Krzysztof Mikulski, Union President
Hi everyone! It was lovely to see you all at Freshers and work a range of events throughout the day and evening, including the Freshers’ Fair, Freshers’ Party, and Indie Night. Although Freshers kept me very busy last week, I worked on several projects throughout the summer and last week to ensure students’ needs were addressed.
You may have seen recently that the University moved away from Turnitin. The subject was taken to the University Executive Board. I was able to ensure that years’ worth of student data (meaning all past submissions) was not going to be shipped over to an American company and thrown straight into AI model training, which would have meant students’ work and intellectual property were going to be stolen. The University have commented that, ‘We have a responsibility to protect our students, University data and intellectual property, and work is already underway to assess alternative suppliers for assignment submission services’. Finally the University of Southampton is taking the lead!
Secondly, I have worked with the University and lobbied them to restore the Erasmus Park Shuttle bus service, aiming to have the bus run at times students use.
Thirdly, the VP Inclusion and I have been working to organise the screening of the National Emergency Briefing. Please see the VP Inclusion section for more information! The Climate Crisis needs to be tackled now as it is no longer a problem for tomorrow.
Lastly, the Sabbatical Team met with the New Vice-Chancellor, Professor Charlie Jeffery, and I had the opportunity to address some of the concerns students have at our University, as well as the priorities the team is working on this year.
If you have any questions about this, please feel free to send me an email on president@soton.ac.uk.
Annie Whyman, VP Inclusion
Another successful Freshers, it was so fun working all the events this year. You may have seen me offering to paint your face or wandering around in QW. All the fairs were wonderful, and it was nice to see and talk to so many people.
The most important thing after this is the National Emergency Briefing happening on October 1st, 4pm – 6pm, in the SUSU Cinema.
Plant-based refreshments will be provided. The film is about 50 minutes long and will end with a discussion about what more the institution can do to defend the climate. We have invited local leaders to attend so they can see the passion students have about the climate, and the event will end with a declaration addressed to leaders and the University about what we want them to do for the climate. If you love the environment, nature and care about the climate, I recommend you join! This event is being run by myself, the Union President, Krzysztof, our Sustainability Manager and the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, its a deeply important issue that effects all of us. Particularly with the recent forest fires and heatwave hitting the UK this summer, climate change is on the forefront of all of our minds and its vital we share how many students similarly care about this issue, especially with our new VC joining us on the same day.
Another important event is UK Disability History Month, for which the University is running a conference for on the 23rd of November; there is a call for contributors on sussed but is also linked here. The theme this year is Disability, Politics and Democracy. Democracy is only true when everyone is included, so addressing barriers to politics that many experience is vital to give everyone representation. I urge artists, creatives and passionate people to submit something meaningful and that represents the theme. I will be repeating this until October 9th when the deadline is, so I apologise if I talk your ear off about it, particularly if you are a member of the Student Accessibility Network (SAN). They are really keen for student engagement, so even if you don’t submit work, consider attending.
As always, you can reach me with any issues you have at VPinclusion@soton.ac.uk
Joshie Christian, VP Education
Hi all, since this is the first email back after Freshers, it’s introduction time! As your VP Education, I’m elected to support all your Course Reps and Senior Reps, lobby for changes you wanna see around exams, assessment, teaching, and anything more general that affects your education and your student experience!
I’ve been reviewing loads of rep roles over the summer to improve the quality of the representation structures we have – and, as well as loads of tweaks to course rep roles done by both myself and the lovely Representation Team at SUSU, we’ve split our two new President roles in Education (representing PGCE students) and three new roles in Art (representing and leading each department!). With the Autumn Elections currently underway, I gotta slip in a reminder that you can become the course rep for the students in your year right now! A few Senior Rep roles need filling too, so maybe you could be…
- The next Environmental and Life Science Faculty Officer
- The Health Science School President
- The Physics and Astronomy School President
- The Department President for your area of WSA (Art & Media Tech, Design, or Fashion & Textiles)
- Or the Department President for any of the vacant roles in the School of Humanities (that’s Music, Film, History, Philosophy, or Archaeology!)
I’m sticking to my commitment to attend every single course rep training session that I can be available for; I hope I get to meet you soon, and I’ll always be on hand for questions or to support all of our wonderful reps!
I’m also cracking on with my biggest manifesto promise – we’re winding up a campaign to get more students a Reading Week during Semester 1, and making sure all existing reading weeks are moved to the same week! Consultations are on the way later this term, and every course rep will get to give feedback during their training sessions next month!
All the best,
Joshie Christian – VP Education
Charlie Bell, VP Sports
Hi everyone! Welcome back to Southampton and the University. I hope everybody had a great first week back.
As your VP Sports, I have released a Clubs and Socs travel survey to further understand how SUSU can help members to get to events and fixtures. We have received over 120 responses. Established a Ladies IM Football Committee to work on the project and develop ideas into plans (we have now had 3 meetings and are looking at getting plans in place). I have also worked with Shrey to organise meetings for Kit Secretaries before the academic year and further develop the range on offer through student feedback. (A few new pieces are in the works for an approx. January launch). I have held meetings to appoint the 12 roles on the Sports Executive Committee 26/27. There are 2 new roles, added from last year (Access to Sport and Inclusion in Sport Representative). Continuing, I have participated in and advocated for students in conversations with Southampton Sport about the sports pass, and about the need for reassessment of the sports pass for next year and beyond, with student feedback gained throughout the year.
Also, as your VP Sports, I run the @Team_Soton account on Instagram and will be posting fixtures, results, photos of your games and showcasing your clubs. If you would like me to come along to a session and showcase it, feel free to email me or reach out via Instagram.
If you have any questions about this, please feel free to send me an email on vpsports@soton.ac.uk.
Harvey Penycate-Smith, VP Communities
Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed Freshers this year. It was great to see all of the students and societies at the fairs, and I had a great time talking to everyone and making content for @susu_socs. I’ve also been attending taster sessions all throughout these weeks, and you’ll hopefully see me at one of them soon if you haven’t already. All of this is also going out on Instagram, so please keep an eye out there. If you’re a society committee, feel free to reach out to me so we can talk about showcases and promotion! Especially if you have any big events coming up, I’d love to be there to experience your society and promote you to more students. I’m also running a small event on the 1st of October where Dr Neil J Gostling will talk about the dinosaur discoveries made here at Southampton and the Isle of Wight, so please come along if dinosaurs or ecology are of interest to you!
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!
