Hi, thanks for your question. If elected, I want to work very closely with students who may be somewhat neglected in representation such as (and this is by no means an exhaustive list) postgraduates, foundation year students, dual honours students, students who have disabilities, and international students. I intend on working closely with the postgraduate representatives on understanding what issues affect them and how SUSU can go about resolving these issues. I also intend on implementing Teams meetings (or hopefully in person meetings if restrictions allow) to talk with specific groups including postgraduates, foundation year students, international students, dual honours students etc. to focus my attention on these particular demographics to find out what these students want. I would intend on holding these specific meetings at least once each term (in addition to carrying on the weekly drop in sessions done by previous VPs) so there is a specific time for these demographics to contact me with issues they are having. ---- I also want to modify the process of applying for a course rep position after the autumn elections (co-opting). I have found that students in first year or foundation years don't apply for a course rep position in the autumn as they aren't sure on how much work they are likely to receive, what activities they will do regularly etc. However, it is possible to co-opt students into course rep roles in a long process whereby the get in touch with an academic president who then has to run a vote during an SSLC meeting and then has to contact the representation team within SUSU making it a long process before a co-opted course rep is mentioned on the SUSU website. This makes it difficult for students in courses (and especially in joint honours courses) to get in touch with a course rep to convey their concerns. I intend on working with SUSU to modify the process to make it a more streamlined process (and one that can happen throughout the year rather than solely on the SSLC meetings) by allowing presidents to run a vote at any time amongst the course reps before passing this information on to the representation team. There are other changes to the course rep system I would like to consider making including increasing the number of course reps that can be elected as the current limit (2) can make it difficult to reach all students on courses where there are 100+ students meaning some voices aren't heard. I would therefore raise the limit to allow for a wider coverage of students and make finding a course rep a lot easier. By having a strong number of course reps for each course it means the representation further up can be improved allowing SUSU to engage with students concerns. ---- Obviously there are a lot more ideas I have in regards to how I can engage with the wider student body (and especially the groups I mentioned at the start) but these two ideas are some of the main ideas I have currently to engage with students (and I am aware this is already a really long response). However, I am more than happy to discuss these ideas further either by email or Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/Vote-Ryan-1-For-VP-Education-and-Democracy-113323364071954/ ) if you want to ask any other specific questions. Hope this answered your question! --------- TL;DR - I want to run specific meetings every term targeted at listening to concerns of particular students (postgrads, international students etc.) and intend on improving the course rep system so there is a strong basis for relaying concerns higher up the representation structure amongst other ideas.
This question was also asked to Charlotte James, Martha Luke, Amina Lechkhab, Jordan HickeyAnswered by Ryan on 23/02/21 17:23