Activities Officer Blog

As the academic year comes to an end, with Summer Ball just days away and handover about to begin, my time as your Activities Officer is coming to a close on June 19!

I’m feeling a real mix of emotions. There’s sadness at leaving what is such a special place, but also huge pride and gratitude for everything we’ve achieved together this year. None of our achievements and work happens without the hundreds of student leaders and SU staff who give their time, energy and passion to make student life at Bath what it is.

This week, we held two Student Leaders Celebrations, and they were such a salient reminder of exactly this. Seeing and hearing about all the work you’ve done and the impact of what you’ve all delivered across the entire SU has been inspiring.

When you put your trust in me and elected me as your Activities Officer, I set out 22 manifesto pledges across four key themes that I’ve completed across this year. I’ll keep this brief as you can read the full details on my manifesto pages, but I wanted to share some of the standout moments.

Enhancing Student Groups
We’ve worked hard to make it easier to run a group, cutting down, improving financial systems (hopefully goodbye to paper forms!) and strengthening induction and handover for committees. We’ve kept memberships affordable, expanded access to funding and made it easier than ever to start a new society. One of the biggest wins looking ahead is that Volunteering and Fundraising groups will now be able to access the Societies Membership Fund, opening far more opportunities for student-led volunteering activity. Huge thanks to my wonderful Activities Exec for their support here too!

Leading on Sustainability
This year, we’ve laid the foundations for a long-term Sustainable SU strategy. We’ve developed and taken forward a new Sustainable SU Action Plan (backed by Board of Trustees) with student input at its core through our new sustainability forum and made real progress on sustainability as a Top Ten priority, including sustainable education. We’ve also relaunched the Sustainability Badge to creating new resources for student-led events and look at embedding this work across all of our operations.

Improving Student Opportunities
We’ve expanded support for student-led projects, strengthened and begun to launch Academic Communities and improved access to funding. The relaunched Bath Award has been a huge success, with hundreds signing up and 218 students completing it this year, recognising the incredible skills students develop alongside their studies. We’ve also led on a new piece of work with the university, ensuring you as students have clearer information on your right to protest.

Supporting Student Wellbeing
From record-breaking Movember fundraising to continued work on housing rights and financial support, we’ve pushed to make sure students have the support they need. This includes protecting access to funding, improving awareness of support and working on long-term issues like the cost of living and accommodation.

There’s no doubt this year has been challenging at times, but because of the dedication of student leaders and SU staff, we’ve navigated those challenges and kept moving forward towards a more dynamic, accessible and student-led SU.

This year has taught me so much about myself and has made me grow beyond belief, both professionally and personally. I can only hope I’ve served you with integrity, trust and humility. Being your Activities Officer has been the greatest privilege of a lifetime and truly a privilege to serve you. I would honestly encourage anyone who is interested, to give it a go. It truly is the best job in the world.

Thank you - for everything.

Sam x