• I’m Eleri, your newly elected President.
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• I’m a fourth year Philosophy Student, and have had the pleasure of being your Sports Union Vice President last year. As Sports Union Vice President last year, I coordinated several successful projects: Yoga in the Library, the Sports Union Ball 2018, Go Green with EUSU, ‘Let’s Talk: Sport and Mental Health’, the Boost your Mood campaign, and more.
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• I have loved representing the students who volunteer, coach and take part in sport at Edinburgh, and now I want to represent more students at Edinburgh.

Safety

Working to ensure all students feel secure during their time studying at Edinburgh. 

Members

Promoting a responsive and proactive students' union and student community. 

Innovation

Creatively advancing students' time at Edinburgh. 

Student Life

• Student card on your phone to make life more convenient.
• Lobbying the University to provide students with a reusable water bottle.
• King’s ‘Welcome Fair’ so King’s societies and intra-mural teams aren’t forgotten.
• More heat and eat stations across all campuses so you can bring your own meals to University.
• Keep Wednesday afternoons free by making sure no compulsory classes happen after 1pm.
• Free Yoga on campuses to boost your mood and give you a breather; I brought it to the library, let’s make it bigger!

Money Matters

• 50p off hot drinks when using your keep cup at any University café- if Peter’s yard can, why can’t we?
• Free sanitary products in all EUSA operated female and gender-neutral toilets, and lobby the University to follow suit.
• Big Cheese entry maximum £4 at all times. So your SU night is always the cheapest.
• Expanding the Participation Grant ensuring that it’s available to all students, so not being British doesn’t stop you from joining societies and clubs.
• Gym membership included in University Bursaries.
• Maintain the medical students’ food discount at Little France and The General.

Getting Around

• Ensuring that the council improve cycle routes to all campuses.
• Bring the Marchmont bus stop back for the shuttle bus and push for Peffermill to be added to the route to keep students safe.

Keeping Safe

• ‘Ask for Angela’ posters in all EUSA bars so you can safely get out of dangerous situations.
• ‘Take the lead’ sexual harassment training for all societies and sports exec committee members.
• Name and shame bad landlords and flat companies, so that you can’t be exploited.

Liberation

• Weekly meetings with our liberation officers making it easier for them to be influential on campus.

Our Democracy

• Recording student council so you know what EUSA are doing to represent you.
• Weekly drop in sessions on different campuses so you can bring your frustrations straight to me.
• Hold EUSA to account by tracking complaints and progress online.
• More collaboration with societies, sports clubs and schools tackling big campaigns together.
• Regular office hours with your local MP and MSP so that they can provide expert help on immigration worries ahead of Brexit.

Around graduation time, a friend told me I should read Marina Keegan’s ‘The Opposite of Loneliness’ and it struck a chord: ‘University… it’s not quite love and it’s not quite community; it’s just this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together. Who are on your team. When its 4am and no one goes to bed. The night we can’t remember. Yale is full of tiny circles we pull round ourselves. Sports teams, societies, clubs. These tiny groups that make us feel loved and safe and part of something even on our loneliest night when we stumble home”. 

Since taking up this role, I’ve constantly been questioning whether we have this sense of people, community, and belonging in Edinburgh. We are a vast student body, with around 40,000 students making up The University of Edinburgh, and yet we can so often feel part of a void. We each have our own communities whether that be ours school, our campus, our societies or sports club and yet, very few of us feel connected as an Edinburgh student. I’d like to change that. Because if there’s one thing I know about an Edinburgh student – at the heart of us all – is that we all do so much more than just our degrees. 

All too often in this crazy world, our newsfeeds are full of negative news stories  which sometimes make us question our belief that we, as students, can change this world. I hate seeing this draining content, and I know that the one thing that will keep me motivated this year, as President, will be hearing about all the amazing projects you are all doing! So, I want to change up my newsfeed (and hopefully yours too). So, every Thursday I’ll be profiling students and sharing their stories, as part of our #WeAreEdinburgh campaign. In a hope that we can create a student community which is doing more to celebrate you, the students of Edinburgh, the backbone of this University.

I’ve got some incredible students lined up but I’d love to hear from you about the things you are up to or if you’ve got a friend who deserves some light shone on what they are up to! You can Tweet me, Facebook me or even an email at president@ed.ac.uk

We are more than just students – We Are Edinburgh! 

All my love, 

Eleri