“The ‘Fund our Future’ and National Demo certainly dominated our activities in the first few weeks of the autumn term. We made it clear that the issue of cuts and tuitions fees were the campaigning priorities for the Student Officers and worked hard to convince students it should also matter to them. We dedicated much time to directly communicate to the student body by having things like stalls, but we also make sure that our message was incorporated into everyday meetings students would have. For example, in every hall talk we made sure we highlighted our ‘Fun our Future’ campaign and the upcoming campaigning activities
We regularly gave the student body updates on our progress with the number of signups to the demo and other lobbying activity in our local community by news feeds on our website and regular press releases.
Post the London demo we made sure we communicated to everyone who attended the very next day. As Student Officers we regularly publically expressed our views to and provided Student Voice forums where students were able to speak up and articulate their ideas and beliefs. We recognised that to keep the campaign momentum it was important to keep students engaged and the key to that was to make sure individuals felt that they were being heard on their campus and locally; this became ever more important as students began to feel they were not being heard nationally.
Following the national demo we organised a local demo on the local day of action. This gave us an opportunity to direct the energy of the individuals that had already been active in the campaign so they were not lost, but it also allowed us to engage with others who were unable to join us in London. Regularly capturing new individuals, including academic staff, meant we constantly had fresh blood and energy. Several campaigning events like this helps injects drive into the campaign in order to keep interest and momentum up.
A variety of campaigning activities also was important. From letter writing to the local MP, to asking questions to a panel of speaker made up of youth represented from each political party, to taking part in a local rally or simply signing a petition - student were able to feel there was some way for them to be involved. It was about hitting them with the message from all directions but getting them to be involved in also communicating our message to other students and beyond our campus boarders.”
Nes Cazimoglu
Vice President Democracy & Campaign