Friday, March 29Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Meet the SU by-election Winners

Our News Editor caught up with some of the newly elected representatives to see what they have in store for the coming year:
Amy Timmins – RAG Chair
What is your main goal as RAG chair this year?
Firstly I want to raise awareness of what RAG is, which if people reading this don’t know, is raising and giving money for charity! Then once lots of people are aware of RAG, I would love to encourage as many people to get involved and get them as passionate as me about raising money for charity.
Which RAG events can we look forward to this year?
I am full of ideas but also very open to everyone’s suggestions (so please let me know!!) Some of my ideas so far are Jailbreak (get sponsored to get as far away from campus as possible without any money), a colour run (a sponsored run around campus where at various stages you will be blasted with powder paint) and Battle of the Socs (competitions between societies, one competition being who can raise the most amount of money) and many more! We will also be having regular clothes sales at the SU Tuesday market so pop by there (or let me know if you have any clothes you want to donate)
Why should people join RAG?
I don’t think anyone can argue that raising money for charity is a great thing, not only is it great for the charities so they can help people but also it’s very rewarding personally and can look extremely good on the all-important CV! I think it’s easy for a lot of students to say ‘but we’re poor ourselves’ which I completely understand, but I feel like we should be grateful for the opportunity to be at university. In fact one of the charities I hope to raise money for (East to West) aims to help get people to university.
How can people get involved?
Soon I’m going to be trying to recruit a RAG team who can help me organise loads of exciting events so ‘like’ the ‘RAG SURHUL’ page on Facebook to find out more details. But if you don’t want to be part of the team that’s okay, you can get involved by just attending the events – having fun at the same time as raising money so ‘like’ the page as well as that will be the page where all our events will be posted.

Jannah Hartley – RAG Vice-Chair
What one thing would you like to see RAG achieve this year?
Our main aim for RAG this year is to spread the idea of RAG throughout campus and the community in order to make people more aware, and hopefully to get some keen students involved.
Why should people join RAG?
RAG is such an incredible opportunity for students to participate in charity fundraising as little or as much as they can. Volunteering is extremely flexible and can fit into everyone’s timetable. This year we aim to get students involved as much as they can by getting feedback on fundraising ideas, charity choices and by asking for any help they can give.
How can clubs and societies get involved?
Clubs and societies can get involved by emailing either Amy ([email protected]) or myself ([email protected]) or pop into the SU office on Fridays between 11-1 to ask us any questions!

Ben Tozer – First Year Representative
What is your main goal as First Year Rep this year?
The role of First Year Representative, in my view, is to tackle questions such as ‘What does the Student Union do?’ and ‘Is Royal Holloway working for me?’ Fundamentally, it is my goal this year to answer these questions for First Years and to encourage a smooth transition into university life.
How do you plan to help First Years with the ‘step up’ to university?
The issue of stepping up and the transition to university life lies with communication, as students need to feel that they have places where they can solve problems they are having. In this regard, I plan to create a First Year Forum that will be once or twice a term to be a place where First Year students can discuss problems they have been having.
Do you plan on using the course rep system to help this?
In creating a First Year Forum I plan to invite first year course reps to share information they have heard and ways to overcome problems. People can also get in touch with me if they have any issues or ideas either through social media or email ([email protected]).