ECA election to take place despite merger

The current President of the Edinburgh College of Art Students’ Association, Francesca Miller, has said that whoever is elected to the post following the current elections will play a 'vital' role in shaping the future of the institution.

The term of the next student President will include the next phase of the merger set to go ahead on 1st August. Day two of last year’s elections saw the announcement of the merger.

Ms Miller feels that student politics at the college has definitely been shaped by the event over the last year. She told The Journal: “It was a definite game-changer and it kept it pretty lively whereas this year you know to an extent what the job will entail and it will be very much merger-focused: but how much more you can be involved in that is hard to tell.

“Obviously in June and July a lot of students will be away and that will be a period where a lot of decisions are being made, and that will be very difficult without that student body to go back to and make formalised decisions.”

Ms Miller also emphasised the importance of the work that has already been done to keep the voice of the student body at ECA as strong as possible during the process.

“I think it will be very difficult to put exact things you could deliver on... I think it would be fantastic if someone could keep up the momentum. This merger is a fantastic opportunity for the college if it is handled properly and if the student’s voice is heard.

“I don’t know what the provision will be for the future: obviously we have no guarantees and can only make suggestions and stress certain areas."

Ms Miller, who sits on the Operations Working Group, the Academic Integration Group and the Student Liaison Group for the merger, has been attending other meetings.

She said: “I feel that there is an area that needs input from the student body before I can go back to them and make sure their voice is heard. I feel like I’ve been given pretty good guarantees.

"Our hope is we can keep our community and our generally really distinct relationship between tutors and their students and I’ve made certain provisions that these are to be maintained.”