Joshua Parsonage, the current chair of the Stirling Scottish Socialist Youth and a third-year Journalism and Politics student, is running for Union President 2025.
Brig sat down with Joshua to discuss student politics, his manifesto and what he would bring to the Union President role.
Experience in Leadership with a vision for the future
Over his time working in politics and student politics, Joshua says he developed a vision, core values and principles.
“I think I have the ability to carry those forward and make real change in our Students Union and make life better for students and do that with students.
“It’s a community project and that in itself is kind of inspiring.”
He is the current chair of the Stirling SSY, which has given him a lot of experience in organising campaigns, chairing large-scale meetings and coordinating groups to push for positive change.
Joshua has a lot of experience in politics, campaigning and working with the Students Union to bring about changes, as well as a passion and commitment towards positive, socialist change.
“I care, I really really care and that combined with the skills I’ve developed in my time in politics makes me a really good candidate.”
Three Pledges for Positive Change
Joshua’s manifesto consists of three main pledges; Help not Harm, No Platform for War Criminals and Reviving Student Culture.
Firstly, the Help not Harm campaign is something Joshua has been involved with since he first came to the University.
“The essence of the campaign is to move away from punitive measures around student drug use and towards a harm reduction approach.
“It’s about getting rid of stigma, and it’s about understanding that students do do drugs and always will do drugs, we should neither be condoning or condemning that and should instead look to reduce the harm that it causes.”
Joshua mentioned increasing education about the subject, providing resources and giving a space outside of Student Services to talk about these issues, as well as working with drug charities, which he already has a working relationship with.
He also mentioned finding a way to anonymously provide students with drug testing kits. As well as trialling the provision of drink spike testing kits to fight against the growing epidemic of drink spiking.
Part of this push would involve pushing the university to improve its mental health services and change its drug disciplinary process towards a harm reduction model.
“I want Stirling to be an example when it comes to harm reduction, I want other unions to look at us and say that’s what we should do, I want it be be something that we’re all proud of.”
The second pledge, No Platform for War Criminals and Full Support for BDS Campaigns, is about making sure the union takes a strong stance against the university inviting war criminals onto the campus for any reason such as guest lecturing or society events.
“As Students (we) must protect our campus as a place free from war criminals, and I will proudly carry that line.”
Finally, Joshua pledges to facilitate a revival of student culture.
“Creative societies are the heartbeat of our student culture and our student life”
The pledge involves getting the university to accommodate extension requests from students to allow them to take on bigger roles in societies, such as the lead in a drama society play, without it affecting their studies.
“I think that’s completely achievable because the Universities reputation is so greatly elevated by the creative societies.”
He also spoke about bringing back student club nights and allowing students to have a place to perform and showcase their talents.
“The Union need to work more actively with these societies, to make us more cohesive as a student body and therefore more able to showcase our talents and participate in our interests and hobbies.”
When asked what inspired him to be so involved in student politics, Joshua said “I guess I can’t help myself being invested in the life I live, I want life to be better for everyone… I want the people I see on a daily basis to have a union they can be proud of, that they can contribute to and that will fight for them.”
He continued saying “I’d like to credit the student movement for enticing me and getting me involved in and giving me the opportunity to run for something like this, and hopefully, more people will have the confidence to do something like this in the future.”
Joshua’s full manifesto can be found here
Voting for Stirling’s Student Union Elections opens on the 25th of February and closes on the 27th of February. With results announced on the 28th of February.
Featured Image Credit: Joshua Parsonage
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