Martha Roberts has been elected as your Environment and Social Justice Officer for 2020/21. Martha was declared the winner after winning one round of voting with 751 votes. Impact caught up with Martha to ask her a few questions.
What are you most looking forward to in your role?
I’m most looking forward to getting stuff done! I’m a project person and so I always have something big going on and this will certainly be the biggest! I can’t wait to meet people, learn and make change within the SU.
I also loved the amount of support all the candidates showed each other.
What was the highlight of your campaign?
Definitely making my video. I had such fun making it! I will have to get the blooper reel because there was so much fun content. I also loved the amount of support all the candidates showed each other. The comments, the endorsements. It was all really meaningful and sweet.
Were there any aspects of campaigning you found challenging?
Well firstly, I don’t think I can ever look at Facebook again! I didn’t realise quite how tiring constantly being ‘on it’ and refreshing social media is. Because we couldn’t interact with people I missed the input I could get from people. What they’d like to see from me next year and what they like about my manifesto points. I tried to do Q+A’s to compensate but there’s only so far they can reach.
There is the potential for your tenure to begin in lockdown, under these conditions how will you engage students?
I’ll definitely look into the possibility of having the normal ESJ meetings online and really try to push for more student engagement about sustainability. I’ll try and see it as an opportunity to get people thinking about what they can do once lockdown ends and get anything done in preparation for student’s to come onto campus. Having water loss and recycling education ready for the new cohort to come onto campus would be amazing.
Hopefully one day Sustainability Week can be a city-wide event run by both Universities.
On the People & Planet’s University Sustainability League the University of Nottingham places 75th whereas Nottingham Trent University places 4th, how will you pressure UoN to bridge this gap?
I actually asked this question a couple of months ago when first considering my campaign. A lot of the reason we’re so low is a lack of transparency and proper records of what we are doing. This should be an easy fix to help us better understand where we are as a University and as a Student’s Union. But this measure was where I had my idea for the Waste Nott a drop campaign. We haven’t really addressed water wastage on campus. Not even all the bathrooms are installed with efficient plumbing. So I will lobby the University to implement these changes and educate the student body as to what they can do to help
Would you consider building a relationship with NTU?
I’d love to! We worked with them last year for Sustainability Week and I aim to do the same again. Hopefully one day Sustainability Week can be a city-wide event run by both Universities. We both have strengths in different areas and more voices means more ideas, so I’m glad to have their input!
How will you be celebrating your election?
I think I will sleep for a week and play an unhealthy amount of Animal Crossing! Maybe treat myself to a bath bomb? The choices are endless!
Ellie Stainforth-Mallison
Featured image courtesy of Nina Sasha.
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