Pronouns: He/Him

Introduction

Hi, my name is Logan, I am a 4th year Biology Student and currently a member of the Students’ Union Trustee Board. I am an active member of several societies including Archery, as Secretary; Conservation, as Events Coordinator; and Zoology & Biological Sciences as Treasurer. (and very occasionally Highland Faffers!)

What are your three priorities for the year?

My priorities for the year:

Protecting our academic communities:

Protect our schools, our degree programmes, our staff and our education from University cuts. The University wants to merge our 12 schools into 4 institutions, this is a cost cutting exercise that will smother smaller disciplines, increase the brain drain, hurt staff morale and negatively impact the student experience.

Better representation for students:

Make every student feel involved in your Union by creating representative structures that link into our Clubs, Societies, Groups and Forum.

Securing more funding to build a better union:

Lobby the University to better fund the Students’ Union so we can provide more advice services to students, better support to Clubs, Societies, Groups & Forums and create a better student experience.

Cost of living, renter’s rights, gender-based violence, mental health crisis; these are important issues to all of us. I believe a better funded Union with more student input can help us tackle all these issues through better Students’ Union advice services.

What unique skill/knowledge can you bring to the role to stand out from the other candidates? 

I have been a Student Trustee on the Students’ Unions Trustee Board which oversees the Union and its finances for 18 months. I have a good understanding of the Union’s finances and the challenges it faces. I believe this puts me in a good position to jump straight into the role of President.

What do you think is the biggest issue that students are facing at the moment and how do you plan to tackle it? 

I believe the single largest issue that is affecting us all as students is the higher education sector funding crisis. It feeds into many of the other issues effecting students:

Higher rent in Uni halls drives up rent in private halls;

Less funding available for student support services to tackle the mental health crisis;

A trend of decreasing block grants for Students Union’s across Scotland: but not in Aberdeen!

This is where my solution comes in, year on year the University Senior Management Team has recommended decreasing the Students Union’s block grant from the University. Year on year the University Resources Committee has ignored this recommendation and voted to slightly increase the Students Union’s block grant. I believe that if we put forward a budget that asks for an increase in funding to bring on more staff members to provide more services to students and lay out how each penny given to us by the University will be used to improve the Student Experience, the Resources Committee will side with us and increase our funding. After all better student experience = more students = more tuition fees. Which for a University facing a long-term funding crisis, sounds like a good investment. If that doesn’t work? We as a charity currently do little fundraising for ourselves and don’t take advantage of all the external grants available to us.