Wednesday 25th February

Well today was a day of firsts - the first round of hustings and my first ever demonstration.
I know which one I found less intimidating (and in case you were wondering - it was the demo!)

I thought I'd go along to the demo bearing in mind I helped organise the HE Funding debate we had last term and also that the Access and Funding Team were organisng it, and I'll be honest, the last thing I want to see happen is to see the infamous cap being lifted! And I enjoyed it (admittedly, when everyone sat down in the road, I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to do then! Fortunately I had some more experienced people to keep me under their wing!)

Arriving back earlier than expected is always a bonus... unless you are already worrying about the first round of hustings for a CUSU election - not even the good ol' Trinity Hall food could tempt me this evening!

By the way - if anyone knows of a remedy for nerves (non-alcoholic!) then do let me know - I'm really keen to know!
I suppose the first round of hustings wasn't as bad as I thought it would be - I'm never going to be a public speaker, but hopefully my passion comes through every time - Do I think the Access Officer needs to be a brilliant public speaker? Feel free to disagree with me but I don't - I have found that students tend to relate to me, a lot of the time for the simple reason that they can relate to me - I know what it's like to think that university 'isn't for people like me' or 'I don't want to move away'.
Questions covered issues ranging from the cost of studying in Cambridge, to how we can better inform teachers, to the relative budgets of Access and Education - plenty to keep any candidate on their guard!

What I have quickly discovered is that the winner from this campaign has got to be Access as a whole- Varsity has it down as the 'really exciting' race (I now know how odd it feels seeing your performance being reviewed - as if I wasn't nervous enough!)- and surely, the main thing to come out of this week will be a much higher profile for the issues that Access exists to deal with, and no matter who wins in 7 days time, that is huge positive that every candidate can take out of this process.

Anyway - suppose I'd better get to bed at some point! Home turf tomorrow followed by Churchill (apparantly Sidney still has the norovirus within its walls!) - Night :o)