Online Editors Natalie Keffler and Harry Bunting report on the first Sabb Election of the week, for the role of VP Postgraduate
The first debate of the week took place on Monday 25th February at 7pm, with Sunday Blake running unopposed for the position of VP Postgraduate after Tom Allars dropped out of the running, and Chloe Shaw, Xpression’s Head of News, asking the questions. Blake said she had started the week campaigning on St Lukes, talking to sports science students about how their needs differ to humanities students.
After a quick fire question round, Shaw moved onto quizzing Blake on her manifesto. Blake initially expressed her aim to diversify the academy, through removing the barriers that were holding diversity back. Exeter is unfortunately not known to be a diverse University, but Blake stated there was no reason why this should be the case. The debate then moved on to Blake discussing how she has worked in a sex worker research hub, where academics look into sex work, however at conferences you still hardly ever see sex workers talking on their own grounds. The next topic of discussion was the issue of study space for Post Graduates, with Blake suggesting booking rooms for 2-4 hours at a time, with study spaces being a particularly problematic point for Post Graduates, with them needing to stay on campus for office hours and teaching, due to needing specific equipment. It is also crucial for Post Graduates to feel they have a community on campus, with the NUS reporting that 80% of Post Graduates have suffered from Depression. In response to Shaw asking where these study spaces would be, Blake replied that “There are spaces available. The university is consistently building vanity project spaces.” “I will bring this to senior management.” The question arose of how Blake was going to implement these policies in such a short amount of time, to which Blake replied determinedly that “You underestimate my ability. “No-one’s been me yet.”
The wellbeing points of the manifesto were then moved onto, with Blake suggesting that day-time events need to be introduced, with many ex-addicts feeling uncomfortable with the current socials available, due to many being held at bars and pubs. Blake herself has not felt comfortable attending any of the Post Graduate socials, due to lots of them being bar crawls or having alcohol involved. Blake was particularly confident in suggesting that Post Graduate Yoga should be reintroduced, and when Shaw questioned where the money for this would come from, she said the money was there, it was just being used for the wrong things, and Yoga is definitely the right thing to spend the money on, with it being used to create a community, and stop people spiralling out of control.
Moving back to the topic of sex workers, Blake illuminated the problem that sex workers are an inherently secretive and ostracised community, with this university having a morality clause previously used to expel sex workers, and therefore further support must be brought into place. Moving forward, a focus on unbiased impartial support is crucial to get people involved and willing to talk. Unfortunately, it has appeared from previous racism scandals that the University will only react when public attention is shown, with Blake asking “is it going to take a dead student for the university to listen?”
In terms of helping students who are also parents, Blake has suggested a dedicated fridge in the A&V kitchen for breastmilk, with her having a friend who had to take a year out to breastfeed as she couldn’t have breast milk on campus, something that should not be occurring. The statistics on student parents are arguably flawed, Blake said, as there aren’t more student parents because they feel unwelcome. Wrapping up the interview, Blake wished to add that it is a problem that this University still does not have the racial equality charter, a charter that should be a baseline of respect for BME people in an institution, and when Exeter applied last year they were declined this charter.
To the end the debate, the audience were invited to ask questions, with Josip, the previous VP PG, asking how Blake would ensure that postgraduate taught students are also included, considering they are also a part of her manifesto. In response, Blake stated that it was important to be present and available, wanting any Post Graduate feeling able to approach her. When asked by another audience member if she had any plans to make the University more accessible to disabled students, she replied that dealing with fibromyalgia herself she understood that this university is not accessible at all, having previously initiated a scheme called Exeter ability. The final question from an audience member was asking how Blake would cater for the diverse demographic of people in Exeter, to which the audience heard that Blake has had a meeting with Keely Priest, where they spoke in great detail about the daytime & alcohol free events. However, she admitted not to have any concrete plans, and thanked the audience member for bringing this to her attention, as no one should feel isolated.
That concluded the first debate of Sabb week, with the next debate being held at 7pm tomorrow evening for the role of AU President.
