Hi Friends,

I am Avinash Miriyam, studying a Master’s in film and Television Production and President at Anglia Ruskin Students’ Union for this academic year. As a president of the Students’ Union this year started with a lot of uncertainty but we never lose our confidence in supporting students and constantly changing according to the situations to the best of my ability to stand along with students starting from International students payment plans, name change for trans students, requesting for hassle free extensions, Requesting captions for Video lectures, safety net policy, discussing about set up of a BAME committee and many more reactive campaigns to address issues and concerns of students to sort out them immediately. Due to ongoing situations I am back at some times in completing my projects on time but never late in listening and replying to students. You have probably seen me around the campus talking with students enquiring about issues and sharing their happiness whenever I am there on Campus (with Safety measures). Still I remember I was like you when I joined, I felt the emotions of being new and homesick, I went through residential problems, was stressed at the time of assignments and much more like how you felt in the University all these days. With all these experiences I have had as a student it has led me to help students in whatever way I can do, in the best possible manner to change the university into the best place to live. I can still empathise with the struggles and the joys of students. So, friends let’s come together to make our university a better place to develop ourselves whilst helping each other.

• To promote employability opportunities across various departments in the university with the support of ARU Temps.

• Organising bi-monthly meetings with members of the prior alumni for students as it would be insightful and a great chance to exchange ideas, know their experiences, know about Job market and many more related to career prospects.

• I will continue to do my best to push forward with the current campaigns in place to assist mental health and wellbeing as well as ensure that students are involved with the process through the introduction of regular engaging activities and talks and maintain sustainability across all campuses by doing whatever we can to reduce plastic usage and remain environmentally friendly. 

• The decentralisation of power is something that means a lot to me. I feel it would be my duty as a student representative to ensure that people aren’t left feeling unequal and out of the loop in terms of communication. I would aim to do this by encouraging all representatives to meet up and regularly discuss their ideas and intentions for the future and current benefit of students and planning to change my home based campus from Cambridge to Chelmsford to give equal representation to all students.

• I would like to forward the idea of making maintenance costs more manageable for students when they first arrive. It is a stressful time as it is without having the worries of ID card charges and printing credit on top of it. I would like to propose that students are credited with an initial small allowance of printing credit to get them started in their semester and, if possible, look into the other costs around. 

• I would like to do everything I can to make the university feel like a home away from home for international students. I would do this by making sure there are activities available for everyone where they can meet with others from their countries and talk about how they feel.

• I would like continue to make sure that students are well represented and aware of all the extracurricular activities around which are related to their course in order to help them with their career prospects. Obtaining feedback about the student experience through the representatives, rep- coordinators and Course based societies rep through regular meetings would help me to achieve this.

• I would like to maintain or improve the standards of accountability and communication between students and the student’s services (residential, personal hygiene facilities and maintenance, security, etc.).

• I will listen to everyone’s ideas and always have their best interest at heart. I want to feel like a friend to them, someone they can talk too comfortably and with confidence. Implementing procedures and taking action with the utmost care is important, and so are the beliefs and values of the students, so I will always consider these when it comes to making any decisions.

• Many reactive campaigns as per ongoing situations

To achieve all these, I need your support to act as the voice of students in the university to the best of my ability. So, Re-elect (Avinash Miriyam) as you’re Student Union President and support me as your representative across all platforms in the university, together as a team.