Plymouth Gazette are working with UPSU during this student election cycle to bring the candidates to you in their own words, unedited and unabridged to represent their true personalities and passion. These are Martin Nicholls’ answers to our questions. Martin is running for SU President.
Why are you running for your role?
– Simply because I feel the current SU is not doing as good of a job as it should be doing and needs someone to move it into a more desirable direction. Call me biased, but I believe I am that person. When first considering which role I would run for I was quite torn. I have an interest in each of the VP roles and genuinely believe that I could bring something to the table for any of them, however due to my interest across the board I felt I could achieve the most by running for the role of SU President.
What makes you different to the other candidates running?
– On paper I do not look or sound like the usual candidate to be running for an SU Sabbatical officer. I don’t have 3 years of volunteering, 3 years of part time rep roles or even any links to the SU to my name whatsoever. What I do have is over a decades worth of experience in representing employees as a union rep, 15 years working in some of the most high pressure and demanding environments there are and a genuine desire to make changes that stem from this. I bring with me a wealth of knowledge on how and why things run well along with how they run badly. I’m very straight talking and don’t play politics when it comes to representing others. I think to put it simply, if people are happy with how the SU is being run currently they should vote for an alternative. Someone who will sit in the role for 12 months using it as
a stepping stone for their future career whilst not paying much attention to the people they represent. If people want to see things change, then they should vote for me.
In what way will you improve the influence of the student voice on the way that the university and SU operates?
– One my most important points I want to see changed is the way the SU communicates with the student body. At the moment is don’t just feel it is lacking, I feel it is almost none existent. A simple check on the SU’s own website on the page ‘Wins for students’, shows the SU hasn’t had any ‘Wins’ since March 2020 when it placed microwaves in the Students Union. A check on the ‘Campaigns’ page shows it’s only real current objective is ‘To Keep Wednesday Afternoons Free’. This says to me either the student body aren’t really in need of anything, or you have 3 VP’s and 1 President taking over £80k a year in wages and not actually speaking to the people they work for. I would immediately change this. I’d make the routes to dialogue as simple and convenient as possible to ensure that any issues or ideas arising from the student body are addressed and actioned. If this is drop in sessions, bookable appointments or another means it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that the student voice is being listened to. At the present time, under the present SU Sabbatical Officers I do not feel it is.
If you could only pass through one of your policies this year, what would it be and why?
– A standout policy of mine I desperately want in place is the redesign and repurpose of the current ‘Buddy’ system. At the moment I feel it’s just a token gesture from the university to help a small number of students. The current system currently has a sign up deadline of early November which is a slightly alien concept to me and is only ever really used on a referral style basis. It’s very difficult to find online and not one person I’ve spoken to has ever heard of it. My goal would be to really push and advertise this to all students throughout the academic year as it makes no sense to not have it available to someone if they face issues in the 2nd semester for example. I would target those groups most in need, such as foreign students, as during my conversations up to this point, it’s very clear that they feel the support put in placer for them is severally lacking. Something so simpler as having someone who empathises with your situation and can just show you around the local area can really help individuals from feeling isolated and lonely.
What approach are you going to take this year regarding working virtually and in person during your time in office?
– During the past 12 months we’ve come to learn that the traditional way of working isn’t necessarily the most efficient or productive so I feel moving forward we all need to be adopting new approaches. All roles in representing the student body need to be done in a way that best serves those we represent and if the student body feel the prefer holding meeting etc online then it should be done that way. In reality it is probably going to have to be a blended approach that is taken. Personally I won’t be losing any sleep over which approach is better. It will be as simple as my time is the students time and I’ll use it how they see fit.
Do you think there should be more emphasis placed onto students to either get their work and research published in academic journals or to compete representing the university in their sports clubs/societies? Why?
– Personally, I think that the emphasis on these things should only be applied if the student feels its best for them. Studying towards a degree can be a very overwhelming experience at times and extra pressures such as having published research can be very unwanted. We should of course be informing students of the routes they can take in order to try and get their work published but I don’t believe it should be treated as a top priority for all students. Likewise with sports clubs or societies. The opportunities for teams to represent the university at all levels should be supported and encouraged, but many students take part in social clubs just for the social aspect. Pressuring students to represent the university at, lets say, a national level should be celebrated and enabled, but only if the student is comfortable to do so.
How will you improve the university services digitally and in person?
– In my opinion the services offered by the SU are severely lacking, so even small changes would be a large improvement. If we take the ‘Refreshers week’ virtual event for an example of how things can be improved evidence is astounding, as this was simply an advertising campaign for large corporations and nothing to do with the student experience. I’d start by improving the SU’s approach to communication via emails and the SU website. I don’t believe the SU’s approach to asking which issues should be discussed from a pre selected list with a 24 hour time slot is achieving anything. We need to be talking to students to see what issues they want addressing. Not attempting to find solutions to problems that may not even exist. The SU website should be a hub that students can easily navigate in order to find the information that they need and also a place where the SU can show off regarding what it’s achieved for the student body. It may take some time and effort but I do not see why it isn’t easily achievable.
Students can vote from the 26/02 – 05/03 on the UPSU website