Joshua Tandy, our Students’ Union President, recently sat down with Llais Rhydd to discuss all things YOLO, timetabling and tackling sexual violence.
Outlining his flagship policy goal, Tandy put emphasis on his “three pronged approach” to address the sexual violence epidemic. This consists of lobbying both the Senedd and Westminster Parliament, increasing awareness around Report and Support and promoting the Lets Talk Consent campaign.
Tandy contacting Welsh Politicians about Time to Act’s petition (which calls for a duty from Universties to protect students from sexual violence) is a strong start. However, with the petition running out of time to secure a debate, it’s imperative that the leader of our student community is working towards solid policy guarantees from the government alongside this work.
Alongside this, staff and students are similarly anxious about the lack of assurances from the University on the Campus Futures scheme. Gair Rhydd highlighted the University’s historic failures surrounding campus ‘improvements’. This included a case of post graduates being forced out of their offices with little to no notice and the proposed restructuring of the ASSL.
Looking forward, Tandy wants a genuine “two-way conversation”. To provide the student side of this he wants “students reaching out about the issues they are feeling.”
Gair Rhydd worries the onus is being placed on students who already have so many commitments.
However, many may have been left questioning the Union’s commitment to a “two-way conversation” following the YOLO queue saga. The President was quick to clarify their communications strategy “needs to be reviewed” after the official Y Plas account was accused of debating and unfollowing students for disagreeing with them in their comment section.
He also made clear that neither the Sabbatical Officers nor the student community had been directly consulted on the introduction of entry fees for YOLO.
He stated “operational… things don’t necessarily always cross over to the Sabbs side” which is incredibly worrying considering the importance he placed upon the union ”living by student feedback”.
Finally, Gair Rhydd turned to the biggest crisis since Tandy took office, timetable delays. Tandy confessed the SU knew the University wasn't "going to meet the deadline" in the summer and with students left in the dark Tandy admitted the team "needed to do better". but also said “sometimes [it’s] just hard to find the time to write the post”.
Gair Rhydd questioned this considering 121 other instagram posts from the SU team were uploaded before any mention of timetabling. As part of his retort, Tandy suggested the Union “shouldn’t have to be the ones to be able to say, hey, your timetables are gonna be late.”
If this isn’t in the purview of our union president what is? It is undeniable that Tandy is an effective communicator and this is evidenced by his concrete base of support within the student community.
Both Tandy and VP Undergraduate are also working tirelessly to tackle sexual violence on campus.
However, his image is dented by his lack of influence on the University over timetabling and lack of influence over the Union on issues like YOLO pricing.
