SU President – Jay Basra

I’m Jay Basra, studying History and Politics, 2nd year undergraduate, and I’m a candidate for SU President.

“REFORM THE SU – Ensure fair and equal representation for all students”

How do you aim to lead the SU to help students in financial hardship?

First of all, students need to know what funding’s available for them, and make it more publicly known. I know many students who’ve applied for the wrong sort of funding. I know students who’ve applied for loans as if they’re staying at home with their parents, instead of actually putting down that they’re a student down in Belfast accommodation. It’s a very easy mistake to make; I was guilty of it last year, and I know others were, struggling to get finance. Another issue would be students who have separated parents who are not legally separated, finding it increasingly difficult to prove they’re separated; they’re not always eligible to the grant that is available to those on low income. It’s very difficult to prove that your parents are separated if not legally. It’s extremely invasive, and very difficult to ascertain without any legal proceedings.

What do you think isn’t been done by the SU leadership enough for students?

One thing I think that they need to do is the inclusion of Ulster Scots as a minority language on campus; it’s not been raised before. We’ve been involved in getting the Ulster Scots Society put forward, and with that I organised Burns Night as a celebration through that. It’s something not really looked at by the SU.

There should be a change in how policies are made in the SU. It used to be through the council; now it’s just an open student form. There needs to be a look at policies, because many policies have been repeated time and time again before. There’s an air of “is this really relevant?” – “what progress is being made in these policies?” There needs to be an overhaul in policies, and better insight in what they are actually doing. We need to look through them and have better insight in what they’re doing, and to ask as the SU what the policies actually are. There are many policies that are actually doubles of others. There needs to be an overhaul, and have more concise policies that are inclusive.

What experience – in SU and general student involvement – can you bring to this role?

I’m currently an SU councillor, and I’ve been working with many students. A recent thing we worked on was period poverty; the policies running out there, there was no transparency out there as to what was actually happening. We realised that the budgeting from Queen’s had affected the roll of period products across the schools; a disjointed approach there had been to the schools. That’s something that I was aware of and was trying to get the motion through; whatever way it fell, it only got through and raised in February. Due to different constitutional amendments, the ability to bring new policies in earlier has been hampered. Obviously I welcome the constitutional changes, however there was stuff that could’ve been brought up in meetings much earlier.

I’ve been involved in various societies as well, and as a Wellbeing Officer, which I think is something brilliant that has been brought about by the SU; it’s something that, within your own society, you can be signposted to the relevant mental health support that there is on campus.

What do you do outside of work?

I read history books; that’s about it really to be fair!

In 5 words or less, what is your campaign about?

Reforming the Queen’s Student Union.

You can read Jay’s manifesto here.

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