Monday 05-09-2022 - 10:00

 

Hi everyone – whether you're still on campus studying or off over the summer, I hope you're having a lovely August! It's been a busy month for us in the SU, preparing for students to either start or return to their studies. I want to give you a snapshot of some of the things we've been getting up to this month. As always, if you have any questions, then please don't hesitate to email me:

Emma.Barlow@law.ac.uk or the SU generally StudentsUnion@law.ac.uk

 

Drop in session 

This month Pedram and I hosted our first virtual drop-in session, open to all students to give us feedback and ask us any questions they may have. We had over 50 students attend, which was a great turnout given that many students are away over the summer. We wanted to thank those who did attend as the feedback you gave us was incredibly valuable for bringing our attention to issues which we have now taken away and started actioning. 

Our next session is scheduled for Friday 2nd September at 5 pm. So if you're available, it would be great for you to come along.

The Students' Union will promote all future drop-ins via its social media channels, so be sure to follow us to keep up to date with all developments from the Students' Union. If you're unavailable but would still like to air some concerns or learn more about what we do as an SU, then don't feel you have to wait until our next event; please drop the SU team an email. 

 

SU elected representatives 

I also scheduled a meeting to talk to our previous elected BAME liberation officer last year, Chanecia. She kindly took the time to meet with us to chat about her experience in the role and her time as a current ULaw student. This was really insightful to hear not only some of the highlights and challenges of the role, but also how we could support future elected reps.

This coincided with some of the team coming up with a brilliant new idea to hold a conference for all our newly elected reps to meet after they have been elected in October. Hosting a combination of information and networking sessions would be a great way for students to further understand how to get started in their roles and build those support networks with each other. This is something we have begun planning for this year. 

We have a whole variety of elected student representative roles on offer. We have five different liberation officer roles to represent and champion the voices of students of protected characteristic groups. Each campus also elects a vice-president to plan social events for students on their campus. We also have academic reps with each programme of study electing a student to represent their peers across all our campuses. 

Reps play a hugely important role because they give feedback directly to us about the student experience. If you would be interested in running for an elected officer role, nominations for all these positions open in mid-September. An email will be circulated closer to the time outlining the job descriptions of each role and how you can apply. In the meantime, if you have any further questions on these roles, please get in touch with our Student Engagement Coordinator Gary at Gary.Knight@law.ac.uk

 

Podcast 

Pedram and I recorded the first episode of a brand new podcast series for the SU, 'Democracy in Conversation.' The episode is now LIVE and available to listen to HERE.

You can also listen to it on Spotify, Apple, Amazon and anywhere you like to get your podcasts. If you can't find it on your platform of choice, then please get in touch with us. In this first episode, Pedram and I interviewed each other as a way for you to get to know us and to find out what we want to achieve this year. This will hopefully evolve into us interviewing key university staff members to have your questions answered. We'd love to hear your feedback on what issues you'd like to listen to us discuss in future episodes, so get in touch with us and let us know. 

 

Student Charter

We also reviewed and re-launched the Student Charter this month. The document was created for the first time by our predecessor president in collaboration with the university. It's an essential document as it outlines the mutual expectations placed on the university and students in their partnership to ensure a happy and safe learning community. You can view this document HERE. It's only seven pages, so I highly recommend looking through it as it provides a concise and easy-to-read overview of what you can expect during your time as a ULaw student. 

 

ULaw Leagues 

The team has also begun planning a new cross-campus competition that we're set to run for the very first time early next year. I don't want to give too much away, but we've provisionally outlined a week of events to get you competing in teams against not only those on your campus but against all those competing on other campuses.

So, watch this space for more updates coming soon…

 

Manifesto action 

This month also involved making some further progress on achieving my manifesto aims.

In collaboration with the SU communication manager, we have been working towards launching a chat function on the SU website to try and encourage more peer-to-peer connections with those outside your workshop classes. We're currently undergoing a risk assessment of the functionality, and provided there are no problems arising from this, we will be able to launch this soon.

To see some changes made to the provision for further exam resources, I've been asked to write a report to present these proposals to the university. I'm currently in the research phase of this project by looking back at student feedback over previous years. This will be used to inform how the proposals should look and evidence that there is student demand for them.

Regarding communication from the university, I've met with staff from various departments to understand the support services available to students so we can better signpost you to those. In addition, it was great to hear that the university is conducting its own internal review to address the turnaround times for departments responding to students' queries. 

It's also been great to see an increase in communications output from the Students' Union as well. This is important for increasing our visibility, from social media content to virtual drop-ins. To make sure you know who we are and what services we offer and to encourage you to get involved with us during your time at the university.

 

On that note, we've come to the end of another monthly update from me - thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to catching up with you again next month!