Candidate Profile

Tell us about yourself

Hey! I am Manveer, a student of Philosophy and Psychology from India, now at cuths. I have been religiously involved in Effective Altruism Society at Durham. With respect to leadership, I am the course representative of Philosophy and Psychology and an executive member of the Durham Film Festival (the only cool thing I am part of).

Why is the role important to you?

I care about making the experience of university life much less solitary and overwhelming, as it gets so at some point or another for every one of us. As an international student, it was my engagement with student groups that made me feel warm and welcomed in an entirely new environment. I genuinely realise how stress relieving student group activities for our personal life, especially when in uni we are always trying to meet deadlines. Being a student of Psychology, I am highly connected to welfare issues and am motivated to improve them. My activities outside my studies are deeply intertwined to my own wellbeing, in fact inseparable, and are extremely meaningful to me. I care about this role as it will give me the chance to discuss concerns with the decision makers and actually bring positive changes.

Why should people vote for you?

Having had leadership experience in my school as well as university life so far, I believe I am well equipped to handle the responsibilities and challenges of this position. I am an assertive speaker; therefore will be able to address and relay all concerns and problems in the most informed manner. Frankly speaking, I’m a nerd, so I will handle the bureaucratic aspect of the role (the meetings and reports) quite competently. Most importantly, I believe myself to be a kind and compassionate person and I strongly feel that these values highly complement the role of a community officer.

If elected, what sort of officer would you be?

I believe that I need to be optimistic but also realistic in my approach to change. My main focus would be to engage with the student community to build and improve the wider range of activities outside of academics and make student welfare more accessible. I also want to focus on structural changes as a long term strategy while also pursuing short term goals like stress less campaigns during exams. In conjunction with those, I want to work on making the link between the decision makers and the students more efficient, as a result increasing the transparency and pace of positive change and growth.

In one sentence, tell us what you imagine Durham could become

For a city which is already so beautiful and full of a sense of heritage, it is long overdue that it becomes something which we are proud of. I believe that can happen with a common united culture and the warmth of a community.