Minutes

Name of Committee Union Senate
Date and time 6th December 2019, 14:00
Place The Board Room
Present Members
(voting)
Senator Corin Holloway
Senator Sadie Belsey
Senator Luke Woolley
Senator Hugh Warden
Senator Pascal Ezeabasili
Senator Ria Dunn
Senator Catrina Bowen
Senator Matas Gelzinis
Senator Wei Cheong
Senator Chukwuamaka Anyanwu
Senator Alexander Beyene
Senator Anna Stausberg
Absent with Apologies Senator Katy Davies
Chair of Senate Adrian Li
Senator Ali Treanor
Opening
1. Welcome and introductions

Because the chair of Senate, Adrian Li, could not attend, an election took place to step in for a chair and the Senator Sadie Belsey was elected.

2. Minutes of the previous meeting

 Couldn’t take place during the meeting and so this was postponed.

Papers and Reports
3. Sabbatical Plans

Questions were submitted by Senators in advance and answers provided ahead of meeting as below, with additional questions asked during the meeting itseld

Olivia Reed – VP Sport

Q. Mandatory online training for welfare officer- why is mandatory in quotes and how will you check? What are the consequences of not completing it?
A. Good question. It shouldn’t be in quotes. The consequences of not completing are disaffiliation. This has been clearly outlined to clubs ahead of grant round 2 which they also will not be eligible for without having completed the training.
Q. Regular free sports programme - which sports, where? What if thousands of people show up?
A. Which sports, where; are questions I’m also asking. We are staring the programme with trial courses such as the ‘Fun Free Games’ session today and equipment which is available for use at avenue campus. If thousands of people show up then I would be thrilled! If that happens we will need to address that in the future but for now we have the opposite issue in working from the ground up and trying to advertise and promote from the ground up.
Q. Improving sporting success - how? More details?
A. Improving sporting success is part of the job description for VP Sports and is a tricky thing to quantify as success has many metrics. At the moment I am working to achieve it with the university’s Sports Experience Board by examining a range of KPI’s such as performance and participation and seeing how we can work to improve them. This also involves assessing where we currently are, to know how we can improve. As part of this I have been helping the university to conduct several student consultations. When the BUCS score are available we will also be examining those, however I am trying to make the university conscious that BUCS isn’t the only indicator and other comparatives must be looked at, especially for sports that do not compete in BUCS leagues. Factors such as student numbers and demographics in clubs are also being considered.
Q.  'Ongoing' - what has you actually done so far?
A. I’m not entirely sure which section ‘ongoing’ refers to? But these mean that the project is going to last more than the academic year so will need to be continued on afterwards.
Q. More details of online training required, please
A. Online training consists of modules completed online within a set period of time. The idea behind this is that training can be accessed at a time appropriate for the participant and therefore it has a wider reach. We will also be running in person training to support this. Having both method of training mean that the training is available to people who learn and receive information in different ways.
 
Additional questions for Olivia that were asked during the meeting:
Q. Which online modules are you planning?
A. WIDE for Welfare Officers already exists, but also want to do something like that for Presidents & Treasurers. Research shows people prefer online training
Q. Have you thought about other positions?
A. Yes but I'll be focusing on those 3 first
Q. Increasing access for students with disabilities - what are the details of this?
A. I'm working with Lily (Disabilities Officer) to see what we can do. Disabilities Awareness week is happening in January (Lily working with Laura, VP Welfare, on this). Will explore options then. I previously campaigned for a quiet hour in gym - Uni are now doing this.

Approve - 11

Reject - 0

Abstain - 4

 

Fiona Sunderland – VP Activities

No questions

Approve - 11

Reject - 0

Abstain - 4

 

Emily Harrison – Union President

Q. SU refurb 10 year project. How to ensure it continues over 10 years?
A. Scott, the CEO, is involved (he is core staff so there is continuity).
Q. What do you hope to achieve?
A. This is answered in the most up to date version of the sabbatical plan.
Q. Is there a budget allocation and what it the cost to SUSU/Uni?
A. The cost is for the Uni budget not SUSU.
Q. Are there any updates regarding the Lecturers pay?
A. The last time there were strikes, a working group was formed (Uni staff & Sabbs).
Q. Could we have Language Badges to help with face to face interactions?
A. Haven't thought that far ahead but good idea, although SSPA problematic as staff are not public. Could think how to do it on website but with no staff names listed
Q. Recycling/reverse vending. There are restrictions on what can be locally recycled - how will vending machine differentiate?
A. We are lobbying the Council. Terracycle is a private company so there aren't the same concerns
Q. Sustainability/catering - how to ensure they align? More world food & drink like Bubble Tea but they use plastic lids etc so how to align these two aims?
A. Bubble Tea are happy for student to bring their own containers, but are limited by their own suppliers. Please get in touch with more ideas.
Q. Have you undertaken consultation?
A. We take feedback all the time but linked to refurb project so there is nothing to consult on yet
 
Additional questions for Emily that were asked during the meeting:
Q. Reverse vending - in place?
A. Exploring other, cheaper, options as machine costs £7K
Q. Badges - this term?
A. Currently sourcing badges with our Marcomms team
Q. Terracycle update?
A. Terracycle is now installed - will do more comms about it. It is the start of more initiatives like this.
Q. Poss to put in halls?
A. Yes definitely, need to talk to Residences
Q. Improving transport links like shuttle bus - what about over summer?
A. No, trialled over summer but it wasn't used so no evidence that students would actually use it

Approve - 10

Reject - 0

Abstain - 5

 

Jo Lisney – VP Education and Democracy

Q. Why just Hums students?
A. Did consultation when writing plan and Hums students felt disenfranchised with Careers as this is a STEM focused Uni - so trying to broaden careers offer for Hums
Q. Apart from lecture capture, how else will you be making lectures more accessible to students?
A. Using Panopto in different ways. Will also talk to Enabling about other ideas
Q. How to deal with lecturers who won't use it?
A. Will be looking at performance, working with Associate Deans for Education to improve presentation skills etc and support them
Q. Won't attendance go down?
A. Data shows not
Q. Said you were going to invite students in advance to Senate - did you?
A. Yes but only a week in advance
Q. 'Evaluate MCS summit' - how was it? Any further plans to improve it?
A. MCS was not as successful as it could have been. However, there was good discussion that took place despite this and a point raised by one of our liberation officers/ course reps is student apathy. We are looking to advertise MCS earlier and explain what this actually is to students as many do not know. I am also in contact with the deans, deans of education and school offices to clarify with them what MCS is and they are keen to help us with getting students in. Further to this, we are looking to take MCS to different sites across our campus as we know Highfield is convenient for some, but not all. We are also going to consult students on what they want to talk about and debate.
Q. Implement invitation system for Senate - how are students selected, more details generally, is it anti-democratic?
A. The invitation system is based on Leeds University and Royal Holloway’s (which has been in place for 6 years collectively). I have adjusted the numbers to try and engage students with (20 instead of 50, like Royal Holloway and Leeds) as this is a 1st trial and we can look at adjusting accordingly. This is to encourage students with SUSU and also hold us to account. We are randomly selecting students from the database (of at least 20,000 students) from undergrad to postgrad.
Q. Lecture capture - some lecturers won't use it, how will that be fair to everyone? Some GDPR concerns about content - how will they be dealt with? How to ensure lecturers know how to record it? What training will be provided? What feedback suggests teaching quality is poor and how will you work on this?
A. Lecture capture is not utilised at the university despite the equipment being in all common learning spaces now. Some lecturers won’t use it because they are uncomfortable with technology despite iSolutions writing a guide and offering to train all lecturers on it. To combat this, I am looking to follow the faculty of Medicine’s approach with Panopto Champions – training students on how to use Panopto so they can be onsite tech support. Medicine has seen more lectures recorded since
this has been introduced. This also will encourage lecturers to work in partnership with students on how to make lectures more interesting and interactive as they become more confident with the equipment.
I am currently unsure if we will have an opt-in or opt-out policy as of yet as I have to work with the university on this. I would prefer an opt-out, which means lecturers who have a genuine issue i.e. Music with copyright issues, are allowed to opt-out when playing things that are copyrighted and will not be in trouble for selecting this option. However, when discussing music theory, these lectures would be recorded as there is no issue then. Further to this, iSolutions have worked to ensure that students can no longer download recording to distribute illegally.
As for GDPR, there will be signs or a disclaimer at the start of the lecture and students who do not wish to be recorded can be edited out after if their voice is captured or they will not be picked up and the lecturer will repeat the question. Further to this, lecturers can record video and sound or just sound too.
Also, for content – the university own the academic content, but the lecturer has performance rights which means they can withdraw the recording at any time. I will be working with the university to ensure that lecturers are protected from having recordings used to monitor their performance. Essex university, Lancaster University, Exeter University, Kent University and Durham University have already implemented this and has been a success, so I am sure we can offer this too considering our VC had previously come from one of those institutions.
Q. Replicate UG structure with PG - what does that mean?
A. To replicate the undergraduate academic structure with our PGT academic structure means that SUSU will looking to have school and department presidents at PGT level. We already have PGT course reps and PGT faculty officers but nothing in between these, which makes gathering feedback harder for the PGT faculty officers. To bring the presidents in also means there are more PGT representation on university boards as there is a bigger cohort to choose from and place them in important meetings.
Q. How will you strengthen relationship with Careers?
A. I am in regular contact with careers and they are willing to help with our training for societies. They are also willing to help run our humanities mini career fair. To strengthen their understanding of what humanity students want to see in sector fairs, I am collecting responses and physical data to take back to careers following the event to work on a strategy on diversifying their career paths, so next year’s humanities employability month will be more reflective of the students they claim to put it on for.

Approve - 11

Reject - 0

Abstain - 4

 

Laura Barr – VP Welfare

No questions

Approve - 9

Reject - 0

Abstain - 6

4. Sabbatical Reports

Laura Barr – VP Welfare

As Laura was on pre-booked Annual Leave at the time of the Union Senate meeting,q uestions were summitted by Senators and added to the minutes at a later stage.

Q. Have the Sunflower Badges been introduced and how many have been sold? Can anyone buy them? How are people being told about them and their meaning? 
A. They have been introduced and around 29 have been sold so far, but after consultation we decided to make them free alongside the pronoun badges. The sunflower scheme is also being extended further into public transport awareness too with the disabilities officer.
Q. 'Deconstruct competitiveness' - what does that mean? 
A. I mean the worry that resources for one group will take away resources for another group. Its obviously true there is a finite amount of resources, and that different allocations happen at different times for different reasons, but I don’t want to run campaigns that make people feel they need to fight for space to be heard. I’ve had some feedback in my 360’s that in my efforts to be inclusive, it has sometimes meant that majority communities have not been considered. I want to ensure that we are inclusive and emphasis is where it needs to be, which includes majorities. For example, for male mental health month, there was a worry to why we weren’t talking about female mental health. This month was dedicated to male suicide because it disproportionately affects men under 45, but we also ensured that trans and non binary people were considered, such as in social media, the demonstration, and various other things. I want to take that stance of, including the majority, but not focusing mostly on them, but ensuring the platform is appropriately shared. This way, I hope to discourage the backlash from different groups (for example, what about international mens day?) and use the years campaigns to have different focuses at appropriate times, and thus not making people feel they have to fight to have a platform. Its very ambitious but hopefully I can help it a bit!
Q. Has there been any feedback about BHM from the forum?
A. Yes! There’s been loads. Lots of things about being more transparent, reaching more people for engagement, having more things as a core offer instead of an add on, having themes around the forum. Its too long to update but I will have more updates come next senate, but its looking like a really good start at the moment.
Q. 'Wellbeing area' - how will you avoid duplication with Enabling drop in?
A. I’m not sure where this was written but its not an area with counsellors, its an area with a cupboard and free products such as menstrual and sanitary items, colouring books, reusable ear plugs (to take away) bags of tea, stim toys for neurodiverse people, and other things. This will be launched in sem2.
Q. Conversation about eating disorders etc - how to ensure students are not triggered by email/posters but conversation still open?
A. I’m not and I wont claim to be an expert around this topic but I have changed eating disorders to disordered eating, and body positivity. I’ll explain fat representation in this one as well. I would like to be able to raise awareness of different conversations and support systems for students who may engage with disordered eating and poor body image, but not by giving them rules on how and what to eat. There is something called intuitive eating, which is essentially learning to listen to what your body needs, and removing shame from food. So, I’d like to address and deconstruct people seeing (for example) cake as ‘bad’ and vegetables as ‘good’, and consider why (with disordered eating) people then project those moral positions of food onto themselves, and so they become ‘bad’ or ‘good’, which then leads to or is already an eating disorder. So, its understanding our relationship with food and ourselves/bodies.
This is a very simple way of putting it and it is MUCH more nuanced than that, but in principle, I’d like to open up an opportunity for people to reflect themselves, and relearn some attitudes they have about food. And, with body image, i would like to deconstruct the notion that ‘fat’ is ‘bad’. Firstly, by not seeing fat as a bad word, but a descriptor, and not someones identity. I would like to raise awareness of people being defined by more than their body, that fat people can be fit and active, and address medical fatphobia.
Medical fatphobia is essentially when someones fatness is seen as the biggest indicator or reason they are ill or have a medical condition, and often this means that people are shamed, not taken seriously about their symptoms or pain, and the fatness is seen as the disorder in and of itself. Again, a much more nuanced conversation than just this, but I hope to try and encourage people to get in to sport to be ACTIVE, not to lose weight or be skinny as a priority, or any reason, but to improve their health- which can still be improved without losing weight as its main goal. Losing weight is often a by product of being active, but losing weight does not happen to everyone who is active. AND, naturally, there will be content warnings where possible.
Happy to talk about this more in person instead of writing an entire essay on here but essentially its not dictating to students what they should and shouldn’t eat, how they should feel, but providing the tools and positive messages that they deserve to be treated with respect, and that they are still valued, no matter what their body size.
Q. Accessibility re physical needs - had previously said can't do gender-neutral toilets as no development plan so why would the University be able to build more ramps?
A. The university is currently developing their 10 year plan which has accessibility AND gender neutral toilets in that plan. Also, accessibility is about MUCH more than just building more ramps… its ensuring that toilets have the red cord in an accessible place and not tied up, its about ensuring that doors open wide enough for people with physical needs and ensuring that there aren’t things in the way, such as small bumps like we have on the SUSU double doors which make it difficult for people in wheelchairs to get over. Its also about making sure that lifts are signposted a lot more easily, making sure that for events and such there are accessibility requirements in place and that in the university and the unions development, it is always a thing to consider. Its also about much more than physical needs, but invisible illnesses that are physical but not apparent too.
Q. Mandatory training - all clubs & socs. What about other students? Should/will it be for all students?
A. We currently have limited funding from the University to go too far with this immediately but essentially we are working off our LMS (Learning Management System), which can only hold a certain amount of people. We cannot put all 11,000 student volunteers on the system at once. I have started with clubs and societies as they are the biggest group that we get issues from and our biggest base of people. The plan is to create a year spread of allocated time for clubs and societies, student officers, and staff. This comes under expect respect, which will be mapped out in more detail in next senate. So, in short, its been thought about and it is an ambitious target that I hope will be kept even after my term, but we because of resource constraint and much needed development of the training, we have to start small and build up.
Q. Aftermath of Brexit - what is 'protection' and how far can SUSU actually go to protect students?
A. We can lobby the university, relay student concerns, provide platforms for students to hear news about Brexit and get correct information, and protect their interests by representing as many as possible when it comes to any plans and decision making with the University.
Q. Expect Respect/Zero tolerance - how do they relate to post-Brexit concerns/protection?
A. Simply that we celebrate and value our erasmus, EU and international students and we will not stand for any xenophobia that may occur as a result of Brexit conversations.
Q. WIDE training - how to evaluate inclusion techniques?
A. They have to put down 3 commitments and longer term we will figure out better ways to evaluate this, but it is hard to do so with 297 clubs and societies. We are also using it in disciplinaries to show that we have given them training, they have promised to do certain things, and if its reported that they have gone against this, then we will be in a better position to educate or discipline them.

 

Fiona Sunderland – VP Activities

Q. What's happening with the lift in the Annexe?
A. Currently in talks with E&F, currently no lift. Feasibility study approved so that will be happening first.
Comment - WSA - media socs have tried. To engage students there but at the  Fresher's Fair only 2 people spoke to us.
Q. It takes you a long time to follow up on emails
A. I generally respond quickly so if you haven't received a reply in a week, please assume I haven't seen the email and re-send
Q. What about refurb of NST?
A. Still happening but conversations ongoing

 

Olivia - VP Sports

Q. Free sports programme - how will this be funded?
A. Depends how we go forward. It currently uses our rugby development co-ordinator so there is no cost to us
Q. What is the equipment at Avenue ?
A. Tennis, basketballs, football
Q. Martial arts room - any progress with this?
A. We received a petition - S&W have already looked at some of the issues raised.

 

Emily Harrison – Union President

Q. Last time there was a 10 yr plan you renamed SUSU to US. Will you do it again?
A. No plans for a rebrand in my time
Q. Will students be consulted about 10 yr plan?
A. Yes already happening via feedback received through YMC etc but nothing concrete to invite students to comment on yet

 

Jo Lisney – VP Education and Democracy

No Qs

5. Expect Respect Policy

Approve - 14

Reject - 0

Abstain - 1

6. Disciplinary Reports

None to receive

Decisions
7. Approval of Masters Course - Laura Barr

Approve - 15

Reject - 0

Abstain - 0

Attached:
8. Approval of External Trusteeship - Laura Barr

Approve - 14

Reject - 0

Abstain - 1

Attached:
9. Approval of part-time employment - Jo Lisney

Removed from agenda

10. Removal of Student Trustee

Approve - 13

Reject - 0

Abstain - 2

Discussions/Debates
11. Student engagement - How to increase interaction with the student body
Close
12. AOB

None

Key: P (Papers Provided), PF (Papers to Follow)