How did I not hear about the supposed student involvement in the rebrand?
Huw 'Huw' Percival submitted on
Monday 16th May 2016
Complete
Hi there,
I am a member of the students union and therefore believe I should have a say in what goes on. This most recent change has highlighted to me that my union disagrees. I have heard many claims over the past few days that the student body is involved and that they did have a say in the rebranding but as a student myself I didnt see any invitation to voice my opinion. I check my university emails regularly, I follow all of the SUSU facebook pages and I saw nothing. More than that I am a course representative and also a committee member of one of the university societies, both of these I would have thought would help keep me even more aware of what was going on. But no. nothing.
Help me understand why the union is attempting to perpetuate the idea that they do not care for what there members think.
I would also like to highlight the point that even if you think you are doing what the students want and getting them involved. The fact that the vast majority of students think that you are not shows that it is not working and something needs to change
Thanks
Huw Percival
Answers
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Ed Baird submitted on
Tuesday 17th May 2016
Complete
Hi Huw, thanks for getting in touch. A student-wide email was sent from the Union inviting students to fill in the survey, which definitely went out because students got directly in touch with me as a result of the email to talk about the survey/add follow up points.
In terms of Facebook posts, there was this one inviting students to the branding workshop: https://www.facebook.com/YourSUSU/photos/a.202856809774881.50307.180512555342640/1046499832077237/?type=3&theater
This one inviting students to find out more about the rebrand:
This one encouraging students to attend council to see the designs:
https://www.facebook.com/events/936880316425530/permalink/943148489132046/
And this blog, which was part of series of blogs updating students on the progress of the rebrand, and which was shared on the SUSU Facebook page
https://blogs.susu.org/blog/2016/02/26/brand-review-an-update/#content
Our methods of student consultation are not perfect and we are learning more and more and trying to improve on them to make sure that we engage in more meaningful student consultation with every big project that we undertake. Our only motivation to do anything is to serve our members, and so we are truly doing all we can to get them involved in decision making – this is why this year we’ve also totally rethought how we do democracy, so that more students can get involved at the very early stages of an idea and the recent lifestyle survey will help us to better understand our membership and what they want and need, so that we can make the changes we need to that let students feel like they are involved in all our decision making.
Ben Franklin
Union President
