Menswear - The Founder

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6 The Founder | Wednesday 23 February 2011 Sabbatical Officers 2011-2012 Katie Blow Vice President Education and Welfare Thomas Seal News Editor It’s Valentine’s Day and on a deserted reading week Monday morning in Crosslands I meet up with Katie Blow for a quick chat about the aftermath of her victory following the epic Sabb campaign week. How does it feel to have been elected VPEW? Katie Blow: Very, very weird! I honestly didn’t think I was going to win. Me and my team were actually stood at the back of the bar, and they were going to put me in the lift and I was just going to leave via the lift...so yeah it’s taken a while to get used to it...and now it’s like ‘I’ve got so much I need to do!’ How soon do you need to start doing things? Is there a good handover period? Yeah, basically me and Beth start handing over 1st July and then 1st August she leaves and it’s...all mine! (laughs) So basically it’s a month of meeting everyone I need to meet. So tell us a little bit about yourself... I’m technically a 4th year even though I’m in my final year here, because last year I went abroad to Japan. I do Psychology, I rowed, I’m in RAG, and I’ve done Strictly Come Holloway! A bit of a mix, I suppose. What’s happened so far postelection? Have you had a chat with [current VPEW] Beth Rowley? Yeah it was really nice, because Beth and I are actually best friends. We didn’t talk the whole of the election period and so the next day it was just like ‘I’m so glad to have you back in my life!’ We’ve had a chat and she’s told me not to think about anything until handover and not try and feel like I have to do anything, so that’s quite cool. So you can concentrate on finals! Yep! (nervous laugh) All the work that’s been neglected for the last three weeks! What are you most looking forward to about being VPEW? Umm...I think meeting people. And being able to have my manifesto in front of me and being able to tick things off it, so I’ve done this or put that in place. Feeling like I’ve achieved stuff. ...I’m excited about it all really! Regarding a couple of your manifesto points: firstly, how will you go about changing the lighting? Well, obviously outside of campus is a lot more difficult because you have to liaise with the community and police and stuff, but on campus there are still a few dark spots. Even motion lighting would do...for example, if you walk from Bedford library to the Union - past the physics building - there are some steps, and that’s just pitch black, and it would be great if there was just something so you could see where you were going. A lot of the time it is just about persuading people and getting the ball rolling but hopefully I can smile my way through! One of your other promises is to have 48 hours between each exam for students. That sounds quite ambitious... Yeah, everyone said that! We had a big chat with my campaign team when I printed my manifesto and I said ‘do we think this is too high?’ I felt that if I go in with a high number and then negotiate down then I can achieve something, rather than to go in with 24, and get 24, and be like ‘actually I could’ve done better’. I know it will be difficult and there will be a lot of subjects where it might not be possible yet - especially for joint honours students - but I definitely think something needs putting in place. Holloway has a whole term of exams, and there’s got to be something done so that it’s easier and less stressful. That’s my number one thing. So would you say that’s what you’d do first? If you had to choose one thing? Definitely. And also making students more aware of the services that are available to them. For example, I live in Founder’s now, and there’s a little sticker on my mirror that says ‘Nightline’, which is really out of date, and I think something like that, put in every single room, something that isn’t obvious, that you can look at and think ‘actually I might need some help’, is a subtle way of getting these messages across. Is there anything else you’d like to add? Anything you’d like to say to those who voted for you? Yes, thank you very, very much! Thanks for taking the time to read the manifesto, and watch all the videos, and thank you everyone for coming to Question Time. It was hard this year because you had to register online and there were issues there so...thanks so much!
The Founder | Wednesday 23 February 2011 Sabbatical Officers 2011-2012 7 Sarah Honeycombe Vice President Communications and Campaigns dreams lie? Thomas Shore Editor It must feel good to win, how has the week been since? It feels amazing. It took me twentyfive minutes to walk from the front gate to the hub the day after I won because, I kept getting stopped by people congratulating me. Do you think more people got interested in these elections more than previous years? Well last year’s turnout was over a hundred people higher. It was 1200 in 2010 so I think maybe online voting got people angrier. Does online voting work? It’s too early too tell. I do like online voting because it saves the union quite a bit of money, but I think the problems with registration were a real pain. The fact that so many people tried to register on the last day and the system struggled is quite depressing, but that won’t happen again. What do you think gave you the edge over everyone else? I have no idea. Ben and Claudia were both really strong candidates and I think it was such a close election for a reason. Maybe my experience with Insanity and the Orbital might have just pushed it ahead. I got some really positive feedback after candidate’s question time so maybe that. How do you think your experience with Insanity will help you next year? I think it’s going to be brilliant. One third of the job is student media and I’ve been one of the section editors of the orbital and I’m currently one station managers of insanity so there is perhaps less of a handover to do there as I’m fairly well versed in how it all works. I also know how tough it can get and how time consuming it gets for the assistant managers so I should be able to help out there. What about the other two thirds? I’m really looking forward to it. In the Ethics and environment side I’m really looking forward to talking to Ed Resek, “Go Green week” was a massive success, and today we found of we have been nominated for an ecologist award which is really cool, so there is a good foundation to work from there. The union has some really good campaigns it’s just about getting the word out. How do you get the word out? Oh wow. Facebook, twitter, the SU website. I cannot wait to get my hands on that sodding website. Are you going to personally do it or is the union going to hire someone to do it again? I’m going to try and get the computer science department to help me. They offered last year and were turned down, one of the students who offered is the guy who created the insanity website and I think that website is brilliant. So if I can get people like that involved it will hopefully save a lot of money and make the website easier to use. How does The Founder fit in next year? I really like The Founder, I’ve contributed to The Founder. I think the union and The Founder’s relationship could be better and I’m hoping that maybe I can push that along. I think The Founder is a really good newspaper and a source of news and if the union can talk about things through The Founder that’s a really good idea. What about The Orbital? It’s fairly upsetting. As a former contributor and editor the fact that it’s not out as much anymore is quite depressing. It’s about looking at money and working out a way to get more issues out more quickly and keeping the online presence up to date. The Orbital turns twenty five next year there is no way it’s not going to be huge. I actually took the first issue to candidate’s question time. Beyond Holloway where do your I put off a masters degree to take this job so I am going on to do a masters in history the year after. You said you wanted to use electronic media to communicate, does this mean that general meetings and others forms are not being utilised enough at the moment? It’s almost defiantly not being used to its maximum. It is being used and that’s a really good thing but at the General Meetings you get a turnout of thirty, I know because I go to every single bloody one of them and while it’s three hours of cutting through red tape you cant really expect more people to get actively involved unless they have a reason to or unless they have another way to get involved. The union will be utilising a lot of electronic media next year I will make sure of it because I think more people want to get involved but don’t know how. One of the major things of my campaign is that there are so many opportunities being given that students just don’t know about and you can’t expect students to take up these if they don’t know what they are Any particular campaigns your really keen on? I think it’s about time we opened up campaigns to the students. I’ve never been consulted on them. I know what they are because they are on the wall planner but I’ve never been asked what campaigns I think the union should get involved with. And the sabbatical jobs are representative roles so I would feel a bit weird if I was to decide on campaigns on my own. Obviously SHAG week will stay because it’s exceptionally popular and “Go Green Week”, they had a guy making smoothies with a bike during the campaign, they were great! If there were one thing you could change during your year, what would it be? Insanity getting its FM licence, if it kills me. Though admittedly we should be having that soon.
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Menswear - The Founder

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