council_vp_welfare_&_communities_report_union_council_14_may_2012

VP Welfare & Communities Report Union Council 14 May 2012

Union Council 7 Report Page 1 of 8

So, this is my last ever Union Council report, I genuinely can’t believe it – this year has gone so

quickly!

I thought I’d do my report a bit differently this time and go over some of the highlights of the year:

At the start of my term I organised

the ‘Sabbatical bin collection’ in

response to issues students were

having with being charged by

landlords for excess rubbish outside

their homes during the bin strikes.

I held a series of housing events

this year to ensure that students

got information about their

housing all year round. The

December events were the most

successful and I’m yet to hold

the June events.

I updated the

housing section on

the life tab so there’s

lots of useful

information that

students can access

all year round.

Southampton City Council

applied a City wide Article 4

Direction in March. I sat on

consultation boards and was

able to get the standards

document improved slightly.

I held 3 Private Rented Open Days

for students who didn’t get a place in

halls of residence. These were

successful events and the majority of

students found a house on the same

day as the event.



I introduced the

Student Taxi

Scheme so that

students can get

home safely even if

they haven’t got any

money.

I introduced the Portswood Safety Bus so

students can get home safely from Portswood.

I received funding from the Police for this

scheme.

I am working on introducing another

safety scheme, the Walking Bus,

which will act as a scheme to

supplement the Safety Bus and will

involve volunteers walking students

home to Portswood.

The Police and I organised monthly BEAT

surgeries at The Union so the Police can

give out key safety messages and

students can talk to them about any issues

they have. This was in response to the

front desk facility at Portswood Police

station being shut down.

I pushed some key safety messages out across the year

through blogs and plasma screen messages. I am

working on getting an ‘always get home safe’ brand

established and am purchasing some personal safety

alarms that will be available behind Reception.



I haven’t done as much on Community Volunteering as I would have liked, but

hopefully the things I put in place will make it much easier for Chloe to work on CV

next year.

The CV strategy is in its draft format at

the moment and it will lay out our vision

for Community Volunteering and how

we want it to work in the future. Once

this is finalised, the next VP Welfare and

Communities and CV Officer will be able

to take steps to achieve this strategy

and they will have a clear direction.

We have seen an increase in the

number of applications to the student-

led project fund which is fantastic. This

is without a push on the scheme, so

when this is done we should see even

more applications. A really successful

project was The Blackout, which was

led by Josh Davies and saw 200

volunteers and 50 staff taking part in

the first ever student led energy audit!



I believe we’ve come really far in our relationship with the local community this year and are in a position

where we can work together rather than against each other. There will always be tensions between

student and non-student residents, but there seems to be a more positive feel at community meetings I

attend now.

I organised a

competition at a local

school, Swaythling

Primary, where children

drew an image for the

Ssh! Campaign, this is

the winning image and is

now on our Ssh!

Campaign publicity.

I have attended numerous residents’ associations

throughout the year and have built up a rapport with

many of the Chairs. As I said above, SUSU’s relationship

has improved with residents’ associations and I now feel

comfortable going to meetings and know we’ll be

discussing joint working possibilities. We have also

invited residents’ in to The Union twice this year to keep

dialogue going and will be doing this once more before I

leave. Our Communities strategy is currently being

formed and we will see this completed next month.

Hopefully I can report to you that

The May Festival was a huge

success, but as it will only have

happened the day before Council,

I’ll just have to assume! We have

4 local schools performing this

year and student involvement has

been fantastic with people leading

on different areas.

Though this hasn’t happened yet, in

June we will be holding Recycling on

your doorstep again where

volunteers will collect your unwanted

goods and we’ll donate them to the

British Heart Foundation!

Community Newsletter – we have

continued to print the Community

Newsletter and we have now

included a spotlight on community

groups so they can advertise to

students too.



As well as working on my 4 specific goals, I have also worked on numerous events and campaigns

this year working with my Student Leaders and other student groups.

I have learnt a lot from running these events, specifically that I tried to do way too much and that

some of the events would probably have been more successful if I had prioritised.

Below are some of the other activities I’ve run or supported this year.

I’d just like to take the opportunity to thank my wonderful Student Leaders for all their hard work this

year, without them we would have ended up neglecting some of the key areas and people in SUSU.

I’d also like to thank the rest of the Sabbatical team for being a fantastic bunch of people to work

with and for all of their support with everything throughout the year. The staff at SUSU have also

been fantastic and have helped to ensure that my events and campaigns have run smoothly and

successfully, so a huge thank you to them. Finally, I’d like to thank you, Union Councillors, for

holding me to account throughout the year and making some key decisions for SUSU!



Joe Tait,

Postgraduate (Research) Officer:

The main aim of the year has been, I would say, engagement. There is a general feeling in committee meetings that postgraduate students don't know what is available. To this end, probably the most successful way to reach out is the creation of a postgraduate Facebook page. This has a large number of followers, and had a noticeable impact on attendance at both the pub quiz and cake and coffee morning. We have also decided to hand out more SUSU information at postgraduate events, in particular the cake and coffee morning, as this is the best attended postgraduate event. This has yet to be implemented in a regular fashion, though information about the postgraduate pub quiz has been handed out on a number of mornings. We have also successfully extended the cake and coffee mornings to other sites, namely Winchester and the hospital, and we are currently looking for a suitable place at NOC too. We intend to run a summer BBQ as well. All of these have been done with the aim of increasing postgraduate engagement with the union, and have largely been successful, to varying degrees. Another aspect is looking after general concerns and specific issues that have been raised by postgraduate students. Attending and asking students at the Thursday cake and coffee mornings has been the most successful way of doing this. I have raised a number of issues, particularly around working space and access to supervisors, normally finding the most appropriate person in the union or university to deal with the issue, and putting them in to contact with the student. In retrospect, I feel that advertising to students that the position of PGR officer exists, and is available to raise grievances with, is something I could have done better this year. Lastly, by attending Union Council meetings a PGR point of view has been put across, which otherwise would have been lacking (as I believe there are few or no other PGR students on Council). Tom McWhirter, Postgraduate (Taught) Officer:

This year, alongside the PG Research Officer, the aim has been to improve engagement and awareness of Post Graduate Students within the Union. After the early success of PG Cake and Coffee, we have worked to establish this as a weekly event, that has quickly become an institution within the PG Community. Due to this success, we have worked to introduce a similar scheme across all campuses, with free hot drinks and cake now available fortnightly at Winchester, the Hospital and the NOC. Work has also gone into organising and publicising regular events catered towards Post Grads, such as the successful PG Quiz and socials. I have also worked alongside the University to instigate the PTES survey, to evaluate the PGT experience within the University, with the intention of using these results to enhance engagement both within the Union and SUSU. A personal highlight has to be the new-found sense of community felt within the Post Grad sphere, making it a far more engaged part of the Union.



Chloe Green, Equality and Diversity Officer:

This year has been excellent for equality and diversity, some firsts for SUSU include: Diwali celebrations, Black History Month and an Equality Rally with local politicians answering students' concerns regarding equality. The Equality and Diversity Forum has also come to fruition, with elected co-ordinators for the first time working with a range of students to identify critical areas of inequality. We're using this information to create an E+D three year plan of aims and objectives to accompany the Union Plan in its final three years. This document will be ready by the end of the academic year. A personal highlight for me was International Women's Day and the evening of theatre: An Evening of Women's Bits. I've loved every second... almost!

Josh Davies, Ethical and Environmental Officer:

E&E Union Council Report Year Long Achievements

This year has seen some solid progress with Ethical & Environmental matters at the University and

SUSU. Some of the main achievements include:

Running an Environment & Ethics day during Freshers’ Week to build interest and secure new

committee members.

Creating the Green Label which can be seen in the Student Union and is now looking to be

established in the University Catering departments as well

Ethical Shopping Week which saw lots of external companies on campus showing students

how to shop in a more ethical manner.

The launch of our new Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/SUSUGreenForum, which

has already got over 100 likes and the set up of the new campaigns officers in hall who will

be helping improve E&E issues in halls.

Green Academy: Working with the University on this as was involved in the recruitment of a

full time member of staff.

Ran the 6th annual Waste Audit in February which saw the largest number of students

volunteer to take part (95) and was completed in record time

Helped support some of our societies run a very successful climate festival called the “Futures

Festival”, which saw the organiser win a highly commended EVA.

Ran the world’s first ever student led energy audit , Southampton Blackout, on Friday 27th

April, which saw over 200 students and 50 members of staff working in collaboration to turn

off all unessential electrical equipment on campus. Through this activity 7 tonnes of Carbon

and £1,600 was saved.

E&E Week: The week of the 23rd-27th was also the E&E week, which was promoting

everything we had done this year, whilst finding out what students want us as a committee to

work on next year.

Also in June we will be discussing the EcoCampus initiative at Trustee Board, which I recently

brought to Union Council.

It has been a great year for E&E and it should continue to grow next year. In depth reports will be

presented in the E&E AGM on June 7th, where we will be electing new members as part of the

committee restructure.

http://www.facebook.com/SUSUGreenForum



Umair Siddiqi, International Students’ Officer:

Events: The International Quiz Night was held on the 12th of December in the Bridge Bar and had a

good response.

The first International Cultural Night was held on the 24th of April at the Turner Sims. The event was

a huge success as the show was well received by the audience and there was a lot of positive

feedback with all international societies looking forward to have the event every year. The purpose of

the show was to celebrate the diversity of the international community at Southampton University.

Safety and Security Issue: This issue has been raised with university authorities and they have

been informed of the security concerns of international students in the university's surrounding areas

such as Portswood and Flowers Estate. International students will be made more aware of the safety

schemes currently being run by the Students' Union such as the Safety Bus and the Taxi Scheme.

Pre-arrival information: International students will be sent pre-arrival information which currently

they don’t receive. This would be done by emailing a pdf version of all the leaflets included in the

Freshers’ pack and other important information international students are expected to know before

arriving.

Kim Blewett, Community Volunteering Officer:

This year has seen some slow progress with the structure of Community Volunteering. Frankie and myself have been working with various members of SUSU and the University in an attempt for a complete restructure of CV. It's been slow progress, but we have made some. There are currently some student led projects being run, which have proved to be very successful. I will be setting up a Facebook Page before my term ends, so it's ready for Freshers’, and I have some plans together for a re-launch event, but this may now fall under the CV Officer elect. As the restructure has been very challenging, it's been difficult to get lots of new people involved; we've been looking after our current volunteers and focusing on Student Led Projects, and the criteria that these projects should meet to be approved. I have plans for a Forum, which I think would be extremely beneficial for CV progression in the next academic year. I have also thought about a reward system for committed volunteers, which I will provide details of to the new CV Officer to continue the plans and there will hopefully be a Community Volunteering Award Ceremony by the end of the next academic year!

council_vp_welfare_&_communities_report_union_council_14_may_2012

Documents

union council report

students home

issues students

report page

safety scheme

majority of students

portswood safety bus

southampton city council