Guild Officer candidates sat down with Xpression for a roundtable on 7 March 2025 (Friday) to discuss the most relevant topics for this year’s elections.
If elected, these students will act as trustees of the Guild, representing the voice of over 35,000 students, earning over £25000 a year.
James Fairweather and Francis Steptoe, running for Education Officer chatted about the low engagement with the Guild, their thoughts on AI, and the university’s academic mitigation system.
James and Francis expressed how their student experience in Exeter prepared them for the role of Education Officer.
James currently acts as Social Secretary of Debating Society, which involves communicating with the Guild. He prides himself in successfully organising the DebSoc Winter Ball last December.
As the Physics Department’s Academic Rep, Francis has done lots of negotiations with senior staff. One of the reasons which motivated him to run for Guild Officer is to hold the Guild accountable for dodging student concerns.
Both candidates are in agreement that Exeter’s mitigation system feels very ‘clinical’. James hopes to make the process ‘more lenient and human’ between the students and the University, while Francis pushes for more innovation, including making the ELE platform easier to access.
On the topic of AI, James expresses that he finds the University’s guidance ‘unclear and inconsistent.’ He suggests that we need more time to take time to figure out the right balance of when and how to use AI in academia. For James, brainstorming, using free templates for presentations are encouraging ways to use AI. Francis advocates that Generative AI should not be involved in education. Yet he admits that coding is an effective way for students to use AI. He suggests adding oral reports as a way of testing if students who use AI can back up what they have written. Like James, Francis also thinks that the role of AI needs to be carefully thought out. Otherwise, there will be a questionable divide between those who use AI and those who don’t.
James insists that the first step to increasing student engagement with the Guild is to encourage them to participate in the voting process of Guild Officer elections, since this will help to create a Guild which is more representative. For Francis, his priority is to ensure that the Guild will ‘treat students as people, not products’.
For the role of Communities & Equality Officer, Dougie Barber, Kady-Lee Byrne, Rose Arhin, and Zach Smith were among the four out of five candidates who participated in the roundtable event.
All candidates agree that there needs to be more representation, more engagement, and more transparency within the Guild.
For Dougie, his role as a student activist, particularly as an organiser of ELE4PAL shows a real desire to drive change. They feel confident to excel in the role of Communities & Equality Officer since he claims he is unafraid to challenge the Guild. They have been in formal meetings with the Guild, showing a depth of experience. Some of his aims include making Exeter accommodations more accessible for disabled students, bringing online events back for remote students, and being more pro-active in enacting change.
Kady-Lee is a committee member for the NDSS who is passionate about increasing representation for all students. She is clear on the Guild’s need for more transparency and inclusivity due to her firsthand experience of being a disabled student on campus. For instance, the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) currently does not cover transport or interpretation fees for students. This creates a challenge for disabled students in Exeter to get around the hill on the Streatham Campus, especially during the evenings for societies host social events. Kady-Lee hopes to use her experience to make sure that the Guild listens and acts in the best interest for all students, especially those who are often overlooked.
Zach’s breadth of experience as someone who has advocated for racism, sustainability, and the LGBTQ+ community at Exeter makes him a viable candidate for the role. One of the memorable things he did is convincing the Guild not to cut off the Gender Expression Fund. He claims that these experiences make him the ‘best equipped to fight. His suggestions for increasing inclusivity in Exeter includes creating more anonymous surveys to listen to student voices, increasing student engagement with the St. Luke’s Campus, and making the Guild more student-led.
