The officer reports were received by Council. Corrections were made to the attendance sheet: David Heard (Student Trustee) has attended all Commercial Sub Committees to date, and his attendance has been corrected in the database.
(a) Officer reports
Oli Coles asked for feedback about the style of his report, and also mentioned that JCR elections had opened, and asked for people to nominate themselves and spread the word.
Claire Gilbert, on behalf of Beckie Thomas, pointed out that her report was not complete yet, but mentioned that the peer support scheme is progressing and volunteers are being trained, and that the BEES (Business Ethics and Environmental Students) is progressing as well.
Claire Gilbert, for her own portfolio, said that she had been focusing on change this year, and explained why her manifesto and report differ slightly, as her work has become more focused.
David Gilani mentioned his work on the “student centred university” which involves unlocking student funding, and asked for ideas from all members for projects that can benefit from funding. He said that Pulse has had low attendance despite having been led by a specific student project , and that therefore Pulse is no more, and there will be different events each week instead of having a specific club night each Friday. On eradicating student poverty – he was working on targeting international fees, providing better access to bursaries and alleviating financial concerns. There will be projects throughout the year. A number of questions followed for David:
Sam Everard asked, for the radio station, if an official announcement about Pulse will be sent out. DG replied that a press statement would be sent out.
Grace Cameron asked if the change was immediate. DG confirmed that it was, to avoid losing any more money on the event, which could be put to better use for students. Grace asked if the bar managers knew this, and DG confirmed that they do from this morning.
Katherine Spires said that the fonts and styles in the officer reports are inaccessible for students with disabilities. DG promised that changes will be made for the future reports.
Josh Cox asked if there will still be a student committee in charge of events. DG replied that special events will definitely feature student input.
Joel Young asked if anything is going to be done about those whose hours are cut, who have 3 hours notice, specifically in case of crew. DG replied that they would find hours across the term, and it is obviously unfortunate if events are cancelled during the term.
Alex Hovden asked if there will still be the option for the Union to have a nightclub. DG said yes, for example Freshers was successful, and that some events do work, but that it was not as good as a regular nightclub.
Joe Spencer asked if there was a financial plan for the money that would have been spent on Pulse DG said that they had not had too much riding on Pulse, and that it had been sensible spending on it to see if it would be successful. Joe Spencer also asked if students who had bought Pulse VIP tickets or the Masterpass would be disadvantaged. DG responded that no students have been disadvantaged by cancelling Pulse.
David Martin mentioned the opening of funding round for student groups, the creation of a cultural quarter in Southampton and improved facility access.
David Mendoza-Wolfson mentioned his work on representation and course rep elections. He was also working on improving timetabling, international fees, an audit group. He also mentioned work done on ‘outside the lecture’ activity, including library improvements.
Alex Hovden asked how far along plans to introduce a 24-hour library are. David said has spoken to the new librarian, and that he did not have any progress to report that this stage, but hoped to be able to report progress at future Union Council meetings.
Evan Whyte suggested that members ask him if they wanted more information on the work he has done, and gave some achievements so far.
Samuel Halfhead asked if, in relation to the new kit providers, teams who have recently bought kit would need to buy new kit? Evan said there would be more access to funding for kit.
(b) Questions to Officers
Q1. David Martin said this was a useful question and one that is important to have a clear process on. For Student groups, there is a specific ‘How-to’ guide on ‘How to increase disabled members participation in your group’. If a member wished to make a complaint, groups@susu.org would be the contact to email (or pres@susu.org) to complain or report an incident. The incident would be confidentially dealt with by them. It is not clear what the implications would be. It is likely that, if warranted that the group/individual in question would be referred to the Disciplinary Committee and dealt with based on the severity of the offence.
Q2a David said he expected an explanation of the facilities charges to be available from February 1st, but that it was difficult to look at past costs of all individual student groups as there is no centralised source which makes dissecting the information difficult. This relates mainly to hiring of technology.
Q2b David said he hoped this would be done by the end of the academic year. This again is a difficult issue because prices vary hugely dependent on the size of the event, the staging and the number of crew needed. He hopped to have a ‘crib sheet’written up specifically about tech but this can only serve as a guideline, however it will hopefully add some clarity.
Q3 David Gilani answered in place of Oli Coles. He said that it was inevitable that things will slip through the net during a busy period, but that this was no excuse. He promised to improve communication for future events. Jack Bridgen asked a question about Freshers’ reps, to which David Gunns responded.
Q4 David said he wanted to keep his answer brief, and summarised that there had been some miscommunication, and that there had been a number of issues arising from the conflict between being student officer and staff member.
Alex Shepherd pressed David for an answer to part 1 of the question (as to whether the student would have been able to run in the Autumn Elections), to which David responded that he would not have been so able.
Alex Hovden asked if a summary of the response could be posted on the relevant Facebook groups. David said that it could be.
