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Olly Trumble
Fylde
Get Union officers out of the building and spending time with students
More high profile acts on campus
Empower students at Lancaster campuses in other countries
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Central to Olly Trumble’s bid to become Vice President (Events & Democracy) is that he wants to create a “buzz” around the student body and LUSU.
He believes that the Union should be something the students want to get involved with and believes that including more relations between Full Time Officers (FTOs) and JCRs and the student body can achieve this. “I think one of the key things about the organisation is that it needs to have a buzz around it. It needs to be exciting.”
When asked how he would create this buzz he replied: “One of the plans that I’d really like to put into action is a process of face to face engagement with students that aren’t in JCRs, that would involve encouraging the other FTO officers next year to put aside at least one hour a week where they would spend time in Alex Square or maybe an hour with a society.”
On the hot topic of tuition fees, Trumble said: “What will be key is creating the dialogue between FTO positions and University Management. Building stronger relationships will enable us to have a greater say in what we do with our money. I’ll be a really strong voice for students when talking to University Management and make them listen.”
Half of this Vice President remit is events and Trumble was pushed at what innovative ideas for events he would like to try. Although he didn’t say anything fresh, he did say he wants to try events similar to last year’s Campus Festival.
“One of the key things I want to look at is collaboration. Last year [at Campus Festival] one of the bands performed with fire jugglers. You can create some imaginative and wacky things.”
Trumble went on to say that he believes his experience in theatre directing at Lancaster can bring a bit of an edge to events.
Another thought on the cards would be to include more big name acts throughout the year and to turn Lancaster into more of a hub. “At Lancaster we don’t often get high profile acts to regular events. You’ve got Grad Ball which is always fantastic, but that is one high profile event a year so I’d like to look into getting more high profile acts and attracting them to Lancaster as a hub of student pop culture.” Trumble believes he could “look at relationships with companies in town, and companies wider and look at what they can provide to create fantastic events.”
Talking about international relations, Trumble had previously said that “student democracy should not stop at Bailrigg Campus. We should be empowering all our students to represent themselves within their communities and to University Management at all Lancaster campuses [across the world].”
In regards to student politics, Trumble was asked how he could get more students involved in running for FTO and JCR positions. “I think publicity and the noise the Union projects have got to be ten times louder than it is at the moment. I knew where to sign up but I didn’t know when the sheet was going up, and I was going to run.
He then talked about how he thinks people who run for FTO positions should be members of societies and sports clubs or those with an interest in politics, not just ex-JCR members.
This year only one female is running for an FTO position so Trumble was asked if he believed it to be an issue. “It’s definitely an issue that needs addressing, as you have an entire body of male and female constituents”.
