Manifesto Analysis: Emma Craig

Ms Craig’s optimistic and ambitious manifesto pays particular attention to issues surrounding sexual and gender-based violence, as well as improving student relationships with alcohol. She takes care to detail her numerous relevant experiences: ranging from working with Nightline, GotLimits and the Emily Test focus group, as well as her most recent role as a Student Health Officer for Wellbeing.

Gender-Based Violence

Ms Craig presents an impressive awareness and experience of the issues surrounding gender-based violence in St Andrews, demonstrating a nuanced appreciation of the specific shortcomings of the current systems. She suggests the introduction of a campus safety app which would allow students to reach helplines and the emergency services, as well as more university-specific features such as Nighbus times. Ms Craig also expresses an intent to reinstate GotConsent workshops within student accommodation and provide practical and direct guidance for incident reporting and seeking university support – a remarkably concrete and actionable proposal. Ms Craig also recognises the need for non-alcoholic meeting places for students, and aims to provide a greater range of alternative venues, proposing to extend the opening hours of establishments such as Rectors and the Old Union Cafe. This, in addition to her motion to reinstate GotLimits, seems particularly practical in its aims to foster a more positive relationship between students and alcohol by making socialising more inclusive.

Mental Health

Ms Craig’s sustained engagement with the university’s current mental health resources is evident in her manifesto, where she distinguishes specific problem areas and proposes proportionate measures to tackle the lack of visibility of mental health support services for not only students, but Student Leaders, too. She aims to improve online accessibility for university student support resources and explicitly seeks to promote the services that Nightline offers. She plans to implement a series of Wellbeing Workshops, dealing with issues ranging from relationships to accessibility and drugs and alcohol. Ms Craig’s manifesto also recognises the diverse social preferences of St Andrews students, and seeks to differing social experiences of remedy imbalances in social accessibility for underrepresented groups such as non-drinkers and the neurodiverse.

Equality and Diversity

Ms Craig also demonstrates an appropriate level of commitment to more visible underrepresented groups, and grants due attention to the pertinent issues within equality, diversity and inclusion. Her focus on tackling the particular challenges faced by the neurodiverse, the BAME and LGBTQ+ communities is likewise commendable. To this end, she commits to creating a greater representation of marginalised groups within the Student Services team as well as more comprehensive EDI staff training: measures which are intended to improve both the quality and quantity of specialised support.