Harvey Penycate-Smith - Vice President Communities

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Photo of Harvey Penycate-Smith
  • Protect and grow small societies as their voice
  • Organise and encourage multi-society collaborations and events
  • Continue to grow our online media presence and spotlight societies
  • Increase the transparency of grant allocation process / outcomes
  • Encourage collaborations between societies and the local community

Vote for Harvey Penycate-Smith now!

Why vote for Harvey?

About Me

I'm currently President of our Circus Society (formerly the VP for three years) and Welfare Officer for Digital Art and Game Dev. I have also been the Halo rep for SVGE, and have been VP/Welfare of a currently unaffiliated bouldering society under ECSS.

I've led a "congress of small societies", where committees of smaller societies join to discuss their needs and organise collaborations.

My Promise

If elected, I will put one idea first - University is a place to have fun, with countless opportunities to try new exciting things, and to enjoy your youth before the world takes it from you. 

That means it is essential that we enable all students to participate in as many activities as possible, from the most popular societies, to the smallest and most niche. Everyone deserves a chance to follow their interests, practise their hobbies, and find new ones too.

That's why small societies are my number one - I want to protect those we already have, resurrect those we lost, and foster those that want to start. 

One thing that sets us apart as a student's union compared to other universities is our range of societies, and that's something I want us to always maintain, always protect, and always expand. No matter what it is you do, who you are, or what you care about - you will find community here.

It is through these groups that I've met the friends I treasure to this day. We owe that chance to every student, at the very least.

In technical terms, I want to lobby the university to move away from the idea that societies must be self-sufficient in funding, and that there could be some minimum membership a society must meet. I will also push to increase the transparency of the grant allocation process, to address the disparity students have observed and at the very least communicate the full process. We've made strides, but I think we can still do better.

Furthermore, I want to continue Sparkle's excellent work in social media outreach, providing every society the chance for promotion. 

I will also work to organise collaboration events between societies, to give members of each chances to try new things and meet new friends.

Finally, I want to look for more opportunities for student societies to collaborate with the local community. For example, my Circus Society recently ran a skills workshop for the local climbing gym. These are sources of revenue for societies, and can be an excellent way to build a strong community in the city itself, to foster solidarity between students and residents.

As an extra point, I am firmly anti-AI and will work strongly to discourage the use of any and all AI generated content for SUSU and the wider University.

I'm up against a word count here, so please ask me some questions if you want to know more about me and what I stand for!

Questions & Answers

Ask Harvey Penycate-Smith a Question

Please note that the views expressed by candidates are their own and may not reflect the views and/or values of SUSU.
SUSU supports the expression of all lawful opinions as long as they are expressed with respect and do not attack or undermine the rights of others.
SUSU may also place reasonable restrictions on the expression of views linked to the time, place or manner that the views are expressed.

Hello! I may not be as active on social media on other candidates, as I'm putting my policy first and marketing second, but I have an Instagram account for my campaign - @harveyforvpcommunities

This question was also asked to Yumin 'Yomi' Chen, Muhammed 'Uncle' Ibrahim, Kavya Nair, Emma Brown, Reuben Hinchliffe, Arjun Thakar, Lanxin 'Linsay' Chen

Answered by Harvey on 06/03/26 14:10

Well, the first thing I'd do when elected is obviously all necessary training and mandatory tasks of the role. However, the main thing I'll be doing from day one and throughout my time as VP Communities will be lobbying for protections for small societies, as laid out in my manifesto, including rolling back many recent unpopular changes (as much as I am able to).

Candidates often make big promises that are hard to follow up on - I don't believe anyone is being disingenuous, more likely there's just a limit to how much we can actually change. So I'll be as transparent as possible throughout, and push the limits when I can.

This question was also asked to Yumin 'Yomi' Chen, Muhammed 'Uncle' Ibrahim, Kavya Nair, Emma Brown, Reuben Hinchliffe, Arjun Thakar, Lanxin 'Linsay' Chen

Answered by Harvey on 06/03/26 14:08

I don't believe it would be my place to treat societies differently based on how they choose to promote themselves, but I do believe that it is in the best interest of SUSU if all media representing our societies stays completely AI-free. I would at least recommend including advice against AI usage in committee training. Furthermore, I want anything and everything created by or with AI to be directly, visibly tagged as such. That includes anything posted by any society, or on the SUSU site. Of course, this is unrealistic to "enforce", but I would want to incorporate this into SUSU policy from here on out.

There is nothing GenAI can do that you or I cannot do better with our own brains. It simply wastes a massive amount of natural resources to get to the same point.

This question was also asked to Harvey

Answered by Harvey on 06/03/26 14:05

1) Yes, of course I believe all gender expression is valid and that pronouns and preferred names must be respected.

2) A transgender student should use whatever bathroom they feel most comfortable using (most likely whichever best aligns with their gender identity). It's not anyone else's place to tell someone which bathroom to use. I also would like to see a push for more gender neutral, accessible bathrooms throughout the university, and making sure that every men's bathroom stall has a sanitary bin provided. I joined the protest last year on the 26th April in support of the trans community against the Supreme Court Equality Act ruling.

3) As stated above, I strongly support gender-neutral facilities - there are many advantages even to cisgender students.

4) As with bathrooms, I believe trans people should feel free to choose how to engage with gendered sports, once again most likely meaning they should participate with the gender they most identify with. That's not to say they *must*, however - if a trans-masc student feels more comfortable in women's sports, that's fine too. It's not for us to dictate, and any talk about "unfair advantages" is nothing more than fearmongering in 99% of cases.

I hope that answers your questions fully - as VP Communities, I would be dedicated to making sure that *all* students can fully participate in everything uni life has to offer. I will not tolerate transphobia, I will lobby for improvements to systems wherever possible, and I will be the best ally I can be.

This question was also asked to Yumin 'Yomi' Chen, Muhammed 'Uncle' Ibrahim, Kavya Nair, Reuben Hinchliffe, Arjun Thakar, Lanxin 'Linsay' Chen

Answered by Harvey on 10/03/26 01:12

Thanks for the question, I'll be honest up front - housing isn't a focus of my campaign, so it's not something I have planned much on yet. It's something that I'll have to learn more about once I'm in the role, to see what I can do and how I can help.

That said, it's an issue that virtually every student must face, and I've had my share of issues with landlords too. Once again, I won't make any promises right now that I can't keep, so I can't tell you exactly what it is I'll be able to do to help just yet. For issues such as these which are not my area of expertise / the focus of my campaign, I'll be relying on what I learn in the role and the input from everyone around me. As a computer scientist, my first thought for how to best keep tenants informed is a landlord review system on the SUSU site, where tenants can anonymously write about their experiences with different landlords and give them a rating too. That said (and this is going beyond the scope of my campaign), housing is an issue everyone faces due to a fundamental inequality in society. Please bear in mind that whatever we do to help students stay informed will only ease the strain slightly. Housing is in heavy demand in Southampton, and just because students know a letting agent is sketchy, ultimately housing is a necessity and some unfortunate student will eventually have to end up renting with them. Being more informed might save you from a bad landlord, but overall there will still be many students who don't have a choice. I'm here to represent ALL students, so I'm never going to be truly fond of individualist solutions.

This question was also asked to Yumin 'Yomi' Chen, Muhammed 'Uncle' Ibrahim, Kavya Nair, Reuben Hinchliffe, Arjun Thakar, Lanxin 'Linsay' Chen

Answered by Harvey on 11/03/26 13:07