Wednesday 26-04-2023 - 11:00

 

Hello, I am back with the next instalment of the monthly updates, this time for the month of March Here are the highlights of the month:

 

Bristol, Exeter and Birmingham Campus Visits

Our SU Presidential elections have been happening and I visited three campuses during the elections to encourage students to vote. It was great to speak to our students and tell them about the benefits of the SU awards and the SU elections. Moreover, this is a great time to speak to students about their issues and concerns. Two topics that have been brought up consistently are poor communication from the University regarding exams and assignments and the creation of sports societies. These two issues will be addressed, and I will contact the students with those concerns in the next few weeks with an update and hopefully some good news!

 

Filming for Social Media

Open and consistent communication can take many forms: drop-ins online and in-person, podcasts and social media presence. One issue I noticed from previous years is the lack of SU presence in the University's Instagram account, which has 50,000 followers. This is a great way to reach more students, new, existing and upcoming. If they know about their Students' Union, they are more likely to reach out and use the SU services, so it has been a goal of mine. Thankfully, I got the chance to create two reels for their Instagram regarding racial equality and ways students can be more conscious of their own biases. Those two reels combined have been watched by more than 6,600 viewers. More recently, I recorded a reel on University Mental Health Day sharing some of the resources students can use when they need extra mental health support. This reel has been watched by more than 6,400 viewers. It has been a great pleasure taking part in their important campaigns and helping the University promote such great resources and campaigns!

 

Graduation fund

Students have been worrying about the high cost of graduation. They need to pay for each guest they bring and the gown they hire. The SU wants graduation to be achievable for more than just rich students. Graduations must be as affordable as possible so that no student would miss out on one of the most important and joyful days of their life for monetary reasons. Because of the university EDI team's great work, we have a graduation fund for the May graduation and the following graduations. Students who need monetary support and are eligible for the fund can apply, and hopefully, this financial support will help the students who need it the most.

 

NUS Prep and Conference

The National Union of Students conference happened this month, myself and two other fantastic reps went to represent the University of Law SU. The reps and I, each chose topics to champion during the conference, my focus was on International students. The discussion topics were Education, International Students, NUS Organising, Democracy and Transparency, Tackling the Cost-of-Living Crisis and Housing. Throughout the conference, we heard about the experiences of many students, their difficulty with paying for University accommodation, International students having to pay triple the amount home students pay for the same course and issues with the productivity of NUS itself. Additionally, I expanded my network of student representatives and met many great friends along the way. Currently, I am looking for ways to bring this network together to discuss local actions we can take together. 

 

Independence of the Students' Union

There has been some great progress in regards to SU Independence this month. With a presentation to the University executive board, follow up meetings with Executive board members and the VC as well as a SU governing board meeting! The University highlighted areas that we needed to work on with regards to our independence plan and documents, and we are working on them currently. Independence is a journey that cannot be done alone, and we need to bring the University along with us on this journey and make sure their concerns are addressed. 

 

SU Elections

The SU elections happened this month and I am happy to say that I have won my re-election! It is an incredible honour to serve a second term as president alongside the new SU co-president Huma Hasan! I ran an election with the promises of SU independence, expanding on the projects that I am currently doing such as period products and organising our very own ULaw TEDx! 

 

Thank you for tuning in to my monthly update for March. A lot of great initiatives are happening and every single one of them is to make your student life more enjoyable. Have a great year! As always, if you want to contact me, send me an email at Pedram.Bani-asadi@law.ac.uk.

 

Your Voice, Your Concerns, Your Issues,

Pedram