Campaigning began on Monday for next week's CUSU elections, bringing the news that three candidates have put themselves forward to be president. The elections, which will decide CUSU's sabbatical executive team for the next year, start on Monday 4 March, with voting continuing until Wednesday next week.

Running for president with the slogan “a CUSU for every student”, George Bangham is a third year history student at Emmanuel College and chair of student think tank The Wilberforce Society. Bangham tells students “this election is a choice between the same old CUSU and real change”.

In his manifesto, Bangham writes: “Student politics is at a critical stage; CUSU must be clear and bold. I will push for a fairer deal for our generation, for a culture of tolerance and equality. We need a politically-neutral union that listens to all its students, not just insiders.” To this end Bangham pledges to work for "a depoliticised women's officer role, who listens to all women" and he tells students that his lack of prior involvement with CUSU is a positive, arguing that he comes "from outside the CUSU machine".

Up against Bangham is Greg Hill, sabbatical president of the Homerton Union of Students and chair of Cambridge Universities Labour Club, who previously studied history. “I will be running on the basis of getting students more engaged with CUSU, both in terms of actively recruiting and expanding CUSU's activities into areas that it has previously neglected such as Ents, as well as making CUSU more useful for graduate students”, Hill told Varsity.

“It is with an engaged student body that we can maximise the potential of CUSU in its campaigning - and one of the main campaigns CUSU would focus on should I be elected is the Living Wage campaign. Having already run a successful campaign at Homerton, I think that I am in an excellent position to be in the vanguard of this campaign for CUSU. In short, my campaign slogan and indeed aim is, 'make CUSU the best it can be'", said Hill.

Flick Osborn, a third year theology student and the former St John’s JCR president says her "campaign will engage directly with students, increasing understanding of what CUSU can do for all of us. Our Student Union faces the inevitable challenge of communicating effectively within the collegiate system and this is compounded by the absence of a block grant which has a huge impact on CUSU resources. 

"I will work with tireless commitment and enthusiasm towards changing these two areas and many more, particularly advancing the Living Wage campaign and supporting autonomous campaigns more effectively." Osborn serves as CUSU’s Target Schools Officer, and writes in her manifesto that access “is a vital campaign area in the current climate of fee rises”.

Also made public on Monday were the candidates for CUSU’s other sabbatical and delegate roles, including Dom Weldon, the current CUSU Coordinator who will be running again for the position, opposed by Julianna Yau.

Xin Jin, an engineering PhD student at Fitzwilliam, is up against Richard Jones, a PhD student in history, for the position of Graduate Union president.