Lawrence Coomber, Union President
Another busy fortnight! – but good luck to all of you who have already completed exams, essays and other coursework and to those with ones still to go!
Last Wednesday, I attended the launch of the Russell Group Students’ Union Report on the experience of International Students in the UK. You can find it here. It was hosted in the Atlee Room in the House of Lords, presented by joint-chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Students, Lord Bilimoria and Abtisam Mohamed MP. It was a great event, and was a brilliant opportunity to talk to other sabbatical officers about their experiences and about what their Universities are doing, as well as the other MPs that attended and the ways we could help promote the importance of the international student experience.
Our final Student Senate of the year was held last week, which saw Student Senators scrutinise our achievements and work over the last year compared to our Manifestos. It will be sad to see the end of this year, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every part of it. I look forward to seeing what the new Sabbs will be doing in a couple of months time, and have been overjoyed with how well engaged our Student Senators have been with us this year!
You may have also seen that last Friday, I was on the Redbrick being ‘gunged’ by our fantastic RAG team and some worryingly enthusiastic donators! Representing Team SUSU for the ‘Gunge a President/Captain’ was a fun way to raise awareness and support for NoLimits, a Hampshire-based young persons’ mental health charity.
Other work has been attending another University Council meeting, a quarterly meeting between myself, the CEO of SUSU and the Vice-Chancellor, as well as the beginnings of handover preparations to your new Union President-Elect Emma Brown!
See you next fortnight!
Rebecca Would, VP Education and Democracy
Congratulations to everyone for getting through courseworks and exams so far – you’re all doing amazingly. I hope you have taken the opportunity to engage in some of our You Are More Than events to take some time to relax between everything.
The biggest thing from me this week is our All Student Vote! The vote closed yesterday afternoon, and I look forward to lobbying for your views on alumni emails. Keep an eye on the @susu_studentvoice Instagram for regular updates (though we will also email you for any big updates).
For me, its getting a little quieter towards the end of the year on the meeting front, though I am presenting at a few upcoming meetings around student voice, and continuing to work hard on rep training materials ready for next year.
Good luck with the rest of your exams!
Emily Dugdale, VP Activities
I hope everyone had a restful break, and prep for exams is going well. It’s been a while! Over the last few weeks, myself and Conor have been working on some campaigns that our successors will get to launch for Freshers, a society recognition scheme and some awareness surrounding the dangers of initiations. I’ve also been busy with grant round 3 and preparing to look at the new affiliation applications soon. I’m also looking into the archives to see if we can get some history of SUSU to share, which has been really exciting. My other main task at the moment is looking at how money is used by groups to see how we can best prioritise funding going forward. 
Lottie James, VP Welfare & Community
Hi everyone! I hope you are all doing well. Today marks my final day as your VP Welfare and Community – what a year it has been! Over the last two weeks:
- Working on my handover for Toby (your new VP Inclusion starting in July 2025!)
- Our final Senate – here’s my report.
- Met with SUSU teams to analyse some student feedback – specifically working out what ‘support’ means to you. If you have ideas on how we can best support you, feel free to send over an email.
- Lots of You Are More Than stuff: Meeting Nova, Skye and Elvis as part of Therapy Dogs, handing out sleep hygiene packs, planning for Menstrual Hygiene Day, and more! Shout out to The Advice Centre for their incredible organising.
- Sat on the interview panel for our new Student Researchers who will be identifying how we can improve the sense of community at WSA and our Stag’s evening offering.
- Continued working on my guide to Southampton, EDI for SUSU staff project, and filmed my Goodbye video that you’ll be able to see at the end of June.
- Created a summary of everything we have achieved over the past 11 months.
Thank you all so much for an incredible year. It has been a blessing to be your (final) VP Welfare and Community, and I am just as grateful to have been elected as I was this time last year. You are all incredible, and I wish everyone luck in their future, whether you’re staying or graduating. I hope I’ve been able to make a positive change that has impacted your educational journeys for the better, and I can’t wait to continue to support students in my new role at SUSU. Thank you. 
Conor White, VP Sports
Hi everyone! I hope you are all doing well and managing to take care of yourselves during this busy exam period. Don’t forget to check out some of our You Are More Than events – they are a great way to take a break from revision and unwind!
Last week, I attended the Active-For-All strategy day, which focused on the University’s sports & wellbeing goals for the next five years. It was great to continue feeding in insights from our clubs and students, making sure your voices are at the heart of future planning. If you have any thoughts or feedback you’d like passed on, please do get in touch.
Since our awards evening two weeks ago, my calendar has started to look a little clearer as we head toward the end of term. I’m using this time to prepare training resources and guides for the incoming club and society committees, as the AGM period is starting to come to an end for the 25/26 academic year.
Best of luck with this last push before the end of term, you have got this!
You Make Change Updates
You Make Change update: Thank you as always for your ideas and queries. We look forward to receiving more submissions in the next two weeks!