If you're a UCL student, you can vote in the largest student elections in the UK this week.
All 51,000 UCL students will be able to vote for six paid sabbatical officers and 16 unpaid student officers. You can also vote for the committee positions of clubs and societies you’re in.
Voting is open until midday this Friday, 20 March.
53 candidates have thrown their hat in the ring for sabbatical roles and over 4000 students have put themselves forward for officer or society roles.
The Sabbatical Officers
The sabbatical officers are paid over £33,000 to do the role full time and, although the Union likes to market it like a grad scheme (nothing whets a student appetite more, to be fair to them), they are actually elected to public office to represent you at the highest levels of UCL – James Balloqui explains how the Union works on page 13.
The Students’ Union President is the chair of the Union Executive and the Student Trustee Board. They act as spokesperson for the Union and represent UCL students’ interests on a national and international scale.
The Activities and Engagement Officer is responsible for the Union’s extracurricular activities. If you’re part of any club or society, they are representing you and that society’s interests at the highest levels of the University.
The Welfare and Community Officer is responsible for issues for promoting physical and mental wellbeing at UCL. They also take the lead on issues relating to student housing.
The Education Officer represents your academic interests. You’ve likely heard about your departmental reps (if you get the same emails I do) and this Officer is the ultimate authority on lobbying UCL to make the academic changes you want to see.
The Postgraduate Officer champions the interests of UCL’s postgraduate research and taught students who often have lower engagement with the Union, especially when it comes to voting. Undergraduate students can vote for this Officer as well.
Lastly, the Equity and Inclusion Officer works to ensure that students from all backgrounds feel integrated, comfortable, and respected at UCL.
Officers and trustees
The 16 student officers are diverse group. Some represent you on identity and others represent you on issues.
You can only vote for officers representing groups you belong to.
For example, only POC students can vote for the People of Colour Officer while only students with sports society memberships can vote for the Sports Officer.
Slightly less exciting but equally important are the student trustees. This one’s a classic because, a lot of the time, candidates have no idea what this position entails.
There are four trustees who sit on the Union Board of Trustees. The Board meets five times a year and trustees are expected to be essentially apolitical.
Trustees review the Union’s direction to ensure it does not completely implode, and there are a few legal responsibilities entangled in this role.
Clubs and societies
You probably know the drill with this one because club and society positions are most tangibly connected to student life.
You will also have the opportunity to vote for committee positions in the clubs and societies you are part of. These include President, Treasurer, Welfare Officer, and even Editor-in-Chief of The Cheese Grater. Who would want to do that?
So what?
Most of these candidates have their own strengths, all have their own weaknesses, but they face one unanimous challenge together: most students don’t care.
A poll we conducted during last year’s leadership race revealed that over 70% of students were ill-informed about the work of network officers while less than 50% knew about what the sabbs were doing. The Rep elections back in October saw the highest turnout in Union history – a staggering 12.29%. Don’t everyone get to the polls at once, now...
The truth is, if you study at UCL, at least one of these positions is relevant to your own identity of your place at the University.
You don’t have to care about every manifesto or every candidate. Voting takes maybe 15 minutes. If you’re going to complain about UCL next year (death and taxes...), you might as well spend them.