Former VP Events of County and this year’s CCO Charity (automatically making her President of LUSU Gives) Mia Scott is running for VP (Community and Welfare) because she feels that there needs to be more campaigning on the issues that are “relevant to the study body”, who she believes have otherwise been “neglected and let down by LUSU.”
Scott claimed that she wants to see greater “investment in the counselling service” as well as more of a focus on issues that she feels have “been brushed under the carpet”, such as the modification of more of the university’s facilities for use by disabled students. Scott revealed that she spent her gap year volunteering with disabled adults and has spent the last five years volunteering with disabled children, so she feels that “this is something that [she] could achieve.”
When asked about the eight week counselling waiting list and what she planned to do to reduce the queues, Scott believed that by that LUSU should be “putting other things in place alternative to the counselling service for now, but also pushing and lobbying the university to fund the counselling service more.”
When asked about what she would do to ensure that international students would get adequate support from the Students’ Union whilst at Lancaster, Scott believed that it was a good idea to “create a student forum for international representatives”, as the discussions could be more “focused on international issues.”
Scott also mentioned that she would be very interested in pursuing “heavy disciplinary procedures” for students on campus who make racist or derogatory comments, in order to promote equality, fairness and a safe environment for every student on campus.
The main body of Scott’s campaign centres around plans to encompass all charitable societies under the LUSU Gives “umbrella”. Scott believes that with more of a cohesive structure, charities around campus would be able to come together and raise greater awareness for a wider range of issues. Scott would also like to see “a full time member of staff solely for charity… [who] would eventually team up with the LUSU Community Engagement member of staff to work together and create more volunteering opportunities for students.”
“If I was elected… a big part of that job is working with LUSU Gives, and I’d like the opportunity to have another year [working] full time to try and make LUSU Gives the best that it could be.”
