Candidates were announced this week for this year’s OUSU elections, which are due to take place between Tuesday and Thursday of next week.
There are two candidates for the position of OUSU President 2011-2012: Martha Mackenzie, currently a third year History and Politics student at St. John’s, and Tom Scott, a third year PPEist at New College.
Scott has been heavily involved in charity work in Oxford, including Aegis, Food Justice and Student Action for Refugees. Mackenzie was president of the Oxford University Labour Club last year and is the current JCR President of St John’s.
Three of the five other sabbatical positions are contested by two candidates, with only Vice-President, Women uncontested. There were no applications for the Vice-President, Graduates position.
Tom Scott and Martha Mackenzie are both running on a slate, permitted in the OUSU elections, in contrast to Union rules.
Candidates backing Scott have submitted orange manifestos to show their support whilst those supporting Mackenzie have submitted blue manifestos.
Scott’s proposed policies include increasing student interaction with the community to support the Living Wage campaign and fight rent-rises in Oxford. He also proposes better integrating OUSU with college common rooms to help create University-wide policies on matters such as discipline and welfare.
Mackenzie is advocating reform of the academic probation system and an improvement in interaction between current students and both applicants and graduates. She is also lobbying for better access schemes and for funding to be provided for unpaid internships.
Balliol student Simon Stewart is running as an independent candidate for the Vice-President, Welfare and Equal Opportunities position. His manifesto includes his telephone number, and suggests that voters should call him if they are “throwing a party and want to see some sweet dance moves”.
He told Cherwell, “My style of dancing involves pointing in the air and jumping about – although it depends how the mood takes me.”
“Dancing makes people happier and combats stress”, he added.
The presidential candidates will take part in seven husts during their nine days of campaigning, and will also canvass support around Oxford through publicity campaigns. The slates are each allowed to spend just over £200 on efforts to win support.
Last year around 16 per cent of students voted in the election.
