Luke Jefferies

Candidate for Vice President Sports

  • Increase participation for a more active student population in Sport
  • Improve experience for Intramural Sports Clubs and players
  • Ensure best agreement with migration of Sport over to University
  • Accessibility and Safeguarding for mental health and disability in Sport
  • Storage overhaul for Sports Clubs across all sites

Why vote for me?

Hi, everyone! I’ve been involved in Sport and the Union since almost day 1 of University. I have been Club President, Martial Arts Rep as well as sitting on the Athletic Union Committee.

Some of my ideas:

  • Increase Participation in Sport by making it easier for students to find active opportunities that are right for them. Change the University’s attitude towards Sport so that continued promotion throughout the year is more successful meaning students can keep active and find something they enjoy
  • I will promote Intramural Sports to provide a better experience for students by giving continued support and publicity through the year. I’ll continue to explore affordable options for Sports facilities for casual members
  • Use Sport to promote positive attitudes towards mental health to help students in times of stress. Using physical activity to assist in mental wellbeing can be very helpful, especially at University. The benefits of Sport should be available to everyone so I’ll encourage accessibility and safeguarding for mental health and disabilities in Sport
  • I will work with other sabbatical officers to promote services already available to students and to improve current ones
  • Reorganisation of storage across all sites, this will create more space for clubs that have previously been denied storage and promote a cleaner more effective use of space

We have a great opportunity to improve Sport and Students’ experience of Sport during their time at University next year! With the upcoming proposed migration of Sport to the University I want to ensure clarity and transparency with the Union, University and the entire student population. I want to make sure the transition is as smooth as possible and we reach an agreement that benefits Sports Clubs and the University.

I believe my experience will set me up perfectly for VP Sport, I want the opportunity to bring fresh ideas and passion to the Union and AU. I have worked with the previous 3 VP Sports during my time here and have an extremely good understanding of what the role entails. I’ve gotten to know and become close with many people across all aspects of Sport at University giving me a wide perspective of the challenges that students face.

I hope to provide pragmatic and simple solutions to problems. As an example I worked with the Martial Arts committee this year to fix the AC in the martial arts room, I want to do the same for the climbing wall.

I think Sport is amazing, not just because of its health benefits, but for the sense of safety, community and inclusivity it creates. My ideas are all achievable. My experiences have set me up for fulfilling the role of VP Sport, to deliver what students desire from their Sports Clubs as well as solving problems that will be presented to me throughout the year.

Vote for me!

Questions & Answers Ask me a Question

What are you going to do to support lesser known and less popular sports to get more publicity/funding/awareness? As they need more help to get people to join than more common sports that people already know/have played before uni

Improving communications channels from the Union would help more students find IM clubs. Publicity therefore, I think would be easy to start implementing for IM clubs so that more students are aware of IM leagues and what they could offer students that in some cases Affiliated Union Clubs might not be able to do. As I mentioned in my manifesto, the community around a sport can be the biggest factor for a lot of people to continue playing that sport, I want to emphasise this idea next year because I think the sense of community is what draws people to sports that aren't as common and attracts people that haven't done much sport before Uni.

This question was also asked to Samuel Tweedle, Kiera Spencer-HaylesAnswered by Luke on 02/03/20 16:49

What does SUSU mean to you? If you were to define its values in 5 words, what would they be?

The 5 words that I would want SUSU to represent are: Enjoyable, Accessible, Inclusive, Affordable, Community SUSU will mean a different thing to everyone but I want everyone to think of at least one of these words when they are asked this question. I would try my absolute hardest to do that next year if I was elected, not by forcing a publicity campaign but by working to ensure the Union is embodying these values.

This question was also asked to Samuel Tweedle, Kiera Spencer-HaylesAnswered by Luke on 02/03/20 17:20

What was wrong with the Mayflower FC incident and what would you have done?

Luke has not answered this question yet

This question was also asked to Samuel Tweedle, Kiera Spencer-Hayles

Is there a problem of racism and exclusion in sport? If so, how will you deal with it?

Sport does not inherently bring a problem of racism and exclusion, it is racist and bigoted people that if aren't confronted about their behaviour will spread these unacceptable ideas. So dealing with the racism that does exist in sport will be a case of dealing with the people that spread racism within sports clubs.

This question was also asked to Samuel Tweedle, Kiera Spencer-HaylesAnswered by Luke on 04/03/20 12:33

How would you improve the facilities and experiences of students who want to take part in non-competitive sports such as intramural?

Luke has not answered this question yet

This question was also asked to Samuel Tweedle, Kiera Spencer-Hayles

How will you help support disabled people get involved with sport?

By talking to committees and coaches of individual clubs in order to find ways to make their club more accessible for more disabled people. Every club will have different barriers for entry for different disabilities so there is no one solution to do this for every club or for all disabilities. The time needs to be put in to each club to work out ways to implement these ideas so that more people have access to more sports. In a previous martial arts club I was a part of a few of the students and the instructor worked together so that someone in a wheelchair could take up the activity. That makes me believe that given enough work anyone should be able to do the sport they want.

This question was also asked to Samuel Tweedle, Kiera Spencer-HaylesAnswered by Luke on 02/03/20 16:32

Do you think that susu was too harsh on shutting down socials last year? Will you let this happen again?

I think over the last few years one or two incidents have affected the attitude towards socials as a whole which I think is a shame because the vast majority of societies are fair and inclusive and everyone in the society loves their socials. Should any incident or accounts of hazing happen if I was elected I would wish to deal with them as an isolated incident because they don't reflect the attitude of socials at the University as a whole. I will not be imposing rules for socials on societies that have not been doing anything wrong.

This question was also asked to Samuel Tweedle, Kiera Spencer-HaylesAnswered by Luke on 04/03/20 12:19

How will you deal with people that are keen to get into sports but do not have the financial means to do so?

That's a great question. I would want to explore the idea of a S&W bursary for students that want to take part in sports that utilise S&W facilities. For sports that don't use S&W facilities I would want to set up an agreement between the Union and Committees where, depending on the club's circumstances, they are allowed to give a few members their membership for free. Depending on the club there could be many ways of going about this, for some it would be very difficult but for some it would be very easy. One of the main goal of VP Sports is to improve the experience of all sport and all students that are members of a sports club. To do that I would want to have a working relationship with as many club committees as possible which would make it very easy on a case by case basis to start implementing this idea (and other ideas like accessibility for disabled people).

This question was also asked to Samuel Tweedle, Kiera Spencer-HaylesAnswered by Luke on 02/03/20 16:59

Budget

Luke has not spent any of their budget yet