Lauren McGaun
Muhammad Ali has been elected as your new Community Officer for 2021/22. Muhammad was declared the winner after two rounds of voting with 531 votes. Impact’s News Editor Lauren McGaun caught up with Muhammad to ask him a few questions.
We have such a huge, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reset the relationship between students and the local community
What are you most looking forward to in your role?
As we come out the other side of COVID-19, we have such a huge, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reset the relationship between students and the local community!
I’m looking forward, more than anything, to working on connecting students, societies, community groups and local institutions to collaboratively deliver positive change, and ensure this continues long after my time is up!
What was the highlight of your campaign?
In such a stressful week, it’s the little things that stay with you! Like the person who messaged me asking if I thought Taylor Swift deserved a Grammy – and was pleased enough with my reply that they voted for me! Also, having to fill out a form listing my sole campaign expense (£10.79 for a month of Tinder Gold – FOR CAMPAIGN PURPOSES I SWEAR) did prompt me to have a “What am I doing with my life?” moment!
How will you be celebrating?
On the night, I didn’t really know what to do! So I just ordered chicken wings, hugged my housemates, phoned my parents and went to sleep!
The next day was slightly more productive – mainly just trying to thank all the people who had contributed to my win, the local politicians who had endorsed me and helped me craft an exciting yet achievable manifesto.
Then I decided to get stuck in by going to a Lenton litter pick and chatting to the lovely organiser about how to get more students involved in making Lenton a nicer place for everyone who lives there!
In your new role, you’ve committed to donating half of your salary to charities. Have you thought about which causes this money will go to?
Yes! Half my salary sounds like a lot, but after tax etc. my take-home pay will only be £16,819.48 – so half of that is £8410. I want to make sure this money goes to causes that improve student wellbeing (such as Nightline and Night Owls), and where a small amount of money can have a big impact!
I’ve got a few months before I become an officer and start getting paid, so I’ll be speaking to societies and asking groups to reach out to me with plans of how they could use some extra cash – and then make decisions based on that!
Congratulations again, is there anything you’d like to say to the people who voted for you?
I hope that this will remind everyone that you can make change no matter who you are
Thank you. You genuinely don’t understand how much this means to me, and what an honour it is to be representing over 34,000 students.
You don’t often see people who look like me being elected to roles like this – but I hope that this will remind everyone that you can make change no matter who you are.
Lauren McGaun
Featured image courtesy of Chiara Crompton. No changes were made to this image.
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