Alex Fairfax-Cholmley

I have been at Exeter since 2014 and I made a permanent switch to 0.6 FTE in 2022 so I can spend more time with my young family. Beyond the Archaeology & History corridors, some of you may know me from my current role as Exeter UCU’s Communications Officer.

Why am I seeking election to Senate? Because UoE governance can always be improved and Senate offers the opportunity to do so via its input into university decision-making on academic matters. If elected, I would like to help Senate ensure that future strategic decisions improve the working lives of academics and PS staff here at Exeter – with timely and meaningful staff consultation a basic requirement. I will work to connect the broadest possible range of colleagues into Senate discussion and decisions, especially those colleagues on insecure contracts and with the most challenging student-facing roles (whether academic or PS). In the current challenging HE environment, I am very aware of the responsibilities my election would bring in terms of representing the interests of staff and ensuring that UoE strategy is building an academic institution we can enjoy and of which we can proud.

Nayhan Fancy

As a humanist, and an historian of science and medicine in pre-modern Islamic societies, I have a keen interest in ensuring that we critically assess how and why certain questions are being asked, how and why data is being collected and presented the way it is, and the ramifications of every decision in the short and long-term on not only the budget, but the well-being, quality and experience of staff and students.  I am eager to play my part in working with colleagues, soliciting their input on various proposals and representing their interests in the senate. Prior to joining Exeter, I served on every major elected faculty committee and as the Faculty Development Coordinator at DePauw University. My work in collective governance has always been informed by a deep commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, and the need for greater transparency and staff involvement and approval for every administrative decision, something I will push for if elected. Senators must play an active role in assessing the environmental costs and implications of the educational and scientific projects in which our institution invests by speaking to and relying upon the collective expertise of our staff across the university.

Hannah Farrimond

I have two reasons for standing for Senate. The first is that the Higher Education sector is going through a time of change, and not in a good way; redundancies, budget deficits and the shrinking of the international market have placed universities, and thus academics, in an unenviable position. I came to Exeter on a temporary contract, liked it and stayed, have been through at least three ‘Transformations’, and have much to say about how Exeter should, as a university, currently be supporting its staff. The second area I wish to speak about with a strong voice concerns the way disability and chronic illness are managed at Exeter. Perhaps I have been more unlucky than most; during my time as an academic, I have experienced bereavement, chronic illness, disability and ongoing caring responsibilities. We may be a ‘Disability Confident’ university, and in some areas, we have reason to feel confident; in others, significant work is needed. My desire is to raise consciousness around the support needed for illness, disability and bereavement with the aim of embedding genuine confidence around this issue at Exeter.

Brian Rappert

These are turbulent times in Higher Education in the UK.  It is my experience, that universities and other organisations are able to weather uncertainties and difficulties best when they enable widespread participation in decision making.  In my 20+ years at our university, I have sought to work toward this end.  I have done that in department leadership role such as during my times as Head of Department.  At a university-wide level, through my work as caseworker, department rep, Secretary and President of the Exeter UCU Branch, I have sought to represent and defend the views of academic and professional services staff over many years.  As a senator, one of my main priorities would be ensuring that the many academic communities at our university play active roles in shaping our collective future research and teaching strategy.

Matt Rule-Jones

These are difficult times in Higher Education and we are all keenly aware of the worrying circumstances of colleagues at institutions across the country. As our university adapts in response to these same pressures over the coming years, it is vital that the voices of academics are not only heard in response to change, but are allowed to meaningfully shape the changes that we collectively agree to make. I served for several years as a staff representative on the equivalent body to our Senate at my previous institution during a period when it too faced serious, systemic challenges. I dedicated myself to ensuing that colleagues’ opinions, perspectives, worries and hopes were at the heart of those deliberations and were ultimately reflected in the decisions taken. If I am elected to represent you, I will make time available on a regular basis to meet and talk with colleagues from across HASS so I can provide us all with a mechanism for having our opinions voiced and heard as we navigate the turbulent waters ahead. In this moment we have a real opportunity to positively influence the shape our university takes when this unstable period eventually passes – let’s make it count.

Laura Salisbury

I am a Professor of Modern Literature and Medical Humanities working in the Department of English and Creative Writing and the Centre for the Cultures and Environments of Health. I came to Exeter in 2013. Before that, I worked for many years at Birkbeck, where I sat on committees for the AUT and then UCU. Across my career, I have worked in FE and HE, including many years of precarious employment in pre and post 92 sectors.

My interdisciplinary research in the medical humanities concentrates on the relationship between time and care and I want to bring these perspectives, including critical thinking on crisis, emergency, and waiting, to Senate’s work on governance and strategy. As colleagues and students experience their lives as increasingly ‘time poor’, with considerable impacts on health and wellbeing, I believe that Senate has a key role in scrutinising the university’s use of resources, including people’s time, to ensure fair, just, and sustainable conditions for teaching, learning, and research. I am also passionate about representing the university as a diverse community of expertise and practice, whose knowledge and experience can and should be central to shaping the strategy and structures of the institution.

Edward Skidelsky

My main goal in running for Senate is to hold Exeter University to its own commitment “to maintain and promote the academic freedom of all undertaking academic activities”.  The university has on the whole been firm in honouring this commitment, but vigilance remains necessary. A recent UCU survey showed that 56% of union members believe that academic freedom is in decline. 

I am well-prepared for this task, having last year set up the “Committee for Academic Freedom” (afcomm.org.uk), a national organisation for the defence of free thought in UK universities. CAF is a non-partisan group consisting of academics of all disciplines and points of view. It investigates threats to academic freedom from many quarters, including governments, funding bodies and political lobby groups.

As a member of Senate, I would oppose the university’s taking official positions on controversial issues, on the ground that this creates an oppressive environment for members of staff who think differently. I strongly support the statement of the Kalven Report: “To perform its mission in the society, a university must sustain an extraordinary environment of freedom of enquiry. … It is not a club, it is not a trade association, it is not a lobby.” 

Birgul Yilmaz

I am a passionate Sociolinguist and Applied linguist who loves languages, cultures, and intercultural communication. Challenging social inequalities, that emerge from gender, race, class, and migration are at the heart of my research and teaching. Here at the University of Exeter, my empirical work aims to make a direct contribution to the University Strategy: transforming health, wellbeing and creating a socially just society. As a scholar from a minoritised background, combined with my fieldwork experience gained from humanitarian settings, working with vulnerable populations such as refugees living in camps in Greece, I will be very excited to be part of the senate to contribute to decisions, future plans and learn from other colleagues. I will be delighted to have the opportunity to be directly involved in the University governance and be part of the discussions and decisions that have an impact on research and teaching.