Campaigns and Communications candidate, Anna Lee, comes to the election with experience and the desire to “develop activism within LUSU by turning it into a body capable of large-scale campaigns.”
The current CCO LGBTQ* claims to be both a “facilitator and an activist” and has been “involved in five campaigns this month, ranging from helping raise £10,000 for the Vagina Monologues and raising awareness for Consent Week and LGBTQ* history week.” After running campaigns that have been “both proactive and reactive”, Lee believes that her experience “across a spectrum of issues, serves as an excellent foundation for working on large-scale campaigns” should she be elected into the role of VP (Campaigns and Communications).
Lee also added that she has had “experience of working as part of a team when sitting on committees such as LUSU Council, University Court, LUSU Exec and Equality Welfare and Diversity (EWD) Council” and believes that this gives her the “capability to act as an intermediary, communicating with different teams within LUSU”.
For Lee, “campaigns should be solid enough to stand for themselves, backed by a team of campaigners that have been empowered by their students’ union” and are successful through “negotiation and collaboration.” She emphasised that “campaigns are often won in the boardrooms as well as through protests, and I have the ability to work in many different ways to get the best results for Lancaster students”.
When asked by SCAN about her opinion of the ways in which the Union could communicate better to the student population, Lee believed that the Union should make their website “a lot clearer…[and] more functional.” Lee was also adamant that “public policy should be made public and you should not have to fight to find it.”
When questioned on her attitude towards “a joint media”, Lee strongly believed “in total autonomy for each part of the student media, however if they want to work together the CCO (Media and Communications) should be there to help.” Lee also recognised that it is sometimes difficult for the members of the student media to quickly get a response from their FTO representative and suggested the introduction of a “simple online form” that could be used to contact an FTO and where response times would monitored.
Two of the main issues that Lee wishes to pursue if she were to reach office would be “further training” for JCR communications officers as well campaigns for greater coverage of nationwide elections.
Lee went on to tell SCAN that she felt that past elections for “council delegates and NUS representatives were really low key.” To rectify this Lee believed that putting information out there, and putting it out there early was essential, as “if we vote in numbers […] they have to listen to us, they don’t have a choice and our campaigns will be even stronger and the changes we want will happen.”
