Did They Do It?: Student Union Edition

This edition of accountability tracker focuses only on one person, the recently re-elected Student Union President, Leen Mohamed Gaffar Ali.

Meant to be published during last years election, take this with a pinch of salt, as this measures what Leen achieved during her first term, and is based on her original manifesto when she ran for the first time. 

Lack of engagement with students

Improving food options

Leen’s promises for 2023-24 term in last years election lacked originality. Her promise to work on improving food options for vegans and vegetarians remain largely unimproved, but was promised after the Plant Based Motion (the vote to turn the student union 100% plant-based by 2025) had already been passed due to work from pro-vegan society VERA in 2022 .

Leen’s exact promise was to “improve food options” for vegetarians, vegans, and Muslims, but this was already being done by VERA, who advocated for the student unions menu to be 50 per cent plant based by the start of the 2023/24 academic year. Now, in April 2024, only 44 per cent of the food the union offers is vegan (15/34 options, including sides).

A new vegan student society, Total Liberation Stirling, claimed there was a lack of interaction between themselves and Leen. “She stopped by a stall of ours a couple weeks ago but that’s probably the most engagement we’ve had from her. Absolutely no hate to Leen because I really respect what she does advocate for and stand for, but it doesn’t appear that plant based menus is a big thing for her.” (February 29, 2024). 

Improving bus services

Her promise to “work with the university and the bus company to make bus services more accessible and reliable for students from all backgrounds”, was also after work by other campaigners was already undertaken, such as the Scottish Socialist Youth Stirling (SSY) and their Better Buses Campaign.

McGills, who run the buses in Stirling, already holds a poor reputation among Stirling students, after they failed to attend a forum organised by VP for Communities, Zoë Crosher, back in March. In February 2023, it was found that one out of five Stirling residents rated the accessibility of their bus services with a score of 2.41. Leen was elected a month later.

SSY member Joshua Parsonage commented: “Leen hasn’t engaged with our campaign once. She turned up to the bus forum, but that was organised by Zoë rather than us so it was more a union event than a better buses one.”

In terms of bus improvements, they say: “The buses are in pretty much the exact same state as the previous year, not any better nor worse. Progress is happening behind the scenes though as we’re in talks with TACTRAN about pursuing public ownership.”

Overall, it’s clear that Leen has not fulfilled her promise to fix the buses. 

Health and Wellbeing

Under health and wellbeing, Leen promised to be “deeply committed to improving the physical and mental well-being of all students”, yet services for mental health still haven’t significantly improved. Also, the SSY had already begun their Get To The Point Campaign for mental health before this older manifesto was written!

These issues remain largely unchanged, but in long-term campaigns that is to be expected. Regardless, Leen has largely advocated to fix issues that other people are already trying to fix, and whilst this feels harsh to say, she’s not supported them particularly well.

I spoke to student ambassador for politics, Jennifer Swan, who said; “I believe that student mental health services have worsened in the last year. As a second-year student, I have had two years experience with the university’s mental health department, and this year the counselling wait times are significantly longer.

“In first year, I would receive an appointment typically two or three weeks ahead of me requesting one. However, this year, in the spring semester particularly, I have been entirely unable to make a counselling appointment.”

She continued: “In no way am I slandering those involved in the mental health department. In fact, quite the opposite. These professionals are some of the kindest people you will meet. However, the university needs to invest into expanding the counselling team so the wait times will be significantly less.

“Furthermore, the NHS mental health services have not improved either in the last year. I was put on the waiting list to see a specialist in September 2022, and received an appointment time in January 2024, which was then rescheduled to February 2024.

“To reiterate, the professionals involved in both the university mental health department and the NHS, should be applauded immensely for their efforts. It is the responsibility of our university and the government to make this change.” 

Furthermore, another University of Stirling student carries similar concerns: “The mental health services are dying. It is so understaffed that crisis appointments take weeks to get and the demand is so high that people are forgotten about, I was left waiting nearly four months because my requests for support were misplaced twice.

“The ‘one issue at a time’ system is not designed to support students with mental health problems making it impossible to get better. Most of the staff are lovely and do want to help but they are in an impossible situation and drowning under the demand. The university needs to support them with more money and staff before there’s even a chance they can support all the students who need it.”

Even if Leen is trying to help change the mental health services, students aren’t feeling a positive change. 

Ensuring “quality accommodation and facilities”

Leen also promised to “ensure quality accommodations and facilities” for students. Then accommodation rents went up by 8 per cent.

Now we can’t expect the Union President to be a superhero or have a magic wand, especially considering how infamously broke the union is, with the Robbin’s Centre having just been bought out by the university to stay afloat. But having promised that and not been endorsed by the Stirling Solidarity Space, basically our local protest experts who have been fighting for better housing at the university for, literally, years, is a red flag. And not in the commie, ‘viva la revolution’ kind of way. 

Leen has failed to engage with campaigns to fix the issues she claims to want to change, and this is important because Leen represents the student body. Not collaborating with students who have declared their interest in fixing the same issues she has an interest in feels like a missed opportunity.

One  representative from Total Liberation Stirling claimed that they “personally had no idea Leen was trying to improve things for veggies and vegans on campus”, and maybe Leen will improve on this and engage more with students groups this year. 

What worked?

Sober events

Last year, Leen promised that: “I’m going above and beyond to create events that cater to non-drinkers.” Most Union events remain to be pub quizzes, karaoke, and bingo.

These of course, can all be done sober. But they’re all 8-10pm. In a bar. All of those scenarios encourage participants to have a drink, and that’s when we’re a pub down, thanks to RAAC.

One University of Stirling student commented: “As a non-drinking student, I was surprised to find that the student union was attempting to promote non-drinking events this year, as myself and my flatmates have seen no advertisements for anything like that this past year.”  

Whilst Leen’s done a great job with welcome weeks, like IKEA trips and tours of Stirling, what sober students are looking for is something to do whilst their pals are off in the pub. A run to IKEA is all well and good but to go “above and beyond,” you have to consider the possibility of sober nightlife.  

Study Spaces

Speaking of crumbling Cottrell, Leen promised improved seating space, and whilst there will never be enough seating for students as I write this during exam season, we can’t blame Leen for the ceiling having the potential to collapse and the study space being temporarily shut.

The older study spaces have opened up again, an improvement on last year. Leen also promised that she’d work alongside the National Union of Students (NUS), and to her credit, she did attend the Lead and Change Conference for this in August last year.

Inclusion and Diversity

Leen’s key achievement is her contributions to inclusion and diversity, which she promised in her manifesto. A representative from the Middle Eastern and North African Society (MENA) spoke very highly of Leen: “It is incredible to have had Leen as our Union president for the last academic year.”

“Its extremely refreshing knowing that we have the support of someone from a Middle Eastern background in such a position as we know our needs are not ignored and we feel included within the Stirling family.

“She has endlessly shown this support through her commitment to our community at the Middle East and North African Society.”

“Throughout the holy month of Ramadan Leen was a key figure who took responsibility for allowing us to host our weekly iftars at the university whilst also helping us set up and clear away the space every week.

“These iftars proved to be the most successful and biggest yet for the community, gathering people of all different backgrounds and helping us to win society of the year; we all know that wouldn’t have been possible without her support.”

They continued: “In addition, throughout the year she has pledged her unwavering support to us. Throughout the first and second semesters whenever we had our stalls out for fundraising opportunities, she was not only on hand to help us but was also there to clarify our needs which is always greatly appreciated.

“Again, without this we would not have been able to put on so many different charity events and raise as much money as we did.

“However, most importantly, I must also say that she has been a key figure in helping vulnerable students of our community at our university facing huge issues like the current genocide in Gaza.

“Whether it was meetings with our local MP or social media campaigns, I know for a fact without her support and the awareness that she has raised, these students would be in a worse position than they currently are.

“All in all, it’s an absolute pleasure to have Leen serve as our Union President and we’re extremely excited to work alongside her again next year!” It’s clear that Leen is committed to her passion of “creating a student community that is inclusive and diverse.”

Overall?

Leen didn’t fulfil most of her promises from last year, so I don’t know what can convince me that she’s going to be ticking boxes with this years one.

I’m giving her a 5/10 overall, as some points from last years manifesto line up with this years, such as tackling student mental health. Additionally, she cant be blamed for the union being broke, it’s been broke for years.

She has excellently improved diversity and inclusion at Stirling, and whilst she fulfilled this promise extremely well, it is arguably the only promise addressed in this issue that she has fulfilled.

Considering that many of her other promises have been unfulfilled or abandoned, and she hasn’t engaged with student action to actually help fix these problems, there’s no justification for giving her a high accountability score.

Therefore, Leen sits at a 5/10, as, credit where credit is due, she has done a fantastic job when contributing to Ramadan. But to serve the student body next year, she needs to focus on every other promise she made. 

Featured Image Credit: Jonathan Boomer