Stop advertising external companies to students
Anonymous submitted on
Monday 11th October 2021
Complete
The SU should represent students interests, not the interests of other companies. I recognise that it is a source of income, however I feel that it is disingenuous to say that SUSU represents student's interests, and then run adverts through official social media channels, digital signage in Building 42, and on official emails.
Responses
Here, you can view the complete set of official responses from the sabbatical officers regarding this submission.
Students' Union replied on
Wednesday 20th Oct 2021 1:00pm
Hi again; I have had a conversation with Wayne, our Business Development Manager, who heads up our external advertising contracts. He has shared with me that he is interested in speaking with you about any particular promotional materials that you are concerned with. Wayne is keen to stress that he and his team regularly turn down businesses who request paid partnerships with us because their ethics don't align with our policies, whether because they breach our rules on academic integrity, our values regarding alcohol and bars, or pay low wages. We endeavour to make our advertising as relevant and beneficial to our student members as possible, and would value a meeting with you to talk through our Ethics Policy regarding partnerships with external companies. We will, of course, internally review the companies we are currently partnered with, as we regularly do, but please do reach out to me at president@soton.ac.uk to organise a chat.
I will close this submission now due to my answers, but await an email from you for further work on this.
- Ben.
Students' Union replied on
Friday 15th Oct 2021 9:04pm
Hello, there; thanks so much for submitting this You Make Change. I think you make a valid point, and whilst it is necessary for us to advertise with external companies to maintain a steady stream of income, there are a few actions that can be taken in response to your submission. Firstly, I will arrange a meeting with our Business Development Manager to review the external companies that we are currently partnered with to ensure that they all align with our student-focused values as a students' union. Secondly, I will speak with our Director of Marketing to review what alternative, relevant, content we can promote to students through our digital screens. Finally, I'm interested to hear that advertisements are featured in official SUSU emails, and would be interested in looking into this for you - would you be happy to forward me any such emails to president@soton.ac.uk? Similarly, if you would like to discuss this matter with me further, please do reach out through the same line of communication.
Thank you again for getting in touch, and I'll return next week with a more concrete update.
- Ben.
Actions
Forwarded to Union President
Friday 15th Oct 2021 9:22am
Forwarded to Union President
Friday 15th Oct 2021 9:20am
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