Posted on Fri 26 Nov 2021 at 11:22 by
Annie Willingham A short and sweet update from me. This week has been quite meeting free which has meant I’ve been able to do some catching up and work on manifesto projects!
This afternoon your officer team will be in the Student Centre and we want to hear from you about all things that are good and bad at uni. We want to know your favourite study spot and favourite duck but also what you want to see changed! Come and have a chat to us and grab some Dominos!
One of the things I have been working on this week is getting a presentation together to present at Council / Senate / Students’ Union Committee next week on student feedback on the buses. I will be presenting this to the Vice Chancellor as well as other members of the committee next Thursday.
First Buses currently have a promotion offer on that is worth sharing – if you download the app and under promotions you can buy £1 tickets for any journey after 7pm until 4.29am. Find out more here.
I have also been working with the University to increase support available for student parents. I had a meeting about how we can make the Nursery on campus more accessible to student parents as well as opening a nursing room for parents on campus. This work is on going and links nicely to the SU Top Ten on inclusive and accessible spaces. We are looking into provisions for students who may have older children who need support when lectures or meetings take place out of school hours.
We had our second meeting discussing International Women’s day which is on the 8th March next year. The Theme is #BreakTheBias. We are looking at hosting a variety of events from panel discussions to Instagram take overs and quizzes. We are also working with the University to host both staff and student events to ensure the whole community is involved.
We also had our first citizens assembly around Sustainability led by Zoe. It was great to hear from Scott (Climate Action Behaviour Change Specialist) and from all of you who attended on what our priorities should be as well as how we are going to be holding the university accountable around their adoption of the Climate Action Framework Principles and aim to be Net Zero Carbon in Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2040.
This week has also involved lots of conversations around the industrial action taking place from the 1st to 3rd December. Our priority is that all students are looked after during this time and working with the Academic Reps we will be closely monitoring the situation. We will have members of our student community who are part of the trade union UCU who will also be striking – we will be working with these postgraduates to make sure they are also been adequately supported during this time. We have set up a webpage with a whole load of information on which you can check out here. We will be updating it regularly. It currently includes an update on why the strikes are happening, a FAQ section with lots of information on what you can do and how you can get advice or support. Our SU Advice and Support Services have also worked to create a toolkit ensuring you know your legal rights during this time and there is a recording of the webinar we hosted with a representative from UCU, Members of University Staff and the NUS Vice President Higher Education. We will update further early next week.
We are almost in December so look out for the Christmas decorations starting to go up soon in the SU and Christmas songs playing from our offices!
Have a lovely weekend!
Annie x
