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► Report to SGM - 1
Student President, Nov Report to SGM I thought I would give a written report for this meeting, to save some time and give you something to digest. The last few weeks have been dominated by two big issues, the Wales this Week programme and the University’s proposals for redundancies in SOTEAS. This is a very brief outline of some of the things I’ve been up to.
Community
As you will be aware, ITV Wales’ current affairs show Wales this Week broadcast a programme on students living in Uplands and Brynmill. Our initial concerns were that this could be very damaging for student and long-term resident relations. Aside from the half hour interview in itself this has been a challenging time for me that has meant a lot of work around the edges. We are lucky that thanks to the engagement that that James Houston (previous President) and Simon (Community Officer) have had with leading residents in the local community combined with the Sabbatical’s work over the summer meant that we had some strong allies.
The timing of the programme also meant that we had to bring forward our Community Clean up. This had been planned over the summer and while I’m aware it probably looked like a show for the cameras, it is actually a very good project that helps wins hearts and minds in Brynmill. Elsewhere on the community front, the Sshh! Campaign has restarted on Friday nights, the drainage works in the park should be starting soon and the Lord Mayor of Swansea has called for the student-council consultative committee to be re-established. In truth, while we will fully participate, I am incredibly sceptical. The last committee was a talking shop for local politicians who wanted to be seen to be talking to students. I’m determined that we will not be used in the same way again.
SOTEAS Redundancies
We will have a full discussion in the SGM but this has been the other big cloud hanging over us for the past few weeks. University Senior Management recommended that University council, which I sit on as a full voting member; establish a redundancy committee for the School of environment & society. I voted against the redundancy committee. 12 lecturers have been named in the proposals. Over the past few weeks I have met with SOTEAS students, representatives of the university, the lecturers’ organisation, University and College Union, Officers and staff of the National Union of Students and the SU Executive Committee. Further to this, I have engaged with a UCU General Meeting and in recent days, chaired a meeting between the SU Sabbatical Officers, the University’s Vice Chancellor and the rest of senior management.
HE Funding Review in England
Over recent days a lot of my focus has been on the response to the HE Funding review in England. We should be clear that a rise in tuition fees in English institutions will put a huge amount of pressure for a rise in Welsh institutions. I hope that the SGM will endorse the Sabbaticals stance of challenging parliamentary candidates to come clean on fees. We have also signed up to a joint letter with 200 UK sabbatical officers also calling for both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party also to come clean on this issue.
Estates Strategy
I have had some incredibly encouraging meetings with the Director of University Estates about the current Union building, about the future needs of the students union and the future services of the students’ union. The estates strategy is a document that will shape the future of this campus and likely the proposed 2nd campus too. We have a real opportunity to state our case for more societies space, more social space and a new union, quiet clear.
Working relationship with the Athletic Union
We have always had a strong working relationship between the Sabbaticals and Siwan. It continues to be a pleasure to work with her. We are currently in the process of formalising our relationship of the unions . Throughout the year a memorandum of understanding will be drawn up between me and Siwan detailing the roles, responsibilities and services of both unions, in an effort to avoid leaving the next team the mess that we and previous teams have inherited.
Student Staff
I’ve been making slow progress with the student staff project. I have the contact details for nearly all student staff, and have started to contact them all asking for feedback on the union and the jobs that they do. I am keen to be quite open and honest with student staff. See extract of email:
“Freshers Fortnight and this past month have been incredibly successful for us and I know that none of it would have been possible without the hard graft of student staff such as you. Thanks to you, more and more students are recognising the friendly services that the SU delivers and more want to get actively involved.
I also have another reason to email you. As Student President, I want to hear your thoughts on the union that you do so much for. In the past, we have been so keen to campaign and act on wider student issues that we have sometimes been guilty of ignoring student staff. This is unacceptable in a Students’ Union. The times when the only engagement between the Sabbatical team and student staff is over the bar when being served, must and will come to an end. So I want to hear your opinions about your job, your course, the union and ways that we can make it more open and accountable to Swansea’s students. At the same time, I would be keen to hear your views on things that we don’t do so well. Feel free to be brutally honest, even if it’s about me! That way, I hope that we can put our heads together and get things done that will change us for the better.
As an organisation, I don’t think that we say thank you nearly as often as we should. This year the entire Sabbatical team is eager to get the balance right and it is something we will be trying to address in the coming months. In the meantime, I hope you are well and if there is anything that I can help you with, please let me know.”
