SU Elections: Lois O’Toole for Sports

Lois is a 3rd year Politics and American Studies student running for Sports officer in this week’s SU elections. Here’s why she thinks you should support her…

Why did you want to run for Sports Officer?

I’ve been involved in sport at university for the last three years and it’s been the best thing about university for me. It’s shaped my university experience and running to be Sports Officer was something on my mind last year when I was helping Adam (the current Sports Officer) and was something I’d always wanted to do. I spent a lot of time considering whether or not to run but, after talking to lots of different sports clubs and people in sport, I realised that I could actually make some change and represent lots of people.

What are your manifesto highlights?

A big goal is to improve academic flexibility. It’s already being worked on by Cassie with regards to lecture capture, but a lot of the time I’ve found myself having to choose between lectures and training sessions and, when on away games, attending any lectures on a Wednesday is impossible. I’d like to make this provision easier for sports students.

A lot of officers, particularly sports, aren’t very available. I’d like to work on representation and make it easier and ensuring sports presidents can better use the Sports Officer to mandate positive change within the SU.

The Students’ Union needs to do more to represent the students: big clubs or small clubs, BUCS or non BUCS, male or female. That’s ultimately the focus of my campaign.

What makes your contribution unique?

I have a lot of female friends who feel like they can’t get into sport. It’s an unfortunate cultural problem that starts in school and makes sport somewhat inaccessible to girls and women. As a female officer, I’d hope to remove some of the stigma around this. One thing I’d like to do in relation to this is to make more NewU fitness passes so they can be accessed all year round. I think that, as much as they’re currently great because they try to get people into sport over exams, the reality of stress, mental health problems and body confidence issues is that they happen all year round. Hopefully this change would get more girls into sport throughout the year and improve student welfare too.

Do you prefer Crisis or Ocean?

Ocean is a really good club for pulling on the emotional strings but I’m most loyal to Crisis, just because I know a lot of people in sport that attend, so it’s a more familiar environment, which makes it more fun.

What has been your favourite moment of the campaign so far?

First seeing and releasing my promo video was a definite highlight and emotional moment. However, campaigning at Ocean has to be my favourite moment. All of the candidates for Sports Officer came together, knowing we were all going through the same thing and gave each other hugs. It’s sonice to be able to chat through my feelings with the others and to recognize that this is such a tough process to go through.

What has been your least favourite moment of the campaign so far?

The snow/strikes combination has been the worst part. It’s made physical campaigning really difficult and led to a real focus on social media. My social media man has been amazing, but it’s made it more difficult to gauge how well you’re doing and what people want.

Visit her Facebook page for more information here 

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