On the evening of Tuesday 13th October, the four sabbatical officers had an event called ‘Sabba!’ to promote their idea of adding a fifth sabbatical officer to their team in order to help split presidential duties and educational and welfare duties. This event involved an informal chat in Medicine with the team of four sabbatical officers (as well as free pizza) and the chance to vote for or against the idea of getting a fifth Sabb – followed later in the evening with a karaoke set.
Currently the four sabbatical officers are Nayab Cheema (President – Education and Campaigns); Alex Reilly (Co-President Sports and Development); Brianna Middleton Macpherson (C0-President Societies and Media) and Jack Kilker (Co-President Welfare and Diversity). But the team feel that there are elements of university life which do not receive the attention they deserve as a result of their already very busy roles.
Nayab stated that she dislikes “not having enough time to reach out to the student community as much as I’d like to,”Brianna also commented that “Sabbatical officers would be able to do more to improve the student experience with the help of an extra member.”
The current team are taking the necessary steps to get their idea for an additional officer approved by the college, the principle would have to be prepared to fork out an extra £23,000 for an additional member of staff each year. The idea is part of the constitutional review, which the SU is currently undertaking to ensure it can operate as efficiently as possible.
Due to the fact that the motions such as this to change the constitution must go through to SU general meetings, the addition of a fifth Sabb would not be implemented until the 2017 SU elections.