George Nuttall is running for the Presidency of the Lancaster University Student’s Union, the lead role in the team of Full Time Officers (FTO’s).
On his ability to stand up for students, George pointed to his current role as the Student Representative on the University Council. This experience, he pointed out, would serve him well in continuing to serve on the governing body that the Union President takes a seat on.
The President functions as the public face of the Student Union. George intends to use that platform to boost awareness of the student body of what the union does. Special focus would go to the role it plays in JCRs, societies and clubs, aspects of the Student Union that many students regularly interact with, but often don’t appreciate as part of the whole.
Nutall’s manifesto raises the prospect of introducing free drug testing kits, especially at major events like the end of year Extrav events. George doesn’t believe these would encourage the use of illegal drugs and would look at their implementation by student unions in places like Manchester and Newcastle to see if the model would work for Lancaster.
His manifesto also raises potential reform of the full-time officer positions. The most recent attempt to do so failed this year after the referendum failed to reach the 10% turnout threshold; when asked if his reforms could meet the same fate, Nuttall pointed to his role as head of the successful “No” campaign in the hope that he might avoid the same pitfalls.
He pledged to stand in Alex Square with a whiteboard taking notes on what people hated about the Union if that was what it took to get the message from students. For our trivia question, George successfully named the student trustees of the Union due to a misunderstanding, instead of the main trustees, who are the full-time officers.
He pointed to the work of current union officers as inspiring him to run but said that he wanted to overhaul the image students had of the Union. Communication would form the centre of his strategy, saying that his experience on County Junior Common Room (JCR) suggested that the most important roles were always those that involved communicating the messages of the JCR.
