourself,” they clarified. “But I also don’t mind talking about how being autistic has affected my experience at university.” They said they are also focusing on issues that may be considered more ‘niche’, like Plant-Based Unis, the Dairy Awareness campaign, and cruelty-free pharmacy, to name a few.

How will you seek to continue to improve mental health and wellbeing provision on campus?

“I’m not discrediting wellbeing at all, but sometimes it’s not what every student needs.”

One of the things Tyler detailed in their manifesto was aiming to improve the awareness of the welfare services available. They also think that compiling a list of helplines and organisations external to the university would be helpful in terms of more specialised help.

They said they would also like to create a sense of community, because they feel that there’s a culture of people coming in first-year, making friends, forming cliques and if someone hasn’t found their group they think that’s it and that’s their university life.

“Creating community for people living both off and on campus is really important, especially through various events, especially free ones, because I know that money is an issue for some students.”

Report + Support disclosures rose for the fourth year running in 2024/25. Are you concerned about these figures, and what more can the SU do to support students?

“On the one hand, I’m glad that people are reporting what’s happening to them, and on the other hand, it’s not good that people are finding themselves in this situation.” They compared the situation to a double-edged sword.

Another call they made in their manifesto was to look into whether the people who use report and support are being treated well. “I’ve known people who’ve gone to report and support and they felt the process was almost re-traumatising. They would go in there with mountains of evidence like witness testimonies and CCTV footage, but the university would be like okay, we think this person has done this awful thing to you and we’re gonna have them write a formal apology letter.”

They admitted that they weren’t sure how much they could stand up to the university about this situation, however. “I’m not saying the best thing to do is to punish people, but we need to not re-traumatise the people who’ve been through these things and sometimes they’re made to feel like they’re the ones in the wrong for reporting, and are made to constantly question and doubt their experiences.”

The cost-of-living crisis is still affecting students on campus – even though the new Co-op replaced Rootes, prices didn’t dramatically fall for students. Across the SU-run outlets and the SU’s relationship with the University, what more would you do to support students with the cost-of-living crisis?  

Sabot said that when people’s material conditions and financial status aren’t addressed, their mental health issues go unaddressed. They added that they would want to increase accessibility to the resources provided by the university to deal with this. “I know the SU offers cost of living support and there are financial hardship schemes by the university, but I think those need to be promoted more because I hadn’t heard of them until relatively recently.”

They also added that the university website is confusing, and could add extra stress to those attempting to navigate it.

They emphasised the importance of continuing previous campaigns, like free breakfast club and lower bus costs, because those living off-campus are already spending great amounts of money to get into campus, which could eventually take a toll on their mental health.

“Same goes for accommodation. I live on campus and it just goes up every year.”

What campaigns would you seek to run over the next year?

“Alongside continuing previous campaigns, I also want to look into expanding them.” They highlighted the End Period Poverty Campaign, and admired its work, but also said that they need to go beyond simply providing period products.

“Period pain is quite stigmatised and not talked about enough –  other than providing products we also need to look into how people’s pain is being discussed because of medical misogyny and other related factors, and how it can impact their studies.”

They once again spoke of their passion for animal rights and tackling cost-of-living issues.

“Plant-based foods is a major one. I’ve noticed that sometimes when you go to SU outlets, the plant-based options are kind of lacking.”

They also talked about helping new students transition as well as graduating students about to leave. “I feel like there’s a lot at Warwick about career and employability, but it’s quite limited. It tells you how to become employable, but that’s it. There’s always an assumption that you know what you want to do.”

This interview, along with all other interviews for Full-Time Officer positions, can be watched in full using the link here.

You can also view a list of all candidates and their manifestos here.