It’s that time of year again; the Students’ Union elections are here! But why should you vote?
Well, quite simply these are the people who are going to represent your student voice for the next 12 months. It’s important that you trust and have confidence in the people who are going to be taking care of your concerns, campaigning on your behalf, and ultimately aiming to make the university a better place for students.
Which positions are up for election?
There are a total of 33 positions up for grabs, each representing a different portion of the student population. These include:
- Full Time Officers (The 5 Sabbs!)
These are the people running your Students’ Union! Positions are available for Democracy and Campaigns Officer, Communications and Commercial Officer, Representation and Welfare Officer, Sports and Wellbeing Officer and Activities Officer. Each elected officer will spend the whole year working to run your Students’ Union here at Coventry University. These are the people that are going to make things happen for you, your society, your faculty and your education!
- Part Time Officers (The 5 faculty chairs!)
Faculty chairs work closely with your course rep team inside each department to escalate student initiatives, ideas or concerns to the highest level. These people are the voice of your faculty; it’s absolutely vital that the person elected is trustworthy, professional and a good listener. They’ll need to work closely with the academic staff in the faculty as well as with students to ensure that their voices get heard.
- Student Councillors (23 Representative Positions!)
There are a wide range of student councillor positions, representing the broad range of the diverse identities we have at Coventry University. For example there is a ‘LGBT*’ councillor position, positions for both mental and physical ‘Disabled Students’ councillors, and multiple ‘International’ councillors representing different continents. Student councillors represent students of their relative groups, identities or positions, and are vital in terms of making sure the voices of ALL students are heard.
How can I vote?
Voting is online and is open from the 9th to the 12th of March. But before that, you can view the candidates and listen to their campaign speeches here.
You can vote for as many or as few positions as you want, just ensure that you take the time to listen to candidates first and understand what they want to do for you. It can quite often be the people with the loudest voices that get heard in elections, but whoever you decide to elect must be a good listener. You’re trusting these people to represent you so take your time to ask the candidates questions and find out more about them.
Most importantly: DO VOTE!
