SU22 - Our questions to Welfare officer candidates

Questions to Welfare officer candidates, Rachel Hasson and Lauren Moore

What’s your number one priority?

Rachel: My number one priority is student mental health. Ultimately students’ mental health will be affected by several things such as access to services, accessibility, housing, safety, sexual health, and period poverty. By advocating on all these issues, I aim to make mental health a priority as welfare officer.

Lauren: To exemplify what mental health means at Queen’s. Firstly, I want to verify all students are properly registered and educated on Queen’s available support. I also would like to build on pre-existing services by establishing connections with organizations outside of the university, such as programs to assist sobriety/addictions.

In 6 months’ time, what real differences will Queen’s Students see in their mental health services?

Rachel: I would hope to have established a forum where students can give us feedback on what events they want to see us run in terms of mental health. Subsequently, I would hope to have made connections with organisations and charities and worked on running a number of events and campaigns surrounding students’ mental health. I think it’s fair to be realistic in saying that campaigning for further mental health services will always be a long battle and it’s hard to say with 100% certainty what changes we will see in 6 months. I can say with confidence, however, that I will do whatever I can to advocate for this.

Lauren: Improving the mental health of students is a long and arduous journey but every journey starts with a single step. First and foremost I want students to feel safe - mentally and physically. By getting proper funding to panic buttons, going around and checking the security systems on residences, providing leaflets with rundowns about Queen's services, and creating more sociable events, I want to make students feel heard too. I know students who have experienced violence, break-ins, extreme mental lows, and challenges in sobriety this semester alone. I want to create a safe space; I think we deserve that.

What steps will you take to make students safer on and around campus?

Rachel: As I said in my manifesto, students feeling safe on campus is a pressing issue, especially for our students who are women/nonbinary/queer. The first steps I would take would be to build on and further expand on the amazing campaigns being run by our current officers. Education around consent and sexual harassment will always be important issues to work on as welfare officer. I would love to work on initiatives such as providing students with scrunchies that double as a cap for drinks so that they may feel safer in social areas on campus, as spiking is another huge issue now.

Lauren: I want to ensure all students feel safe no matter where they are through emergency alert buttons. These would ideally be given out in welcome packages and also free to grab if needed. I have discussed this with a few clubs already and I believe it provides a tangible solution.

How have your personal experiences shaped your manifesto?

Rachel: I have been an advocate for mental health and welfare since dealing with mental health issues and grief as a teenager, and I think that this area of activism will always be a huge part of my life. Likewise, experiences of being a queer and disabled woman have impacted my policies around further support for these individuals. I think it’s important to say though, that while parts of my manifesto are very important to me because of personal experiences, ultimately, they are shaped by the interactions I’ve had with fellow students and what I believe will benefit them and future students the most. Of course, I am incredibly passionate about all the issues that I have put in my manifesto and beyond, but ultimately it is that passion coupled with my experience of working on such campaigns that make me believe I am the right person for this role.

Lauren: I struggle with mental health so it really pushed me to become involved in this campaign. I have a service animal who means the world to me and I would like to create new legislation within the university to allow students to have service animals on student residence. Emma is a psychiatric service animal and we were not allowed to stay on the residence because the university only recognizes visually or hearing impaired service animals. This posed a huge issue for us and made the move from Canada even more stressful. I have talked to quite a few students who seem excited about this idea, as well as previous students who felt their experience was impacted because they were not able to bring their service animals. This is a huge deal to me because it puts mental health at a lower threshold for disabilities. Everyone should have access to the same things.

If you could have dinner with three famous people, dead or alive, who would they be?

Rachel: I don’t tend to follow celebrities, however for the sake of the question I would say Zendaya, Jacob Batalon and Tom Holland, purely because I loved them in the new Spiderman movie.

Lauren: The first person I would love to have dinner with would be my Nan. I understand she’s not famous to everyone but I was her number one fan and she was my favourite person. I would also love to sit with Stephen King and Taylor Swift, who both influenced me.