Posted on Mon 18 Mar 2024 at 17:08 by
Jimena Alamo Hey everyone!
Coming with another loaded one today...
In the previous blog post, I gave you a rundown on SU finances. I know it was dense in content, but I also think it was needed and useful. For this same reason, I want to now brief you on SU governance – how we’re structured and what that means for you!
The first thing you should know is that the SU is a registered charity and fully independent to the university, as all Students’ Unions are under the charities act of 2011 (there’s more background and legislation behind this, but this is the gist of it). As all charities do, this means our higher level of decision making is our board of trustees. All six elected officers are trustees, and as president, I am the chair of the board (this is as terrifying as it sounds, considering we have seven independent trustees that include senior staff members of other companies and organisations). This is what we mean when we say we are a student-led organisation. As charities and companies normally do, as a board we delegate the day-to-day operations of the SU to a chief operating officer and his senior management team.
Our CEO and the senior team are accountable, and line managed by the board. This means that, were it come to it, as a board we could overrule decisions made by the senior team. Of course, this is not how we normally operate. We have a fantastic working relationship with the senior team, and as officers we sit in all meetings regarding long-term strategy, and even finance and leadership decisions. These are actual sub-committees of the board: finance and audit; leadership committee (with the membership only being the six sabbatical officers), and complaints and disciplinary committee (which quite frankly rarely convenes).
This is all the governance side of the SU.
Now let me give you a rundown of our areas and departments. We have 4 head of departments: a head of finance (self-explanatory), head of commercial (bars, Starbucks, events, etc); head of activities (sports, activities, volunteering, arts, and facilities); and a head of student voice and engagement (all things student representation, data and insight, education, EDI, etc). A few areas lie marginally out this four-department structure: marketing has an area manager that reports directly to the CEO; and advice and support reports directly to our deputy CEO.
Finally, let me explain how the officers fall into all of this. Other than our being trustees and making high-level decisions, we work full time roles in the SU (I’m sure you’ve seen us running around, or with a double pint during happy hour). This means that we all have specific areas. Sports officer clearly deals with all things sports, and sits on finance and leadership committee. The activities officer runs all club and societies, as well as overseeing volunteering – this officer also sits on finance and leadership. The education officer does a lot more representation stuff: runs the academic rep system, sits on university council, senate and finance committee. Education sists under voice, and there’s 3 dedicated staff members to it – one of them being a part-time staff member for postgrad matters. The postgrad officer has a lot of overlap with the education officer for obvious reasons, but they also look after PG experience and make sure we don’t overlook this part of our student community. The community officer has a very wide remit: they deal with external stakeholder engagement (local council, student community partnership, local resident forum); looks after EDI and inclusivity; and focuses on matters such as international students and Advice and Support.
My role might be the hardest to define. I don’t work with any specific area, and I tend to dip my toe in all of them quite a bit. Mainly, my role has a lot to do with the governance, board side of things. I also oversee the finance side of things. This means I work with commercial, marketing (and therefore student media), and finance. Because I do representation at the local, regional, and national level, I work with the voice team very often as well. My involvement in other areas such as activities and sports is more based on personal preference and the fact that clubs and societies very often invite me to things. Worth noting that I explain the role of president in a lot more depth than any of the others simply because I know more about it. I wouldn’t say that I do more than the other officers, or that the role is harder. It simply covers a broader remit and therefore involves mroe stakeholders.
I will leave it there, as I’m sure this is a lot to take in as it is.
As usual, do reach out with any questions or concerns. In the meantime, stay warm and be kind to one another.
Much love,
Jiji x