SU Spring Officer Elections 2025: Your new Sabbatical Team

The Warwick Students' Union (SU) 2025 Spring Officer Elections came to a close on Friday, 7 March 2025 with the annual Big Decision results night.

After a year that has seen controversy for student democracy with the "cancellation" of termly All-Student Votes, the vote saw a spike in turnout to 6,390, up 16% from ~5.5k last year.

Many candidates focused their campaigns on accessibility, the cost-of-living, and transparency within the SU. As with every year, there was a broad consensus for streamlining SU processes, and bridging perceived divides between student concerns and the Union's campaigns.

In an unexpected finish to the election, no result for President was declared on the night, owing to what was described as a "procedural irregularity".

Of similar note was the outcome for Vice President for Sports, which saw the first ever time a Full-Time Officer election has resulted in R.O.N. (Re-Open Nominations). Students opted to reject the single candidate on the ballot, Ollie Seal, after a coordinated effort by members of sports clubs to block what they said represented a 'joke candidacy'.

Disabled Students' Officer

Ruby Deakin and Harriet Paget were the first winners of the SU’s Spring Elections Results night. Co-running for Disabled Students’ Officer, the pair won the position unopposed.

Describing the campaign as “a learning curve”, Deakin joked she was “glad that ‘RON’ did not run a successful campaign” against the duo following their victory.

The two have already hit the ground running, telling The Boar they were “currently in talks” to “establish more communication between different departments” and wellbeing services.

In addition, they plan on taking a cautious but determined approach to their key pledge to lobby departments to implement an ‘opt-out’ system of lecture capture, noting “significant resistance to a change in policy” thus far. Nonetheless, they remained optimistic: “We’re fairly confident that we’ve got the ball rolling enough that this will be a viable change.”

Women's Officer

“Really excited” by her election, it was Katie Todd that came out on top in the six-person race for Women’s Officer, winning 660 votes.

Speaking to The Boar, she admitted the result had yet to fully sink in but expressed gratitude to those who voted for her, as well as to her fellow candidates: “It’s been a really tiring but great campaign.”

Reflecting on the experience, she described it as “an absolute whirlwind” and described students’ enthusiasm to engage with her campaign as “refreshing, because a lot of people are disillusioned with politics and with the SU”.

Todd’s key priority is securing free drink covers in campus bars and clubs, which she sees as a “really practical” step towards improving women’s safety. Beyond that, she hopes to be a role model for other women looking to get involved in student leadership.

On potential challenges ahead, she acknowledged that change “isn’t going to be easy” but expressed positivity: “The SU is here to listen to students, and I hope that I can be the person to go and take it to them.”

Environment & Ethics Officer

Next up was the newly elected Environment & Ethics Officer, Helena Ratcliffe, who romped to victory with almost 900 more votes than the rest of her opponents combined. She told The Boar: “I’m really excited to start the role next year. The campaign has been really fun as well, I’ve had a great week.”

Ratcliffe said that “food waste bins in campus accommodation” are her first priority, as well as “easy fixes” like more bins for vapes and gum disposal. This would help provide students with “more opportunities to be sustainable”. She also suggested that the All Student Vote for plant-based menus could be reviewed.

Asked whether she was expecting any pushback from the SU against her policies, she said that she “would hope not” given that her proposals are “not too controversial” and “definitely achievable within the SU”.

LGBTQUA+ Officer

Jessie Yu and Mattie Oke, who cruised to victory as new LGBTQUA+ Officers with almost 900 more votes than their opponent, said they felt “amazing” after the win, even if the result “wasn’t totally unexpected” given the invisibility of their competition.

Oke said he had enjoyed running the pair’s campaign Instagram, even if he had some lingering doubts over the quality of content produced, while Yu added the week had been a “good opportunity to communicate and engage with students”. The pair reflected on “lots of good conversations with the queer people of Warwick.”

Asked where they might start in the role, Oke mooted starting with an easier pledge “to help us get our courage in”, but affirmed their commitment to everything in their manifesto. They mentioned having spoken to the current holders of the role about shadowing the position during Warwick Pride Festival, to gain experience before officially taking on the position next year.

Trans' Students Officer

The next PTO to be announced was Lillian Pipe as the new Trans Students’ Officer. Elected unopposed to the position, Pipe expressed her disappointment at the lack of competition in the role, saying “I know there’s been a lot of years where the role has been unopposed, and I would like to see more trans students put themselves out there [in the future].”

Nevertheless, Pipe believes she is well-placed to represent the trans community at Warwick through her links with Warwick Pride and Warwick Trans* Soc, adding that she would like to “very much pay [the trans community’s] vote back” through the role.

When asked what the first thing she’d like to do in her new role was, Pipe said she would like to ensure that trans students have easy access to information about “how to navigate the University from their unique perspectives and identity.”

Ethnic Minorities Officer

Riann Mehta, the new Ethnic Minorities Officer, won their position unopposed. He told The Boar he was excited by the “great opportunity” to represent ethnic minority students on campus and “make voices heard”.

Reflecting on the campaign, he spoke on how, having started off “initially quite moderate”, “I went to something more radical, because I wanted to express my own views, my own convictions regarding ethnic minorities in their treatment and how we can deal with that. And I think it was very well received by most people I spoke to.”

Mehta’s focus for the future is on working with groups like Warwick Action For Palestine to continue raising awareness on the divestment campaign, as well as working with JSoc to prevent antisemitism. They highlighted in particular their pledge to introduce ethnic minority officers to every society, a change that “will allow us to hold each other accountable and make sure the rise of fascism is suppressed on campus”.

VP Postgraduate Students

The first Full-Time Officer result to be announced on the night was for VP Postgraduates, which was won by Maanya Raju with 1,083 votes.

Speaking to The Boar following her victory, Raju thanked her “amazing” campaign team, adding she was “really happy” to be elected to the position – the most-contested role of the election, with 12 candidates standing.

She went on to outline that her first plan for the role was to continue working on the Postgraduate Forum, introduced by the outgoing VP Postgraduates, Alijah Taha, ensuring that the group has “proper meetings”.

Raju also said that she would like to utilise social media more to engage with postgraduate students and to advertise workshops and events so that postgraduates are aware of what is happening on campus.

VP Welfare & Campaigns

Following Raju was Ollie Chapman, who won VP Welfare & Campaigns by over a thousand votes over his closest challenger. Chapman said he was “just so grateful, and very overwhelmed and very humbled by how many people came up helped me this week”. He affirmed his intent to “work endlessly” to achieve his manifesto pledges.

“I think we have the biggest campaign on campus”, he continued, “I've had to apologise to Warwick students for how many leaflets they've received this week.” He again reiterated his gratitude to his supporters, and said how excited he was to start in the role. “I don’t really know what to say. I’m so overwhelmed.”

As for what he wanted to do upon getting there, he described in detail his intent to create an A3 checklist of tasks, whereupon “I'm going to start ticking through them as quickly as I can, as efficiently as I can, and hopefully achieve as much as I can.”

VP Democracy & Development

The new VP for Democracy and Development was announced next, with James Varney securing victory over his opponent by some 400 votes.

Although describing election week as “gruelling”, Varney said that his campaign “got off to a flying start”, and that “that pace pretty much continued throughout the rest of the week.”

“I think I’ve been to almost every subject lecture hall, and I've had a great joy speaking to people”, he told The Boar. Varney plans to “commission a report into where the SU’s democracy is failing” once he begins his new role.

To “end the University and the SU’s complicity in unethical projects”, Varney aims to work with student campaign groups like the Student Staff Solidarity Network, he said, “empowering them to really deliver the change they want to see”.

VP Education

The new VP Education was then confirmed as Ananya Sreekumar, who defeated three others to win 2,145 votes.

Speaking to The Boar, Sreekumar described the many “positive interactions” she has had during her campaign. “It's been really lovely to go and actually interact with [students] and hear what they want to see from the SU."

Sreekumar’s first action will be to start research on the “racist and microaggressive experiences that students face in the classroom”. This “longer-term goal” will be addressed alongside more “doable” ones, she said, like ensuring a “universal self-certification policy”.

Elaborating on her manifesto proposal to create a “decolonisation handbook”, Sreekumar explained that this will encourage wider decolonisation work across the University. She plans to “reach out” to experts to create this streamlined resource.

VP Societies

In the last declaration of the night, Adam Skrzymowski was announced as the next VP Societies, beating Anshuman Joshi by an almost 2-to-1 margin. Reflecting on his victory, he said, “Brilliant, happy but sad because I’ve got to wait however many months until we actually start.”

Discussing his campaign, he shared: “It’s definitely the best I could have done, maybe even better than I expected. Yesterday, we realized we still had 100 posters left to put up and went a bit crazy. If you’ve been down Library Road, you’ll see five of my posters everywhere—it was really fun to join that chaos.”

Looking ahead, Skrzymowski told The Boar his main priority is working on reductions to the Societies Federation fee, which he believes will take the longest to implement.

For more immediate change, he plans to focus on helping the execs prepare for the year ahead and Freshers’ events. He also hopes to improve resource sharing, proposing “a forum on the SU website where people can post available equipment and contact details, so others can easily access resources. It’s about building more collaboration.”

In the absence of a declared victor for President, The Boar instead spoke to Enaya Nihal, the incumbent for the position who watched much of the proceedings throughout the night.

Commenting on the election’s “massive voter turnout”, Nihal said that “we’ve blown last year out of the water”. She added: “I think next year is going to be even bigger and even better – we’re gonna keep improving.”

Nihal offered two pieces of advice to her successor. Firstly, she said: “Pick your main priorities and stick to them. [...] Focus on what you can do and make sure that they’re in line with the strategic goals of the Union.”

Her second piece of advice was to “make sure you are a human being outside of the role”. Reflecting on the pressures and responsibilities which accompany the position, she conceded that “that can be a lot”. One way to manage this, she said, is to “make sure that you do have a network outside of the Union”, for instance by joining societies and sports clubs.

Nihal praised her departing FTO team, highlighting her work with the VP for Education and progress towards releasing exam timetables earlier. She also pointed out the successes of recent campaigns such as SHaG Fest and the demilitarisation effort.

Asked how she had found working with The Boar, she said it had been “great” and emphasised the communication that she had maintained between the university, SU, and the newspaper. She concluded: “The Boar holds us to account in a lot of ways. I think it’s really good that we have dialogue about it as well.”

Much like last year, the interview was wrapped up with a photo opportunity with the paper’s porcine mascot, Boaris.