Dan Hall - Vice President Sports

My name is Dan, and I am running for the position of Vice-President of Sports. I am a second year Archaeology student, as well as the Vice-President for Stags American Football. Sport has been a huge part of my university life, and I love the competitive nature of the university and how inclusive sport can be at Southampton. This past year I have also been part of the Executive Committee, where I have helped with allocating the money from the grant rounds, as well as looking at the new kit supplier for the university, which has given me invaluable experience with the operations of SUSU and Southampton Sport.

My number one priority if elected is to raise awareness and help improve student mental health through sports, the key to this is by improving the welfare training given to committee members of each team, as they are at the front line of athlete’s wellbeing.

Sport should be accessible to everyone, no matter their circumstances, and I want to ask students what stops them from participating in sport, and how I could help change that for them, whether this be physical accessibility issues, anxiety around trying something new, or lack of awareness of sport at Southampton.

Having been an integral part of the Stags committee for the past two years, having been both treasurer and now VP, I am aware of how difficult it can be to balance studies and the running of a successful sport committee, which is why I would want to highlight more broadly the best managed and run sports committees, as these groups of people help make sport at Southampton as amazing as it is, as well as also showcasing the achievements of the sports teams themselves.

This year we have massively improved our international student participation in American Football, and this is something that I would want to carry over to all the sports at Southampton University. Nearly a quarter of the students at Southampton are international students and I believe that we should be proud of the fact that they chose to come to Southampton, and we can celebrate this by their participation in sport while they are at university.

This year marked the opening of the new Jubilee Sports Centre, which has already been a huge success for the university. Since then, the squash courts that are below building 42 have been used as a storage space, and there are other facilities like this. I want to restore these facilities to their actual use to allow more areas for sport to be played and to keep people as active as possible.

If celebrating sport is something that matters to you, and you want our university to be the best it can be, then vote Dan Hall.