Your guide to the candidates for Guild President

Campaign week is upon us, and we all know what that means: being at least 10 minutes late to all your lectures because someone in a silly costume followed you up Forum hill saying this will “only take a minute” as they tell you to vote for their mate.

To save you the bother of taking too much of your well-earned free time to read manifestos and the like, here is the low-down on the hopefuls for Guild President.

 Callum Kumar-Shaw 

Callum is a man on a mission. The International Business and Management Masters student would like to spend another year of his life at Exeter, and is going above and beyond the usual faff of making a Facebook page for his campaign: he’s gone a step further and made an entire website for it.

Eschewing the conventional jingle and clever gimmicks, Callum claims he wants to make a real impact and stir up student engagement.

Aside from that, Callum is your poster boy for student involvement and school spirit: Welcome Week favourite, Exeter Officer Training Corps, involvement with many #Guild campaigns and RAG of course, and his personal fun fact is that he danced in the Olympic closing ceremony.

Petra Jones 

Third year International Relations student Petra has a horrendously catchy slogan, and you will be humming “Calling Petra Jones” to the tune of “Doctor Jones” by Aqua to yourself all day after reading this. Thanks a lot, Petra.

Apart from her slogan, her innovative ideas should she win include folding tables and healthier options in The Ram.

She assures us that the curly fries are safe though. Phew.

Petra is also confident that her mild fear of sandwiches falling apart won’t distract her from her Presidential duties should she win…so we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

Henry Care 

This Mechanical Engineering fourth year is another big name in the Guild, hailing from glamorous Derby.

You might recognise Henry from behind the bar at The Ram. You may have some fuzzy recollection of him at the Lemmy, as he has been working there for the past four years and claims to have served upwards of 20,000 VK’s during his tenure there.

Judging by his Care Bear campaign slogan (see what he did there?), and his Facebook campaign page which is more cutesie and pastel coloured than anyone ever thought possible, Henry stands to spend the next week dressed in a Care Bear onesie, so he’ll be easy enough to spot.

Laura-Jane Tilley 

Laura-Jane Tilley is very involved in the Guild indeed. Another Welcome Team member, she’s probably helped you into a taxi as you stumbled out of Mosaic during Freshers’ week, and has further climbed up the Guild ladder by being Guild Societies Officer (we don’t know what that means either).

It might have something to do with her co-founding the Harry Potter Society though.

When she isn’t doing whatever being Guild Societies Officer requires her to do, she’s the Exeposé online news editor, but that’s all we’ll say about that.

Maria Finnerty 

Philosophy and Political Economics final year Maria has also already got an in with the Guild – she’s currently head of the Guild Council.

Maria is particularly passionate about defending students from university changes such as having lectures as early at 8.30am, and she feels very strongly that no-one should be subjected to such torture.

In her spare time, Maria is rather musical, being a huge Oasis fan and singing in a band, so the campaign jingle should be excellent.