Posted on Wed 06 Mar 2024 at 11:02 by
Hanna Hajzer Hi everyone!
So sorry for being MIA over the last couple of weeks on this platform- I have been doing so much and have been all over the place (quite literally) but I can’t wait to tell you guys about some of the amazing experiences and opportunities I’ve had over the last couple of weeks!
I most definitely need to start with the biggest one of them all- my trip to the UK Parliament in London! Jiji, our SU president, and I had the chance to attend an APPG (all-party parliamentary group) meeting last week where we talked about everything related to student housing. Issues such as the poor quality, lack of accessibility and extremely high prices came up and were discussed. We had some very amazing SU officers from universities all over the UK shared their horrible experiences living in student housing. Although a lot of the stories were nothing short of heartbreaking, they painted a very real (and sad) picture of the current housing situation. The feedback that was given by different SU representatives throughout the UK was collected and passed onto the housing minister- which will hopefully lead to a noticeable change in the sector.
The experience of our parliament visit was made a lot more special by having the Community Officer from 2017, Ben Palmer, who now works in the parliament, give us a tour around the building. He gave us some background information about the history of the parliament and even got us into the House of Commons so that we were able to watch a debate in real life! It was such a surreal experience, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to get to do!
(Jiji and I at the housing conference)
Another super exciting thing that I got to attend was a civic reception at the Major’s parlour, specifically for international members and citizens of Bath. I had a couple of students from the international exec as well as from the university come along with me. We also had students from Kingswood School and from the Bath community attend. I had the chance to speak to a lot of them about their personal experiences of being an international person in Bath which was super interesting and relatable in multiple ways! We also got to look at a couple of interesting artifacts that they had in the major’s parlour, such as a coin from Napoleon III and the peppercorns that were given by the university to the council as payment for the rent for the land we have the university buildings on!
(Me and some amazing international students with the major of Bath).
Finally, in case you haven’t seen it yet- Officer Elections are happening at the moment! Polling is open now close Thursday afternoon- we have a lot of amazing candidates running and I have no idea who is going to win, but it is definitely going to be a close competition! Super excited to see everyone campaigning on the parade. Don't forget to vote and have your say about who is going to represent you next year!
Don’t forget to vote next week- your voice counts!
Talk to you guys soon
LOL (lots of love)
Hanna