Luke James - The President of Swansea University Student Union
Parts of Swansea are a city divided. On one side lie the residents, who see the students as tax-dodging, drunken slackers. The students see the residents as fussy killjoys. Building the bridge between them is politics graduate Luke James, who pledges to leave his door open for residents and students alike as the newly-elected President of Swansea Student Union.
“If the Sabbatical team and the Student’s Union aren’t familiar faces and regular players in the community next year, then we haven’t done our jobs,” says Cardiff-born Luke, who believes that the things he learnt during a testing year as Education Officer has given him a good grounding. “The Education role does equip you to be President,” he says. This preparation was different to most after the Browne Review (of higher education fees) was announced. “It’s not something I’d dealt with before but there’s a lot of reading to get your head round it.”
The role of Education Officer culminated in an intense week of campaigning to be President, which Luke enjoyed: “We had a small team and planned it really well,” he says. “We knocked on hundreds of doors in student areas to get the vote out. I knew if I worked hard this year, I’d stand a good chance.”
During a four-year degree, Luke lived next door to residents in Brynmill and thinks that during his time, the perception of students by residents has changed: “Even before I was involved, there was lots of hard work being done to engage with the wider community,” he says. “This year we’ve been knocking on doors to ask students whether they know what day their bins are meant to go out.”
“But even before I was involved, there were a lot of campaigns to improve our relationship, such as the ‘shhh!’ campaign where lollipops were given to students going home from a night out,” he says. “A lot of the work we do now is around a student’s place in the community. I think it’s working from the reaction we’ve been getting.” Although Luke accepts that there will always be one or two unhappy residents he says that the Union are beginning to address the persistent problems.
So is the contribution made by students to Swansea an underrated one? Luke says that it isn’t just a financial boon that they provide: “The political landscape would be poorer without students,” he says. “I went to the (vote) count and there were lots of students taking part in local democracy. The contribution that students make is invaluable and we need to make sure that everyone sees it.”
Luke knows that communication is crucial to the next stage of the student-resident relationship. “The only way to engage with residents it to talk to them and let them know that we’re tackling the issues they want to see.” Part of this is to mobilise students toward community causes, like the recent library closures. As part of Luke’s job, he also needs to balance the diverse views of the students themselves: “I’ve never had a problem keeping my own politics detached,” he says. “I’m here to support all students no matter what their political affiliation.”
With an ambition to build on his own journalistic experience, what does he want his legacy to be? “Making small differences that students can actually see,” he says, “It’s not always the big meetings, the government level problems. It’s the small things that change student’s lives.”