Rebecca Hart | University Observer

By University Observer | Feb 28 2017

Nursing student Rebecca Hart discusses what she would do as SU president, which includes a “Reveal for 8” campaign, improvements to accommodation, and making life easier for students[br]THIRD year nursing student Rebecca Hart is running on a platform that focuses on student community and campaigns.In her manifesto, she mentions, though does not expand upon, a campaign called “Reveal for 8.” This would be a campaign where people would wear, for example “crop tops and shorts” and “have an 8 printed on them somewhere.” She states “it is to show as much as possible of you repealing the 8^th.” The campaign would be to show that “we can do what we want with our own bodies.”She denies that it would be like the Slut Walk which was a consent campaign held last year where people marched across campus wearing revealing clothing bearing signs with messages such as “My Dress is not a Yes” and “By definition you cannot ask to be raped.”Speaking on fees, Hart states in her manifesto that “I personally believe the system we have works” but in conversation with the Observer she said “I would personally love [the contribution charge] to be lowered but I believe between the three systems that are offered to the students that’s probably the best one.”

It is to show as much as possible of you repealing the 8^th.

The three options are those mentioned in the Cassells’ report, which will be options in the upcoming SU referendum on fees. Hart states she doesn’t believe in entirely free fees because she doesn’t believe that it is fair on students “to know that when they go out into the workforce they’re going to have to pay ridiculous tax to compensate the fact that they didn’t pay fees.” Speaking on the possibility of free fees, Hart states “the government just doesn’t have the funding to sustain that.”On accommodation, Hart states that while inflation may increase prices, to reduce the financial burden she would like more “cheap and cheerful accommodation” like Belgrove. She would like accommodation to feature the “bare essentials”. Hart would also look for accommodation payments to be “broken into instalments” instead of one lump sum.As stated in her manifesto she would like “all union representatives” to be SafeTalk and/or ASSIST trained. These are suicide prevention training with SafeTalk teaching people to spot when someone may be suicidal and ASSIST training focusing on how to deal with such a situation. Hart is SafeTalk trained.She would like the SU to produce a book of “handy tips for living on your own” with “a diary and a cookbook” among other things, based off a book that was produced in previous years by the SU.Hart also notes the need for a review of the extenuating circumstances policy which she states was “last reviewed in 2005” and is long overdue as a result.She intends increasing awareness of the UCD WalkSafe program, which is run by campus services so that students do not have to walk across campus alone at night. Noting that there are phones in many buildings, Hart would like to put phones in more places such as “the gym,” “the bar,” and “the library.”

I personally believe the [fees] system we have works

Despite claiming consent is a priority, Hart does not mention it in her manifesto. Although she says that consent classes “were a good idea” but “people just weren’t interested.” She adds that she could “try and increase awareness but not necessarily have mandatory consent classes…I don’t know if classes are the right way to go about it” and “it’s really hard to say something is mandatory.” She suggested that class reps “encourage consent.”Hart is also the Health Sciences College officer and the Ents crew coordinator, though she does not mention these roles in her manifesto.She was Health Science College Officer last year as well ,though she was on Erasmus for the second semester of that period. Hart explains that her reasoning for keeping the role whilst in England was based on a “chat with the sabbat team at the time.” She states that her elected deputy was “trained in to understand what I do everyday.”It would seem that Hart may have considered other sabbatical roles but settled on the role of president because, in her own words, “when I put up the roles and worked out what my strengths were I had more in the presidential box than any others.” She says that she’d be able to make sure that student voices were heard “as loudly as possible.”