Timothy Lloyd-Judson is a candidate for the position of Student’s Union President in the upcoming elections.
His colloquial manifesto demonstrates his plan for the Student’s Union should be become President. In our interview, he outlines his motivations for running for this position which lie in the fact that he has many interesting ideas for the role and more than anything he wanted to have a go at being President and see what difference he could make.
The main points of his manifesto include improving management, accountability and transparency, inclusivity, re-installing the Edward Roberts Court staircase and overall improving the student experience.
His work with the LA1 TV station means he has worked with a lot of people and thus developed his communication skills. This has also meant he has had a lot of interaction with societies across campus. Additionally, Timothy is Belgian and thus from the international angle he is hoping to appeal to the international community.
As seen in his manifesto, Timothy takes a colloquial stance in order to outline his policies, the motivations behind this being that he wanted his campaign to be more interactive and allow people to relate to him, as well as advertising himself as approachable.
His priority for his first term in office, should he be elected, is to make Freshers Week as enjoyable as possible, especially as Freshers Week is likely to remain online for the foreseeable future. This will likely negate the experience of incoming Freshers and for returning students as Covid-19 has had a massive effect on university life. Timothy wants to work with the rest of the FTO team to create events and a virtual Freshers Fair in order to give students a similar, but just as enjoyable experience of the beginning of university.
As with other candidates, the issue of the image of the Student’s Union is something that remains a focus throughout his manifesto and throughout his interview. His main plan to improve this image is to better communication. He also aims to improve the relations between students and the union as he believes many students feel a certain level of disconnect with the Student’s Union. One of the points he wants to emphasise from his manifesto is to present openness to allow students to come forward with their ideas and suggestions in order to improve the Student’s Union.
When asked about boosting the visibility of the Student’s Union on campus, he invoked plans from previous years in student media that included video updates and FTO catch ups which not only allows the student media to encourage better connections with the Union, but allows the FTOs and PTOs to share what they are doing throughout the year. This means students are kept up-to-date with the plans of the Student’s Union
Another focus of his manifesto is to re-install the steps in the Edward Roberts Court, mainly for limiting travel time for students walking to areas in the South Campus as walkways can regularly become congested during peak times of the day. In order to remedy this, he plans to lobby the university to re-install it to make navigating this area of campus easier.
Finally, when asked about connecting with the international community in the future, Timothy said it would be good to connect with the JCRs to create international-friendly events. Additionally, a collaboration with the JCR would allow international students to make their own suggestions and signpost contacts to go to with any issues, whether it be college or university-based.
