Elaine is a campaigner for a Green future and for LGBT and trans rights. She has a decade of experience as a professional in environmental management, and is a speaker, poet, writer and filmmaker. She studied at the University of Glasgow in 2016 as a postgraduate in Creative Writing so has recent experience of student life
Elaine is an active campaigner in the local area for the Scottish Greens. She stood for Glasgow Central in the 2019 general election and is a candidate for Glasgow in the 2021 Holyrood election. She is passionate about equality and the economics of wellbeing, and wants a future for everyone, not just the landlords and the billionaires.
The Rector is the representative of the students in the highest committees of the university, Elaine will, if elected, use this position to give all students a voice, to act on the climate emergency, to act on inequality and to act on student welfare.
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Elaine will have a weekly confidential drop-in for students to bring complaints, issues, or just to talk, and will bring all issues to the university authorities for action.
Follow the campaign
Facebook: /elaineforrector
Twitter: @ElaineForRector
Instagram: /elaineforrector
Action for Climate
Elaine will demand that the University takes real, radical action to meet the threat posed by the Climate Emergency, declared by the university themselves in 2019. She will demand an end to greenwashing and hold the senior management to account for the promises they have made. She will push for more immediate actions on the climate emergency, as the university’s ten-year plan to divest from fossil fuels, published in 2014, lacks the ambition necessary to tackle the climate emergency.
Her qualifications (including an MSc in Environmental Management with Waste management), her experience working in environmental management, and her long campaigning experience will allow her to articulate ambitious demands and cooperate with student groups, to increase the pressure on senior management and to ensure that action will be taken urgently.
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Divest from fossil fuels and the arms industries as soon as legally possible, not just as soon as convenient.
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Minimise travel impact by better planning for international students and staff, supporting public transport and rail travel, and making teleconferencing and distance learning effective.
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Achieve Net Zero by 2030 by effective use of facilities and a shift to renewable generation. Carbon offsets must be a last resort.
Action for Equality
Elaine will act to ensure that all students are treated equally and that the University of Glasgow is a safe place for everyone, regardless of race, religion, sexuality, gender, gender identity, or ability. The University should be a place for everyone to be free to make the best of their time on campus.
As a trans woman Elaine is aware of the discrimination the LGBTQI+ community and other communities face daily, and as Rector she will work very closely with communities and welfare services on campus to make sure any cases of discrimination are followed up on from the highest positions. Elaine will consult with students to bring their needs to the university’s Widening Participation team and work them to ensure that those needs are met.
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Address homophobia, transphobia, racism and other misconduct by effective disciplinary measures and taking reports seriously.
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Prioritise refurbishments in the renovation scheme for people with access requirements - it’s not good enough to be building new buildings when the lifts are not working.
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Support the needs of students with care and other responsibilities by providing materials, notes and lecture recordings.
Action for Students
As Rector Elaine will build a close, working relationship with students on campus. Through engaging with student groups and campaigns Elaine will hear student concerns and demand that the university takes action to address them.
Elaine has direct experience of student life and attended Glasgow University in 2016, studying one year of an MLitt in Creative Writing. She also has direct experience of the financial stresses on students due to tuition fees, low wages, and the high cost of living. Elaine will use her own experience and those of students to improve learning conditions. From financial difficulties and mental health services to arms trade divestment Elaine will listen to concerns and demand that real, radical and effective action is taken to meet them.
Elaine is aware that learning conditions are the same as the teaching conditions of staff, and supports the demands of the UCU to end casualization, decreasing pay, increasing workloads and pay inequality.
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Support care leavers and students estranged from their families with access to support and advice and advocate for increased funding.
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Make the campus safe by prioritising lighting and security measures, and having zero tolerance for bigotry.
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Support the strikers and the students by advocating for decent pay and benefits for staff, and to eliminate zero-hours contracts and abusive conditions for early-career academics.