Student Elections 2025: Reflections from the Outgoing Sabbatical Officers

The results are now in from the Students’ Association Elections, which took place on Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 April. As the academic year draws to a close, The Saint interviewed the outgoing Sabbatical Officers, who shared their experiences in their roles, accomplishments, and advice for newly elected representatives.

Cam Brown, President:

President Cam Brown explained that one of his major goals was to “give the Union the biggest shake up that it has ever had.” The primary changes made during his tenure are based in The Democracy Review, which constitutes a central element of the Union’s Change Programme. The Review contributed to the restructuring of the Union’s Senior Management team, alongside expanding opportunities for students to be employed as interns and adding new positions such as the Student Advocacy Coordinator. Notably, the Sabbatical Officer structure has been adjusted so that there is now no longer one sole President. The Executive Team now consists of a President of Union Affairs, President of Education, President of Wellbeing and Community, and President of Student Opportunities. These measures were introduced to “ensure that the structures we have work for students,” Brown explained. “I’m proud to say that we are leaving the Union in a far better state than I found it.”

Another of Brown’s main objectives was to address accommodation affordability. In negotiations regarding next year’s increase in University accommodation fees, Brown and his team were able to “cut the university’s proposed increase in half,” settling on a 2.7 per cent increase for the 2025-2026 academic year. One of the main insights that Brown has gained from his experience is that “If you want to make real change, that often means ruffling feathers.” As he returns to his Master’s in Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Brown hopes that the incoming Executive Team will “continue to stand up for students.”

Hitanshi Badani, Director of Education:

Hitanshi Badani outlined that her original manifesto focused on four initial areas: accessibility, belonging, careers, and decolonisation. To champion all of these goals, she has worked with students across the University, including School Presidents and subcommittees such as the Disabled Students’ Network and BAME Students’ Network. During her tenure, Badani oversaw the introduction of lecture captioning and guidance for decompression spaces around the University, as well as increasing conversations on decolonisation within the curriculum.

Badani discussed the wider crisis within the higher education sector and how these repercussions are felt within St Andrews. She drew attention to the University of Dundee’s financial position and its plans to cut over 600 jobs as well as reduce the number of modules offered. Badani explained that a lot of the work she wanted to accomplish was hindered as a result of the nationwide crisis in funding.

Looking to the future, Badani urged incoming sabbatical officers to bring their own personal experience to the role. She stated: “There can be times when you’re expected to fit into this cookie cutter version of the role and I think it’s important in those rooms and meetings especially where most people are much older than you, much more experienced, a lot of them are white, a lot of them are of a certain socio-economic background […] it’s important to know that you are an expert at being a student and at academic representation.”

Milo Hill, Director of Events & Services:

For Milo Hill, a key aspect of achieving his objectives was working with the Events Creation team in order to revitalise Union events. This included collaborating with Sports Clubs and student collectives such as BPM, Latin Flow, and Throwbacks. Intending to streamline event promotion and foster student engagement, Hill implemented a weekly ‘What’s On’ social media post to showcase all Union events and activities happening each week.

On the challenges of the role, Hill stated: “Being the DoES is more than just organising the big events [...] it’s also all the nitty-gritty logistical elements of running our day-to-day events and services. Sometimes it’s pretty easy to get bogged down in the details and lose sight of the bigger picture.”

He added, “looking out onto a sea of happy faces attending an event I worked so hard on has always been the best part of this job.”

Caitlin Ridgway, Director of Wellbeing & Equality:

In her first year as Director of Wellbeing & Equality, Caitlin Ridgway created a webpage with support resources for student sex workers. In her second year, she worked to create an activism guidebook, aiming to inform students about their rights. One of her main achievements was her involvement in establishing ‘Got Solidarity’, which was intended to increase community confidence in being effective bystanders. This involved working with Student Services and student representatives to support different reporting procedures. Ridgway hopes that these resources continue to be promoted in the long term.

She described the difficulty in striking the balance between keeping track of her own goals and remaining attentive to what the students want. Ridgway’s time as a Sabbatical Officer has inspired her to continue working in the third sector in the future.

When asked what advice she would impart to future sabbatical officers, Ridgway stated: “Back yourself [...] you don’t need to put on some professional persona.” She emphasised the importance of taking a break: “Take your annual leave. You do better work if you take some of your annual leave.”

Olivia King, Athletic Union President:

As she started her tenure as Athletic Union President, Olivia King aimed to develop the Union’s recreational sport opportunities. Additionally, she sought to ensure that sports clubs could attend as many competitions as possible. King indicated that progress has been made towards these goals, and she is proud to have completed a Club Longevity Document that reviews the future potential of the University’s sports clubs. One of the foremost changes that King implemented was the introduction of an all-club general meeting designed to increase transparency with students. She explained, “I […] thought it was a great way to encourage open communication between the students, the Athletic Union, and Saints Sport.” The meeting fostered direct engagement with students, and King was happy to see that the event sparked an increase in the number of clubs requesting in-person meetings.

King noted that her responsibility to coordinate between many different clubs, students, and staff members sometimes required her to have difficult conversations with senior members of staff. “It is easy to get caught up in lots of different opinions that are flying around, but at the end of the day, our position is [to be] there for students,” she remarked. King hopes that the new Executive Team will “make every decision with students’ best interests at heart.”

Photos by University of St Andrews