Anonymous submitted on
Wednesday 19th December 2018
Complete
As a Highfield based student I am rarely prompted to go to our other campuses, at best I'll go for ambassador work. I know you have a shuttle bus to WSA but what about NOCS? I also hear they have super tight security which is off putting, there should be more encouragment for us to explore the other campuses and see what they have to offer. SOTSEF allows for Highfield and Boldrewood to be open to the public and you get to see rooms you normally would never enter, have you considered opening this to NOCS or the SGH?
Here, you can view the complete set of official responses from the sabbatical officers regarding this submission.
Students' Union replied on
Friday 1st Feb 2019 4:41pm
Hi there,
Thank you for your You Make Change submission.
I absolutely agree, in the past there very much has been a culture of all SUSU activity being Highfield-based. However, this is something which I am actively tackling and trying to change in my role this year. For example, I have worked with our Advice Centre to hold Drop Ins at Avenue and WSA and we are currently in the process of looking to set some up at NOCS too.
Additionally, you might have seen we took our popular Bunfight event (Clubs and societies fayre) on tour to Avenue and Boldrewood this week, which was part of my Sabb plan. My idea behind this was very much to encourage students to travel to other campuses and seemed to work very nicely. The hope is very much to continue this and do a similar thing during Freshers in September but even bigger!
The problem with doing things at the NOCS and the hospital is that those sites are not wholly University owned and so there are external stakeholders which put limits on what they allow, making activity there tricker. This is why there is such high security at NOCS, that's actually nothing to do with SUSU but due to the University and NERC (National Enviroment Research Council) as it is used for government activity. Similarly, the hospital is joint owned by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, so again SUSU has really no say in the building here.
Additionally, the reason there is no shuttle bus to NOCS, which is something I have looked into, is that it would take away from the use of Unilink, which needs to be commercially viable in order to run. Runnign a shuttle bus would therefore threaten it's ability to exist and therefore actually have the opposite effect of limiting travel around the city. Having said this, I am working with the University transport manager to improve the service Unilink provides. Whilst we cannot make it free, I am working to increase frequency, improve reliability and hopefully to try and decrease prices.
I am keen to widen our activity at both these sites where we can and I am currently looking into taking our next PG Breakfast Club (The first of which happened on Wednesday) to NOCS next month, subject to site approval.
If you have ideas for how we can do more or would like to chat further, my email is vpcomuntiies@susu.org. I am more than happy to discuss further over email or in person.
All the best,
Emily
VP Student Communities, 2018-19.
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