Late last term we held our annual Leadership Race, where you decided who runs clubs, societies and the whole students’ union for the year ahead. It was our largest Leadership Race ever, with more students voting than ever before.
In a closely fought contest, a new Sabbatical Officer team was elected, with both Shaban and Aria re-elected into their roles of Education Officer and Activities and Engagement Officer respectively.
However, since the result was announced in March, Aria has chosen to accept a place on a Master’s programme at Columbia University, NY, and withdraw from the 2024-25 Sabbatical Officer team.
When an elected candidate withdraws, we refer to the Returning Officer for the election (the external elections expert appointed to oversee the running of the election in line with the rules) for advice on the next steps. Due to the high number of candidates running to be Activities and Engagement Officer in this year’s Leadership Race and the short amount of time between the count being completed and Aria withdrawing, the Returning Officer decided to re-run the count without Aria’s candidacy.
Re-running the count takes place in the same way as it does on election results night, however, this time there was one less candidate on the ballot.
We pleased to announce that our new Activities and Engagement Officer is Anastasija Boikova.
Anastasija will join Shaban, Eda, Darcy, Rachel, and Goksu as the 2024-25 Sabbatical Officer team.
Aria will continue in office until her term ends in mid-July.
If you have any questions about the Leadership Race or the re-count, get in touch with our elections team on [email protected]
Let’s hear from Anastasija:
“Activities have been a huge part of my UCL life and I want to bring the same happiness to others. As a commuter, joining clubs was the best way to make amazing friends and memories. I wish to bring more activities that suit everyone's preferences and allow others to make the most of their time at UCL. I am very approachable and easygoing and will be able to integrate a wide range of ideas from club members to make everyone feel welcome. Being part of TeamUCL has allowed me to understand the problems that clubs face regularly so I wish to fix these and get more UCL students involved.”
What I hope to achieve in my role:
- Increase collaboration between clubs during term-time for events and projects by improving inter-club relations within the Student Union and providing more funding towards these events.
- Enlarge the Varsity series by increasing opportunities for other sports and arts clubs to participate.
- Provide more opportunities for clubs to gain new members, especially in term 2, by having better engagement incentives during fairs and more advertising opportunities during term-time.
- Boost incentives for clubs to integrate UCL East students and alumni.
- Increase volunteering opportunities for clubs.