Hi everyone – please see below an update on my recent activities in office. As always, please do get in touch if you have any questions.
I know exam season is swiftly approaching for many students so on behalf of the whole SU team we wish you the very best of luck and please do reach out to us and the university support teams if you need any assistance during this time.
Cost of living
A lot of work this month has been spent drawing up the plans and rolling out our SU Pantry trial at our Leeds and Birmingham campuses. The purpose of the Pantry is to provide free non-perishable food and essential items to those within the university community who may be struggling during these times.
After working with various teams to get the space lined up, risk assessment completed, and design work finalised we were able to get the Pantry launched on the 24th April. Pedram and I will be doing the monitoring, stock check and re-stocking on these campuses during this 4-week trial period. Once the trial ends on the 26th May, I’ll be writing up a report of the findings, and depending on its uptake, look at how we could replicate it across other campuses.
We would really value feedback from those who are based on these campuses about your thoughts and experience with the Pantry, so please do complete this form as it will be an important part of our next steps following the trial: https://forms.office.com/e/XyQjvxXA0p
Monthly catch-ups with the VC
This month we had our first meeting as part of a new series of monthly catch-ups with the Vice Chancellor. The purpose of these is to keep each other up to date on any key projects or challenges where we could collaborate on to find solutions. It was a really positive conversation with insight gathered from both sides, and it’s great to see that this has been included as a standing monthly meeting.
Mature student liberation officer proposal
Following feedback from the university’s widening participation team, we’ve taken forward a suggestion to add an additional liberation officer specifically for mature students. This student would be responsible for representing the interests of mature students across our campuses, including presenting views to us, within university committees and organising any events and/or campaigns they saw fit.
This involved writing up a job description in collaboration with Gary (our Student Engagement coordinator), ready to be presented to Student Parliament in May. Subject to Student Parliament approval, the role will be filled as part of our next round of representative elections in September/October.
Collaboration with the Disability and Inclusion Service (DIS)
This month the DIS team reached out to us for assistance in conducting a review of their service for students on the online campus. We’ve had several meetings and agreed upon questions and an approach of using focus groups to gather information from students about how they have found the service and what improvements could be made.
To ensure this project has been able to get off the ground, I’ve drafted the emails to be circulated to students, created the sign-up sheet and information document, along with monitoring the background admin to set up the groups. I’ll be running these focus groups along with Gary over the next few weeks.
SU Award shortlisting
Each year the SU has an award ceremony to celebrate the hard-work and success of staff and students. This month, I was involved in shortlisting the nominations we had received for one of the awarding categories; the excellence awards.
This involved reading and ranking the 328 nominations which were submitted for the 11 different awards within.
University Mental Health Charter
The University is planning on making a submission to receive accreditation for the University Mental Health Charter award. This involves a written submission with information and evidence being submitted, about the institution and its approach to the principles of good practice in each of the 18 different themes within the Charter.
The working groups for the 4 different overarching workstreams were launched this month, and I have been contributing within two of those and begun gathering evidence to contribute to the submission from the student perspective.
Student facing events and projects
This month I have also been involved in a couple of new projects which will be of benefit to students.
Firstly, I’ve been assisting our International Student representative for the UK, Susana, down in Bloomsbury to plan a Cross Cultural Celebration event. This has involved liaising with different teams to complete the risk assessment, room booking, provide catering and with ordering the decorations and event equipment.
Whilst sadly I was unable to attend the event, Susana did a fantastic job in setting up and running the event. We had 110 responses to the sign-up form and from the photos and videos I’ve seen it was a great success – well done for all your hard work Susana!
Alongside this, I’ve been working with several colleagues within the University, including the National Programme Director of the BPC, to work on creating a video guide for students across all courses on how to handle formal dinners. Whilst only in the initial stages, the plan for the video is to answer common questions students might have by following the stages of a formal dinner (including before and after) with the aim of making students feel more comfortable and confident attending these events.
Graduation
The upcoming graduation ceremonies are due to take place in May. As part of this, I have been involved again in the process of selecting and supporting the student speakers who will be delivering a speech at each of the ceremonies taking place. The selection of the induvial speaker is decided by Pedram and I, based on the strength of the nomination submitted by campus deans.
After the student has accepted the role, I get in contact to offer them support with their speeches, and once this is submitted by the student, it involves proof reading and approval by ourselves and the university. For the upcoming ceremonies in May there are 4 graduation ceremonies with an individual student speaker for each.
Academic Board report
I’ve also spent time this month writing a report detailing all my activities in office, including progress on my manifesto, to be included in the SU’s report to Academic Board in May. My section of the report is seven pages and just over 2500 words.
Accountability panel
Pedram and I had our final accountability meeting of the year this month. This involved detailing our manifesto progress and an update on our activities since the previous one in January to student reps in attendance. The floor was then open for students to ask us any questions or raise any additional points.
Alongside our own accountability panel, I also attended the accountability panel of our social reps (Campus VP’s, Liberation officers, International student reps) to see what work they had been carrying out and how they have found their roles over the previous year.
AGM
We hosted our Annual General Meeting at the start of the month. This is a meeting where the whole student body is invited to hear and questions us about our work. Whilst it is also the forum for voting to take on various topics (e.g., NUS affiliation) sadly the meeting was not quorate for any voting to take place.