Gem Heywood – Vice President for Societies and Communication
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The last two days saw a group of us from The Students’ Union attend the annual Student Sustainability Summit, in partnership with EAUC and People & Planet, conveniently held at the University of Bristol Students’ Union. The first day consisted of workshops aimed at students and staff to provide training and discussions around effectively engaging students in sustainability.
The day opened with a key note speaker, David Buckland, an Artist and Director of Cape Farewell. The Cape Farewell project has become a global entity where the work of the artists and climate scientists have been the subject of two major films, Art From The Arctic for the BBC and Burning Ice for Sundance, both produced by Buckland. Buckland made an inspiring speech highlighting the importance of sustainability and the issues around engagement. He drew the concise conclusion as to why people are so reluctant to change, stating the harsh reality it’s because “it’s facing a real truth”. He then presented the notion that you need to make people ‘want’ to engage to overcome this resistance to change. Buckland and an Author friend of his are working on changing the language associated with sustainability to change attitudes, stigma’s around being ‘green’ and engage the population.
The next slide really hit home to me. It displayed a quote from Barrack Obama stating “we’re the first generation to feel the impact of climate change, and the last generation to be able to do anything about it”. 10 years ago the government put lots of funding in to researching innovative renewable energy forms and research into behavioural change to make a difference. The Conservatives promised they would be the most 'green' government yet? But, are they showing any signs of this? It is calculated that there is trillions of money out there to invest in sustainable developments; we just need to reinvest it.
Another famous quote from Obama: “wouldn't it be great to look back and say we were the generation that turned this around”. Buckland closed with talking about how the main thing is that we must keep imaging the future. What future do you want? This is the most important issue of our generation so our generation needs to start getting excited and not scared.
The second day closed with the Vice-President for Society and Citizenship announcing that scientists have confirmed we have hit the ‘1 degree mark’ which means we are half way to no return. It means that there has been a 1 degree rise in the average global temperature. The reality is, this needs to be a priority for the government and for you! We must stop pushing this under the carpet and grow the courage for change!
Back in the office for a few hours, and then off to Gloucester Campus to discuss the issues that have been thrown upon the students there. We arrived just after mid-day and were greeted by the Associate Head of Department, Rachel, who brought us up to speed with the campus. We were then taken into a meeting room where we were met with three of the campus’ student representatives. They opened up about the issues they are currently facing around parking facilities around the campus. Parking seems to come up as an issue across all our campus’ however Gloucester seem to be hit the worst.
The issue was that the price of local parking has gone up without any consultation with the students. There was a previous spoken agreement where the students received ‘special student prices’ but this has been revoked; without any notice given! The Student Reps explained to us how a number of students in their cohort have openly been skipping lectures as they can’t afford to pay for parking every day. Many are leaving lectures early to ensure they don’t have to pay that additional £2 for an extra hour parking; and some have even threatened dropping out of the University as they can’t afford the daily cost on top of their other bills.
We went through the possibility of alternatives but the other options were out of a reasonable walking distance and as many students are travelling quite a distance already aren’t willing to add a considerable amount of time to their journey every day. So, we asked the Reps what would be the three best options they would ideally like to see happen. Option 1 was a very reasonable request, that the Gloucester Campus had the same parking offer as other campuses. At Frenchay Campus students can park all day for £3 or has the option of purchasing a parking permit with the parking plot within 5 minutes walking distance. So, they asked for us to do everything we can to reinstate the car parking agreement that hard harshly been revoked.
We left the meeting inspired and encouraged to do everything we can to support the students on Gloucester Campus and made a pledge to lobby for option 1 to become a reality.
Today was a full day in the office. I made my way through my emails and the messages from the groups I represent requesting advice, guidance or approval of spending. At 10am it was our weekly Opportunities meeting where the team meet to discuss what we have been up to and anything we can support each other with. We discussed the review we are working full steam ahead on to merge the previously known Faith, Identity, Belief and Charity societies under one umbrella to all be known as ‘societies’. In line with this change, we are reviewing all processes, forms and procedures in place to look at whether these are all as simple and easy as they should be for our students. I personally enjoy questioning historical processes to review whether they are the best they could be. Change is often good and in this case will only make things better and easier for our student-led societies.
The majority of the day saw me reviewing the awards presented at the end of year annual society’s ball and planning the event. I began by looking at criteria; what needed updating and adding new awards to provide even more recognition. The best thing about my job is being able to encourage and inspire students to ‘do more’ and ‘be more’ and then thank them and reward them for their efforts. These awards are a great opportunity to inspire students to work towards something bigger.
At the end of the day, I was met by a member of the team who is helping with the implementation of the National Societies Awards (NSA). The team is made up of a group of very competent students who have a similar passion to mine to provide more recognition for societies across the country. I was personally shocked to find out there was no national recognition for societies when I first came in to office. I would push to say it infuriated me to know sports have national awards ceremonies and national accredited schemes; whereas societies have nothing! I sat down with Emma, Public Relations Manager for ENACTUS society, and an eager member of the NSA team, to submit the project portfolio to construct the crowdfunding page we will be using to raise money for the event. Pleased with how we were selling the event to potential sponsors who will be exposed to the site, we submitted the proposal and headed home.
Lauren and I were excited to be invited to an evening awards ceremony this evening hosted by Bristol Post. The ceremony was held at the beautiful Marriot Hotel in the centre of Bristol and was put on to provide recognition for the great ‘green’ work taking place in Bristol. University of the West of England was shortlisted for an award in the Public Sector against University of Bristol and a local café. Unfortunately we didn’t win but I was overwhelmed to be invited to such a prestigious event and network with staff from the University including the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Helen Lloyd Wildman. As officers of The Students’ Union we are lucky to have regular meetings with the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor’s for the University but it was a great opportunity to meet in an informal setting.
Fridays are always a good day for me to catch up on emails and devote some time to work on the hundreds of ideas that run through my head during the week! I spent the day working through plans for the Refreshers Fair which takes place every year as a second chance for Sports and Societies to promote what they do to potential members. This year we are refreshing the event to give it a new name, theme and life to make sure it is the best event it can be as a great opportunity for Sports and Societies to gain more paid members.
The afternoon saw me filming for our upcoming Students’ Union meeting (formally known as AGM). The filming was for a short video explaining what we as officers have been up to or are planning on working on for the remainder of the year. It was agreed by the team that a video would be a much more fun and engaging way to demonstrate what we have been doing and are accountable for. This is probably the fifth or sixth time now I have been filmed in my role. The presidents especially are photographed and filmed regularly as the ‘face’ of The Students’ Union to show we are student facing, friendly and approachable and so that students can put a face to a name and feel more comfortable if they wish to approach us. At the end of the day, we work with students and for students and want students to feel welcome to come in and chat to us whenever they wish!
The clock turned 5pm and I was ready to head home!
What a weekend! This weekend saw Ready, Set, Cure take place within The Students’ Union buildings. The event was organised by the Cancer Research Society and brought together over 100 people from societies at UWE and students from University of Bristol for a 24 hour game-a-thon, all in aid of charity! I arrived around 7pm with the event in full swing! Students were engraved in their games; chatting and laughing about what was happening on their screens. It was amazing to see how our new building could be utilised with every socket, table, screen and desktop being used – the gamers were all organised and arranged so efficiently! There were fundraising buckets scattered around both buildings and rage jars in each area for individuals to donate if they got a bit too irate over their game!
This is the third year of such an event, and each year seems to get better, smoother and more effective! The engagement and reach of this event was outstanding. Jen and Tig, the main organisers, handled the whole organisation of the event brilliantly and should be proud for the hard work they put in and most definitely paid off.
I returned on Sunday to see off the event with the final countdown. Just before the event was about the close, Jen and Tig announced the grand total raised over the 24 hours; an amazing £1040! I made the final statement to those who remained telling everyone this is exactly why I love my job. This event set the standard for fundraising events, showed what societies could do when they put their heads together and truly produce something inspiring!