In a joint venture with Insanity Radio, we have interviewed all the candidates for VP Sport & Development and created a podcast with questions that delve deeper into their individual manifesto points. Our ongoing Sabbatical Officer coverage and involvement with the elections has been exceptional this year, with the media outlets chairing Candidate Question Time, and we will continue with this by interviewing all winning candidates on elections night so keep an eye out for our coverage. Here are our brief summaries of each candidate and their manifestos:
Joshua Bibby
Josh explained that his campaign focuses on cross-club collaboration, better communication between clubs and the SU, better reporting of fixtures by student media outlets and transparency in decisions for Colours Ball awards. His aim is to build the profile of sports clubs across campus, by utilising our student media to cover their fixtures, as well as playing to the strengths of each individual club to work together.
Dom Brown
Dom is, obviously, re-running for his position as VP Sport & Development. His decision to stay at RHSU for another year in this role is due to his fundamental belief that a two-year term in a Sabbatical Officer position is necessary in order for him to achieve the goals he set forth both when he first ran as well as the additional objectives that he has now added to his manifesto. He has three key manifesto points: Welfare & Mental Health, Long-Term Planning and Simplification. Dom emphasises the work he has already achieved in his role as VP Sport and how he plans on building on that even more should he be re-elected.
Gwen Richards
Gwen’s campaign argues that many clubs are unhappy with training allocations, a lack of recognition (in particular during Colours Ball) as well as not being able to have certain members for sport fixtures due to teaching being scheduled on Wednesdays – an issue resolved at many other universities by making sure that there is no timetabled teaching on Wednesdays. She aims to lobby the college, the SU and the sport centre to ensure that teaching is no longer scheduled on Wednesdays. We asked her whether she thought this was prioritising sport over teaching and degrees, a question that seemed to catch Gwen off-guard at first but she recovered and explained her reasoning to us very carefully.
Jack Wright
Jack is aiming for short and long-term development of sports facilities here on campus, especially to ensure that we are up-to-date when it comes to fixtures and big events like Varsity. Varsity is a hot-button issue with every candidate but the development of sports facilities has only been mentioned by Jack. Additionally, he wants to improve upon clubs by responding to their feedback in his role, should he be elected. He alludes to the idea that many clubs are unhappy with a myriad of issues and that he aims to ensure their needs are met.