Wow. My first 2 months as SU Community Officer have flown by. Safe to say, I am loving the role so far. The month of July was jam-packed with meetings and introductions, from the Vice-Chancellor to students by the lake. It has truly been a varied and interesting time so far. This first period of being in post has been mostly filled with meeting the staff from my different areas within the university and the Students’ Union as well as a lot of training and learning!
I want to do semi-regular blog posts just to talk about what I have been up to and about particular topical issues. Below I am going to highlight what I have been doing within some of the areas of the role so far. Note, this list is not exhaustive.
Local Community
I have thoroughly enjoyed getting involved in the local area over the last month.
I have been heavily involved as a student representative in Bath’s River Safety Group amongst students from Bath Spa and Bath College. I have been part of planning the group’s next steps for their new campaign (hopefully being launched in September this year). I have had input in this process since March and is something so worth getting involved in.
As well as this, I’ve met and been introduced to various Bath & North East Somerset councillors through attending meetings such as Bath City Forum and the Student Community Partnership. It has been interesting to get a better picture of Bath’s current issues and priorities. This insight was deepened even further through my involvement in FoBRA (Federation of Bath Residents Association). I sit on the committee of this large body of residents as one of two student representatives; it was intriguing (and a little challenging at times) to discuss some of Bath’s topical issues with longer-term residents.
Amongst other various meetings in the local area, I have started campaign planning for my manifesto point of ‘Bath Without Students’ campaign, which I have now decided to rename to ‘Students love Bath’. This campaign will not only highlight the benefits of students to the people of Bath but it will be two-way and encourage students to be good neighbours through an internal campaign also. This is something which has been well received by the Student Community Partnership and something I would welcome any involvement from anyone interested.
International Students
After speaking with members of the ISA, our International Students’ coordinator and reading the ‘We need more mental health support” policy that passed at the second policy round of last year, I’ve seen the need for more targeted support for international students from both the university and The SU. Therefore, I have started planning an international students’ wellbeing fair for semester one of next year. I want this event to act as an introduction for our EU and Overseas students to what our University & Union can offer in terms of support and wellbeing. I want to bring together different student groups (such as Student Minds, Nightline and our cultural societies, to name a few) as well as Student Services to let these new students know what help is available. Additionally, as mental health can be a complex concept to those unfamiliar with it, and the fact that some cultures do not fully acknowledge mental health; the event will also include several talks in different languages to explain some basics of mental health and that here at Bath, there is free, confidential advice available for everyone. Hopefully, this will go a long way to better signpost our international community about what help is available at University.
Housing
I am amidst lobbying the council to hold off their consultation for lowering the threshold of where people can convert houses to HMOs from a saturation of 25% to 10%. If this is something completely new to you, a brief explanation is below:
A House of Multiple Occupancy (HMO) is a type of dwelling which a lot of students live in, in fact, if you privately rent a house with other students in Bath, you are almost definitely living in an HMO. Not just students live in HMOs however, young people working in Bath are also frequent inhabitants. Because residents have pressured the council to limit ‘studentification’ of areas such as Oldfield Park, they are reviewing their housing policy and currently under consultation is a policy aimed at limiting where someone can create a HMO. Currently, a house cannot be converted into a HMO in an area which already has over 25% of its dwellings as HMOS. The new proposed policy change, which has recently been endorsed by a council scrutiny panel, is to change this saturation threshold down to 10%- in practice, this will increase the amount of land where HMOs cannot be built. The desired effect of the council is to disperse students more widely throughout Bath, rather concentrate them in areas such as Oldfield and West Moreland. However, the consequences of such a policy will be at detriment to students and young people.
Keep an eye out for what I am doing in this area but so far, I spoke at the B&NES cabinet meeting to voice my concerns and explain why this policy would be damaging from a student perspective. I requested a delay in the consultation for this policy until students are back in Bath. Additionally, even after personally sending an email to the Cabinet Member for Development, I haven’t received a response about my request. I sent a letter to the Bath Chronicle voicing further views on the matter which will you can see here: http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/news/bath-news/letter-10-per-cent-cap-380176
Internally, we are currently coming up with a full strategy to deal with the massive topic of housing in all aspects.
Equality, Diversity and Support
For those of you who don’t know, a large part of my role is to look after our eight Diversity and Support (D&S) groups, as well as represent the student body in a variety of equality issues to the University.
Currently, I am planning D&S’ first proper induction training which will help develop the executive committee as well as encourage more intersectional events. As well as this, I have been in contact with many of the groups’ committees to help plan the upcoming year. Looks like there are some excellent events set to happen from September! Keep an eye out!!
I have also been involved in some of the planning for our pre-sessional arrivals for mature students and students with disabilities. I am looking forward to being involved in their programme of events the week before Freshers’ Week!
Overall, I have talked to various staff and students and am looking at what we can do to make our University a more inclusive environment regarding accessibility and equality. Watch out for updates in this area!
Welfare and Mental Health
In this area, there has been a working group set up between The SU and Student Services to collaborate more on mental health and wellbeing as well as to revitalise the ‘Time2Change’ pledge through better supporting each other on campaigns. Look out for our wellbeing campaigns through our ‘Support’ area throughout the next year in a variety of topics.
Additionally, a newly funded project by HEFCE has allowed a member of University staff to work with us at The SU to run a new joint sexual harassment awareness campaign. This will work to ensure our zero-tolerance approach is known as well as help students realise what counts as harassment and encourage bystanders and victims to call it out when they witness it. This exciting new project will be visible in the new academic year and is also linked to a lot of new training for our student leaders.
Many thanks for reading that all! There were other bits I couldn’t fit in such as Peer Support, Hall Reps and Volunteering but I’ll be sure to update fully on them next time!
If you have any questions feel free to either pop in to see me (side note: will be establishing open sessions when the new academic year begins) or email me at sucommunity@bath.ac.uk.