I'm into my final few days and hours of my time at USWSU. It's been a bit of a transitional year what with two Universities merging last year and all the process still being ironed out. That's meant things haven't always gone to plan, but that's life I suppose. Here's what I got up to in my last month in the job...
- Went to the Partnership for Wales Conference at the Wales Millennium Centre where lots was discussed about how students can be partners with institutions in their education.
- Had our final Trustee Board meeting of the 13/14 year. Here I presented an Elections Report I wrote which is designed to hopefully improve the process of Elections next year and get more candidates involved and more voters to turnout.
- Sent out Course Rep certificates to our course representives in Cardiff who asked for one.
- Worked on some ideas for the structure of how to deliver key Union services within the Cardiff region which is feeding into the University's Review of the Union.
- Helped out with an Academic case in Newport
- Was on the panel of a student-led staff seminar which revolved around the topic of Inductions.
- Was featured in this month's Unity News, a community newsletter. You can read my little piece here: http://issuu.com/cardiffdigs/docs/unity_news_12
- Edited together some outtakes from our sabb videos from across the year. You can see them in the video above.
1. A Union of people, not place
I've done more to focus on building a strong group of people to be involved in the Union. I've had contact with 43% of our Course Reps, trained 26 and had 30 turn up to Course Rep Assembly meetings. Whilst this figure still needs to be improved it has strengthed the relationship between Cardiff students and the Union. For the 14/15 year, Cardiff currently has the most Student Council Officers elected at the first election, more than the Pontypridd or Newport regions. And considering Cardiff is the smallest region of the three, that's an impressive statistic.
"People, not place" would be a good mantra from the Union going forward seeing as there's so many different campuses that there's no way we can provide the same "place" everywhere in the University. It's about becoming more flexible, more innovative. A lot of that is tying in with the Students' Union review that's been going on.
However the place changes next year as Atrium 2A will be open and we will have a new Students' Union space. However, it's absolutely imperative that if USW students in Cardiff want this space that they use it and its services. We've pretty much been flat out told that we can't run any commercial outlet that is not financially sustainable. Cardiff has struggled to make ends meet with the portacabin since it opened in 2009. Here's hoping things change next year. If they do not, "people, not place" will be more important than ever.
2. On the ground support
Retrospectively, it was probably unwise of me to put this in my original manifesto. Providing "on the ground support" is very difficult for a sabbatical officer due to meeting and other commitments. Instead using our reps, both academic and non-academic as more "on the ground support" makes more sense.
The reason I originally put this down was for issues at the Atrium on deadline days. Perhaps we need to look at these more with course reps and see how we can campaign to tackle the underlying issues rather than try to be a body on the ground.
3. Campaign for what you want
Using forums such as Course Rep Assemblies along with feedback from our Student Council Officers, I have been able to formalute and assist campaigns to make a positive change in the Cardiff region. The major success of this has been extending the opening hours at the Atrium, Cromwell House and Atlantic House during busy periods of the year. This has helped more students have access to equipment for longer periods of time which is especially important for those students who simply can't complete their courses without the facilities available in Cardiff.
There's still a lot to campaign about though, from cash machines to the large housing problems. I'm hoping that next year we'll have an improved Student Council so there can be regular quorate meetings where decisions can be made and more campaigns can be created and carried out.
4. Society Encouragement
Societies have remained relatively stagnant in number in Cardiff since last year. I would say this is to do with a number of issues such as the Union building not being open later so students can't pop in and bring back forms, to the way admin is processed for societies within the Union.
If I were to rewrite this manifesto now, I'd say that whilst societies are good, there are lots of other ways we as a Union can help students get involved extracirricularly like volunteering and fundraising and it might be easier to implement these things over societies.
5. Communication
I've been doing my best to increase communications with Cardiff students. I've been writing this blog, which has been quite successful and been active on Facebook and Twitter. I've met with students, used surveys and emailed people as well. What's been good about that is I've been able to clear up some misconceptions about the Union and give students a better idea of what we do and how it affects them.
I think a lot more does need to be done in this area though. One mistake I feel I've made is that I didn't go out enough to talk to students which perhaps could have helped promote the non-academic side of the Union more - such as Student Council, societies, welfare etc. Also I made the decision at the start of the year not to separate my Facebook and Twitter accounts from my personal account. This was because I was told by one of my former lecturers that having multiple social media accounts can sometimes be like having a split personality. But in retrospect, I think if I had two different accounts, I would help create more consistency in my tweets and posts.
So there you have it. I probably say overall it's been a mixed bag. I've learnt quite a lot of things this year both about myself and new skills I've picked up like negotiating. I hope these things will help me in my future career prospects.
I hope I've helped in some way this year (even if it's just a tiny bit) to making life at USW in Cardiff a little bit better. I looked forward to seeing what Roz (our new VP Cardiff) does next year and the new opportunities that await with Atrium 2A. To those leaving USW this year, I hope your graduation is grand and you are successful in your future endevours. To those coming back next year, I hope you get involved with your Union because you are the people who really run this thing (hence the word "students") and you never know you might find it a lot of fun.
If you need to get in touch with my successor Roz, she'll be available to email from July 1st on vicepresident.cardiff@southwales.ac.uk
I won't be able to answer work queries after July, but if you ever want to get in touch, you can follow me on Twitter @sheepfm or email rqueree1@hotmail.com
That's all from me. Arrivederci!
Rich
