Meet the candidates running to be your next Union Affairs Officer

By Siavash Minoukadeh, Deputy Digital Editor

The Union Affairs Officer is responsible for setting out how the SU is run internally, developing SU-run spaces such as the SU Living Room and managing communication between the SU, students and university management.

With voting now open in the Bristol SU elections, students have the chance to elect their new full-time officers, including their Union Affairs Officer. Four candidates are in the race to take over from Julio Mkok, who has held the post for the last two years.

Voting takes places using a ranked-choice system, meaning students can rank all the candidates in order. Voting will be open between 9am Tuesday 9 March and 9pm on Thursday 11 March. Results will be announced by Bristol SU via Instagram Live at 6pm on Friday 12 March. For more information on voting visit this link.

Here are the candidates running to be your next Union Affairs Officer (in alphabetical order):

Charles Crow

A fourth year Chemistry student who has been on the committees of Chemistry Society, Opera Society and an A Cappella group, Charles’ three major priorities are increasing student input into the SU, opening up more SU facilities for student groups to make use of and connecting students and societies with the wider Bristol community.

Some proposed policies include: creating an app and online platform for SU democracy, extending Balloon Bar opening hours, providing society presidents with a mental health first aid kit and creating an advertising platform for societies to find student photographers, designers and other similar roles.

Fergus Ustianowski

Alongside being a Physics student, Fergus has been President of UoB Lib Dems, co-captain of the mental health group Talk Club and co-founder of Zero Suicide England. His campaign has three priorities: helping societies make it through COVID-19, reforming SU democracy and adding extra mental health structures for students and societies.

Some of his policies include: automatically reaffiliating all societies this year as a result of the pandemic, creating a mental fitness award to celebrate societies with good mental health policies, reforming Student Council and making it take place five times a year instead of two, and making future SU elections paperless to reduce waste.

Ifrah Farooq

Ifrah is a final year Politics and IR student and has served as the SU’s Chair of Student Council for the last year, overseeing the SU’s democratic processes and meetings. Her main priorities are making campus and the SU more accessible for students, keeping student life cheap and increasing support for students.

To get all of this done, some of Ifrah’s policies include extending the U1 bus to Coombe Dingle and Temple Meads with a free three-year pass, introducing a university app, keeping prices low at Stoke Bishop shops and the new Senate House food court and reviewing the purpose and role of the AMM (Annual Members’ Meeting).

Pippa Adamthwaite-Cook

Over the last three years, Pippa has been part of the Hiatt Baker JCR, Burst Radio’s Head of Visual content and Live Sports Coordinator and the Marketing Director and President of Fuze. Her campaign has three priorities: making the SU more appealing to students, improving the SU’s communications and supporting more student inclusion.

Her policies include increasing career support, making the SU the social hub of the university, reforming SU and university communication with students to be shorter, more accessible and more relevant and introducing more financial support to help students with society fees.

Featured Image: Epigram / Siavash Minoukadeh / Patrick Sullivan

Will you be voting in the Bristol SU elections? Click here for more information on how to do so.