Luke Garner - Engineering and Physical Sciences Faculty Officer
- Hold end-monthly meetings between department presidents
- Uphold responsibiltiy for academics and welfare in FEPS
- Improve accessibility and inclusivity for FEPS degree prospects
- Proven track record for high-profile responsibility and leadership roles.
- Dedicated to improving transparency and communication of the student voice.
Why vote for Luke?
Hi all!
For those who don't know me, I am Luke Garner (better known as the Banana Guy™). From 2025-26, I was a Computer Science course rep, helping make the voices of students heard and pushing for better quality of life. This included solving discrepancies with exams and clarity of coursework, and advocating for further student support during Ramadan and Eid.
This year, I'm taking a major step up and am running for FEPS officer. I'm sure you may be wondering though - why such a big shift? And what would my plans even be if I were to uptake this role?
My experience speaks for itself - Not only have I been a Course Rep for the past year, but externally I used to take initiatives in other areas, such as serving as a secretary for my sixth form INTERACT fundraising board, which raised over £1,000 during my term. I also ran in my school's student council for 5 years, enabling my proficiency in being able to talk to students and ensure that their voice was heard by higher members of staff.
After seeing the positive impact on morale and enjoyment that resulted from my work as course rep, I was motivated to extend this environment to the rest of FEPS. My close-knit collaboration with the ECS department's staff demonstrates my suitability to act as the responsible figurehead overseeing the rest of the departments. My outgoing ambition will allow me to be an approachable person who the departments can voice their issues to through a trustworthy medium. As a goal to increase engagement between the departments, I would also wish to hold end-of-monthly department meetings, where the department presidents would meet to discuss what is going well with one another. That way, we could also standardise approaches that work well for each department, and hopefully implement them into other departments in order to improve quality of life.
As part of improving the student experience, it's also important to ensure students are proactively engaging with initiatives I would put out. As such, I would make sure to motivate and foster student engagement, whether through social media advertisement or small reward incentives for students who engage in student surveys or engagement initiatives. As a neurodivergent student and having met other students with neurodivergent or other special consideration needs, I understand the imperativity of inclusivity initatives. Therefore, as well as reporting to the VP Education, I would also want to closely collaborate with the VP Inclusivity, as well as individually advocating for the continuation of initiatives which maintain, support and improve the inclusivity needs of ALL students who wish to pursue a career in FEPS.
If you have any questions about my candidacy, please feel free to email me (lg6g25@soton.ac.uk) and I will respond as quickly as I can.