Ok so this blog is going to be a bit different than my usual blogs, namely because I am actually on annual leave, but also because I have a few gripes to air all about blogging.
Now at NUSSL conference in Manchester the new NUS digital scheme has been launched and it is all about bringing unions in line with the modern day that we live with. It was during a keynote speech by Kate Burns who was the first non-American to work for google and went onto be a big dog in Bebo and AOL. She was talking about online interaction and how (god forbid) Facebook, like all big empires in history will one day fall and be replaced by a new era.
Now – blogs and officers. I am sorry but they are not the best way of holding officers to account and I actually argue that they do less than that – it makes what we do boring. We are mandated to write a blog with a minimum amount of words each month otherwise we get a censure by Guild Council.
A few issues with this:
if you look at my past blogs they can sometimes breach 4000 words. Now you could argue that this is inaccessible to students – but hold on I hear a cry of ‘why dont you make yourself more accessible then Mark?’ – well ok, but then you won’t know what I actually do, so therefore the blogs are yet again meaningless and just a rant by officers when we get a spare minute.
This year myself and the team set the tone of making officers more open and accountable than ever. Through our officer engagement plan we now do a number of things which mean that we can be held to account better than ever before. SOG minutes, diaries, Facebook, twitter, hotdesking as well as all the old things we did, we are the most open and accountable team ever – so I ask is there a point in being mandated to do a blog? Should we not be encouraged to do other, smarter things and ways to get out there?
Now do not get me wrong, I do see the good parts of blogs such as the VPAD blog a while back about her journey through to her term in office which gave me a really good insight. However my blogs have always tried to focus on what has been going on in my job on a day to day basis, hence the 4000 word blogs. But does this hold me to account? No. Have I ever really had substantive questions in GC about my blog? No. Do I hope this blog will get a question in GC? Yes, and I will buy the person a bag of sweets if they do!
When I came into office I thought that writing a 500 word blog once a month would be easy, loads to talk about, how can officers not? Well (and here is where I try and make you feel a bit sorry for officers!) when you work an average 60 hours a week (well some of us) , in work at 8.30am and sometimes not leaving til gone 9pm, or a 14 hour day working flat out, then yes sometimes officers want to go home, eat, see the boyfriend/girlfriend and have a good sleep. Now again I hear a cry of ‘but Mark you wanted this job so stop moaning’ – well yes that is true, and believe it or not but I love my job, I go home (most) days with a smile on my face, even if I have had a good beating on the online forums, again being held to account then sometimes, more often than not the blog is the last thing officers want to be doing.
I also bring this up in GC – students need to use their officers more. If my blogs got massive attention then I’d stick to them religiously, but they don’t and that means they are more of a chore.
So here is a concept for you – officers are like a gym: simply having them doesn’t mean you get value from them. Use your officers, we are here to serve.
I don’t expect a massive debate about this, nor am I really inviting one, but as officers tend to do, I wanted to have a rant, prove a point. However, I do ask that you don’t take this blog out of context – I know that for people who are likely to read this may well do so. I’m not saying we shouldn’t hold officers to account, I’m not trying to hide anything, nor is this a grand scheme for me to have a power grab or suspend anyone, it is a blog about not blogging. Simple.
So I am not sure where I am going with this blog, and I know I say that in far too many blogs. I know I am going to get a censure for this being late, and I do not like getting them, but I think this also goes to serve a point – are there things that officers should be getting held account on other than typing a few words into WordPress? Also, if that’s not enough, I’m doing this whilst technically on annual leave, my first piece of annual leave since June. Wah wah for me,but hey it’s a blog and I’m being held to account….. Am I not? Ok my Xbox is waiting,made you soon!
So I know that you will be very upset that this blog is now a few days late, however given the recent events which unfolded at the end of last week, sorry to say but the blog simply had to take a back seat as I was doing other aspects of my job….thats right I was doing my job, and that is a theme that will be apparent throughout this check-in with the student body because that is what I am meant to do…… my job.
So since I got good words back from my last blog where I numbered my points so people could scroll to bits they wanted, find below what I will talk about:
1 Protest the Protest Ban
2 VC President Question Time
3 Vote of No Confidence
4 Candidate Training
5 Guild Council
6 SRSAB
7 Time Tabling
8 Employability Oversight Group
9 Library
1 Protest the Protest Ban
So at the last Guild Council the Officer Team were mandated to write a letter to the Vice Chancellor requesting again to drop the injunction. Now we did this and that letter is online. A small storm in a teacup was caused because the VPE did not sign that letter and I will put some truths behind this.
When I was formulating the letter I simply started with the bare bones of it, circulated it to the team and asked them to add. Now in this letter I was not willing to send anything politically motivated or speculative as otherwise the original reason for the letter would be lost. The majority of the team agreed to what was said as it fulfilled the GC mandate, and the VPE refused to sign it for his own reasons, however we had a deadline to meet and the team were happy with the letter as essentially we could have got away with:
“Dear Vice Chancellor, please drop the injunction it is really really bad”
but obviously we didn’t want it to just be that. The VPE requested that the letter, which did not have his signature not to go online and that we would issue a ‘joint-statement’ later to students about this. I said that this would be an option if he would get to me this ‘statement’ asap, of which he did not. The letter went up as I decided that it would not be open and transparent if we sent the VC one letter, and issued a statement that may not be the same, surely that is lying to students? Anyway, the letter was sent, the injunction was not dropped, so we continued to organise the protest against the protest ban.
Now before anyone thinks to comment that I did not support the dropping of the injunction until Guild Council mandated me to, lets get a few things clear. I DO support the dropping of the injunction, it is as simple as that. The Officer team had formally requested the dropping of the injunction officially once before, and I had spoken to University Senior Managers on a number of occasions, including the Vice Chancellor to drop the injunction and told/warned them what this injunction meant and how it was affected the student population and their perceptions of the institution. I must have asked at least 4 times. I did this with a number of ‘hats’ on. Firstly as a student, It makes my blood boil that this is in place, at a University that I love and has given me the best years of my life thus far. Secondly as a President, why can the University not work with us when occupations take place, why did they allow the High Court Judge to extend it to 12 months and across campus, surely we should have been consulted on this. Finally as a University Governor, I sit on University Council, I am essentially a Trustee of the University, and the injunction is something that I do not support. So next time someone says that I dont support the calls for the injunction being dropped, I say just hold on a second, never assume anything about me before asking me as it happens way too much and im getting rather sick of it.
Now for the protest, no matter what your thoughts are on health and safety, any protest or event that takes place, the Guild HAS to do these types of things because at the end of the day it keeps students safe. If you hate the establishment and think this is wrong, lobby your MP or take it to Parliament, we are doing what we are legally required to do and will continue to do so. We train our stewards to a high standard, but we do not expect them to put themselves in harms way.
Therefore, and I will keep this short. On Wednesday what took place was simply not on. As a Trustee of the Guild I can say that the potential issues caused by this were astronomical – and for those of you who think that this is because I don’t support a right to protest, lets make it clear, if people said they wanted to take that route then they should have told us, we could have facilitated that. I am all for protesting and exercising democratic rights, but lets not be silly, it simply wasnt on.
I have seen people, including the VPE (who is also a Trustee) saying that he was not content with a simple ‘A to B’ march. Well why was this not brought up at the Sabb meetings? Why was this not mentioned to me, or when meetings took place at the University. Lets get another thing clear, the University OWNS the land, if we want to protest on it then we HAVE to ask their permission, especially if it is a Guild run event – if you want to do a protest and don’t want Guild support then don’t mandate us to do so at Guild Council.
Lets put this into perspective, essentially a risk assessment of what took place.
Not sticking to the route endangers those taking part, and also the stewards that do not know about what is up ahead. So the traffic, the coaches for the applicant visitor day, moving into confined spaces such as that of where University Security is located………
Protesting outside the Vice Chancellors Office – Now this is not a bad thing, if anything that is our democratic right, but next time you are by Aston Webb, go up to that ledge and look down. Then think back to when 5 or 6 people stood on that ledge. Now think of if those people fell down there. Now think of the implications for the Guild. Getting the picture? WE DO THINGS FOR A REASON IT IS THAT SIMPLE. If you want to take an alternate route then that is fine by me, but do not then try and blame the Guild of pandering to the University when we were simply fulfilling our legal obligations. Myself and the rest of the team did……apart from the VPE and I certainly hope that students will hold him to account on this, as I would hope they would if I or any of the other officers did.
In reference to the other issues that took place on that day, I am not going to comment until I get proof it is as simple as that. Violence is unacceptable. Whether that is staff to student, student to staff it doesn’t matter, it is unacceptable and if evidence comes to light on either side I certainly hope that justice is swift as it has NO place and NO excuse in our society, not matter how ‘angry’ you get.
What is more annoying is that while people have their debates on the Better Guild Forum, it is myself and the team that are dealing with the fallout that happens, speaking to the Vice Chancellor, the Pro Chancellor, the Registrar – No matter what you think and if you agree with what I am about to say, it is usually the President who mops up any mess and keeps things together – this is what I have had to do, to calm the University down – but needless to say the allegations of what went on at Security have not made them happy. Im not saying this because im ‘scared’ of what they think, im saying this because this is the real world and relationships need working at, and that is the case here.
2 VC President Question Time
Ok, so the fallout from Wednesday, myself and the Officer Team decided to postpone the event so that any allegations or uncertainties can be cleared up in time for when the event takes place. For those who think this is us pandering to the University or stifling debate, do me a favor and come to when the event is rescheduled for, we have not cancelled it, we have simply moved it so that a better debate and questions can take place, it is not some conspiracy, we simply moved it and it will take place on the rescheduled date, and thats all I have to say on the matter really, apart from see you there!
3 Vote of No Confidence
Ok so you may have seen that the VNC that was petitioned against me fell at the Scrutiny Committee Stage. Now people have complained about this process and yes I agree that I still have questions to answer, but I wont comment on what the Scrutiny Comittee decided as it was their choice. I simply followed that process, did what was asked of me, answered questions when asked and fully expect similar questions at the next Guild Council.
4 Candidate Training
Ok so the candidate list is out and one of the lucky people running for President will be writing blogs similar to this in a few months time. It is weird not running or even helping in an election campaign this year, but I want to say good luck to all those running and hope that they have fun on the campaign, as that is what it is all about. It is the biggest ride you will ever go on…..until you get elected!
Something at the training session did worry me though. There were people asking questions about negative campaigning against other candidates. I will go on record and say simply this ‘DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT‘ . If you want to turn on (Kendrick 2012) the student body, dont turn into squabbling children, have fun, do the right thing, look forwards not sideways, if you cant convince yourself that your policies are the best for the students who you wish to represent and that means you resort to hitting out against your competitors, then please, do us all a favour and drop out now. We want to have fun, free and fair elections. Last year was amazing, I hope to see the same again this year!
Just a note on why I decided not to rerun. At the time of if I won, It would mean I would have nearly 18 months left in office til I had to go, and I think that I would lose my passion for the job by then and that is not fair on students. Also after the year we have had so far, I think it is best if a fresh face with fresh ambition comes in and takes the wheel. I can take the personal attacks, I can certainly take the professional attacks – I don’t give the haters the satisfaction of letting it get to me – at the end of the day ‘haters gonna hate’. I love my job, I love the Guild, I love Students, I love the University, but I do not want to leave with a bad taste in my mouth – so the gloves are off, Harrop is back and is finishing his year – bring it on.
5 Guild Council
Ok so my fingers are starting to hurt, and in the spirit of your eyes may be hurting too ill keep the next ones short and sweet. Well GC was epic wasn’t it?! nearly 7 hours after doing a 9am start to the day, wow, who said officers did no work!
The motion debates were good, they were interesting. However there were some motions there which could have been sorted out by talking to the Officer such as the Liberation Rooms motion. This should have been sorted between the VPAD and Women’s Officer. However it was not, and thats not me having a go at either, but what some people need to get out of their heads is this ‘us and them’ mentality, as it simply is not constructive.
On the note that when I stood up and spoke against extending GC for an extra 30 minutes. Someone shouted that I shouldn’t be afraid of being questioned and therefore should not have run for election. Firstly I think it is safe to say the team and I are the most questioned and held to account team in the history of the Guild, I have no issue being questioned on what I do as President, I expect, if anything I thrive from it, so don’t make a mountain out of a mole hill, I was simply raising awareness of issues and the duty of care I have to students, my team and the staff there.
6 SRSAB
You may have seen me write about this before, the Student Rep System Advisory Board. All in all the system is going well this year, with more issues being reported and solved with positive outcomes, as well as tackling the issues of hard to reach groups and making sure they are adequately represented.
I was also happy to see the Home Students and Satellite Sites Officer join us on the group at the suggestion of myself and the PVC Education about getting more students onto the board to offer a greater perspective on what we do. So good things there!
7 Timetabling
Just a quick update on this, the new system is coming on well which means that room booking clashes at the Uni. This project is a bit behind due to a bereavement at the University who was a project lead but it is well on its way to be being a much better system for lectures, but also for student groups to book rooms as well. Watch this space.
8 Employability Oversight Group
So I usually update about this. Just a 6 month progress report and all is good. We now have careers advisors in each college and the Careers Centre is working much better to improve internship and employment opportunities for students. If you have not seen this in your college, make sure you ask your personal tutor or department administrator, or check WebCT.
Also on a note of employment – I will be able to announce in greater detail soon a move with the University to expand JobZone so that it offers jobs on campus, as well as in the Guild and local community. Watch this space.
9 Library
Ok so remember my manifesto? Love your library – better hours, better power. Well I was able to get nearly 300 new plug sockets in the library, and now I am able to announce that the Library will be going 24hours for the first two weeks of term 3 when revision time is at a premium. This is a trial for this year only to see if students actually use it, but it is coming so take advantage of it! See Redbrick for more details, Ill also be posting about this more next week.
Ok that is it for my blog. Remember the comment filter on here is a bit rubbish, so if you have a comment about anything I have said, then please just write on my BhamGuildPre Ident facebook profile so I can get back to you quicker.
As always take care of yourself, get in touch if you need me and I hope this reaches you well.
Firstly, dont worry, it will not be a 4000 word essay like my last blog was, mainly because 2 weeks of the month were obviously whilst I was off for Christmas break! Oh and I hope you all had a good time, relaxed and deadlines are not getting you down too much!
So lets go straight to the elephant in the room, the proposed Vote of No Confidence (VNC) in my that I was handed last week. Now you may be looking for me to add some further comment to my defence which is on my officer facebook account, sorry to disappoint but I wont. My defence is out there, the allegations are out there, students elected me, students will decide – you will make up your own mind whether the allegations against me constitute me being removed from office, but between now and then I will be continuing to do my job to the best of my ability.
So the end of term was madness as per usual, and a lot of what I was doing last term was covered in my last blog, so take a look at that for more info.
Since we have come back we have been busy getting ready for term two with what we want to achieve.
Firstly, the VPE returned after the result of his disciplinary, so in order to make sure that he could get on with his job, I organised a series of briefings for the VPE to bring him back up to speed on meetings etc that took place last term, such as Senate, University Education Committee and the student reps. There is a lot of information that got relayed, so it will take a while to catch up, but myself and the rest of the team have been open that we are here to answer any questions that he may have and support him in making sure he can be effective in these meetings.
A few weekends ago myself and the team embarked on the RA training weekend to induct the new RAs to the Guild and make sure they can be the best RAs they can possibly be. There was a lot of paper work, and some of the stuff was dry for them (and the team!) but I feel that the training we gave them places them best to hit the ground running.
It was weird being back on RA training weekend, three years after I had been elected to do that job for the mighty Aitken Wing, but what has not changed is the passion these students have for their hall. Everyone was amazing, enthusiastic and a good laugh!
But we didnt just keep them all indoors. There were a lot of team building exercises and then some outdoor games. A few personal highlights were the blindfolded trail and then (sorry Hugo), beating the VPDR on the assault course! WIN!
I also had a session with all the new Presidents. This was such a good thing for me to do to hear their worries, what challenges they all thought they faced, and for me to pass on what I hope were some wise words on being the person that leads the hall and the responsibilities that they have. I kept it as lighthearted as possible and I hope they got a lot out of it.
A big shout has to go out to the rest of the team, and the staff for the work that they put in, but I do have to single out Zuki (or Zook-eh as I now call him!). He was amazing on this weekend as the leader of the RAs. His interesting choice of quotes such as ‘The best team is a team’ were out in force! But he did so well and I was uber proud of him!
So when we got back, I have been busy in the last week.
I gave an induction to ERASMUS students who have just joined the Birmingham community, about what the Guild can do to make their time here in the UK that little bit more special. It does strike me how, in a way, brave International students are, being thousands of miles away from home in a foreign country, and making the best of their time here, it is something that I know I would struggle with.
Next was the meeting that myself, the PGMSO and the VPE attended with Bioscience students about the potential closure of the recording programme at Gateway in Shrewsbury. There is a petition at the moment, which I suggest you read and sign, get all the facts etc. But rest assured that myself, the PGMSO and the VPE are keeping a close eye on the situation and helping students on the course get the best outcome that they can, which may well be the programme being taken over by another University.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/biorec_bham/
On Wednesday we were due to have a Guild Officer Group (GOG) meeting and training day. However sadly some of the officers were unable to attend which would have made the meeting not meet quoracy. So we will reorganise for another day which suits people better, deadlines for essays are more important, glad I dont have any anymore!!
So on Thursday I had a meeting to do with SUEi (Student Union Evaluation Initiative) which you may have seen me refer to before. This is now moving fast, with all departments at the Guild moving forward to improve their performance to get Gold, and this includes the officer team and the engagement we do with students. I for one this term will be spending more time down in Student Development working on the computer there, so come say hi!
Finally on Friday we had the Get Involved Sports and Recreational fair organised by Tim the VPS. This event was awesome! So many clubs there and over 700 students attending. Tim has put so much time and effort into it, and it paid off! So well done buddy! Very proud of you!
So thats it for this months blog about what I have done, I will update you on what is coming up another time, as this blog needs to be done now, and then ive got LOTS AND LOTS of reading to do for upcoming University meetings such as SPRC, and also for the Trustee Board on Monday.
I hope you are keeping well, safe and healthy, remember, lock your doors (Zuki will love me for saying that), and remember that Officer Nominations are open from MONDAY! (weird that is has come around again!!)
Firstly apologies for this being a day late, I started writing this blog yesterday but there is that much to type I had to delay it due to other meetings and commitments.
So this is going to be a long blog as a lot has gone on, however in order to make it easier to read Im going to list below what I will mention, number them, and then number/title each section so you can scroll down to the points that you may want to read!
If you have any comments on any of the points, if you can post them on my BhamGuild President facebook wall that would be better, as wordpress has a lot of spam comments which are a nightmare to keep on track with!
So, below is THE list! (and its not exhaustive, just main points)
1 Occupation —> Injunction
2 Employability
3 Joes+ Update/review
4 Elections working group
5 Officer Elections/Training
6 League tables/NSS
7 University Executive Board (UEB) & Registrar Leadership Group (RLG)
8 Aldwych —> Widening Participation —> Assessment & Feedback
9 Trustee Board —> Post Graduate position
10 Guild Council —> Library questions
11 University Education Committee (UEC)
12 Good Governance Working Group
13 SUEi2 (Student Union Evaluation initiative 2)
14 iVLE 2 (Online Assessment etc)
15 RA Elections —> Doorknocking —> Results night
16 University Council
17 Democracy Forum
18 UCU Day of Action
19 Student Charter
20 Selly Oak News Interview
21 Student Rep Forums —> Better Forums
So as you can see, a LONG list, so lets crack on shall we!
1 Occupation —> Injunction
So in November we saw an occupation of the No.2 Lodge which you may have heard about and you can read more from the Redbrick article here:
http://redbrick.me/30879
So in this I will just talk about what the role of the Guild was in all of this. I was first made aware of the occupation via social media and then shortly after, by the University. I quickly wanted to get all the information on this, and from it we saw rumors online that water had been shut off, so myself Luke Reynolds (VPW) went down to the occupation and spoke to the people inside asking if the water was on, which they confirmed. Upon this I then cleared my diary for a few hours to keep an eye on the situation due to some issues at the physics occupation in the last academic year. In this I was speaking to protestors outside, and with University Senior Managers of whom were present for some time. This led me to be the mediator between the Uni and the people inside. A bit of background: When the physics occupation took place last year, it was unclear where the goalposts lay when it came to occupations, so the then President Dora Meredith started to draw up a draft protocol on what the responsibilities of the Uni and the Guild are in this sort of situation. These basically outline really common sense things about damage, right to water and reasonable food provision, health and safety etc. However it was never fully signed by the University, I didn’t care though because I presented the protocol in draft form to the Senior Managers and made sure they knew this is exactly how the game was to be played, of which they were more than happy to do. Through the next 24 hours I passed food from protestors outside into the house, and also the Guild provided pizzas for people inside which was delivered by myself in the evening. I also gave my number/contact details to people outside and security if they needed me at any point.
I did receive a phone call around 2330 that night about an alleged incident. Those reading this may know what that is, however I am not going to comment on what alleged happened as this should be referred to the police or University complaints.
The next day I was present for a fire safety inspection of the no.1 lodge (exactly the same building opposite no.2 lodge) with the Chief Fire Safety Officer and a Senior University Manager. In this the FSO determined that the building was not fit for students to live in due to legal obligations for student accommodation, which meant the University were in breach of the law and could be prosecuted, especially if something was to happen. That evening about 30 minutes before the first injunction was served, I was informed by the Registrar about it, and how the Uni would like Guild officers to be present when the injunction was served so that we could clarify if anything was to go wrong etc. At this point myself, the VPDR, VPW and VPHC made our way down.
The occupiers exited and the officers and I went into the lodge after to perform an inspection to make sure that nothing was broken etc, and that was also confirmed by the University.
SO, we now find ourselves whereby the University have now taken out a campus wide injunction. However I need to clear a few things up on this.
First and foremost it is the opinion of myself and the rest of the sabbs that the injunction should be dropped immediately. We would rather see the use of the common sense protocol that I talked about before used before any legal action is taken against people who choose to occupy.
However the injunction is NOT a blanket ban on protest, unlike what Sheffield Uni had which it was dropped. However the Guardian article that was written spun this differently and has now led to a lot of confusion. But there it is, its cleared up. I have spoken to the Vice-Chancellor directly about this in our regular 1-2-1s , and he is talking to senior managers about it, and I have a meeting with him tomorrow about the situation, keep an eye on the better forums and my facebook/twitter for more info.
Right, that part, done! all 1000 words of it!
2 Employability Oversight
Ok, so quick note on this. I sit on the very sexily named Employability implementation Oversight committee. This is basically the committee that oversees the new employability agenda that the University are investing in at the moment. This is going really well and we are seeing more and more students going to the careers service, and also to their college careers advisor, so if you dont know your’s yet, then go see them and get yourself some ideas!!
3 Joes Plus Loyalty Card
Ok, so my baby! Big manifesto pledge of mine, done in collaboration with Hugo the VPDR. This term we have sold over 6500 cards, and saved students over £17,000!! Which is amazing! We are now reviewing the offers that come with the card, and also very excitingly trying to spread it round the Guild more, and even into areas such as Selly Oak…..and possibly going digital with it next year so we can react quicker to what students want/demand! So keep your eyes out for new offers etc!
4 Elections Working Group
So this met recently to start discussing the Officer Elections in term 2. It seems amazing we are here already, I only feel like ive been here for 5 minutes! To quote the West Wing legend, Jed Bartlett “its strange seeing yourself becoming unemployed”!
Basically this group seeks to learn from mistakes last year, and also to make sure that we get better turnout and more candidates than ever before. If we do this, we will be Number 1 nationally….now thats something to shout about!
If you are thinking of running but are not sure, or want some more info, then contact the officer in the position you are thinking about. All meetings are private and we wont say that you are thinking of running etc, so if you want to run for President, why not drop me an email, we will go get a coffee and ill give you some info etc!!
5 Officer Training
Related to point 4, we have also started planning training for our successors so that they are best placed to hit the ground running on their agendas, ours was awesome, we are looking for make it even better!!
6 League Tables
So for those of you who keep an eye on the League Tables, you will see that UoB slipped by a good amount this year. This is partly due to bad NSS (National Student Survey) results. This is something that the University are taking very seriously and are fully working with us on. What was annoying for me is that each year the Guild releases the Student Voice Report (SVR) which is a summary of what we have found to work on for the next academic year via the student rep scheme, better forums etc. We release this and give it to the uni before the NSS results come out. This year we hit the nail on the head on everything that eventually came out of NSS. Luckily the new PVC for Education Karen O’Brien loves the SVR and we are working hard to get things back on track, such as the spreading of assessment cycles so that students dont have back to back exams for this year, and also the same for essays as from the next academic year, a massive win that we got for students!
7 UEB & RLG
Nothing major here, basically I did a presentation to both groups which involved most senior managers at the University. Here I highlighted the importance of the student voice, that it should be harnessed and embraced, not looked on as a bad thing. I gave the University a big reality check on what students can and will expect in the wake of higher fees, and that is is the critical partnership which is most vital when it comes to getting what students want. This was greeted very well by the University and it sets the benchmark for what we have to work for, and what the new team next year will be able to work for.
I have been giving a lot of internal presentations as of late due to last year being more external facing due to the Browne Review and White Paper.
8 Aldwych
For those of you who may be interested, I attended Aldwych group this month in London which is a meeting of Russell Group (RG) Unions to discuss different things. This time it was on widening participation. But firstly, for those of you who were annoyed that I missed the last one, let me say this, I had a family commitment, that took priority and I make no apologies for it, and it was not appropriate for other officers to go either due to the subject being on PG issues. These conferences are not compulsory, and we all get sent the notes afterwards, so if you think it is cause im lazy, give it break.
The meeting was very productive, and it was surprising to see that Birmingham are actually one of the RG leaders in WP. However we all agreed that RG Unis have always been bad overall at WP and we can do more on it.
The next Aldwych will be on Assessment and Feedback, which I am really looking forward to seeing what other RG Unis do on it, since UoB scored poorly on it on the NSS.
9 Trustee Board Appointment – Post Graduate position
Out of the student trustees that we have, one place has to be filled by a Post Graduate. This position recently became open due to the previous holder of that position moving onto other things, which I wish him the best of luck in.
At the first Guild Council, Rob Sassoon and Tom DeFraine were elected to sit on the appointments panel, which is rather large, made up of officers, trustees, students and a University representative (See governing documents). In this we interviewed two great candidates, asking a variety of questions about what they see the role of a trustee being, what they would do in certain situations etc. The panel voted and it was decided that Emily Halford would be the appointments panel recommendation to Guild Council. Guild Council will ratify this decision at the next sitting. We did have a small window of opportunity to get in before the last Guild Council (the meeting ended at 1730, GC was at 1800), however I felt it was unfair on the candidate that did not get the position to be told in a rushed manner, and not have time to reflect on it/tell friends etc, basically I felt it could have been a bit of a kick on the teeth, so the panel agreed that we would hold off the report until the next GC, and I am satisfied that this was the best course of action.
10 Guild Council – Questions and Answers
So GC questions and scrutiny came along, and I thought that a question or 100 that came up should be fed back on now.
One question was regarding the new proposed library development and student consultation. On this I had a meeting today about this, and I can feed back that YES, when it comes to the design, what students want and need, students will have the opportunity to take part in this, at the moment the Uni are simply trying to pin down planning permission. Once this is taking place, we will obviously get on it to let you all know!
11 University Education Committee (UEC)
Basically, this looks at University wide education issues, and its one of more favorite meetings as it actually gets things done as it has the power to. This is where I was able to change assessment cycles, and we are now moving onto things such as assessment and feedback, something that I will make sure work is done on over this year, from my own experience it is simply not up to scratch and that needs to change. More to come.
12 Good Governance
This is basically a group set up by the Trustee Board in line with NUS guidelines on how a trustee board is doing. Now since this type of review has not been done since the Guild became a charity back in 2008, we felt it time to do so. On here it consists of myself, the VPDR, the International Students Officer, a Student Trustee, the CEO, the Student Voice Manager, a lay trustee and a student elected by GC, Rob Sassoon.
Now Plagiarism is bad, but Rob did a very good report on it, which you can read here:
The Student Union Evaluation Initiative is like OfSted but for SUs. I have talked about this in past blogs, but basically we are now moving full speed ahead with it, things like how we communicate with students via officers, all that is what SUEI means, to improve the SU and make it better for students, Its a massive task to undertake and the entire Guild is on it!
14 iVLE 2
This is basically all the online assessment and virtual learning environments that the Uni use, so things like WebCT. The Uni are currently looking to improve/replace the current system. A few weeks ago I invited students to go to a focus group about it, whereby they gave really good comments on the whole experience and how it can be improved. I also sit on the committee that looks at this, and we took a trip to the University of Nottingham, the partner University for UoB to see what they do, This was really informative and we are keeping on with work here to give a better virtual learning experience to students.
15 RA Elections/Doorknocking/Results
So it was another successful night for the VPDR, and now the VPHC , with record voting for RA elections, and for the first time online. The online system was not perfect and we will learn from issues, however these were isolated and the first year we have run it online, but overall it was a massive success, we have a brand new set of RAs and I cant wait to get to know them and see what the new generation has to begin. You never know, one may well be President, VPDR, VPW or VPHC one day……. the current officers in those positions were….! Which was very strange for me to announce the new RA Presidents, as that was the first election I ran for. When Hugo introduced me as ‘A former RA President, and now President of the Guild…..’ it hit home how QUICK uni has gone!! madness!!
Before RA elections, we did some mammoth doorknocking, doing loads of halls, helping get the numbers up, and also got some really good feedback from residents on our own stuff! But a massive well done to Zuki the VPHC who put his life into it, well done buddy, one gold star and a cookie for you
16 University Council
So, the President and the PG Officer sit on University Council, the highest decision making body at the Uni. This was the first one for Emily, the new PGMSO and she was awesome! very professional and cant wait to work with her more in the future. The papers at this meeting are highly confidential, however where things needed to be said, they were, you have my guarantee on that.
17 Democracy Forum
This is an annual event run by the Birmingham Rotary Club. They kindly invite myself, a Labour MP (Gisela Stuart), Lib Dem MP (John Hemming) and a Conservative MP (Sanjid Javid), chaired by a gentleman whos name ive forgot, and it is a question time style debate with over 100 local sixth form students. This was one of my most favorite moments of being President thus far. The students were so engaged, and questions ranged from pensions, strikes, Euro Crisis, AV, and of course tuition fees.
However I feel I may have annoyed Mr Hemming, but make no apologies. A student asked why he broke his pledge regarding tuition fees. The answer wasnt an answer, it was a dodge, so I asked the question again such ‘Mr Hemming, the question was why did you break your pledge, now you have heard the question properly, can you answer it properly’ he still did not. He was not best pleased with me. Oh well, im sure he wouldnt react badly to it…..
And before any readers of this blog think that I sided Tory because I voted for them at the last election, sorry to disappoint but I did not, I was critical of the Tories and their pension plans, critical of the Lib Dems on fees, critical of Labour on their past record, but also critical on politics as a whole. However critical does not mean destructive, I did not go in there guns blazing, more offering food for thought, a student point of view, that proved very popular with the students. It was a shame Mr Hemming left in such a hurry after as I did not get a chance to thank him for the debate, but luckily I was able to have a nice chat with Ms Stuart and Mr Javid afterwards.
18 UCU Day of Action
So the Guild Council went through the first Guild Council unstarred and therefore the Officer Team were mandated to support the staff strikes. However I wanted clarity on the word ‘support’, so I met with the motion author and talked about what the Guild could do. I also tried to contact UCU, however I found this more difficult than I thought it would be, and ended up having to catch a UCU rep outside the occupation to see what they would also like.
We agreed that the Guild would send an all student email, provide a room as a HQ, and that Guild Officers would not cross picket lines that day.
We stuck to our part, and the day was a success in terms of support from the Guild. I went out and spoke to protestors with the VPHC, and officers reorganised meetings to take place in the Guild, which the uni obliged.
19 Student Charter
A section of the White Paper is for Universities to revamp their Student Charters. This is also to include Student Unions. Myself and the VPDR have been involved in this as of recent, and we will be consulting students on our proposed section in term 2, so keep an eye out!
20 Selly Oak News Interview
Selly Oak News did an indepth interview with my a few weeks back, and I thank them for the opportunity to do so. If you have not seen it yet, then watch it here:
21 Student Rep Forums —> Better Forums
So we started to run the first of this academic years Student Rep forums for the newly elected Student Reps. We ran forums for students in each college, so Social Science, Arts and Law etc. These were really well attended and it was an opportunity for us to give information to the reps, but also for them to feedback to us about certain things such as exam feedback, summertime communications, welcome week, as well as open discussion. These were excellent for us to understand what is happening on the grass roots and I was really impressed with the enthusiasm by students, and hope to see it continue for the rest of the year.
However the Better Forums were not so good, to put it bluntly. The first Better Education and University Forum of the year was attended to capacity of the room, however this may have been for other reasons. It was a shame to see that only two people turned up to the second forum. Now we did fall down a little on publicity, however it was annoying that only one School Guild Councillor turned up. For me I think it should be a MUST for School Guild Councillors to attend this forum as its part of their job and what they signed up for. School Guild Councillors should be speaking to their student reps, getting issues and bringing them to these forums so they can mandate officers to sort it out. Now im not ‘telling’ anyone off as you may all have had work etc, and we could have publicised the event better, however you could have always emailed Student Voice with questions, or come and spoken to me directly about any issues your constituents face, assuming you have gone out and spoken to them. I have seen society Guild Councillors publishing their voting records on the miniforum groups, and this is awesome, and I hope all other GC’ers are doing the same. My only reason for this little rant is that officers are held to account massively in GC, however its a little bit of a kick in the teeth when maybe some of those speaking the loudest about what I and the team do, are the ones also maybe not being accountable and doing their job as well as they could, just saying, not directed at anyone in particular, just again, food for thought.
Anyways avid blog followers, this blog has taken me ages, its pushing 4000 words, which is my biggest to date! I hope it shows that I am busy, I am doing my best and will continue to do so no matter what bumps in the road may come about.
All that is left to say is that I hope you have a relaxing break, a Happy Christmas and a great New Year. Looking forward to term 2, bring it on!!
Remember you can get in touch with me whenever by emailing, facebooking or tweeting me:
Hello Hello! Bonjour, and an array of more languages that I know mean hello!
So im on time, im blogging a month to the day since my last one, and boy a lot has gone on! However whilst writing this blog im also trying to get through a tonne of emails, so what I will do is keep things as brief as possible!
So what I have I been up to? Well lots and lots as per usual and then some.
One thing that all sabbs do from time to time is go to appeal hearings with students. This is done via the ARC (advice and representation centre) whereby students which may have allegedly committed plagiarism, failed a module last year and been kicked out etc go. So we go along, not to act as their lawyers and defend the students, but to make sure that the University follow the procedures properly, and also offer some moral support to the students, who sometimes have had a very difficult past. Its this part of the job that not many people see or hear about, but its there, and sometimes it can be tough on sabbs when someone has gone through a difficult past, and you are watching them defend their University Career. Obviously I cant go into details about the cases, but still, I did some appeals.
Secondly you may have seen on the Guild website or facebook a while ago that the sabbs did ‘Wear it Pink for Breast Cancer’ . This was a really simple thing that we did, just wear something pink and show your support. I was rather annoyed at myself for not realising sooner, otherwise I would have tried to organise something more substantive that the Guild could have done. For those of you who know me, you will know its a cause close to my heart. Without turning this blog into an attention seeking show, my mum had breast cancer a few years ago and I came very close to losing her, but thankfully she is better now and loving life! But this was all taking place throughout my University career, which is why I donate to Breast Cancer UK, but also MacMillan Cancer Support as they look after families as well. Its also why when you see some of my team with loads of badges etc on their name badges, you will only find one on my lanyard – the pink bow for breast cancer UK awareness. If you wanna know what makes me tick and where my principles are….look there.
ANYWAYS, enough of that.
You may have seen either myself or one of my team ‘Hotdesking’. This is part of our officer engagement programme where we try and make the sabbs better known throughout the uni and give an open time for students to come tell us about any issues or feedback they have. This partnered with our twitter, facebook, door knocking and sabbs on the sofa stuff is our way of reaching out to students more, letting them know whats going on, but most importantly LISTENING to what our students want. So we keep looking at what we are doing and trying to improve it, we are gonna hotdesk and sabb on the sofa in uni centre, the library etc! so keep an eye out and come say hi!!
I have been to a lot of educational committees at the moment, some of them the standard ones that the President goes to, but also some to cover the work of the VPE (and no im not going to comment on that topic).
In these I have been able to secure a commitment from the University to spread out assessment timetables so students dont have billion essays in on the same day, and the same for exams. The essay timetable issue will be sorted for the next academic year (sorry third years!) but exams will be sorted this academic year, so lucky you!!
Also to date we have now sold over 6000 Joes Plus cards! This is amazing and I love it when I see people at the bar with their money and a joes card out! Makes me proud to see that a manifesto pledge from myself and the VPDR being taken up. We are compiling data as to how much money we have saved students, and will publicise this as well! The Guild is here to offer you better value! Just without the cheesy Asda music and inappropriate smacking of behinds.
So on Weds 9th Nov we saw the NCAFC National Demo down in London. Now I am not going to go into specifics about the insurance issues and the cancelling of coaches, and no im not hiding anything. The Guild couldnt carry insurance for students without a risk assessment from NCAFC, we hadnt got this by 5pm Friday (The demo was on the coming Weds) so we had to cancel as our deadline passed. Now im not blaming NCAFC so stop getting defensive as you read this, im just saying that when it comes to insurance, the officer team and I were not prepared to risk student safety and not have insurance, once we got the risk assessment we put the coaches back on. In terms of publicity myself and the VPHC had a really productive convo with people on the coach on the way down. We realise that the Guild could have done more publicity, and we take that constructive criticism onboard and will learn from it. Apart from that the demo went ahead with no violence which was awesome, because I think if violence had started it would have again undermined the student movement, and I dont think we would have been able to put another one on in all honesty!!
I was however I little sneaky on the NCAFC and did two things. I went down to the demo to support the message of NCAFC, but I also was extremely worried and disturbed by the threat of the use of rubber bullets, so what I did was I managed to get a meeting with my MP Nigel Evans who also is Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. In this meeting I brought up issues within the White Paper, but also how I worried for the future of peaceful protest in our democracy. Overall it was a constructive meeting and we were both glad that no violence occurred, and ill upload pics to my BhamGuild page soon!
So the day after, Thursday (sounding like a Rebecca Black song all of a sudden……..) We had Guild Council -cue dramatic music-. I knew it was going to be a long one, and it was. 6 hours. Wow. Throughout we had a lot of interesting debates. However on the note of the Officer Disciplinary and Appeals policy which was rejected and will be coming back to the next GC, I have a few things. Firstly each officer has signed this document, we had it after the last Guild Council, read it and agreed with it. Now some areas can obviously change if our student body wants to, however I do also think that its important that we have one.
Officers are not untouchable. Sometimes they do. We have had sabbs in the past who have gone very close to the wire on how they conduct themselves in their term of office. I understand we are a student union, I am a student, I ran for office and I believe in the ideals of student politics and democracy. However what I dont agree with is the notion that Officers should not have a Code of Conduct. At the end of the day sabbs have to have a standard to commit to. Now how they are held to account should be via democratic channels, but we are not dealing with just elected officials. We are dealing with people who are elected, paid, remunerated, four of which are Trustees of the Guild. It gets complicated ok, and thats why we have to get things checked by legal, so that its water tight. This PROTECTS democracy, the sabbatical officer and the Guild. One Gentleman suggested the Guild not pay attention to employment law as much, and risk it, just break it. Just.Break.It. Sorry sir if you are reading this blog, this may seem unprofessional to mention it again, but no, As President I will NOT break the laws of this land. Simple.As.That.
So the OCoC etc will come to the next GC, we can make amendments etc, but heed my advice, accept the motion and lets truly be able to hold officers to account and expect the standard that students deserve.
Finally on GC, there were two proposed censures against me, both of which fell. Each were for different reasons, one for Twitter use and not using it wholey for work purposes. I wont go into this too much, but I think that Twitter since its so new doesnt have a standard yet. Like facebook, you cant update a status more than like one a day, thats just not socially acceptable (get where im going here with irony?), but Twitter is different. Students told us they wanted their sabbs to seem more human, they wanted to see what made us tick, now ok maybe I pushed this boundary too far, of which ive attempted to change a little, but do I think I did anything wrong, no. Will I change my tweets to heed the advice of 30% of Guild Council who think I should, yes. I also got a text from the Censure proposer after of which I truly appreciated, its all ‘business’ as they say and im getting on with the Job.
On the second censure of blurring a picture in Redbrick, this issue has also been resolved. My job as Editor-in-Chief is to look out for the long term success of Redbrick and not the immediate hard hitting headline of the week, I will continue to do this for the rest of my Presidency, and the working relationship between the Guild and Redbrick, but also the Editor and the Editor-in-Chief has also massively improved, but can be improved further.
RIGHT, FINALLY! Today was Student Finance Launch day. An independent task force made up of Martin Lewis, Wes Streeting and lots of clued up people on all things student fiance was launched today in London. However here in the mighty Brum, UoB, BCU, Aston Uni (I sound like the DJ at Gatecrasher when he does his shout out thing before Pendulum comes on!), did a joint event whereby we discussed different aspects of the incoming fee regime and what this ACTUALLY means for Students, without any of the politics rubbish of party agenda etc, we were there to say what it was, and we were joined by students looking to go to uni in the next few years. It was a really good event, I said my piece, I backed how students more than ever need to do their homework (pun) into where they want to go to University, look at the student union (of course I slipped that in there!) and realise that they are making an investment in THEIR future. To plagarise myself “Education is the only long-term economic tool that Governments can still control in an increased global economy” I stick by that.
Right, Blog over!
The comments on here are spam people, so dont comment, rather post on my Bham Guild wall and I can get back to you asap!!
Dont forget to get in touch if you have any questions etc!
Hello avid blog followers! Since last month I got very close to the line about time of the blog, im being uber nice and treating you all to an early blog, exciting stuff I know.
Now for those of you who are thinking that this blog will be taken up by the events which have taken place over the last few weeks, notably Wednesdays protest, it will not. Now people say that we sound like the police when we say that, but I cant comment on an ongoing investigation, that is not us being wannabe police soundalikes, that just what has to take place.
However, also on Wednesday we had the Better Education and University Open Forum, which was superbly chaired by the VPDR, Hugo Sumner. In this forum, and on the online forum it has come to my attention that as Sabbs, we haven’t really said yet the behind the scenes education stuff that we do, of which I want to address.
Dora, my predecessor told me that being President is like a Kinder Egg. It is shiny and looks awesome from the outside, but there is a lot of stuff underneath that, stuff that people do not see, do not appreciate, nor some do not care about, however it is there and it is part of the job, but if you work at it, the egg cracks and you get your reward at the end.
At a University of 28,000 students, offering the widest range of subjects in the country, this means that there are a lot of committees to do with Education, of which it takes a full sabbatical team and an entire department to monitor and brief the officers, collect papers, debrief and tie back all the loops. Indeed one of the things that impressed me the most about coming into the job is the support that Sabbs get from Student Voice and the Senior Management Team when it comes to University meetings. More than ever, Sabbs are sitting on a wider ranging and further reaching number of committees, because of the critical partner relationship that the Guild has with the University. This does not mean that we lose our right to disagree with the University, if anything it strengthens that ability, the fact that the respect is there that when we disagree, it is not damaging to the long term relationship, and more important, does not have negative effects on students.
So what do Sabbs do when it comes to academic representation? Why does the VP Sport, or VP Welfare sit on education committees, surely that is not their remit? Well it is. Officers have a dual, and sometimes a triple role. The Vice-Presidents of the Guild are exactly that, Vice-Presidents, that is half their jobs and this means that no matter what position a sabbatical officer holds, they have a duty to students and the Guild to help in it’s effectiveness, and this includes sitting on different education boards etc. I come into the frame when it comes to University-wide committees such as University Council and SPRC (Strategic Planning and Resource Committee, a mouthful I know!!).
So that is a little bit of the behind the scenes stuff that we do, it is a team effort and the Vice-Presidents have been superb thus far in their VP roles on educational committees, with me having comments by senior University Officials stating their happiness at the professional way they conduct themselves, its all part of the big picture of what the Guild tries to achieve for students.
So what else have I been doing since I last blogged. Well last night myself, the VPDR, VPW and Deputy Venues Manager went to the ICC for the Best Bar None (Birmingham) awards where we won Best Student/University Bar! I think this is the fourth year in a row we have won it, our bar is far superior in size, quality and atmosphere than any other University bar in Birmingham, and that shows when you go down during the day, or to one of the club nights. On top of this we have now sold more than 6000 Joes+ Cards! This is amazing and makes me so proud that a joint manifesto point between myself (for the card itself) and cheaper drinks (VPDR) has been achieved so quickly, and is working. We are currently compiling sales figures, so at some point we can publish how much money we have saved students at their union bar, offering better value on food and drink!
We have also now started to do vlogs (video blogs, original name don’t you think?) which will be popping up over social media and the website, so keep an eye out on that, better than reading all my rambles.
Not last Monday, but the Monday before I helped Steward Carnage. Now ive always been on the ‘other’ side of Carnage if you catch my drift and always had a small headache the morning after. However stewarding the event puts a new light on student entertainment and bar crawls. Now I must say that the freshers on this event were awesome! All friendly, happy and having a good safe time. However stuff that you don’t see is the sheer amount of work at Carnival RAG do for this event. The planning alone is a mammoth task, but then running it is an even bigger job! The committee and the volunteers who steward this event each time really deserve a pat on the back. They do a 6 hour shift to make sure that students are safe, and are on hand if something goes wrong. The professionalism displayed by all involved reminds me of how amazing students can be, and this results in a brilliant night for all involved. So Carnival RAG, WELL DONE
I have also been doing work on the National Demo which is backed by NUS on November 9th. Currently I am talking to other unions in the area such as BCU and Aston to share resources and make it cheaper for everyone. The decision will be going to GOG (Guild Officer Group) on Wednesday next week, and then we will advertise the result. Until then I am doing some behind the scenes work for if it gets the go-ahead.
Finally, because I know you are getting bored of reading now, I passed a motion through SOG (Sabbatical Officer Group) that we should publish the amount of time we spend doing different things and then put them on our blog. So, to lead by example I have tallied up what I have spent my time on and put it into this awesome pie chart. Now its never going to be 100% accurate, and for my avid blog readers, it so you can compare month on month what I am spending my time on, and if need be ask me about it or ask at Guild Council. Now one foreword on this months chart, it does not include Welcome Week, because that would distort the results, as that entire week we worked 8am-3am every day and would count as ‘face-to-face’ time, so ive not included those hours. So the chart you see is not for a month, its since Welcome Week ended. It will be posted as separate as im not a computer buff so not entirely sure how to do it, but it will be up asap!!
So that’s that for this blog! Don’t forget you can contact me via facebook, Twitter @Guild_President or via email president@guild.bham.ac.uk
Cheers!
Mark
I must apologise, this blog is now a whole three days overdue and therefore I will probably get a censure in Guild Council for it, but here is a blog anyways!
So we have just had Welcome Week 2011 and it was amazing! We had thousands of new and returning students come down to the Guild to see what we had to offer, whether that was at Freshers Fair or at the amazing societies and volunteering fair, as well as loads of other stuff going on.
What this week made me realise is the importance of team work and the sharing of a common goal. I know that in a lot of online forums we have, some students complain about the difference between sabbs and staff. What this week has taught me is that team Guild is a powerhouse made up of sabbs, staff, students and volunteering. For example you take our marketing student staff which worked almost every day, reception, venues staff, security – basically every department was all hands on deck and I was proud to say that this was the team that I worked in.
But Welcome Week would not have been as good without my amazing team. The sabbs were out in force in our sexy new blue polo shirts. We did loads of talks to different groups of students, whether those be Post-Graduate students, International students, Freshers or returning students. The team worked hard all day to help people feel welcomed. I also took part in a new thing this year called the Vice-Chancellor Address which is for new students in each college (So 5 overall). In this I spoke to nearly 3000 students on not just what the Guild can do for them, but also what the uni experience can be. This was great as it meant that each student was given the same information. My opinion on the talks is that those students probably wouldnt have appreciated the talk overall, but when they come to Graduate and they see their first day and their last day, it will sink in, so a bit of longevity there for you!
Overall when I saw how much work everyone in the Guild did, sabbs, staff, students etc, It made me so proud to be President! I work with amazing people and cant wait for the rest of the year!
So in each blog I usually end up having a go about something thats been bugging me, and sadly this blog will not be any different. The itch on my foot this time is listening. Now it is right that as sabbatical officers we listen to our students, however sometimes I think that we listen to the vocal minority, basically facebook open forums far too much and do not look at the wider picture.
My realisation of this came when we had a proposal to change the way the Guild puts through campaign proposals, so basically the process in which campaigns go through. This was then put onto facebook for student consultation by my Vice-President (Education) which I agreed with. However the reaction we got I think was just plain unhelpful. Sensationalist claims and out of context comments such as how the Guild is becoming less democratic etc came about and I couldnt believe that something as small as a proposal change could have this reaction. This led to a bit of discussion between the officers, quoting only the views of facebook. That evening I had a realisation. I had a first year student email me about his worries of coming to uni etc and I answered his questions, and at the end he said how thankful he was and how much he was looking forward to uni and how he would always remember me/the guild for the help. This made me realise something, as a team we got caught up in ‘second floor guild’ where we dont remember what we are there to do. The average student does not care about a small proposal change to campaigns, they care about us getting something done, which is why now, yes I listen to the forums online, but they by no means dictate to me the view I take, similar to the VPDR recent blog, I will be sticking up for the silent majority.
Anyways, rant over!
So what else have I been doing, well to be fair a lot of it has been to do with Welcome Week. However I hope that you have seen that Joes Bar now has a loyalty card!! Big TICK for the manifesto as this was my flagship policy, it is now in and is saving you lots of money, and we are developing it further to bring you better deals and also introducing some meal deals etc. But bear in mind this is completely new for the Guild so it is a bit of a ‘put a wet finger in the air and see which way the wind blows’.
I also yesterday appeared on Sky News Live at 5 to talk about Labour’s pledge to reduce fees to 6k. My opinion can be found here:
So its time for blog number two and I thought that I would fill you in on some of the things that I have been up to over the last few weeks. I may end up rambling on, but I have a lot to say based on the things that have happened over the last few weeks.
Firstly a few weeks ago I was at NUS Training for Active Political Leadership (APL) down in Kent. Whilst there we also witnessed the disgraceful violence that hit the streets of the UK, and close to home here in Birmingham.
Whilst at APL, myself and Hugo soon realised that we were the largest Students Union there, with only Cardiff coming anywhere near our size in terms of student numbers and how the Guild runs as an organisation. It is here where I will turn a little negative/hopeful. I sometimes feel that at the Guild we see things as doom and gloom whereby not much action can be done. However I compare us to other Students Unions and I feel guilty for thinking these things. Some students unions have no CEO, sometimes only one sabbatical officer. To put this into context, the fact we have a student letting agency, a jobzone, the ARC, Student Voice, Student development and even a reception are only but dreams for some of the sabbs that I met in Kent. Some unions now have become insolvent due to bad finances, bailed out by their universities and effectively become a department of the university meaning no independence and no say. So I say that next time that a risk assessment is rejected or it takes 3 minutes to be served in Joes, let us remember that there are some students in this country that do not get the same great service.
Leading on from this point, we must always remember that the Guild has limited resources, limited staff hours. Now as an organisation we can do a lot, but that is dependent on how we ultilise what we have and use said resources to the best possible outcome. For example, would you rather that the Guild spend a load of money on another National Demo to reiterate what we said first time around, or would you rather we use that money to keep to local issues in case of department closure/review or something else we could never guess come up? Either way, sometimes we as a sabbatical team are going to have to make tough choices, its the hardest part of our job not being able to do everything, but as I say, remember what the Guild does and how well it does it!
Again, leading on from this, at APL we covered a lot about officer accountability and this is something that we need to work on and are working on. We have some great ideas lined up to engage with students in new ways as well as ways such as facebook (have you added me on facebook yet?). Relating back to the previous points, as sabbs we must also sing the Guild’s praises, what you as student achieve. Do we do this enough? no we do not. Students do great things and we need to show better on what students say they want and how we react, if you like, you say, we do. Take ownership of your sabbs, utilise us, we are here for you! As sabbs we can do a lot, but we can not push string, we need direction from the people who elected us and the people we now serve, we serve now nearly 30,000 students, so, tell us what you want us to do! We do things very well, but we can, we must and we will do better, not being blindsighted by trivial and meaningless little snippits, but LISTEN to the students and encourage the voice of the silent majority.
Now I am not taking a dig at the vocal minority, far from it, but what sometimes happens in Guildland is that the vocal minority drag the direction of nearly 30,000 students down not necessarily the best route, I mean look at who we need to include (not a full list)
-Home Students
-Widening Participation students
-Graduating Students (Alumni)
-International Students
-Post-Graduate Students (Taught and Research)
-Disabled Students
-Student Parents
-Medical Students
-Interfaith Students
-Part-Time Students
-Distance Learners
…..This list is just a fraction of who we as a union are meant to represent, and do all their voices get heard? No. Do the vocal minority therefore lead the way, Yes. Is this right? No. This is why this year the Vice-President (Democracy and Resources), Hugo Sumner will be undertaking another Democratic Structure Review (DSR) which he has already started on so that we can effectively engage and represent the vast amount of students we represent.
NATIONAL DEMO –
So this was discussed at APL between Liam Burns (NUS National President, lovely guy!) and all the sabbs present at APL. Now here I want some feedback from you, the students and I will be asking this question more and more as it gives us a great steer, but Ill also throw in my two pennies worth.
I ask you this:
-How do you want YOUR student union to spend it’s time?
-Do you have a clear message you want to send to the Government?
-Do you want to commit a large amount of a campaign pot of money on a demo?
-Would you rather see national action or local action?
-Is your view the view of the majority of our students? (of course it is fine if not!!)
Now is the time that I feel we need to listen and engage with the silent majority. For too long the narrow vocal minority has ruled and it is time that a President stood up, is counted for, listens and then acts. Here I am.
My view on a National Demo is that I would support one if we had one clear message. At the last national demo the message was clear, No ifs, No buts, No Education Cuts. Simple. However would that message be the same a second time round? I personally feel that at this moment in time it would not, the White Paper consultation period is coming to an end and we are not in a position to hold a national demo that sends a clear and effective message to the Government. The Government know that students are against higher fees and budget cuts, but now we need to be more effective in how we get this message across, does a National Demo in term 1 achieve this, I think no.
Also, whats to say that another National Demo wont get hijacked by the same people that stormed the Millbank Tower and therefore undermined the entire student movement, making students look violent, narrow minded and downright dangerous. I dont want to be tarred with that brush and I am sure that you do not either. This does not mean that we shy away from the issues, no no, it means we do them in a way that is more effective.
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Ok rant over from APL as I can see this blog is getting longer and longer……………
What else have I been doing? Well……
-I went on holiday to Cyprus after APL, was great but kept in touch with what was going on. My duties were deputised to Hugo for the week, he loved it too much bless him.
-I have been in meetings which include the new wayfinding options coming into the Guild for September.
-Welcome Week and the madness that comes along with that, I have been getting in on.
-Officer Engagement – How we communicate with students in the best possible way.
-Employability – With Fliss and Hugo we are coming up with some great things, watch this space.
-Hosting Aldwych Conference next week
-Meeting with the University about International Students Welcome Week plans.
-Loyalty Card – Designs more or less done, now working on pricing strategy and how to advertise.
-A million other things that come with being President!
Anyways, this has been a long blog, my fingers now hurt and I have a meeting to go to!
Feel free to comment on this blog, or tweet me @Guild_President , email president@guild.bham.ac.uk or add me on facebook under BhamGuildPres Ident
Hello University of Birmingham Guild of Students!!
For those of you who do not know or are joining us in September, my name is Mark Harrop and I am the new President.
Firstly I hope that this reaches you well and that you are having an ace summer! Birmingham is not the same and I can’t wait till everyone is back.
I thought I would just let you know what I have been up to over the past few weeks during handover, and also what I am currently working on.
Handover was awesome, and I want to thank Dora for placing me in such a strong position within the Guild, University and wider community, what Dora did last year was remarkable and was an unsung hero of the Guild. The Browne Review meant that she had to somewhat sideline some of her manifesto points in order to deal with the matter at hand: This is why she was a brilliant President and this is why I have massive shoes to fill (albeit not high heeled shoes!).
So, what have I been up to? Well a lot! Its been mad!
Firstly we had handover and within that I went to many meetings with the University such as University Council as well as having a one-to-one meeting with the Vice-Chancellor to mark out what my priorities are and how the Guild and University can continue to be critical partners.
I have also been in talks with university and Guild departments to do with things like library provisions, plug sockets, social learning spaces, as well as my flagship policy of a loyalty card in Joes (with Hugo as well) so watch this space!
I also went to a few national conferences such as Aldwych and SU2011. Aldwych conference is a meeting of Presidents and Education officers from the Russell Group Student Unions, so Oxford, Sheffield, UCL, Manchester etc. SU2011 is one of the biggest NUS conferences of the year where over 400 Student Unions from the Higher and Further Education sectors attended. This also had the annual NUS awards attached to it, we didnt win anything, but wait til next year! muhaha!
Apart from that I am settling into the office and what not! When you are back in brum, if you have any issues do not hesitate to get in contact.
