Safety

This year, students in accommodation have experienced many issues with security and there is limited trust in their services. I think there needs to be a rethink of how campus security works and is offered to students. Security should be there to support and help students, and should be the first port of call, but currently students just feel worried about being punished by security.

We need instant emergency assistance for students to access wherever they are in Leeds, and a way to record incidences in the local area such as the SafeZone App. I, like many other students, have felt increasingly unsafe and in situations where I was panicked and unsure what to do across the city - in my halls, on campus, on a night out.

I think the way to report and support students following incidents of hate crime, harassment and violence need re-evaluating. Building on Sophia's work on sexual violence, I will hold the university to account for the way it supports students who experience hate crime and harassment.

I want to work with the council and Leeds MPs, as well as using LUU's platform, to lobby for criminalisation of street harassment. No one should have to be made to feel unsafe in public. I, like many other students, have experienced an increase in street and public harassment in Leeds during lockdown and I think LUU should actively lobby to protect students from this not just on campus but across the city.