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Transcript
Hello everyone, it’s Franci, your SU President. I want to give you an update on what’s been happening on this side of the lake over the past week. It’s been promising to listen to the Prime Minister’s announcement on Monday setting out the roadmap to end restrictions in the UK. As an SU we are all eager to get back to our building, our venues, and re-open fully to support the student experience. We’ve all started working out what the roadmap means for us and we’re starting to plan exciting things for when restrictions start lifting. The University will have communicated what this roadmap means for you as a student, so make sure you keep checking your emails.
Here are some of the key things I’ve been working on this week. I have attended a meeting of University Council, the University’s governing body, where Annie and I highlighted the current situation with no-detriment, as a governor brought up the petition that over 5000 of you have signed before the winter break. We continue reviewing the situation and we will ensure that we can review no detriment when the results from Semester 1 exams fully come out.
I have also worked to ensure The SU can continue being a recipient of Santander funding. The SU every year receives £1500 to assign to student activity linked to equality, diversity, and inclusion. With Covid-19 halting our activities, it has been difficult to allocate that money this year, but there are so many exciting projects we’re hearing about from student groups, and knowing we have secured that grant will make sure incredible activities can be funded in the future.
As an SU, we have been lobbying the University to improve its sustainability credentials in terms of its strategy and operation. We know, however, that we need to get our house in order as well. Looking at next year, we are carefully considering the output and the impact of our print material, be that flyers, office printing, or marketing material, and SU clothing, to make sure that we follow through with the promises we have made with regards to sustainability.
We have also started looking at induction next year, and what it could look like. This exercise, jointly with the University, involves reviewing data and feedback from the 2020-21 induction period to see what has worked, what can be improved, and particularly what parts of the induction period that had to be altered because of Covid could result in a longer positive impact for students. Recent news mean that there’s a good chance of induction next year looking more like it was pre-Covid, and that is really exciting. However, we must be prepared for a series of different scenarios, and that’s what we have started doing now.
This year, we will also be embarking on a very exciting exercise to assess the University’s progress on its Access and Participation Plan. The Office for Students requires universities to submit a plan showing what it’s doing and what it’s planning to do to improve access and participation for students from key underrepresented backgrounds at University. Students also have the chance to file in a submission to give the students’ view on whether the University has achieved its targets. This is an important exercise that Freya and I are working on, and we will be in touch with students to gather that feedback to make sure that submission can be as detailed as possible.
I have been working on the wider University work regarding our environmental credentials. One of our key demands is for the University to divest from companies that finance the fossil fuel industry, such as Barclays. This week, I have met with the leaders of the Climate Action Framework to talk about how we can achieve this. I will be working to review the terms of reference of the University’s investments committee to make sure environmental principles are at the forefront of the University’s investment decisions.
Last but not least I want to give a couple of shoutouts, because we need to do this, and we need to celebrate the incredible things members of our community have done, and this week I have been privileged to be a part of some of them.
I want to give a huge shoutout to my friend and colleague Tom, our Sport Officer, for the incredible work he has been doing on the Students’ Union space consultation, to make sure that our spaces are fit for purpose when we come back post-Covid, and for the amazing advancements he’s making on making sport more inclusive for trans and non-binary students.
I also want to commend the work of the LGBT+ student committee. On Wednesday I had the privilege to attend a support group meeting they organised and their effort, care and level of enthusiasm is incredible and I hugely look up to it. I hope you know how much you’re improving the experience of the students who attend these meetings, and we’re all really grateful to be working with you.
This week, I have also attended Academic Council, where I got to see even more the huge amount of work our Education Officer, Annie, is doing. I’m proud and honoured to be working with her on the key education issues that students have faced this year. I also want to commend the work the Academic Reps are doing to support their peers during such a transformative time for education.
That’s it from me! Have a lovely weekend, and make sure that you vote in the NUS referendum that is open now, and in the Officer elections, the voting of which opens on Tuesday. Have a lovely weekend.