In collaboration with Fuse TV, the Mancunion sat down with the current Students’ Union executive officers to discuss their roles and learn more about what they are working on.
Lexie Baynes ‘Union Affairs Officer’ – Written by Ella Logan-Wilson, interviewed by Alice Linnit
The Union Affairs Officer spends their time chairing committees and representing the student voice in official meetings to “always bring it back to students”. Recently this has included writing student context papers on topics like finance, to bridge the gap between the student experience and University officials.
Lexie was keen to establish her enthusiasm coming into the position, with a history of campus participation (Head of Opinion for the Mancunion, ‘debate mate’ volunteering and participating in the netball society) and self-describing as “type A and Virgo”.
She has also worked to build a close working relationship with new Vice-Chancellor Duncan Ivision, assisting him with open meetings. She seemed proud to tell us that he had called the Students’ Union the “best he had ever worked in”.
During our discussion, she was remiss about the lack of chances to connect with students due to the role often requiring long hours of meetings and intense preparation.
When questioned on her original ideas statement, she felt there are “some things I can’t action”, with there being some things she has “altered”. Though Lexie later informed us that she is “making good progress on all three (statement ideas)”.
In the future, Lexie is hoping to hold a second-hand materials fair at the end of this semester (potentially the end of semester two) as well as continuing her work with course representatives and low-income students.
The recent World Academic Summit stirred some backlash on campus, an event that Lexie and Wellbeing and Liberation officer Aisha Akram presented. Describing the World Academic Summit as “a crazy event”, Lexie highlighted their collective influence as student voices in professional discussions.
Whilst Lexie lamented that additional student panels, with everyday students discussing daily topics, were not granted she hoped that her individual influence in panel discussions would further bridge the knowledge gap between university staff and students.
Discussing the protest that happened on the first day of the event, Lexie believed that they had done the right thing by standing to the side to allow the demonstrators to speak.
When asked whether it was right to attend an event picketed by students, she gave an ardent “yes”.
Despite the unwavering belief that her presence at the event was justified, she was quick to acknowledge the difficulties of balancing personal politics with official working obligations.
When asked about plans for re-election, Lexie was unsure of her plans for the future. “I’m really just trying to see it as a one-year job where I get lots of opportunities [and] meet lots of people”.
Nahid Farzalizadeh ‘Faculty of Science & Engineering’ – Written by Ella Logan-Wilson, interviewed by Adella Tobing
Like the other faculty officers, Nahid’s ideas statement focused on employability and tackling the financial concerns of students. Primarily, this included suggestions for an increasing number of industry trips so students can get familiar with real working environments.
When pushed on this, she explained that some faculties and societies already engage in trips but her plans specifically involved supporting them with gaining further funding. Nahid expounded that she was in the process of discussing options with faculties to expand existing funding and “improve” the job description of employability leads, who are involved in setting up careers-related events.
Nahid further acknowledged that “each discipline’s [trips] will be different”. She demonstrated a reliance on employability leads as she does not “know which company is the best to take students to in, for example, mechanical engineering […] this is something academics can help [with].”
In her original pledges to student voters, she proclaimed: “But let’s not just talk about it – let’s make things happen! I’m all about taking action and making sure we see real change around here”.
Yet despite a strong ideas statement, one of Nahid’s sticking points was her lack of concrete evidence of progress towards her goals.
During our interview, there were frequent references to ongoing “discussions” with either students or staff. ~zaNevertheless, she admitted that “some things need more time” to be enacted. For example, her plan for scholarships for international postgraduate students “hasn’t happened yet, to be honest”.
Like many of the other officers, it was too soon to give a concrete answer on a potential reelection bid, though she stated “I’m thinking about it but haven’t decided” on the prospect of running for a second term.
Charlie Roberts ‘Activities & Culture Officer’ – Written by Ella Logan-Wilson, interviewed by Cecilia Orueta Burchard
Starting off the interview, Charlie described their role as working to bridge the gap between union staff and students, focusing particularly on student event planning and aiding societies in their work.
One of their ideas statement pledges was to provide more support for student groups. Whilst still in discussions on some elements of the project, Charlie has been working on introducing ‘officer surgeries’ as a way of “not letting ourselves get removed from the student community”. These have been used to ensure “transparency” and are part of plans to ensure the Union has “something for everyone”, whilst allowing students to opportunity to lead.
Further referencing their idea statement, Charlie explained the ‘Freshers Fund-it’ project which provided funds to societies so they could hold low-cost or free events during the Freshers’ season this year. Describing the implementation of this system, Charlie stated “it’s worked better than previous years.”
When pushed further on the topic of society funding, they lamented that they had so far been unable to secure additional funding for societies but were pushing forward with their work to ensure fund-it money is shared fairly.
Charlie’s personal experience as a student leader has influenced this push towards a “much more democratic process” regarding how funding is distributed. With student-led panels made up of participants picked at random from society committees, the broad range of voices is a good attempt at making funding fairer.
Mechanisms have been put in place for members of the Fund-It panel to provide feedback on the new system. Charlie emphasised transparency, accountability, and diversity repeatedly in our interview.
Charlie’s idea statement proposed they would “challenge the visa check-in program” but this had already been replaced by SEAtS when they entered the role. Keen to reassure students that they weren’t abandoning any of their pledges, Charlie promised to continuously scrutinise the new system and ensure that it isn’t being used in a hostile way.
Throughout the interview, Charlie often referenced Alive! Festival and the ‘Picnics & Pickets’ events, making it clear that they greatly enjoy the bigger student projects that the role entails. When asked to choose a favourite event, they joked that “picking Alive is cheating a little bit” and spoke of future goals to host Christmas activities and Refreshers’ events in February.
Just before leaving the interview, Charlie (in their first year of the job) indicated that they were hopeful they might get the chance for another term in the role, though is yet undecided as to whether they will run.
Katie Jackson ‘Faculty of Humanities’ – Written by Miles Davenport, interviewed by Hanna Saunders
Katie is a second-year Sociology student who, while on a hiatus from her studies, is in her second term as the Faculty of Humanities Officer. She didn’t initially want to rerun for a second term as an SU executive but felt that there was unfinished work from her first term that she wanted to see through to continue helping students. This is a sentiment often seen from SU Execs towards the end of their first term.
We began by asking a series of questions about her ideas statement, starting off by looking at her ideas surrounding assessment and feedback within the Humanities. She emphasised that she’s doing a lot of work on making assessments more relevant to students, getting rid of assessments that are repeated, and bringing variety to the types of assessments students might undertake.
Katie, alongside Aisha Akram, is big on decolonising the curriculum. She described to us the steps she’s taken towards this. The Students’ Union has recruited a staff member to work on the project, with the strategy including plans to hire student reps throughout university departments to implement the decolonisation strategy. Notably, she said that the university has been showing a lot of “buy-in” on the strategy which she found encouraging.
Of keen interest to student activists, one of Katie’s big pledges was to “demilitarise” the curriculum. While unable to provide solid outcomes of this pledge, she emphasised that it is a lobbying effort SU executives have been undertaking for a while and the topic will surface throughout a series of open meetings conducted with the Senior Leadership Team throughout the coming weeks.
Mentioned as well was Katie’s meeting with the sitting MP for Manchester Rusholme, Afzal Khan MP. He now leads the largest student constituency in the country, with about 75,000 students. Student housing was the primary topic of discussion, and Katie described to us her lobbying efforts on getting international students more leeway in terms of finding a guarantor for their rental contracts, as well as getting landlords to understand that “students are just people”.
On the student charter– a joint Students’ Union and University written charter that describes the Manchester experience and sets expectations for both students and staff– Katie said that Faculty Officers are currently in the process of rewriting it. She says that the previous charter had a lot of points that simply aren’t practised, explaining why it needs to be rewritten. Alongside the rewrite, she is keen to potentially make the charter accessible in video form, to enhance student engagement and accessibility.
Elliot Briffa ‘City & Community Officer’ – Written and interviewed by Sam Attwater
As the Students’ Unions’ City and Community Officer, a background in renters advocacy might prove useful. That was the essence of Elliot Briffa’s pitch to students at the last LeadMCR vote.
When asked to sum up his job description, Elliot gave a concise, if vague, answer: “City and Community Officers require frequent exchanges with external groups and members of the local community”.
Elliot’s work is currently focused on part-time student workers in the hospitality sector – working with the trade union Unite on their “Get Me Home Safely” campaign. 55% of students are doing paid work alongside their studies, according to the BBC, and a great deal of those in Manchester work in the City’s thriving night-time economy. Elliot wants to pressure Manchester City Council into producing “more measures to support workers” in these sectors. Among these measures would be “free transport” so that these workers “are not liable to be assaulted”.
But away from these efforts, a big part of his ideas statement was to demand that the University install gender-neutral toilets across campus. So far, little progress has been made with this as, by Elliot’s admission, “there is only so many things you can focus on”.
Aisha Akram (the Wellbeing and Liberation Officer) is working on this issue, but Elliot additionally suggested that those implementing such a scheme “can’t just be SU officers, we need students involved too”. The same students who elected him to carry the pledge out in the first place.
Elliot’s previous work with the Greater Manchester Tenants’ Union continues in his current role as he remains the political and inclusion officer on the group’s Executive Committee. It was groups like MSRU, as well as Manchester Leftist Action and the Rent Strike group that came out in support of Elliot’s election campaign. When asked whether he had benefited from block voting and whether his decision-making had been influenced by their support, Elliot rebuked “I ran on my beliefs” and added that his socialism and previous advocacy “was what I was elected on”. He then began talking about the “disaster [of] marketisation of education”, and how students “should be organising against that”.
Still, Elliot has been keen to engage with community groups in Manchester, lauding their “wealth of knowledge” surrounding issues of housing. He states that the University “doesn’t do enough to reach out to these communities… in a meaningful manner”. Asked whether he would work with those groups unaligned with his political particulars, Elliot remarked “he was more than happy to”.
When asked about his relationship with the local government, he suggested that Manchester City Council thinks “students should live in purpose-built student accommodation”, saying he thought that this view was misguided. His previous activism with the ‘Block the Block’ campaign amongst others was guided by his view that students are focused more on “good quality accommodation that is affordable”.
Looking to the future, Elliot discussed this year’s Reclaim the Night march, which has become an important annual ritual in Manchester. His primary focus has been promoting the additional Reclaim the Town Hall event in the Students’ Union.
Elliot’s role, by his reckoning, is “a two-year thing”. He said that, on a scale of one to ten, the likelihood of him standing again next year is a “seven or eight”.
*A previous version of this article included an incorrect statement that Elliot is a political officer for the Manchester Student Renters’ Union. This was incorrect. Elliot serves as a political officer for the Greater Manchester Tenants Union. We apologise for the error.
Adil Ashraf ‘Postgraduate Research’ – Written by Liv Tough, interviewed by Elizabeth Burman
As the Postgraduate Research officer, Adil represents the 14,000 postgraduate students at the university. The role exists to ensure that postgraduate students are heard and accommodated for by the Students’ Union.
Adil believes that postgraduates should be “considered part of the wider community” and that other students should engage with postgraduates more. It is because of this belief that Adil has established a ‘connect and co-create’ scheme where postgraduates can communicate with the Students’ Union. It was unclear in our interview whether any concrete action has come from this scheme.
Adil acknowledged this seeming lack of action when he said, “There are a lot of things I can do more”.
Some of these things include his desire to promote student awareness of feedback forms, increase funding for research events, increase awareness of how isolating a PhD can be and eventually implement well-being ambassadors in each school.
In his ideas statement, this focus on wellbeing extended to those students who are affected by global conflict, “while promoting an inclusive/understanding atmosphere through awareness-raising initiatives”.
Adil also said that he would like to “provide a dedicated central space for PGRs [Post Graduate Researchers] for better collaboration, networking, and interaction across different areas of research”.
There is no evidence of either of these things happening yet.
Also in his ideas statement, Adil said he wanted to encourage students and faculties to embrace AI technologies to “foster innovation and academic excellence”. When asked about it, he said it was a “difficult” topic that varies by situation, but that students should use it ethically.
The Postgraduate Research Officer role has been open since 2021. This year, Adil decided that as of next year, the role would be become part-time due to the impact on postgraduate studies. When asked about this, he said that he was “80% if not 100% sure it would work”.
Aisha Akram ‘Wellbeing and Liberation’ – Written and interviewed by Liv Tough
Aisha is in her second year as the Wellbeing and Liberation Officer, a role that she “really enjoys”. The role focuses on the mental and physical health of students, as well as intersectionality.
Aisha defines intersectionality as ensuring that socially disadvantaged or marginalised groups are not “disadvantaged from being part of liberation groups”.
If someone is in multiple different liberation groups, explained Aisha, it isn’t enough to focus on just one of them: “We need to make sure we are addressing all parts of their identity, in order to improve their student experience”.
This emphasis on student health and identity was apparent in every topic Aisha covered in our interview. Her enthusiasm for the wellbeing of students was evident.
In her campaign to be re-elected, she prioritised three main areas: mental health, inclusivity, and student safety. She made notable progress within these areas in her first year.
Aisha secured funding for a sensory room for anyone who “suffers from mental health and may need a less over-stimulating atmosphere”, and hopes this will open in January 2025.
She has also trialled a partnership with mental health charity, Mind, and has pushed for a men’s mental health group which she hopes will “pilot soon”.
When in conversation with her, Aisha made numerous references to how getting initiatives off the ground can be difficult: “at the University, it sometimes takes a while to get things going”.
LGBT mental health is another large focus of Aisha’s work. Transgender students have benefited from her role in establishing the gender expression fund, which helped 142 students last year and is opening again soon. The scheme was formulated in collaboration with transgender students and aims to address barriers they may face with gender affirmation.
Aisha described the fund as “the start but not the be-all and end-all of trans inclusion”.
Aisha is also involved with Reclaim the Night. This year, she wants it to be less “performative” and is working on ensuring long-term night buses with safety staff on board, and transport home for students who work in the night-time economy.
Also in regards to gender-based issues, Aisha is in the process of introducing consent education and training. Around 7,500 first-year students took part in the training this September, thanks to Aisha’s lobbying. She would like it to be mandatory but says it is difficult to make it so.
Alongside Katie Jackson, Aisha has focused on decolonising the curriculum. They have worked to appoint a decolonisation assistant in the university, who will work with staff and students to curate a strategy that embeds decolonisation across the institution. Aisha considers this important to student wellbeing.
Gabrielle Bailey ‘Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health’ – Written by Liv Tough, interviewed by Hassaan Aziz
Gabrielle is the Faculty of Biology, Medicine, and Health officer, who says she is “passionate about enhancing academic support, promoting student well-being, and addressing the challenges of cost of living”.
In her ideas statement, Gabrielle listed her key focuses as strengthening academic support, promoting student well-being, and the cost of living. She proposed “additional resources like peer study sessions”, mental health initiatives, and offering free breakfasts for students in exam seasons.
Though there are no updates on this on her Students’ Union profile or official Instagram, we learned in our interview that she has made some progress.
By February, Gabrielle hopes to have introduced free breakfasts during “challenging periods” as well as a mental health newsletter. She has also worked on an “enhanced assessment review” which aims to teach staff how to refine assessment in the school of biological sciences.
She mentioned the improvement of the quality of academic advisors, making sure students are aware of the importance of group work, and raising awareness of the PASS system. Gabrielle said she feels that she “spins a lot of plates” in her role but seemed fairly confident that this plate spinning may result in action soon.
When asked if she would run again next year, Gabrielle simply offered: “Potentially, yeah”.
If you are interested in hearing more, each officer gives regular ‘My progress’ updates on the Students’ Union website.
Full video interviews will be up on Fuse TV over the next few weeks.
