Written by Alice Arnold.

With the De Montfort Students’ Union nominations open now, you can now run to represent the students at De Montfort University. As voting also is not far away, it’s important to know what the roles are all about. You may have heard of the five full-time Executive Officer roles but might not be as familiar with the seven Liberation Officers.

So what are Liberation Officers?
They represent students across a range of different areas and are:

  • Black, Asian, Minority Ethnicity (BAME) Officer
  • Disabled Students’ Officer
  • International Students’ Officer
  • LGBTQ+ Students’ Officer
  • Mature Students’ Officer
  • Postgraduate Students’ Officer

Similarly to the Executive Officers, they work for students to promote their groups. Unlike the Executive roles, there are unpaid voluntary roles and a gap year in studies is not needed. These roles are to be done around studies and on average comes to 2 and a half hours a week.

They work closely with the full-time Executive Officers, especially the Equality and Diversity Executive. Their role is to gain information about their liberation group from other students in the university, attend student councils to present any necessary points and run/help to run campaigns to promote their represented group.

These representations are super essential to have as it enables the officer to speak for other students in meetings to make sure that student voices are heard and for engaging and encouraging students to get involved in campaigns.

What can you gain from being a Liberation Officer?
As an officer, you will get the opportunity to work on and create projects and campaigns that you are passionate about. It can give you a sense of fulfilment and also provide the perfect place to meet a range of people and make new friends. The role can also add a lot to your CV to make you more employable as it can show that you are a committed and passionate person. In addition, it can help you gain and develop many skills such as teamwork, confidence, public speaking and organisation. These are amazing transferable skills for any jobs you might be applying for in the future.

You have until Monday 15th February 2021 at 23:59 to nominate yourself with a manifesto through the De Montfort Students’ Union website here.

If you decide you don’t want to run, then do make sure to vote. The officer team is there to support and represent you as students and can really make a difference. Voting will open in March 2021.