Wednesday, October 16Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

VP Societies and Media

In a joint venture with Insanity Radio, we have interviewed all the candidates for VP Societies and Media 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:

Marta Barton-Navarro – 0:00.30-0:11.30

Marta is promising to meet with media managers monthly, improve communication between the SU and student groups, and engage more societies in Varsity. All of these issues have been key to every candidate’s manifesto, a point we probed her on to see why she was the unique individual to be counted on to deliver on these campaign promises. Her knowledge of the media outlets and the media charter impressed us, as we would work directly under a Societies and Media VP.

Tamsin Stevenson – 0:11.30-0:31.45

Tamsin is the only candidate to have been involved with the media outlets before, something that comes across strongly in her interview. Her aim of stronger communication not only applies to the SU and student groups, but also inter-society communications. She wants the media outlets to gain more support and wants to fulfil her role properly, as outlined in the Media Charter.

Bethany F. Knowles – 0:34.45-0:43.47

Bethany’s campaign aims to create a calendar to track, book and advertise events for student groups, re-evaluating the booking system for student groups and event spaces, increase first year involvement and improve handovers and training. We were eager to delve into her knowledge of the media charter and of media outlets in general – Bethany is planning to speak to the outgoing and incoming media managers to ensure she is aware of what’s going on.

Sophia Bolton – 0:43.47-0:59.30

Sophia’s manifesto contains specific references to our media outlets, in particular regarding Insanity Radio and RhubarbTV’s ongoing plan to create a new studio. Additionally, she discusses her goal to make Varsity a bigger event, overseeing the involvement of societies and media outlets.

Rory Ford – 0:59.30-1:08.31

Rory’s manifesto discusses improving accessibility to both campus and university life, with a particular focus on societies and media outlets. It is interesting, as no other candidates have mentioned this. Rory is also aiming to give more welfare training, wanting to work with the VP Welfare and Diversity to do so.

Jenisha Mac Dev – 1:08.31-1:19.45

Jenisha is promising that every student voice is heard, regardless of their background, and to make students within every society and media outlet feel welcome. Her platform centres on diversity and the diverse nature of our student groups.

Listen to the full interviews here