After an intense 3 rounds of voting, Tom Fox was elected as LUSU Vice President for Welfare and Community. In the first round of voting, Tapi Nxele received 679 votes, Tom Fox received 632, Becky Cook received 535, Josie O’Gorman received 370, and Re-open Nominations (RON) received 64. RON and Josie O’Gorman were then excluded, and votes were counted at 750 for Tapi Nxele, 707 for Tom Fox and 616 for Becky Cook, who was then excluded. In the third and final round Tapi Nxele received 885 votes, and Tom Fox received 939.
In an interview after the results, Fox told SCAN: “It was really close, I mean, Tapi was leading for a while. I’m really grateful that everyone voted for me and felt that I was the right person for the job”.
When asked about the team that he will be working with next year, he said, “I couldn’t be happier. I think we’ll work really well together and, obviously, we’re all different, and that’s what makes it so good.” He added, “Becky, Josie and Tapi had some really good ideas, and that’s obviously not something that I’m just going to ignore.”
As a second-year student, Fox felt that people may not consider him to have the same amount of experience in LUSU as candidates in their final years. He said, “I thought that, as I haven’t been here three years, I may not have had the people supporting me, and the fact that I did, is just amazing. I’m really glad that I’m a second year and I’ve done it, because I feel that’s what we need, more second years running for these positions.”
Fox said that next year will bring a lot of work for LUSU and the Welfare and Community position.
“Next year’s going to be a really big year, there are a lot of things happening next year, you’ve got the arts degrees, the counselling services, loads of things that, as a team, we’ll be able to handle really well.”
