1. What would you consider the main successes from your time as sports officer?
Kiri: My main successes have been that the partnership between the university and the union is a lot stronger and that is an indirect success of students it actually is a big improvement on what it was last year.
We’ve had fantastic outcome of that partnership being sports development, with a £40 million build, we’ve got our facilities which have been a huge success. We’re working with Kukri to develop the service we offer for students, we have samples available, and a catalogue of everything that is on offer, we’ve got an online store that is delivering to plan so it’s still something that is an uphill battle but is working really well.
We’re currently third in Bucks and our performance team is doing really well. The IMS programme is bigger than it’s ever been, we’ve got a new engage programme targeting participation in recreational sport which is really good this year, it’s newly set up and we’ve invested a lot more time and effort into participation sport.
We’ve built on a lot and we’ve changed a lot, and I’m jealous of whoever will take over from me because it’s been a fantastic year.
We’re working on a welfare in sport campaign, we’ve successfully worked with the LGBT network to release the rainbow lace campaign raising awareness of homophobia in sport which we also had a fantastic video released with voice your rights of the mens hockey club so we’re working with our networks.
We’ve had the American football game streamed live a couple of weeks ago, now that NSTV are back up and running they will be down on Wednesday afternoons filming sport and releasing good footage of sport. So we’re working towards an event in which we can get a match of the day style programme available for students so that they can get a roundup of sport.
URN have smashed their coverage of sport this year it’s been fantastic. They do a roundup of the Bucks fixtures, they have a separate sports show, their coverage is really good, they discuss hot topics. Media wise it’s going really well for sport and the platform for performers to be promoted is huge.
We’ve got so many more events this year, we’ve got a triathlon varsity coming up for the first time ever holding a race on campus, we’ve got a climbing varsity coming up, an extra five points for the varsity series this year. We’ve built on a lot and we’ve changed a lot, and I’m jealous of whoever will take over from me because it’s been a fantastic year.
2. Have you been able to implement the policies from your manifesto such as the hall cluster reps and broadcasting sport in Mooch?
K: The hall cluster rep idea was to close the gap between JCR sports secretaries and myself and the SU. When I started this role the previous officer team had a structure and we’ve put that structure into place, it’s not the same idea as the cluster reps but by implementing the cluster reps it would go against what the previous officer team had done so we’re giving it a go and it means that we meet more regularly with our sports secretaries and it means that they have a platform exactly like Prescom to give their feedback to me.
It’s working better than it ever has before but we’ve still got a long way to go. And if I feel like it’s not working well enough then I will look into implementing the cluster rep idea but you need to give things a chance as I mentioned in my scrutiny panel.
In regards to live sport in Mooch it’s something we’ve been hindering by significantly by NSTV being shut until the 31st of January which is really annoying and I openly said that I would look for other companies if I needed to. However, as they’re back up and running I’m going to give them a chance to get themselves sorted and we’re working towards it.
Live sport is really difficult and expensive and it takes a lot of time. It’s something I won’t give up on it but it’s a slow process. It takes a lot more than that. It’s something that we’re working on, hopefully we’ll have someone filming the varsity series live, that’s what I’m working towards now.
My aim is to get a couple of games streamed live in Mooch before the end of my year. However, with Bucks finishing in the next few weeks and various other fixtures coming up, it’s a case of what is my priority. Are we going to focus on filming varsity or focus on filming a couple of games? Of all my manifesto points that is the only one that isn’t going to plan and t it’s just because it’s a difficult one. Everything else is either done or in the process of being done.
3. What advice would you give the new candidate and your successor?
The benefits of sport are just second to none, sport has so many benefits both physically and mentally that being in this role I see direct and indirect benefits of it every day.
K: Remember why it is that you do the job, remember why it is that you’re in that role. I’ve really come to notice it recently that I really care about sport, I really care about our students that play sport, especially the welfare in sport campaign that I’m in the middle of at the moment. The benefits of sport are just second to none, sport has so many benefits both physically and mentally that being in this role I see direct and indirect benefits of it every day.
4. What made you decide to become a SU officer?
K: Well, I love sport and I care about the student experience. I had a fantastic three years here at Nottingham and in my role as IMS chair before I got Sports officer I could see the amount of change that could happen and the power of the student officers and what they could do with the student support and the tools that they have to make change.
I am someone who is very competitive and I’m a perfectionist, I like to improve things and I saw it as an opportunity to change and improve and make things better. For me, I saw it as a challenge and it has been and it is still a challenge but it’s a fun challenge and I’m learning a lot. I saw it as an opportunity as well. I love the university, I love the SU, and I just wanted to be a part of that.
5. Do you feel that women are now more fairly represented in the media these days? For example, there was the recent ‘this girl can’ ad campaign, do you feel that sport for women is too focused on weight loss in the media?
K: I don’t think women are equally represented in the media when it comes to sport. I think the ‘this girl can’ campaign was fantastic, but we wouldn’t have to do that if it was equal. That campaign has raised awareness of that gap in the media but it hasn’t solved it so yes and no. Women get coverage on really good things such as the Sochi Winter Olympics and how much coverage Lizzy Yarnold got and you see sort of gems of media that pick up on women.
A classic example is that our womans England Rugby had a Six Nations fixture and the publicity around that was significantly lower compared to the male game which is obviously something is the norm. It’s something that will take years and years to change and it probably won’t ever change because male sport is faster and they can do more physically. It’s a much better game to watch but that shouldn’t mean that we should be covering it less. I don’t think it’s equal and I think that we’re in a strong position to do the opposite and be equal in our coverage.
And make sure that if not, tip it on its head and cover more women in sport. It’s shame, if we had live sport I would have fifty percent of the games female sport and I’d have fifty percent of the games male sport. Another thing is, we’re not doing it at the moment, but our varsity points aren’t balanced.
What we have done this year is implement a system in which if a new point comes in it has to be a mixed game or it has to be a female equivalent sport. For example, American football doesn’t have an equivalent but what we can do is balance that out with a female only sport like netball. That’s the new criteria, so that’s another success to which is that we have implemented a more balanced view of sport across the programmes. So that they are open to all and we don’t bias either gender.
6. What sporting event are you looking forward to most this year?
K: I’m looking forward to the next MBL on the 24th march but it’s difficult and we’ve got Bucks Big Wednesday on the 25th March which I’m really looking forward to.
If I had to pick one it would be the varsity series and I’m going to say I’m really looking forward to the American football fixture because we didn’t win against Trent a couple of weekends ago but I know we’re got it in us and the team are going to work really hard, so I’m really looking forward to that one. I’m also looking forward to the netball varsity series.
7. Can you comment on the mens football team being banned from varsity? Do you think the punishment was fair?
Fair doesn’t come into it when it comes to rules, if you break a rule you get punished.
K: I can comment and say that we went through the correct disciplinary procedures and we followed the procedures that are in place in the SU and we found that they broke the code of conduct so we therefore gave them a punishment which matched the breaking of the code of conduct. And the mens football club have worked very closely with us since that to follow what has been implemented through the decision that was made. And they are working really well with us.
All I can say is that it’s frustrating when you’re in this role to have, obviously everyone’s entitled to their own opinions, but it’s about realising that the reason why we have to give clubs punishment is not because we want to take anything away. It’s not fun at all. It’s because they’ve broken a rule, that they knew shouldn’t have broken and it’s put other students in a position where they may have felt uncomfortable or may have not wanted to join a sport, they may have been unhappy in the situation they were in. It may have caused harm to the community and the people we live around and so therefore if we were to ignore it, we wouldn’t be doing our jobs.
Do I think it was fair? Fair doesn’t come into it when it comes to rules, if you break a rule you get punished.
Hannah Eves
Image: Impact images
