With the student elections just days away, I imagine most people will still be undecided on who is most prepared to lead them. Who best represents me? Who wants what’s right? Who on earth do I vote for? These questions have been filling the college, with every candidate fighting tooth and nail for your support, campaigning in various ways to prove themselves worthy of that top spot. In order to gain a better idea, and to give you a better idea on what some of these candidates stand for, I sat down with three of my peers who aim to serve and support you in hopes of finding out why they do what they do.
In hopes of understanding one of the many students who hope to represent us in wider society, I sat down with Dominic Snowden, who hoped to become the new social media manager for our college. The passionate politics student with big aims for our college’s social media and email ease is clear through his many manifesto’s and promises “Well I’m hoping to represent the Notre Dame student community a lot better than ever done before, through different forms of videos, not just about marketing to prospective students that are in year 10 or 11 but also to try and ensure that students know about student life and events that are going on” says film enthusiast Dominic “I’ll probably try emails as well, but we’ll see what we can do and what we’ve got permission for”.
His social media prowess has been evident from the start of his campaign, with him hoping to prove his commitment to the role by showing his care not only for the college but for its people too, “So far, I’ve done videos, in person of me walking round college showing that I’m there for people to talk to about anything, including social media but also talking to people about life in college and what they think about it.” as well as enlightening us on his impressively dedicated fanbase “And also, someone made a fan account and I’m not sure who it was, but they created like the Dommunist manifesto as opposed to the Communist manifesto which I found pretty funny.”
“Well, I’m very passionate about raising awareness for different things, not just social media but different social justice courses and charities and I feel like I can work well with the other candidates for student executive.” stated Dominic when asked on what made him a great candidate for the role “I was part of the Hyde Park picture house take over, so I suppose that makes me a good candidate”.
Only time will tell if Dom gets the spot he hopes for but if his final remarks are anything to go by, I can say with confidence that he won’t stop trying: “I’ll be making sure people are represented fairly and diversely, and people know what's going on in college both with clubs and with charities and events and, Vote for Dom and Deliver with Dom”.
Next, I sat down with Sakura Iley, a dedicated competitor for the spot of diversity and inclusion officer whose optimistic and thoughtful campaign strategies have yielded plenty of support. “It’s just been focused on having fun to be honest. I’ve baked cookies for today, I’m just gonna hand them out. Yeah, it's just getting to know people and just having fun with it”. A clearly charismatic and hard-working candidate, Sakura has been putting in a great amount of work to make sure that her campaign puts the people first, something reflected in her manifesto and her big focus, a culture of the month. “So, I want to do a culture of the month, where we do, well we study about one culture, learn the language, learn what people are like, learn what they do and what kind of different lifestyle they live compared to people like us.” explains Sakura, who believes PTE and Tutorial can be used to strengthen the community in Notre Dame by celebrating its diversity.
Sakura’s own experiences as someone of a mixed Japanese/English background have had a huge impact on her aims with her acknowledging the notion of “not feeling like you belong” something that she hopes to tackle by ensuring all students feel accepted and “have somewhere to be and feel safe”. Sakura’s aim is one of hope and concern and her empathy is not unnoticed. She finished the interview with a powerful message of positivity: “Just be yourself to be honest, just be who you are, don’t dim who you are for other people, I feel like you should just be authentic to yourself. It doesn't really matter what other people think.”
To finally fully help identify the talent on show, I discussed the campaigns and aims of Manvita Maiya, a hopeful challenger with her eye on the top spot, Notre Dame’s Student President. With a much more humorous and light-hearted approach to the spot, Manvita has established herself as a clear contender for the position, utilising stop-motion animations and creative campaign edits to stand out. Manvita’s student focused campaign, centred on wellbeing became a key point of conversation as she stated “Well, I want to encourage community, prioritise student wellbeing, and most of all, listen to you because of course, the best ideas come from people in this college”. Much more abstract, yet equally appealing and likeable ideas such as a new wellbeing space to prioritise comfort without the stress or intensity of other social areas and a heavier focus on mental health were just some of the ideas she presented but the main focus was on her campaign, something she rather jokingly described as “super awesome and tuff”. “I have a super awesome campaign video that you need to go watch because I put a lot of effort into that so go check it out” she urged, a sentiment that (after watching the aforementioned campaign video) was evidently clear and deserved.
Manvita’s main goal was clear: helping her peers by listening to her peers. In her words, “the best ideas come from people in this college”, a bit of flattery that I imagine will not go unnoticed or challenged. I’m sure I am not alone in the belief that the student president should still reflect the ideas of the people that voted them in power, and this is an idea that has not been ignored by Manvita - “it’s not about who comes up with the idea, it's about who makes it go into action”. Making sure to slip in just one more bit of wit (and self-confidence), Manvita chose to end the interview with one last message to the people she hopes to support: “Just trust me, Vote for you, Vote for Vita because you deserve me as your president”.
Now that the elections are just round the bend, it is almost impossible to predict who will come out on top. With so many charismatic figures clashing for your vote, it’s important to remember that you have the power to decide who represents you.
Please watch all the presidential videos to get a good overview of all ideas and read the manifestos!
The decision is up to you and whichever choice is made, so long as it is truly believed in, is the right choice. With this, I wish the best of luck to all of the candidates and greatest congratulations to any who didn’t quite make the cut.
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