Leen Ali is re-running for Union President in this year’s Students’ Union elections and believes that her previous experience and insights will be invaluable.
The Union President’s role is to be the representative of the Union to the University, media, and external agencies.
“This year has been quite challenging, hectic, and draining, but also fantastic in so many ways. I feel like there’s a lot more that I want to do though, hence why I’m rerunning,” the Sociology and Social Policy graduate told Brig.
Ali believes the main thing she has achieved in the president role this year has been to improve the student feedback procedure by talking directly to students and listening to their concerns.
“I was able to access hard-to-reach students or students that traditionally aren’t as engaged with clubs and general meetings. Some days I literally do walk around with a notebook and a pen and I ask students how they have been feeling and what challenges they have been experiencing,” she said.
Ali described her drive to help students and said: “As soon as I feel that I have brought around valuable change or made someone’s life slightly easier it just feels amazing.”
Her manifesto for this year’s election focuses on three main goals: accessibility, well-being, and inclusion.
Accessibility
Ali wants to address the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis on students and aims to find financial solutions for the community food pantry to make sure it can carry on helping students.
She also wants the University to take more responsibility for accessibility measures: “I want them to respond better when a person with accessibility needs is requesting something.
“There’s a situation at the moment with the drama society and it seems that the space we have is not going to work for one of the wheelchair-using members. It’s a terrible situation and I think the University needs to do better.”
Well-being
Ali seems most passionate about her goal to improve the well-being of international students who make up over a third of the student population.
This year she focused on hosting intercultural events through the Be Connected programme which hosted celebrations for Eid, Diwali, and Lunar New Year. As well as expanding on this initiative she wants staff to be trained in cultural competency and more mental health support for international students.
“Throughout my experience this year, University staff have reached out and said that they feel there are things they lack the cultural competency for and issues students are facing that they don’t know how to provide support for,” she said. “I think that’s a major issue because international students pay a heck of a tonne and the support they get just does not align.”
As an international and INTO student, Ali said she has been made to feel like a “cash cow” by the University in the past and wants to advocate for others in the same situation.
Inclusion
Ali wants to continue her attempts to listen to students and champion their voices. She plans to host informal coffee mornings or lunch hours where students could approach her and talk to her in an informal environment.
She also believes that there is a disconnect between the student body, the University, and the Union, and aims to “bridge the gap” and strengthen relationships: “I won’t tell you that in one year or two years I’m going to be able to close that gap but all I can tell you is that I will work towards minimising the size of the gap.”
Find out more about the elections and read Leen Ali’s manifesto in full here.
Voting opens on Tuesday, February 27 at 10am.
Featured Image Credit: Leen Ali
