August: Meetings, Media and Many Freshers

The Fountain outside City Campus is one of our key locations in the sabb video.

Today is the Bank Holiday, the last day of summer apparently. We're now on the cusp of September where here at USW everything gets scary/exciting. A wave of students will arrive next month and a bunch more will flock back to start the new term. So summer planning time is definitely running thin at this point. This month at USWSU, we've been doing our best to prepare ourselves fully for September.

What I've been up to...

• Had a meeting with Cardiff's Welfare Officer to see how we could work together mainly on housing issues over the year. I'm also working with Cardiff Digs to try to inform students about what their responsibilities are in regards to housing. They'll be relaunching their website: cardiffdigs.co.uk before Fresher's Week.
• Met with the Royal Welsh SU President to try and work together on events throughout the year. They'll be getting involved in our Cardiff scavenger hunt which is part of Welcome Week.
• We're almost there with the SVR/Course Rep structure for next year which should see Sabbs have a bigger involvement in it to improve communications between all three parties.
• Helped review the Student Charter between the SU and the University. If you don't know what that is, click the link above to find out! (this is still old one until the new one is passed.)
• A Level Results were out! So set up some Freshers groups on Facebook by region so people could meet others on their courses and in their halls. For those interested the Cardiff group is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/505046822901990/ 
• Finished the "University Students Want" Academic Manifesto and we'll be looking to push the contents of that throughout the year.
• Had a big involvement in reshaping Student Media for the next year. I've put a proposal forward to have an online magazine, audio and video across all regions of the University. It would also see Tequila Radio remain intact for the next year.
• In other media news, we've made ourselves a sabb video which should be debuting later in the week. We'll be also making an Induction video for more info on how to get involved in things like societies, Student Council and the Course Rep system.
• Organised a societies fair on the 2nd of October at the ATRiuM so you can find out more about what societies we have in Cardiff if you can't make it to Freshers Fair. Also if you fancy setting up a society or want a table for it, feel free to get in touch.

Lots of planning still to do before Freshers get here. Newport's Welcome week starts a week before Treforest, Glyntaff and Cardiff's (on the 16th). So it's scary how little time we really have left.

Looking forward to meeting lots of new faces next month. Many of which have all week wristbands which almost guarantee them to get the dreaded "Freshers Flu" following a wild week. Remember if Freshers' week doesn't quite go your way, I'm here to help. I shall be back in touch with more updates soon.

Cheers,

Rich

July Review: And so it begins!

Graduation Pt. 2: At the Treforest Graduation Ceremonies

Hello. It's Richard here. I'm one of the four sabbatical officers at the University of South Wales Students' Union as the Vice President of Cardiff. I'll be using this blog to keep you posted on my trials and tribulations throughout the year at USWSU.

What I've been up to...
The first month has been a busy one. I feel a bit like I've been chucked in straight at the deep end and I've had to learn fast to keep up with the pace. Here's what I've been working on...

• Got some feedback on the ATRiuM Students' Union building and discussed future plans to improve it.
• Worked on an Academic Manifesto with the Sabb Team to try and shape the future of education at USW.
• Graduated from my degree in Radio then sat on the stage at two graduation ceremonies the week after in Treforest.
• Had meetings to discuss the Student Charter and the reshaping of the rep system (course reps, SVRs etc.) following the merger.
• Attended NUS training in Carmarthen and Milton Keynes and also in-house training.
• Discussed the housing situation in Cardiff with the council and Cardiff Union's Welfare Officer with a potential awareness campaign in the works.
• Had a 'visioning day' with the sabbs and Union staff to discuss the direction of the Union for the next couple of years and how we can provide a more evenly spread Union experience across all five campuses of the University.

Scribbles: Some serious notes at the Academic Manifesto meeting

Freshers Update

So been pretty busy then you could say! But there's plenty more to do and Freshers is now only about six weeks away. Speaking of which, you can find out more about all the events going on in Cardiff at the excellent Getting Started website that's just been launched. There you'll find a complete list of events happening over Freshers at the ATRiuM and beyond. It's definitely worth a look. On the menu are meet and greets for Postgrad, local, community and mature students, a film and curry night, two Student Media drop in sessions and a cupcake making challenge (where, presumably, you can have your cake and eat it!)

Get Involved

Finally I just wanted to give a shameless plug to the by-elections that are coming up in October for the remaining Student Council positions still vacant in Cardiff. It's an exciting time to get involved and be part of making the Students' Union experience in Cardiff better than ever before. There's also the chance to earn a bursary while you're at it. You could be a campus officer and work on improving facilities at ATRiuM or Cromwell House. You could be a LGBT, Black Students, Students with Disabilities or Women's Officer.You could put yourself at the heart of our activities by being a Sports or Supported Activities Officer. Or you could represent International, Post Grad and Part Time, Mature or Welsh students. If you are interested in any of these, please feel free to drop me a line and I'll keep you in the loop so you'll have no problems running for a position in October.

That's all for now. Talk to you again shortly.

Cheers,

Rich