This record turnout marks a major increase from the dire turnout at last year’s rep elections which saw a measly 5.44% of students engage with student democracy.
Students voted last month to elect representatives for their departments, Union zones, and student trustees.
While this is a recent record for the Union, there are still clear concerns that the majority of UCL students do not care enough to engage with Union politics.
Previously, The Cheese Grater conducted a poll that suggests there is a major apathy crisis at UCL, with 90% of students not knowing what the part-time student officers at the Union do and the majority not holding an opinion on the political leadership.
BNOC in failing
One of the biggest shocks at this year’s elections was the narrow defeat of Societies Personality of the Year winner Adam Cleary in the Student Trustee race.
Cleary lost to Sree Cavuturi and Rohan Ahmad in the 22nd round of voting by just 1.67 votes. His loss comes as a shock given his involvement in many societies at UCL and his campaign efforts which involved creating a website.
The student trustee race was the most highly contested with 24 students throwing their hat in the ring, despite it arguably being one of the most boring roles within the Union.
The student trustees sit on the Union’s board of trustees, who are “responsible for overall management and administration of the Students’ Union and may exercise all the powers of the Union.”
However, in reality, the trustees will rarely overturn decisions made by the leadership and are only able to do so if it risks legal or financial repercussions.
Many of this year’s candidates misinterpreted the position, with one promising to keep “low cost meals in SU spaces”, despite the trustees having no involvement in any such decision.
One student did sum up the position quite well, even if it was a copy and paste job — “As a Trustee I will have a legal responsibility to act only in the best interests of Students’ Union UCL, putting the Union’s interests before any of your own.”
Uncontested positions
Many of the positions at this year’s elections remained vacant or uncontested, with the majority of the Hall Community Officer positions having no candidates standing.
Ten out of the 13 HCO positions ran uncontested this year, indicating that many students in UCL accommodation remain uninterested in representing their peers.
The Hall Community Officer is responsible for meeting with accommodation staff to raise concerns on behalf of their students, as well as running events for students.
Despite the declining conditions in halls and the rising prices, it appears that students lack interest in representing these issues to UCL, or perhaps it is a lack of trust that their concerns will be listened to by UCL.
There were also a number of vacant faculty rep roles, with Postgraduate rep positions remaining vacant in the Arts and Humanities, Medical, Law, and IOE faculties.
This also reflects poor turnout amongst postgraduate students, with only 4% of postgraduate research students and 30% of postgraduate taught making up the total voter count, a minor decrease from the high of 33% at last year’s rep elections.
However, this is an improvement on last year, which saw over 60% of the positions either unfilled or vacant.
Roles for activities and welfare zones that have remained vacant will be put up for reelection in the upcoming clubs and societies by-elections.
With vacant zone positions, there remains the looming risk of meetings not reaching quoracy, an issue that zones faced last year, putting valuable policies into deadlock.
