Annie Whyman - Vice President Inclusion

I believe all students deserve to feel included and accepted at university, feeling apart of one large community.

This starts with help from Personal Academic Tutors. Simply meeting your PAT helps students feel more welcome at university, as if there is someone on your side. I want to help by having PATs take responsability to iniciate meetings and emails in all departments so students feel as if there is someone they can trust.

20% of university students experience sexual assult, that would suggest 5,013 people at Southampton University have experienced this. Safety - physically and metally - is vital for everyone. By expanding the SUSU Safe Initiative and enabling access to mental health support, I intend to provide clearer direction to mental health resources and ensuring the help is there.

Moreover, I want to create a standardised accessibility complaints system. Students' voices deserve to be loud and unapologetic when it comes to our needs; we have the right to have a space to use our voices and knowing they will be listened to, and acted upon. This system would allow the SU and I to listen and respond to the needs of all students, providing greater accessibility.  

There has been a significant increase in anti-immigration protests around Southampton making alot of students feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. I want to help eliviate stress and help students travel safely through the city, avoiding these protests by planning alternative routes around the protests and working with SUSU safe - expanding the safety buses working hours if we have advanced knowledge of these protests. No one deserves to feel scared walking home from campus.

Finally, I want to celebrate the diversity this university and our student body has to offer. Partnering with culture and religion societys during celebrations and holidays via social media take overs, funding and space to share history and identity. We have a beautiful and vibrant multicultural community, let's celebrate it!

Everyone deserves to feel welcome and included in university, and I want to improve and celebrate our Student Unions' inclusivity and diversity.