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| Gearing up for Elections: Created this sign outside my office |
This is also the month where I decided not to re-run for Election for 2014/15. Whilst there are several reasons for me deciding against re-election, ultimately I felt that whilst being Vice President Cardiff has made me learn a lot, I have other bigger passions in life which I don't want to wait longer to get in to. Whilst I flirted with the idea of running for President and was being persuaded by a number of students to run for it, I felt it best to leave that to other candidates.
So what happened in the month of February?
Big wins
This month we achieved two really significant results. First off it was announced on UniLife that from March 10th to June 6th, the ATRiuM will now be open from 9am - 10pm on weekends. This is great news and means those who have final projects or deadlines in and around Easter will be able to access the ATRiuM's facilities for as long as they need to and hopefully this will help them achieve to their full potential.
The other big win surrounds ATRiuM 2A. After months of negotiations with the University we're finally in a position to be able to offer a food provision at the new Students' Union due to open in September. This means will be able to go ahead with the move and have a much better chance of making the SU a self-sustainable service. It's a big step in the right direction to provide a better SU for students in Cardiff. But it is only one step in that process and it's important now that we find more ways to involve students in how the SU operates in Cardiff.
Also in the Elections, Cardiff has had nominations for more positions than in any other region. Students are running for the roles of Vice President Cardiff, Atrium Campus Officer, Mature Students Officer, Sports Officer and Student Council Chair. Also Emily Lee is rerunning for Women's Officer. This is extremely positive as this year we have struggled to fill the positions on Council which has affected the democratic influence of the Cardiff region. Now we are well on our way to rectifying that and making sure Cardiff can be involved in the decision making process of the Union at every level.
You can have a look at the Candidates manifestos here and see what you think of them. Also I filmed the candidates answering questions about their roles which you can find here. Elections for President, Vice Presidents and Student Council Chair run between March 3rd and March 6th. The Student Council Officer Elections will happen the week after between March 10th and March 13th.
Some less good news...
I think it's important to address that not everything went swimmingly this month. The biggest issue is that the opening hours of the current ATRiuM Students' Union have been decreased further due to a decline in trade. This has been a commercial decision I have had very little involvement with. The new opening hours are between 9am and 3pm. Considering the new SU is going to open in September, I want to make sure that we can use this opportunity to address what is going wrong with the current SU and look at what we can do to bolster trade and activity so the new Students' Union doesn't fall to the same fate as the current one.
Another issue that's really brought to my attention is the feeling at Cromwell House and Atlantic House and that we as a Students' Union haven't been doing enough to represent these students points of view and tackle the issues they are facing. With the opening hours being increased at the ATRiuM, it seems unfair that Cromwell and Atlantic can't receive similar treatment. Also there's big access issues to Atlantic House due to the bridge by Liberty Bridge being demolished with a new one unlikely to be open until September. After hearing more about these issues and more, they have been raised to the University at a number of different levels of seniority to try and solve them relatively quickly. I believe we need to have more of an SU presence at Cromwell and Atlantic by doing regular sabb visits (would help if my card could actually get me into the buildings!) and looking into creating Students' Union social spaces similar to what's just been set up at Glyntaff.
What I'm working on at the moment.
Elections are at the forefront of all the staff and sabbs minds at the moment and probably will be for the next week or so. Despite that we'll still be working at making a difference and tackling issues in Cardiff. As mentioned we're looking to address the things that were brought up to us from Cromwell House and Atlantic House at our recent Course Rep Council meeting. I'm looking at the Opening Hours there, the technical support and issues at Atlantic House and whether we can help students with the travel issues around the different buildings in Cardiff by providing some kind of minibus service.
I'll also be working with the Union's senior management and the University to ensure the new ATRiuM Students' Union is the Union that students want. I'll be looking to set up a student forum where we can address issues with the current building and discuss areas such as menus, what is sold in the shop, what activities and events should happen and how we can use the space effectively.
After the Elections, the sabb team will be working on trying to provide a handover period for the new sabbaticals starting in June so they feel fully equipped to hit the ground running in July. We're also looking at what we can do on the Go Out and Talk side of things in the next couple of months which ties in with recent work surrounding the review of SU services and strategic planning.
That's all for now. I shall talk to you in March when we'll have a new Sabb team elected and we'll be fast approaching the Easter break. Speak to you then!
Rich
