Hey, I’m Catherine ‘The Cat’, I’m a final year law student. In the past 3 years the Guild has absolutely made my experience at university, and I’d love to give something back. I currently work in the Guild marketing department which means I’ve worked on many large Guild campaigns such as Not On, Elections and Welcome Week. Working in the Guild has given has given me the opportunity to work alongside two different sabbatical officer teams to help them with their work.
Alongside this, I have been on two student society committees in the past two years which has again given me insight into the way the Guild works as an organisation and charity. This has given me a deep understanding of Guild processes, and my personal ups and downs at university have given me a very close appreciation of the support systems at the University, such as the Student Mentor Scheme and Student Support.
If you vote for me I will work with the university to change the way student support works: In an NUS survey, 20% of students said they felt they suffered from a mental disorder and 13% said they had experienced suicidal thoughts; despite this there are only 2 Mental Health Advisors in our Student Support system. This means many students with mental health issues are waiting weeks to get help or extenuating circumstances from the University, this leaves them alone and with no help. I will push for an increase in the number of mental health advisors available to students and reduce the waiting times in Student Support.
In addition to University services, I would like to set up a new support service similar to the Student Mentor Scheme, but available for all students. This will be on a drop-in basis giving people a place to talk about their problems informally and learn about where to go for medical or academic support.
I would like to bring in SHAG (Sexual Health and Guidance) week where students could get information on contraception and STI’s, as well as free condoms and testing thrown your way. As well as having SHAG week, I would like to continue work on the Not On campaign throughout the academic year, linking it to the new drop-in scheme where people who need to talk about their experiences with sexual harassment have somewhere to go.
If I was elected as your Welfare Officer, I would also to work to tackle Fresher’s Flu by giving out ‘Fight the Flu’ packs with tissues, sachets of soup and hot chocolate and other goodies we could all do with when we’re under the weather. This would also include details for all the local doctors surgeries and a ‘how to’ guide to register with a GP and what to look out for if you Fresher’s Flu gets worse, so everyone can get the most from their first few weeks of university.
Vote for Catherine ‘The Cat’ Senior as your Welfare Officer, helping you land on your feet