By Ike Idikakalu, First Year Politics and International Relations
DISCLAIMER: In the interest of fairness, Epigram must outline that all full-time candidates within a given position were offered the chance to give more detail on their campaign. In this case, every Union Affairs Candidate was given a chance to have their voice heard in this publication.
To learn more about Union Affairs Officer candidate, Isobel Foster, Epigram reached out to get a better view of her campaign goals, motivations, and ambitions coming into this year's election.
Isobel Foster arrived at Bristol University in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, an experience she’s described as 'up and down.' She says that much of that experience drives her policy, today.
‘To meet people and make friendships, the only real place this could happen were student societies,’ said Foster.
As she continued her degree, Foster became president of Chaos, the University physics society, as well as the baking society, but while leading these groups, found glaring problems in the Student Union's society support system. From difficulties in navigating their systems, to how complicated setting up events are, and how awful it is to book spaces, Foster says she was passionate to make a change.
Alongside her own logistical struggles, Foster said she was particularly dismayed by Committee Fest – an annual week-long set of training sessions for committee leaders – being moved online.
‘[The move] was awful,’ said Foster. 'It reduced the quality and utility of these sessions, and student group support systems are incredibly complex as well – the whole system needs to change.’
Foster says she aims to simplify and advance the support systems in place for societies, and to further simplify the room booking process. She also wishes to make the latter more reliable, recalling repeat instances where room booking requests were not responded to, or bookings were made without the event organisers being notified.
Foster also highlighted how she wished to bring the Student Union back to an ‘even playing field,’ as Union activities have become opaquer over time. She said she wanted to bring ‘feedback sessions’ to the Student Union, allowing students to directly criticise and provide feedback to the Union, and has a desire to better explain why the university does certain things: referring to the backlash at the decision to move fresher's week back for this year.
What form this communication will take remains unclear.
Considering student spaces in general, Foster noted how, on some levels, space is regularly wasted.
‘[When the SU moved] 150 student spaces in Senate House were converted to offices,’ said Foster. ‘The office use is completely inefficient; so many offices lie vacant.’
More than just a Senate issue, Foster also claims the Richmond House spaces, formerly offices, are also lying vacant, used as spare storage space. Her victory would see her work to minimise the amount of space lying vacant in the university and make more spaces available for students, for societies or just for studying.
When asked for her ambitions in three words, Foster responded with 'fostering our community,' and once again highlighted how she is driven by her experiences during covid to improve the SU's work with societies and student spaces, working to bolster student welfare here at Bristol.
Voting opens at 9am on Monday, 10 March, when candidates begin their official campaigning, and closes at 9pm on Thursday 13 March.
To vote, and look at candidates across all officer roles, visit:
https://www.bristolsu.org.uk/elections
Has Foster secured your vote?
