► About the Elections

At the most basic level students’ union elections happen because they are a legal necessity. The reasons for having students’ union elections are much wider and are intrinsic to the ethos and nature of the organisation. Holding elections is one of the ways that unions can be member led – by you the students.

The Union
The Union exists for its members and student representation is key to this. The overall responsibility of the Union lies with its trustees board, who delegate certain powers to elected officers via the executive committee. As well as being executive members the successful candidates have the opportunity to take on trustees board positions.

Although being truly democratic and giving ownership to the student body means much more than yearly elections, the fact that the members decide who will lead them is an important starting position. Students’ unions exist primarily to carry out campaigning and representation work. The process of election means that the officers have a mandate to represent those who voted for them. The act of voting can be seen as an acknowledgment that, in most instances, decision
making power is being passed to others.

Who can run in the Elections?
Current members of the students’ union’s will be eligible to stand for election, including those on placement or part time courses. First year students may only run for part time positions alongside their studies, whilst any other level student may run for a fulltime position.

Why would you want to run?
Working as an officer is one of the biggest learning curves due to its intense, fast paced and heavy work load.

Changes to the Officer Structure
At the recent All Student Meeting, the study body approved a new officer structure
which said goodbye to VP Communications, along with VP Sports & Teams and VP Societies & Activities and said hello to effective representation across all campuses, a better Union and the introduction of more student roles.

Take a look at what being an officer of the Union means, their key areas of responsibility and see if anything catches your eye! There are four full time paid Sabbatical Officer Positions, and nine unpaid voluntary Student Officer positions.

Sabbatical Officer (Full Time Paid)

• President
• Vice President Activities
• Vice President Academic Affairs
• Vice President Welfare & Diversity

click here to read role descriptions...

Student Officer (Voluntary Unpaid)

• Sports Officer
• Societies Officer
• Events Officer
• RAG Officer
• Liberation Officer
• Campaigns Officer
• Riseholme Officer
• Hull Officer
• Holbeach Officerstudent

click here to read role descriptions...

The Manifesto

All prospective candidates must submit a 500 word manifesto, outlining who they are, why they would be good at representing students and what they intend to do should they get elected.

Top Tips

• Be clear about what you want to do, don’t • overload your manifesto with long meaningless sentences
• Know what students want – speak with students • about their concerns and ideas before putting pen to paper
• Bullet point and summarise your aims•
• It is important that your manifesto abides by • Union regulations and that it does not defame or libel any other candidate or individual.

Make the vote.

Why should you vote? Because its your Union.

It’s lead by you, for you. The most common excuse for not voting in an election is “one vote won’t make a difference.” Yet history is full of instances proving the enormous power of one single vote. In many cases, the course of nations has been changed because one individual ballot was cast -- or not cast -- depending upon your point of view.

When thinking on if your going to vote or not, consider this:

• In 1645 - one vote gave Oliver Cromwell control of England.
• In 1649 - one vote literally cost King Charles I of England his head. The vote to behead him was 67 against and 68 for -- the axe fell thanks to one vote.
• In 1714 - one vote placed King George I on the throne of England and restored the monarchy.
• In 1776 - one vote gave America the English language instead of German.
• In 1800 - the Electoral College met in the respective states to cast their two votes for President. At that time, the U.S. Constitution provided the candidate receiving the most electoral votes would become President and the candidate receiving the second highest number of votes would become Vice President. When the results of the Electoral College votes were opened by both houses of Congress, there was a tie vote for President between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. That threw the election of President into the House of Representatives where Thomas Jefferson was elected the third US president by a one vote margin.
• In 1875 - a one vote margin changed France from a monarchy to a republic.

“it doesn’t affect me”
Short and simply put – Yes it does.
The Union tells the University you attend what you and your fellow students want and the University listens and with a good amount of pressure, will act. The Union invests money that the public pay for your education into projects to benefit you and your fellow students. You need, and students deserve the very best people to do this; use your vote to choose the candidates you believe will genuinely stand up for what you believe in and ensure nothing but the best student experience for all students. Don’t waste your vote.

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