York Vision interviewed YUSU’s outgoing Sport Union President Franki on her time as Sport President, her favourite memories in the role, and what advice she would give for incoming candidates.

What does the role of Sport President entail?

Principally, being the key student-facing contact for all university and college sport clubs and designing and implementing initiatives and projects designed to improve the student sporting experience. You also work as a key representative for the university on student sport matters – but it’s really important to consider how you best represent over 3000 sporting students, and ensure their voices are all considered and heard. You lead the York Sport Union and College Sport Committees, made up of student volunteers and enable them to work on exciting projects and manage key functions of the sport systems. You also take a lead on planning and delivering key sports events such as College Varsity and Roses and support student and club-led events where required.

Outside of sport, you work collaboratively with the rest of the Sabbatical Officer team on key issues impacting students, such as Cost of Living, Industrial Action and so on. I could go on and on… but the best thing is you get to shape what your role looks like, so make it your own!

Is there anything you wish you had more time to work on, and what advice would you give this year’s applicants?

I am in the early stages of drafting an Accessibility and Inclusion in Sport policy, which will cover lots of aspects of gender inclusion, LGBTQ+ inclusion, inclusion and accessibility of sport for disabled students’ and more. The reality is any work I do on this will need to be continued into future years to ensure thorough implementation and so that everything covered becomes second nature. This is an area of growing concern for our students, and I’m hoping my work provides a very solid foundation upon which to be built, and I would therefore encourage any applicants to consider how they will promote inclusion and accessibility in their manifestos.

In terms of advice: look after yourself – this whole process can be very daunting and intense, so make sure you put yourself and your mental health first. Create a strong support network around you, and where you can delegate campaign tasks to this network too, the more help you have the easier it is to get your message out there. Keep an eye on your social battery – during campaigning you are likely to speak to a lot of people so make sure you give yourself time to recover between the days. Campaigning is equally about you getting your message out there, but also about listening to the concerns, needs, and ideas of everyone you’re interacting with – so remember to listen too!

What changes/progressions do you still think need to be made at the University in relation to sport?

Facility development – we are making progress on this but there is still a long way to go to have new sports facilities built on campus. This must also factor in storage! This is a very exciting project that many previous Sports Union Presidents have worked on, and that future Sports Union Presidents will also be able to get involved in. These developments are so crucial because students are being forced to choose between lectures and their sports activity, which can hugely limit participation and engagement.

I also still think we have a lot of progress to make on the inclusivity of our sports and activity offerings at York. This is something I am actively working on, but we still have a long way to go to ensure our sports activities are truly inclusive, especially for disabled, non-binary and transgender students. This work doesn’t stop just here at York, but also requires a lot of lobbying to national sporting organisers and governing bodies.

What is your fondest memory of being Sports President?

Without a doubt, Colours Ball 2022. Colours Ball is the annual sports awards dinner, and has always been a key memory of my sporting experience. It is such a wonderful way to round off the year, and to be able to spend it with all of my friends and colleagues and also play a key role in delivering the event was just amazing!

How would you describe your overall experience in the role?

I’ll keep this short – it’s the best role in the world.