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Sam Gurney

Sam Gurney, who studied History at Sussex from 1992 to 1995, was USSU president in 1995 to 1996. He says that teamwork is crucial for an effective Union.

Why did you want to stand for presidency?

We had had several years of presidents who had come from an ENTS background, and within Sussex Labour Students we had decided it was time to try and move the Students Union in a more campaigning direction. I stood as part of a team with two of my best friends: Elliot Roberts, who was elected vice-president welfare; and David Flatman, who was elected Vice-president finance.

What did you enjoy/dislike about the role?

Pretty much liked everything about it. I worked with a great team of fellow sabbaticals, SU exec members and the brilliant SU staff. I got a chance to work with lots of people across the University and beyond (even with colleagues at Brighton Uni) and to do my best to support students at Sussex.

What did you hope to achieve?

Make the SU more visible to students, support the campaign for free education nationally, and get more people involved and thinking about how they could make a difference. Main disappointment was not getting the go ahead to build a new student union building on East Slope.

What do you think you did achieve?

Definitely made the SU more visible, thanks to brilliant work by the vice-president communications Dave Newton and his comms team, who launched the Pulse magazine and the Badger newsletter. We had SU meetings that filled Mandela Hall (we had to turn people away on occasion due to overcrowding), and we got lots of people involved in campaigns and things like the Mandela Scholarship, which was close to my heart as both my dad and one of my uncles attended Sussex after going into exile from South Africa in the 1960s.

What has been the personal legacy for you?

I learnt loads from the job, especially with regards to working with people, which stood me in good stead in my later roles in the trade union movement. A year of chairing the SU exec was excellent training for my time on the UN International Labour Organisation governing body and countless other meetings. Plus I’m still good friends with Dave and Elliot, who stood with me as sabbaticals and lots of the people in USSU Labour Club who helped to get us elected. Although answering these questions reminds me that we are well overdue a reunion with the full sabbatical team for 1995-6, David Newton, VP-Comms, Carolyn Culver VP Education and Miriam West VP Sport, all of whom worked amazingly hard and were fantastic colleagues. And now the nice thing is that having been appointed as Regional Secretary for the Trades Union Congress in London, the East and South East in January Uni of Sussex and Brighton are back in my patch.

What personal qualitied do you think are essential for the job?

Think the personal qualities can be quite varied, but ability to listen and work as part of a team, to take different views onboard but be able to give leadership when needed all quite important at the same time as not taking getting an over inflated view of the role and status (no names relating to some of my predecessors!) plus the ones you mention below oh and keeping calm on the occasions when things got a bit frantic. . .

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