With 7% of students participating, last March’s Students’ Union presidential elections were the most successful in the sabbatical position’s three year history.
One of the reasons for the record turnout was Ben Scanlan’s emphatic campaign, as he pledged to “Make UCL Cheap Again”, and victory. Expectations were, however, shattered when Scanlan resigned before taking office without a clear explanation.
Also sparking great interest was candidate Xueren Lyu through contentious proposals, despite only winning 5% of the vote.
Putting “student safety” as his absolute priority, Lyu notably advocated for a “zero politics campus” as well as a displacement plan for the homeless in Bloomsbury.
Curious to learn more about his project, and who stood behind the enigmatic large white “X” on his plain black posters –unrelated to Elon Musk, he specified– The Cheese Grater sat down with him for an exclusive interview.
Zero-politics campus? “Kind of just a slogan”
“I want to establish a zero-politics campus, where students have full freedom to discuss politics, but without the danger of facing propaganda or parades, ensuring a safe and inclusive environment”, read Lyu’s manifesto.
Asked about the nature of his project, Lyu immediately admitted: “It’s kind of just a slogan, it might not be realistic, even in 10 years.”
“Nevertheless, I think we have to move toward that target. We don’t have to reach it, but we have to go closer and closer”, he added.
On how to achieve this, he said “mainly [wanting] to remove the parades organised outside of the school, because they are making use of our campus for their benefits”, without explicitly specifying which ones.
Logistically, Lyu explained this would materialise in a form to be filled by organisers ahead of demonstrations and approved by UCL. Thus, “any activity without the form could be treated by default as started by people outside” and prohibited.
Nevertheless, despite Lyu’s assurance that his trademark measure would be feasible, it appears to be illegal under the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998, which protect freedom of expression and peaceful protest.
Currently, UCL only has the right to intervene in the event of illegal behaviour by protesters, such as harassment, or if the protest prevents the University from exercising its “core educational functions.”
Lyu also neglected to consider that his proposal could allow UCL to take arbitrary decisions on campus protests, enabling the University to quash certain political viewpoints whilst permitting others.
It is also unsure whether the Union’s mandate includes protest regulations.
The first-year student also did not specify how he would pass his policy. Despite his presidency bid, he admitted not being yet familiar with the Union’s functioning.
“A protest shouldn’t be disruptive”
As Lyu continued his explanation, it became unclear whether his policy’s main aim was student security or tranquillity, and if there was any correlation between the two.
He said: “We can classify some of these protests as potential hazards, harmful or disruptive to the campus and, for that reason, we can prevent them”, notably refering to recent pro-Palestinian actions in the Student Centre.
“We would not be stopping your parades, we would just be stopping you from destroying, painting, or screaming inside.”
He also stated: “In my opinion, a protest shouldn’t be disruptive. It should attract people’s attention, but meanwhile not disturb our own lives.”
“For example, if I see you protesting, but you are not disrupting my life, I might support you because I just learned some new concepts.”
“But if I was revising on my final exam, and suddenly you’re doing drums and shouting inside the Student Centre, maybe I used to support you.. but now I will even support the opposite [side], because you are making my life harder than it’s supposed to be.”
The other key proposals of Lyu’s controversial campaign were a plan to “transfer”, in his words, the homeless away from Bloomsbury to shelters, and the addition of more security cameras to tackle theft on campus.
Love him or hate him, you watched
Lyu is aware of the range of voters’ reactions to his ideas: “Some of them strongly agree, some of them strongly disagree.”
“Some of them criticise me for lacking empathy to the homeless”, he also acknowledged, commenting that they “might have misunderstood some of the policies, but I respect their opinion.”
Just the beginning
Finishing second-to-last in the election has far from discouraged Lyu, who praised a “quite impressive first try.”
“I just want to point out that there is this problem [student safety]”, he said, “whether or not I get elected isn’t important, what is is that people have a sense of this idea.”
When asked if he felt safe right now on campus, he retorted: “Not enough”.
He concluded: “But if the students don’t want to be safe, there’s nothing I can do.”
Lyu explained not being done with the Students’ Union: “I’m planning to apply for less important roles to get more experience about the meetings and how to set up a policy.”
“And then, in third year, I’m running again.”
Who said students don’t take the Union seriously?
