Students vote to stay in NUS as full-time officers elected

By Molly Pipe, Student Life Correspondent

Two officers were re-elected and five elected for the first time after polls closed late last night.

Students voted in favour of reaffiliating with the National Union of Students in a referendum that comes every three years. The result looked to be close this year, following a strong No campaign led by head of the Liberal Democrats Society, Fergus Ustianowski. In the event, however, Yes won nearly two thirds of the vote: 1,192 compared to 599 for No.

Hillary Gyebi-Ababio, current Undergraduate Education Officer, led the Yes campaign and said: ‘I’m so pleased that Bristol Students have overwhelmingly chosen to remain a part of our National Union of Students!

‘NUS has fought extremely hard to ensure that it delivers for students and I’m glad Bristol will be a part of shaping an organisation that will continue to fight for, advocate on behalf of and champion a better student life and experience for ALL students.

‘Thank you to everyone who supported the #YEStoNUS campaign and I hope that everyone who voted No will see more reasons over the coming years that Bristol is better standing united with NUS, than divided.’

'I’m glad Bristol will be a part of shaping an organisation that will continue to fight for, advocate on behalf of and champion a better student life and experience for ALL students'
Hillary Gyebi-Ababio, Lead of the Yes Campaign

Ustianowski said: ‘Whilst we are disappointed at the result we firstly thank Yes to NUS for running a good campaign. We’d like to take this opportunity to formally back her for VP Higher Education in the NUS national elections.

‘We have highlighted a number of issues which we hope they will take on board. We are looking forward to working proactively with the NUS going forwards to address the issues raised in the referendum.’

*The newly elected full-time SU officer team, minus Julio Mkok | Epigram / Isaac Haigh*

Jason Palmer was re-elected as Equality, Liberation and Access Officer, and the unusual entry by Rory ‘Bristruths’ for Union Affairs Officer was seen off by incumbent Julio Mkok.

All other full-time officers were elected for the first time. Ruth Day, who lost out on the role of Student Living Officer by 45 votes last year, won by a landslide 1420 votes in the final round. The count was 630 more than the second-place candidate.

The other full-time officers elected were David Ion (Undergraduate Education), Leah Martindale (Postgraduate), Roy Kiruri (International Student), and Rushab Shah (Sport and Student Development).

The official results event in the Balloon Bar was cancelled today due to COVID-19 (coronavirus) concerns. Candidates were told the results in person at the Students Union, however, and many gathered in the Balloon Bar to celebrate or commiserate the outcome.

Full Results

Full-Time Officer Team

Name	Role
Jason Palmer	Equality, Liberation and Access Officer
Ruth Day	Student Living Officer
Julio Mkok	Union Affairs Officer
David Ion	Undergraduate Education Officer
Leah Martindale	Postgraduate Education Officer
Roy Kiruri	International Student Officer
Rushab Shah	Sport and Student Development Officer

Chair of Networks

Name	Role
Khadija Meghrawi	Chair of BME Network
Thomas Melo Covill	Chair of Care Leavers and Estranged Students
Imogen Andrews	Chair of Disabled Students Network
Emma Thomas	Chair of International Students Network
Joshua Short	Chair of LGBT+ Network
Ben Hobbs	Chair of Mature Students, Parents & Carers Network
Kavya Sharma	Chair of Multifaith Network
Syirah Ami	Chair of Societies Network
Jenny Herring	Chair of Sport Network
Ifrah Farooq	Chair of Student Council
Marten Payne	Chair of Trans Network
Olivier Levy	Chair of Wellbeing Network
James Fishwick	Chair of Widening Participation Network
Anna Vause	Chair of Women's Network

Faculty Reps

Name	Role
Lu Macey	Faculty of Arts - PGR Rep
Dave Jones	Faculty of Arts - Undergraduate Rep
Evangelia Nicolaidou	Faculty of Engineering - PGR Rep
Flo Ingram	Faculty of Engineering - Undergraduate Rep
Daisy Gaunt	Faculty of Health Sciences - PGR Rep
Becca Pullin	Faculty of Health Sciences - Undergraduate Rep
Darrian Paul	Faculty of Life Sciences - PGR Rep
Iona Marshall	Faculty of Life Sciences - Undergraduate Rep
Emmanuel Bempong-Manful	Faculty of Science - PGR Rep
Zoe Wang	Faculty of Science - Undergraduate Rep
Raffaello Rossi	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law - PGR Rep
Sid Sreekanth	Faculty of Social Sciences & Law - Undergraduate Rep