As part of an ongoing democratic review within the Guild of Students, there will be a different line-up of part-time officers in place next year.

In an exclusive interview with Redbrick, the Guild of Students President, Joshua Williams, and the Activities and Employability Officer, Ryan Ginger, revealed changes to the shape of the part-time officer team for the 2020-21 academic year. At this year’s Guild elections, students will no longer be able to run or vote for the roles of Anti-Racism and Anti-Facism Officer, Mature Students’ Officer or Commuter Students’ Officer. 

These roles will be replaced with a new Campaigns Officer. This is a non-portfolio role that will be based on the mandate of the candidate who gets elected in February’s Guild elections, making it less restrictive than the current part-time roles.

Williams and Ginger told Redbrick that this role ‘could be anything,’ and could completely differ from one year to another depending on the priorities of the student elected to the position (for example, sexual harassment policies or a manifesto safeguarding student workers). 

They also told Redbrick that the role could be used to support minorities who have not been specifically represented by a Guild officer in the past, such as care leavers. One of Williams’ manifesto points during his election campaign was for the introduction of a part-time officer role for students who come to the University after leaving the care of a local authority. 

Non-portfolio positions in sabbatical officer teams are already common at other students’ unions, with the Guild being one of the few unions without one. Despite three positions being removed from the officer team next year, Williams made it clear to Redbrick that the entire full and part-time officer team supports the change. 

This has emerged as part of a democratic review within the Guild, which began under Jess Levy, the 2017-18 Representation and Resources Officer (a now defunct position).

The review continued last year under the presidency of Reece Patrick Roberts and is now being overseen by Williams and Ginger. The changes to the part-time officer team were also influenced by an external review by Temple Farmer Ltd. A review of the full-time officer team, which led to the Housing and Community Officer and Welfare Officer roles being merged to create the Welfare and Community Officer role in 2018, instigated the need to review the part-time officer positions and the Guild’s democratic structures.

Williams and Ginger told Redbrick that the democracy review has encouraged the shift to the new Campaigns Officer role to allow funding and resources to be better distributed to the part-time officers. However, Williams was quick to stress that this change has not been caused by a funding shortfall, though the two officers did say that the Guild is ‘significantly underfunded.’

The Guild’s democracy review is still ongoing with the intention of giving students a new platform to engage more effectively with the Guild to meaningfully influence how decisions are made within a more transparent union.

This could include changing or replacing Your Ideas to make the process of students presenting their ideas faster and more flexible. It is likely that there will be a series of student referenda on the proposed changes once the review is complete.