The student body has spoken in record numbers to elect the six Student Union representatives for next year. 

1527 people voted to elect Beth Woodthorpe-Evans, John Crossley, Samantha Morton, Thomas Bailey, Lindsay Bradley and Kirsty Styles for the Sabbatical and Student Council positions. 

In his opening speech at the results ceremony, current SU President Gavin Jones said: “Students of today and the future are facing challenges that have never been seen before in the United Kingdom… Sabbaticals across the country must work together and let the Government know the student voice will not be subdued or muted.”

In a nail biting two-hour ceremony, Beth Woodthorpe-Evans was elected SU President, John Crossley Media Officer, Samantha Morton Campaigns Officer, Thomas Bailey Activities and Participation Officer and Lindsay Bradley was elected Education Officer. Kirsty Styles will chair the Student Council.

For the first time in UCLan history the entire team has been elected directly from the student body and not other positions. 

In typical fashion voting for the SU president position went right to the wire with just 56 votes separating the two candidates. 

In her speech, winner Beth Woodthorpe-Evans promised to do “the best job for my union- I won’t let you down UCLan.” 

After the results, Beth said: “I’m looking forward to getting started now. We have to keep moving the union forward; obviously it’s a whole new team and a whole new committee this time so we’re all going to have new ideas to bring to the table. So many people didn’t know what the role of the president or union is and that’s wrong. People should know and I can’t wait to tell them. 

“I’m very lucky that the three years I’ve been here I’ve made a lot of friends. I genuinely think that in elections people underestimate the power of the spoken word. So many people I spoke to had voted on word of mouth- I think that was the winning factor. 

“I think a lot of my votes will have come from sports teams, players, clubs, and societies and from online; you can do it anywhere at anytime which really helps.”

After losing out on the Presidency, current Campaigns Officer Lee Bradshaw is now planning to do the third year of his Politics degree. 

Speaking after the results, Lee said: “My campaign team were awesome, they’ve been a great support for me and I wouldn’t have got so close if it wasn’t for them. It’s been a great experience and I’ve absolutely loved it. Someone had to win and Beth ran a good campaign- I hope the union does well under her.”

It was a close margin for APO officer too, with Thomas Bailey winning by 81 votes. Speaking after his victory he said: “I’m really passionate about UCLan and I’m looking forward really to taking this Uni to much better and further places. I’ve been here five years so I want to push it forward and take it to where ever it can go. 

“My first step is to work closely with Kelly who is current APO and I want to learn everything I can from her and take it forward from there.” 

Candidate Sarahmae Morton said: “I feel better that it was quite a close result, but I’m pretty gutted because I really wanted the job. I did as much as I could and was out and about on campus all the time. It was stressful but it was really good fun and I enjoyed it.” 

Pluto Opinion Editor, Kirsty Styles, was elected as chair of the Student Council. She said: “I’m really looking forward to seeing if we can get the men’s representative back on the Student Council, it’s completely ludicrous that it was decided that men didn’t need to be represented. Equally just like women, black students, disabled and even elderly. I spoke to a lot of people when campaigning and they were equally baffled by it.” 

In an earlier interview with Pluto she expressed disappointment that no-one else was running for the position. “This is a voluntary position and no one else went for it. When I was campaigning I met a lot of people who just don’t seem to care but then there were a lot of people who were really interested in my ideas.” 

Education Officer went to second stage voting as none of the candidates achieved a majority vote. Despite achieving fewer second preference votes, the aggregate total was enough to clinch victory for Lindsay Bradley. 

She said: “I can’t explain how I’m feeling. I can’t stop shaking; it’s all been so intense.”

 “It has been fantastic and such a valuable experience. Even to those who didn’t win, it’s such an experience and really improves your confidence,” she added. 

Next year Pluto, Frequency and PSTV will be run by newly elected Media Officer John Crossley. In a landslide result, John took 459 of the 910 votes. 

He said of how overwhelmed he was at winning by a big figure. He said: “I was expecting it to be close. Karen was a strong candidate, the female magazine equivalent of me. I tried to get out there and meet as many people as I could, I guess they saw my passion and how much I wanted it.” 

He went on to say: “I’m looking forward to the development of the new website, making PSTV more recognised and working with the current editorial team.” 

And in the most prominent of all the election campaigns, RON was beaten in the race for Campaigns Officer by Samantha Hutchinson. 

Samantha said: “I was really nervous about RON winning. It was in the back of my mind, what if…what if… but I campaigned my heart out and am really pleased, I really wanted it.” 

Third year student Arran Taylor campaigned on behalf of RON to “increase choice in the election.” And while his campaign received 192 votes it wasn’t enough to re-open the vote. 

The elected officers replace Gavin Jones, Kelly Burdett, Lee Bradshaw, Sarah Delli-Colli and Andy Squire.

They begin their posts on July 1.   

Speaking after the event, Gavin Jones said: “It was nice to see all the candidates talking to students on campus. It’s always important to engage the student body and I think it’s helped to break the record for the number of votes.” 

“A lot of the candidates that didn’t get the positions had a wealth of experience and that’s always good. But it’s also good to get fresh people in to implement their skills and knowledge,” he added. 

Numbers Breakout