Written by Gracie Kejo
Four student candidates were elected as full-time sabbatical officers of the LSE Students’ Union (LSESU) at the end of the 2025/26 academic year. They assumed the roles of General Secretary, Education Officer, Welfare and Liberation Officer, and Activities and Communities Officer. As the academic year begins, what are their goals and commitments to you?
All candidates created a manifesto with key points of focus for their campaigns, but after a few months in the role, they’ve released updated statements on their plans for the year. Sabbatical officers are democratically elected to serve as the highest level of student representation in the School. They are responsible for ensuring the School makes changes that reflect what you want, so their goals should focus on what’s important to you.
General Secretary Amara Jane Otero Salgado leads the team. She is excited to work alongside the other sabbatical officers to make progress. Her primary goals are supporting students with the cost of living and ending LSE’s “unethical investments”. Maintaining transparency and communication in LSESU are also top priorities for her.
Nooralhoda Tillah is continuing as Education Officer for one more year. Previously, she was successful in extending appeals and deferral submission deadlines for students. She plans to continue campaigning for campus-wide reading weeks this year, as well as creating a personalised LSE app that includes Student Hub and LSE for You.
The Welfare and Liberation Officer is responsible for ensuring better student wellbeing and lobbying the School for positive change. Ardour Kelshiker-Williams stated on their profile that they ran for the role because they didn’t fully enjoy their student experience at LSE. As such, their plan for the year is to build student power and tackle the cost-of-living crisis.
Finally, Activities and Communities Officer Iris Fu is focused on creating more opportunities for student connection outside their usual circles. She bases this goal on her observation that LSE can feel very course-centric, and will tackle this through cross-department, cross-society and cross-university events.
Sabbatical officers work alongside part-time officers and other LSESU roles, some of which are currently up for election. Nominations for remaining roles—such as Class Liberation Officer, Student Trustee, and the Democracy Committee—close on 5 October. Voting starts on 14 October.
