Sneha Mukherjee is your union candidate for Health & Wellbeing Officer. She is currently pursuing her postgrad in English Language and Linguistics, and is passionate about mental health awareness.
The Health and Wellbeing Volunteer Officer is responsible for the promotion of well-being to all students, and responsible for running campaigns which focus on this.
Sneha believes some of the best ways to improve mental health are through conducting focus groups on a regular basis, email alerts, outdoor activities such as meditation or yoga, and free break trips to nearby places to get food or coffee amongst other students.
Brig sat down with Sneha to discuss her manifesto.
Student Mental Health
“The university gives home to two types of student – home and international [students]. Most who come are independent in nature. And academic stress, jobs, etcetera can be a stress for students. Home students have to pay their daily bills and such and don’t really have time put aside to unwind. The uni could give frequent trips to nearby places or more get-togethers. Constant email alerts would also be helpful – more frequent ones. Physical activity would be beneficial for students. The university should be telling people ‘don’t worry I’m there for you’ and giving students breaks, more days off, more support and councillors.
“Being health officer, I would like to bring attention to the social wellbeing side of the uni. Email alerts would be a realistic way. If a person is going frequently to a councillor, that isn’t a good thing. It shows the university is lacking in proper wellbeing for students. You can talk to me if I’m elected to guide you how to approach professors in a simplified manner and I’m always available to go for a coffee and help you find the necessary support.”
Be Connected
Brig asked Sneha her opinions on the Be Connected programme and whether she thinks this is beneficial to wellbeing for students.
“Yet again, emails should be sent to students everyday with a university bulletin. There is a lot of news for students to organize and deal with. There should be more posters and advertisements around the physical campus too. Students engage with more appealing colours too; we need flashier posters to attract student engagement. The uni can be very dull sometimes.
“I stand for LGBTQ+ representation and with the union saying they’ll cancel events if they don’t gain enough [referring to the union threatening to cancel drag bingo because of lack of advertising] attention or aren’t advertised well, that’s a failure on the Union’s behalf.
“Move nights are advertised all around campus; but when it comes to underrepresented groups, they aren’t. My question is why?
“We need equal preference for all events. I want to help the Be Connected programme to connect with all students and run more diverse events.
“Action speaks louder than words.”
Coffee and a chat
Sneha continued, “A good way to deal with mental health is with trips. Not to exotic places or anything, just to a coffee shop where we can have a chit-chat and focus groups. Seminars can be quite intimidating, and this gives a more relaxed atmosphere for class discussion. I have not really seen anyone promote mental wellbeing.
“Lecturers need to make more effort to approach students – students shouldn’t always be the ones to approach them.
“Seminars do not give an impact; focus groups do. The person who suffers should talk more than the person who is lecturing so they can voice their concerns.”
Campus Services
“Collaborating with campus services would be important. Understanding their concept of how they feel about student well-being first. When you talk to the uni department, they are able to discuss their concerns about students and hopefully this can help me bring this to the wider student body.
“When you are a union officer, you have a powerful position and being available is so important. Whenever a student is in distress, the immediate accessibility to services and someone to talk to is a vital thing.
“I also think the animal therapy sessions ran at accommodation are a good way to get students out who are suffering from an intense depression as simply petting an animal can reduce stress and anxiety levels and give a sense of community without necessarily having to talk to someone.
“I want to take student feedback and feed that back to the university to hopefully make a difference.”
Voting opens on Tuesday, February 27 at 10am.
Featured Image Credit: Stirling Students Union
He/Him
Film & Media & Journalism Student
contact me: bem00218@students.stir.ac.uk
