While an unusually high number of candidates have put themselves forward to be an NUS delegate this year, positions on the CUSU Part-Time Executive have also proved popular among Cambridge students.

The CUSU Part-Time Executive is comprised of five teams: Access and Funding, Education, Ethical Affairs, Union and Development and Welfare and Rights. There are two Campaigns Officer positions available on each team. Those who are elected will be expected to plan and implement a campaign, work with their team, and attend meetings of the Full-Time Executive. Unlike sabbatical officers, students carry out these roles alongside their degree.

Three candidates have nominated themselves for the role of Access and Funding Campaigns Officer. Those elected will be responsible for working with the University to improve access, investigate entry requirements for those from less advantaged backgrounds, and campaign against cuts to bursaries, amongst other things. One candidate, Dominic Caddick, points to the particular difficulties faced by state-educated students when applying to Cambridge, and argues that these students should be offered extra support in the form of a college family system, implemented before the A-level exams are taken.

Meanwhile, the second candidate for the role, Faria Tabassum, proposes a focus on the CUSU Class Act campaign, for students that have been state-educated, in care, or are from low-income families. The campaign encourages networking and discussion of issues of class, educational background and socio-economic background. A ‘buddy scheme’, which pairs freshers with older students from similar backgrounds, has already been planned by Tabassum as part of her manifesto, alongside various other welfare events.

The final candidate is Shannon Bernard Healey, a second year medical student at Churchill. His campaign focuses on cutting rent for Cambridge students. As part of Cambridge Cut the Rent, Healey promises to try and facilitate the formation of rent groups in several colleges to help rent negotiations. More broadly, he says he wants to end the ‘marketisation’ of higher education, and improve access.

Matt Kite, a third year Philosophy student at Robinson, who has previously been involved with Cambridge Defend Education, is running for Education Campaigns Officer on a manifesto which proposes a Cambridge Fees and Debt Campaign. He argues that students graduate with an average debt of £35,000 and have to pay interest of over 6% per year. Kite believes that we are signing a ‘blank cheque’, because the rate at which students repay their loans can be changed after the money has been borrowed, and wants to raise awareness of this fact. He also seeks to mobilise students to campaign for free education, and to discourage the University from participating in changes to Higher Education policy, such as the Teaching Excellence Framework, which will have financial implications for students.

Jason Okundaye, the president of the CUSU BME Campaign, is also running for the role. He has proposed a project called ‘Colouring the Gap,’ which would serve as an investigation into disparities of attainment between white British students and BME students. Okundaye believes that there should be an investigation into the numerous factors which contribute to underperformance amongst BME students, suggesting that decolonisation and diversification of curricula could make them more “broadly accessible”.

Three candidates are running for the position of ‘Ethical Campaigns Officer,’ a role which focuses on social and environmental issues.

Elyem Chej, who is studying an MPhil in Planning, Growth and Regeneration, wants to encourage students to push the University to have more ethical investment policies, and to make sure that students are both aware of the University’s investment practices and are able to influence them.

Chej is joined by candidate Jin Choi, a second year Mathematics student at Pembroke, who also wishes to make Cambridge a “more responsible shareholder”. Choi believes that the University should exercise their voting rights as a shareholder in fossil fuel companies to bring about positive changes in their business practices. He also thinks that the students should be able to become more involved, and that the University should draw upon the expertise of its academics.

The third candidate is Fieke van der Spek, a second year Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic student who is also a member of Cambridge Zero Carbon Society. She is working on a campaign to put pressure on the University to divest from fossil fuels and “send a powerful moral signal that the fossil fuel age is over”.

Students Miranda Hewkin Smith and Angela Xia are running for Union Development Officer, a role which takes responsibility for changes within CUSU. Hewkin Smith, who is JCR president at Homerton College, seeks to increase the visibility of CUSU’s campaigns, projects and meetings, particularly through the medium of social media. She also wishes to give students more opportunity to meet those involved in CUSU, at various formal and informal opportunities throughout the year.

Angela Xia, a first-year student from Selwyn, who is involved in the college’s JCR , is also running for the position, and wishes to make CUSU better at catering to what students want from the student union.

By far the most popular role this year is the position of Welfare and Rights Campaigns Officer, with five candidates in the running. Candidate Danielle Bradford wants to improve support mechanisms for those who struggle with mental health, disabilities, illnesses, as well as students from minority groups, such as BME or LGBT+ students. Her campaign slogan, ‘Making the Invisible Visible,’ aims to amplify the voices of students who often feel ostracised in university life.

Felicity Kersting argues that students who do not fit ‘the Cambridge mould’ often feel marginalised, and seeks to improve the University’s mental health services, particularly by campaigning to encourage the University Counselling Service to offer hours for those who are not able to visit the service during its usual opening hours.

May Zhan intends to run a campaign which integrates healthy living and self-care into the daily life of a student, namely through the provision of stress and time-management workshops, along with health newsletters, healthy food outings and productivity hacks that will free up a student’s time for relaxation

Carolyne Irvine, one of the students which established Cambridge’s Student Minds group, plans to encourage University staff to be trained to deal with students struggling with mental health, particularly in crisis. She would also host events for specific groups, such as BME, LGBT+ students and women, which would be designed to focus on their experiences of dealing with mental health issues.

Stella Swain has chosen to focus on ‘Prevent’, the government’s counter-terrorism programme. Swain believes that running an anti-Prevent campaign would protect minority students at Cambridge and stop “the disproportionate focus on Muslim communities in political discourse.” She proposes putting pressure on the University and colleges to record each incident of Prevent-related activity, such as when concerns are raised about a visiting speaker, along with collecting testimonies of those who have been impacted by Prevent, and working with CUSU and JCRs to create a report on the programme. Swain also believes in organising a student-led boycott against the government programme.

Voting opened on Tuesday, and will close at 23:59 on Friday 3rd November