Community Officer Blog

It's the end of Week (I've lost track of the number of weeks)! Here are some updates:

NUS Lead and Change:

• Last week your Officer Team attended NUS Lead and Change conference; an opportunity for sabbatical officers across the country to get together and discuss our priorities, develop collaborative work, and learn how to effectively push for change.
• In my tutor group, I really enjoyed getting to know other Officers and hear about the amazing work they're doing as well as getting their guidance on some of my ideas.
• Outside of my tutor group, I attended several webinars and networking sessions on topics such as supporting liberation groups, Student Minds session on mental health, and tackling disability issues and supporting disabled students.
• There were also several talks from some amazing people, such as the Founder of Simple Politics in the closing panel.
• After Lead and Change last week, this week I've been so so busy catching up with anything I missed while at conference:

Student Services/Mental Health:

• I've been focussing on how we can encourage preventative strategy for student mental health issues, as well as making sure our reactive services are effective, in light of Student Minds Mental Health Charter.
• Yesterday I had a really good discussion with the Director of Student Services around this, and how we can focus on and best utilise campaigns and student and staff training preventatively. I'm excited to be involved with this work in the coming year.

International Students:

• In preparation of pre-induction sessions, we've been working to ensure effective resources are available for international students on arrival.
• I've also been discussing with Zoe, our Activities Officer, how we can embed cultural awareness into training for our student leaders.

Student Safety:

• The Safe Taxi Scheme has been one of my main projects this week - I got some amazing guidance from other sabbatical officers at Lead and Change which I'm currently discussing with relevant staff to make sure this scheme is the best it can be!
• I've also had some great conversations with our Community Liaison staff around other ways we can keep students safe after nights out.

Preparing for Fun!

• This morning I had a meeting to arrange bringing back the Morning Mixers in-person in the upcoming year. This will be fab opportunity for you to meet others in a relaxed environment. It's looking pretty good but more on this soon so watch this space!
• As an Officer Team, we visited the Dartmouth Avenue site this week. This space has amazing potential to be a fantastic site for student groups to use and we're really excited to see how we can use it!

Other Bits:

• Zoe, Jacob, and I are continuing meetings around sustainability/accessibility of buildings and establishing how we can best work on this important issue in the upcoming year.
• I met with the Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) at the university this week. We discussed current EDI resources at the university and where improvements are needed, which I hope to push for this year.
• I've also been filming various bits for lots of videos so get ready to see my face everywhere!

So, it's been a very busy week (but productive!). I hope you have a fab weekend, make sure you get lots of rest, and goodbye for now!

Meg x

sucommunity@bath.ac.uk