Ben Bean
Ben Bean is a third year Chemistry student running for Sport Officer.
His manifesto emphasises sponsorship for Varsity. He explains “the two universities we’ve got in the city bring a lot of revenue into this city, and therefore, we need to make varsity more of a city-wide event”, pitching “you’ve got some brilliant young athletes on your doorstep, come and have a look at them”. This, he hopes will incentivise local businesses to think “if I sponsor this event it’s not just students that are going to see this, it’s local families, it’s local business workers”.
He aims to increase exposure for the less established sports: “a lot of these small sports do a lot of other great stuff… If they’re running as a really well-functioned club, why shouldn’t they get as much spotlight as someone else just because they’ve got more members?”
He then expanded this to representation in the Sports Executives Committee: “you’ve got to make sure you’ve got representation from all over, not just presidents from the bigger clubs, and I think that’s where you make sure that everyone’s represented.”
When questioned on sponsorship contracts, highlighted in his manifesto, he responded: “I think it’s just a case of holding them more accountable, saying – you’ve got to make amends, make amends properly”. He cited a past incident where a kit supplier failed to deliver and offered discounts for a waterproof sports jacket. However, he impressed that this was inadequate for players of indoor sports.
The University of Nottingham currently sit 2nd in the British Universities and College Sports League, having finished 3rd in the previous two years. He recognised this is an area in which the Sports Office excels and “It’s about continuing the great work that past Officers have done to keep raking in the BUCS points.”
His campaign slogan ‘Bean and Gold’ draws on the University’s sports colours of green and gold and “it’s part of the university culture”.
James Hurman
Millie Doherty
Third-year Geography and Chinese Studies student, Millie Doherty, is running for the position of Sport Officer.
Millie explains her main manifesto points: “my first one is to do with welfare provision. The welfare that the sport department offers and the SU offer is great, but I want that to be open to more people.”
Mille continues, “more committee members and anyone who volunteers with IMS or Engaged should be able to have that training.”
Mille states “my second point is to do with the relationship with Player Layer”. She also expresses, “I want to have a look at how we can improve the relationship with them if we’re sticking with them for the next three years.”
Furthermore, she’s “looking at improving the Sutton Bonnington gym,” commenting that “it is of a much lower standard than it should be.”
“A lot of the time you go to the gym but it’s too busy, so I want to use the university app to track how busy the gyms are. If you can see how many people are at each gym it might make it easier.”
On the subject of the University’s success in BUCS, Millie explains how she aims to maintain or improve the level achieved already: “We’ve done really well this year. I think it’s difficult with funding and investment, but I think we’re doing really well at pushing our performance sports to do better because that’s where we can achieve a lot of BUCS points more quickly, but also having more teams playing in BUCS leagues.”
When asked about how she stands out among the other candidates that are running for Sports Officer, Millie expresses that she “genuinely really cares and would love to represent as many students as possible.”
She continues: “sport has been such a big part of my university life. I have spoken to a lot of people involved in sport at university and have used their feedback to base my manifesto points around.”
Rosa Morgan
For more information on the candidates read their manifestos on the Student Leader Page.
Credits for banner image Ella Taylor. Featured images Credits to Impact Images
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