Kayleigh Taylor, the current vice-president for welfare and diversity officer, is the only candidate running to take over the position next year.
After graduating from the university and after beginning to develop work on the issues involved, Taylor believes she has finally managed to get the student voice heard. Taylor is now running for a second year so as to carry on with the projects she has started, involving student accommodation, Housing Fayres, student placements and other issues.
She said: “I feel I can do the job and I’m good at the job… looking back, what’s in the manifesto’s been done but now it’s really about building on that now and developing that further.”
Taylor’s manifesto includes developments on accommodation such as having student representatives from all of the student accommodations around Lincoln to feedback on improvements which are needed.
She also wants to improve the accreditation scheme, trying to move it under the control of the SU rather than the City of Lincoln Council, who currently run it. In an interview with The Linc, Taylor admitted that right now when the SU tries to influence accommodation providers they “haven’t got a leg to stand on” making it difficult to lobby for improvements.
Also on accommodation, Taylor wishes to develop the survey system to keep on top of how well landlords are providing for students, including a website where students can rate their landlords.
She also wishes to bring the Housing Fayre earlier on in the year to possibly November, but doesn’t say how the SU will help students find accommodation if they aren’t so quick off the mark as to start looking before Christmas.
Supporting more minority groups is another of Taylor’s ambitions, saying she would quite like to see a women’s group and provide more help for students who are also parents — something the university doesn’t know the numbers of.
She also wants to continue recording of feedback from students on placements to ensure they’re looked after when “off-campus as well as they are on-campus”, such as with nursing students, and putting pressure on the university to take action on negative experiences.
To listen to the full interview with Kayleigh Taylor:
[audio:https://thelinc.co.uk/Podcast/suelections/Welfare mp3.mp3]