Felix Interviews Deputy President (C&S) Candidate: Benjamin Howitt

Voting is now open! Click here to take part now.

Already voted? Take part in our exit poll to tell us who you voted for!

What made you run for this position?

Other than, “I’m a massive Union hack”? I wasn’t in halls for my first year, and that meant almost of my closest friends came from the societies I joined – being a fresher, that ended up being a lot. I got involved in committees from February of first year, and it all sort of built from there.

I think I’ve got the experience to do a really good job, and there are changes in the pipeline at the moment that I want to see followed through. I believe I have a good perspective on how valuable a good society and Union can be to your uni experience, and it’s something I want to promote.

What is the main change you would like to implement if elected?

That’s a difficult one – there are lots. The main one would be changing the way we approach feedback. I’m aware of incidents during club activity – like risk reporting – that nobody wants to talk about because they’re worried about sanctions. Or the mindset of “they won’t listen anyway, what’s the point?”

I honestly think that there are issues that the Union can do something about. I think that they are willing to listen to reason. And, if they’re not, then we have a more serious problem entirely.

What is your favourite thing about Imperial?

Clubs and Societies. Obviously. There aren’t many places where you could find an internationally renowned scifi convention and a pole dance class in the same building. I think that’s exciting.

What is the biggest challenge you foresee in the next year?

There’s a lot going through Union committees at the moment, like a reassessment of the policies on Tours, the Management Groups (who looks after which clubs) and Harlington, which supplies a lot of the funding for big club purchases. It’ll be important to keep contact with the students affected over the break and make sure we don’t do anything silly.

The scary thing for me, though, is the general relationship we have with the Union. Things like the Weeks closure, amenities fund changes, and the various sports team incidents have created an environment where it feels like the Union doesn’t care about students at all. Building that relationship back up will be a real challenge.

What sort of C and S activity would you like to see at Acton?

Things like Dance, Yoga, and many of the social societies could easily move the equipment they need out to acton easily, and I know there are talks ongoing with College on how often the space will be available. The music practice rooms are a huge opportunity to take some of the load off the Blyth centre and to rehearse small ensembles.

Acton’s not the end of the world? at the edges of the earth. It is accessible. More importantly, it’s going to house over 600 freshers from next year – so I think there’s a clear gain for societies to start moving at least some of their activity out there.

What sort of training would you like to introduce for club and society volunteers?

We already have training for “how to run an election”, “how to approve a claim” etc – it’s on the website. We fall down with important skills like “how to keep freshers around long enough to get them onto the committee” and “how to write a strong application for Union funding”. It’s all knowledge that exists within some clubs, but it’s not universal. The challenge will be to get that knowledge from current committees before the end of the year so we can pass it on in training during September.

A lot of effort goes into making sure that, during elections, candidates get considered on their own merits and not their detailed knowledge of the system. It seems silly that the same people should be judged by completely different standards during their term in office.

How exactly do you plan to run a focus group, considering even some Council meetings fail to meet quorum?

I don’t think it’s completely fair to compare Council meetings, set an entire year in advance, to group meetings that can be arranged as convenient for those attending. The Education and Representation Board and Clubs, Societies and Projects Board meet quorum at almost every meeting – and these are just the ones I’ve attended.

My concern with Council meetings comes from the necessary pressure to make decisions during a meeting. It’s a body vested with a huge amount of power, and that can mean that discussions are laced with a perceived need to “do something”. This group wouldn’t have the same urgency to it.