It is that time of year again when students run in their masses to the ballot boxes to elect a new sabbatical officer team.
Most of the current sabbatical officer team are not rerunning due to election rules preventing candidates from staying on the sabbatical team for more than two years. A constitutional rule like being the President of the United States of America, being on the Sabbatical Team is deemed more admirable than the actual most powerful office in the western world.
How do the Sabbatical Officer elections work?
The Sabbatical Officer elections, use a ranked voting system, where the voter can vote who they would prefer as the elected official. So, candidates A, B and C are all facing an election but the voter, let’s call them Polly Tizian who studies International Relations and Politics (the best subject), decides that candidate A is their first choice, candidate B is their second choice and candidate C is their third choice. This means that even if candidate A doesn’t win, their vote still counts for their preferred winner.
Because Polly Tizian voted, they are also might win a new Nintendo Switch OLED and a Cineworld Unlimited membership for a year. It’s like UPSU throws money like a businessman man in a top hat toking on his cigar whilst Victorian children in flat caps shine his shoes to old cockney rhyme for the potential of winning the latest yo-yo 5000 with built-in Bluetooth.
What Sabbatical Officer positions are up for grabs?
To quote the UPSU website, “there are four Sabbatical Officers elected annually to lead the Students’ Union and work full-time on your behalf on various issues across all levels of student’s life. They represent you on all levels of student life.” But what roles are up for grabs? President of the Student Union, Vice-President for Activities, Vice-President for Education and Vice-President for Wellbeing and Diversity.
- The President of the Student Union, currently held by Emi Dowse, is the Captain of the Ship. They attend meetings with high profile individuals across the University, including Chancellor of the University himself, Baron Jonathan Kestenbaum of Foxcote, whose role is only ceremonial thus is essentially a constitutional monarch or the President of Italy. Instead, they would meet with the boss, the big cheese, Vice-Chancellor Professor Judith Petts CBE who holds the Chief Executive and Accountable Officer role.
- Vice-President for Activities, currently held by Madeleine Morton, oversees all of Plymouth activities of societies and clubs. Their jurisdiction is truly with the committee members of every society, working with societies to help them keep running as well as push forward projects to be more inclusive.
- Vice-President for Education, currently held by Charlie Atkinson, is what it is on the tin. They aid in problems with Education, and would work with the School Reps, Course Reps and lecturers alike is providing the best possible need for education across campus.
- Vice-President for Wellbeing and Diversity, currently held by Fawziyyah Ahmed, represents all students with diverse backgrounds from their nationalities, race, gender, and sexuality and would work with the part time officers representing those groups. They also represent the welfare part time officers.
So, who’s running for election and for what… and what do they stand for?
There are 8 candidates running for the 4 available sabbatical officer positions. Their manifestos across the board include student-centric policies, around mental health, work experience, environment, revamped funding for student activities and a simplified way of communicating with students. There’s so much more in their full manifestos which can be found here.
However, if you feel as if any of the candidates do not represent you, there is an option for that. The individual has many names but has no face, remains in the shadows and is yet to prevail. Some call them R.O.N.ald Reagan, some call them R.O.N. Swanson, some even call them The VeR.O.N.ica’s, I assume in the Harry Potter Society they call them R.O.N.ald Weasley. But we simply know them as: R.O.N., to see the true face of R.O.N. is as exclusive as being a member of the Plymouth Bean Society.
R.O.N., short for Reopen Nominations, is the choice you, the voter, can have in every category of this Sabbatical Election. Whilst it is rare for R.O.N. to be activated and to my knowledge is yet to be voted in, it is still a possibility. We only hear about R.O.N. at these crucial times, like Mariah Carey and Michael Bublé at Christmas or Claire Balding at a horse race.
But why should you vote? Because it is your democratic need, for your future here at the University of Plymouth as well as other students who will join come this September. More importantly, it is because you could be in with the chance of winning a brand spanking new Nintendo Switch OLED, Cineworld Membership. If they gave me an automatic First in my studies, I know I would have jumped to it.
Voting ends on March 4th at 12:00pm. Vote here: https://www.upsu.com/elections/vote/111/