With exams now over, I have had the chance to reflect more fully upon the enormous privilege it is to have been elected to serve Cambridge students as CUSU President for 2016/17. Once again, I’d like to thank all the candidates who stood in the election for bringing the campaign to life and engaging the student body in a whole range of issues. Audrey, Jess, Sophie, Eireann, Roberta and myself are honoured to have been entrusted with such important leadership positions, and over the next year we will do our best to realise the policies for which we were elected. We start in July and, after what I imagine will be an intense and comprehensive two-week handover period, we will begin the exciting task of setting out our agenda for the coming year.

Across our manifestos we pledged to: link up the networks of welfare support across Cambridge and expand the reach of welfare provision and information; continue access support for students once they have arrived in Cambridge; and campaign to increase funding for the University Counselling Service and the Disability Resource Centre.

We have promised to work with the university to diversify the curricula, continue to push for all colleges to update their harassment policies, and the list goes on. We will be finalising our comprehensive agenda for the forthcoming year over the summer months, but I am confident that we will achieve all that we have pledged and more if we work effectively with the various autonomous campaigns, JCRs and MCRs as well as, most importantly, the university itself. We must remember that good policies are made even better by widespread consultation. As I repeatedly stressed throughout the election campaign, while we carry out our election mandate we must listen to and engage with students from across the university, analysing survey data, maintaining good relationships with JCR and MCR Presidents and Vice-Presidents, and, most importantly, going out and meeting students – whether that is at CUSU-organised events or at college open meetings.

This is an important time for CUSU as our team of sabbatical officers will oversee an extensive constitutional review. Constitutions are hugely important for democratic organisations such as ours and it’s important that the constitution is in line with the way in which CUSU runs today.

I will be working around the clock to bring CUSU’s constitution up-to-date. While Cambridge’s collegiate system makes it unique in some respects, there is a lot we can learn from other student unions across the country. As part of this constitutional review, we will be looking at how we can enshrine greater student involvement into the day-to-day running of our organisation, an area central to my election campaign. As with any such review there are likely to be substantial reforms proposed and I will make sure that CUSU Council is given the time and opportunity to scrutinise and debate all the proposed changes. If and when a referendum is required to ratify the changes, I will work to ensure that all students are fully informed about what the changes will mean for the running of CUSU.

I was delighted that the recent referendum on our NUS membership had the highest ever turnout in a CUSU referendum: it demonstrated that on matters which students really care about, the students will be engaged. However, it is important to stress that the vote to stay affiliated to the NUS was not a vote for the status quo, a point which the current team of sabbatical officers made unambiguously clear in their letter to the organisation.

In the letter, CUSU officially condemned anti-Semitism and racism in all its forms and asked the NUS to do more to protect the rightful place of Jewish students within the student movement. As the NUS replies to all the concerns raised and sets out the clear actions and next steps to ensure that reports of anti-Semitism are fully dealt with, we will make sure that such processes are effectively communicated to all students.

In addition, in our interactions with the NUS we will continue to hold its officers to account and ensure that concerns raised by students in Cambridge are adequately addressed at the highest level. Students up and down the country will benefit from a strong and representative NUS, and it will be our job as your NUS delegates to make sure that it continues to take seriously the concerns of students raised by both sides during the referendum campaign. As incoming sabbatical officers, we have huge shoes to fill. Priscilla, Rob, Jemma, Helena, Poppy and Charlie have been exceptionally good sabbatical officers, fighting for students on a whole range of issues and through numerous important campaigns. During our handover period we will do everything we can to fight for the long-term changes initiated by the outgoing officers, to learn from their experiences within their respective roles, and to work out how we can build on the progress made over the past year.

CUSU has a bright future, but this is a future dependent on our ability as sabbatical officers to keep students fully informed about how our work is making a real and meaningful impact on the lives of all students. This is why, for next year, my top priority will be making sure that CUSU communicates effectively with all students and that the story of CUSU’s vital work is being told, whether that’s on Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter or YouTube. We want everyone to be engaged but the onus is on us to be engaging. With your continued support, and with the fantastic new team which I am privileged to lead, I am confident we can make this happen.