The Student contacted VP Community candidate Laura regarding her campaign and manifesto. To read Laura’s manifesto, click here.
Why did you choose to run for this position?
I chose to run for this position after working with the sustainability department on an event all about plastic pollution. I realised that it is amazing what the university is doing right now to be more sustainable and eco-friendly, and realised this is something I wanted to push from the Edinburgh University Students’ Association. I run an environmental blog called Less Waste Laura and I am trying to inspire and act out change for the better, and this role would let me enhance the community of Edinburgh university enormously! The community role is perfect for that, tackling issues such as sustainability. Plus, I am a postgraduate, and since moving to Edinburgh I have found some amazing local shops, charities, eateries and more, and I want to get the university even more rooted in these!
What do you think will be the most challenging point on your manifesto to achieve and how will you overcome this challenge?
I think getting the bus shuttles to satellites campuses more frequently and pushing for them to be ‘green’ will be the most challenging point to push!
How would you ensure that more marginalised communities in Edinburgh feel involved in university life?
By listening. It is so important that in such a big institution every individual’s voice is heard. Offering more opportunity for feedback on campaigns or services is paramount in their success. I want the whole team of officers to be easier to contact and get feedback to.
You say in your manifesto that you would like to find out what campaigns students want to see. How would you go about this?
Again, relating back to listening and wanting more interactive sessions with students. As simple as an online form for students to propose campaigns or issues close to their heart, all the way through to more informal chatty drop-in sessions to mull over an idea.
You also say that you would like to offer new students the opportunity to learn how to cook with minimal waste. How would you provide this service?
This would be linking together some of the societies and services we already have in the university to create sort of cooking videos and workshops, where students can learn about cooking proper meals when they have just moved out, and how to save on waste! Making a mini-cooking series would be the start with appearances from staff, students and societies!
Finally, is there anything in particular about your manifesto/campaign that you want to draw students’ attention to? What is your favourite policy?
I would actually like to draw people’s attention to the fact that I am running a zero-waste campaign. I have no posters or flyers, just social media posts and some clever tricks to blast my name (such as my pocket projector and chalking and giant whiteboards). This is so important because as the Community VP you are in working in the field of sustainability – and you need to live that way too. I am passionate about living for the environment, and I want Edinburgh to ditch the disposable plastics and stop being so wasteful – starting with my campaign!
The following is a transcription of Laura’s responses during the Sabbatical Candidate’s Question Time which took place on Thursday 28 February 2019.
Some answers may have been edited for clarity.
I’m Laura, I’m a Masters postgraduate student here, and I’m doing Environmental Protection and Management. So, already you’re thinking okay, she’s an eco-nutter. I bet she’s gonna make this role all about sustainability, and that’s pretty much the way I’m taking it. So I’m taking the things like housing, and transport, and how to make links with the community, and making them all sustainable.
I’m a postgraduate student but I’m based at King’s, so I know the bus is a nightmare from personal experience. I really think it’d be great to get that little green bus. I know there are so many issues with housing, and I know that when I was doing my undergraduate degree, one of the first things is when you move out, you think, “ugh I don’t know how to cook, I feel like I’m wasting lots of food, actually do I need to buy these things?” I just want to make a really easy transition for new students and for when students are moving out of student accommodation.
Some of the things I want to do are totally sustainability-oriented. I want to get a really good system meaning students can live a little bit more low-impact. This is something that the university here has already been doing for the amazing few months that I’ve been here, and it’s been really great working with some of those departments.
A lot of my campaign is talking about sustainability but also thinking about how can we make links with Edinburgh. This has already been spoken about. We live in such a great city, and there’s such a great opportunity to come away saying, “I had a really great experience, I learned a lot in academia, but I also got to know my city. And I got to know exactly what’s going on here too.” Thank you.
What do you think needs to be done to improve student housing in Edinburgh?
I think when you think of housing, first of all, you have things like rent prices. That is something as a student body of 40,000, we do have a really loud voice in. If we want to make a difference, that is something we can do if we come together. But second of all, there’s the quality of housing. In Edinburgh, there are some old flats and sometimes students feel they’re a bit hard done by. So they can come to me, and we can create some kind of network saying let’s get together, let’s work out a way to make landlords or rental companies make changes so that when we’re living here, we don’t feel like we’re living in a pile of rubbish. I think there’s a lot of different aspects to this, but also the stuff I was talking about in terms of transitioning, making everyone feel like accommodation here is not a stressful thing and you can really easily get it sorted.
What ideas do you have to develop student engagement with the local community?
I think this is really important. When I came to Edinburgh, I realised there were some amazing Edinburgh based companies, facilities, and organizations, and some of them were grown from students here. So one of the things I have this vision of is kind of a fair, an event that illustrates all of the local brands and shops and organisations that are right here in Edinburgh, how you can get involved with volunteering for them, and how to find out if they were a student here. Edinburgh’s really fantastic for the amount of little independent shops and independent charities and stuff. I think getting links with those will make that bond a lot stronger.
What would you change about transport around our various university campuses?
More. More buses at peak times. But as I’ve said, we’ve seen a lot of these university vehicles going electric, and I think that’s something that’s super important. So getting some green buses, and actually because the university has got these crazy good targets about reducing their carbon and reducing their impact, actually saying let’s get some more buses, but let’s get them green. One of the big things I’m passionate about is sustainability, hence why I’m not doing any posters or flyers. I’m going completely zero-waste for this. This ties into whether we want to make a decision, and change the university. This uni is flying for sustainability. So let’s say, “give us more buses and make them green,” and I think that kind of thing.
Image: Laura Young