Charlie Bell, VP Sports
Hi, I hope you have had a great week!
I bring you a survey to understand your opinion on Stag’s Lager and what you, as a student body, would like us to do.
If you have any questions about this, please feel free to send me an email on vpsports@soton.ac.uk.
Annie Whyman, VP Inclusion
Hi everyone, I hope that you are having a good autumn
This week is the launch of the first Safety Campaign planned this year (with a second week in January). I have spent the past couple of weeks organising and planning this week alongside the Head of Advice and Support and Union President, and so far I have been very proud of what we have achieved. You may have already seen the posts across Instagram, including our own @sususabbs, @team_soton, @susu_socs and the main @union_soton. These posts have been worked on closely with our Advice Centre to be accurate and informative, alongside several blogs that can be found on the susu.org web page.
NOW, more exciting, this week has been full of safety-related events with collaboration from societies: SUMMA hosting a self-defence class and Yoga for hosting a mindfulness session. I intend to attend both of them and content from this will be released! It is so nice to be able to collaborate with key societies during my campaigns, something I mentioned in my manifesto when running for this role!
I have also been around campus gathering safety feedback, thoughts, and concerns across campus. I went to Avenue Campus on Tuesday, Redbrick on Thursday and will be in the library today! Members from security have also joined me and are talking to students about what their role on campus is; come say hi. I have been using these stands to hand out freebies such as sweets, condoms and disposable drink covers, as well as have conversations with as many students as possible about how we can make this city feel safer. If you would like to discuss safety further, you can join the safety forum, which will be happening on November 3rd 12.00-14.00 in the Loft. We already have a couple of interested external people who would like to come in and hear student feedback, such as the Council, police and internal security, so if you are interested, please fill out this form! I also have a couple of whistles, personal alarms and reusable drink covers; if you would like some, please come talk to me at a stand or in the Building 40 office.
As always, you can reach me with any issues you have at VPinclusion@soton.ac.uk
Krzysztof Mikulski, Union President
Hi. I hope the rain hasn’t caused too much trouble.
It’s been a busy two weeks, full of meetings with the University and the Students’ Union to ensure student needs and concerns are heard and acted on.
Last week I attended two of the University’s most senior meetings (Council and Senate), where I presented the Sabbatical Officers’ main priorities for the coming year and highlighted some of the individual officers’ early achievements. I also questioned the University’s AI strategy, what it has done to ensure students feel safe, how it’s making our students more employable, and what it is doing to tackle the climate crisis.
Equally, the VP Sports and I have asked about more affordable wrap and pasta options at the SUSU Shop, while also reviewing the drinks and other items currently on offer.
Lastly, if any students who are part of a club or society are interested in joining a focus group about the refurbishments that could be happening on Levels 1 & 2 of B42, please let me know. It is an opportunity for people to give direct feedback to the SU about things like storage, multipurpose spaces, changing facilities and equipment rooms. If you are interested, please send me an email!
If you have any questions about this, please feel free to send me an email on president@soton.ac.uk.
Joshie Christian, VP Education
Hi all, do you remember my Manifesto promise to create a template for making assessment briefs clear and helpful? It’s nearly ready to launch! I’m very excited about one additional project – we’ve also created a very short template for giving out the key details about an assessment in week 1 (dates, weighting, word count, etc). It’s looking like we might be able to make the Week 1 assessment info compulsory – and finally have consistent assessment information across the University! More news soon…
I lobbied last year to save the Alumni Emails service from being scrapped; I asked to meet iSolutions this week to find out what’s happening! The pilot of the opt-in is going well, and the University have agreed to involve SUSU in the final decision-making in April. It’s been a long stretch of lobbying so far, but we’re doing everything we can to save it!
Finally, if you have deadlines on your course that moved between week 12 (before the break) and the exam season (after the break) that don’t work for you, please reach out to me, and I will work on addressing them, as there has been some confusion with staff moving deadlines before/after the break unnecessarily!
All the best,
Joshie Christian – VP Education
Harvey Penycate-Smith, VP Communities
These last two weeks, I’ve been around campus with a clipboard, talking to students and staff about student choice regarding generative AI. This is an ongoing area of exploration for us, as we’re trying to gather as much student feedback as possible. If you are interested in sharing your opinion, please send me an email with your thoughts; I’d love to hear more!
I’ve also filmed my first society showcase now, which you should hopefully see very soon (if not already)! It was a lot of fun, and I’m going to keep on coming along to various societies to film more and try out more activities. Remember to fill out my form if you’re interested in having your society showcased!
This is also a good chance to shout out society of the month nominations for October – if you want to nominate a society, please fill out this form!
Finally, we’ve announced details for the badge scheme, which allows societies to be recognised and rewarded for everything they do to give back to the community here. Take a look and see if your society has already done something badge-worthy. If not, this could be a great chance to start planning something!
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!
