So, October celebrated World Mental Health Day, Cyber Security Awareness Month, Black History Month and many more wonderful campaigns. As your President, I make sure to engage with the various activities happening on campus- including getting involved in UWE Bristol’s World Mental Health Day (WMHD) pledge video. Having studied MSc Cyber Security, I made sure to attend several meetings with academics from CSCT and the Cyber Security Society, which discussed ways to raise cyber security awareness across the student community.

Black History Month 

We have had an amazing month celebrating Black History, with an intent to continue this celebration and break down the notion that Black History should only be celebrated for a month. I have been heavily involved in Black History Month this year and the organisation of its many events, supported by The Students’ Union and the University itself. It is encouraging to see the diversity of our student body celebrated across the three Bristol campuses and within the community. Our celebrations included some incredible events: ‘Poets in the City’, featuring the renowned poet, Vanessa Kisuule; ‘My Fro and Me’, an educative, empowering and inspiring natural hair event co-created and hosted by me; ‘Beyond Barriers’, an event discussing ways to tackle the Black students’ attainment gap; ‘Dark Room: The Unspoken Taboo’, an event discussing how to deal with mental health within the Black community; ‘Agents of Change’, a creative event- and many more. A more comprehensive BHM review report is to follow.

As part of Black History Month, we are celebrating student successes with the first ever Black Hall of Fame. If you would like to make a nomination, click here. 

If you would also like to learn about Black History Month, click here to watch a video of me discussing some of our exciting activity before the month began.

World Mental Health Day (WMHD) 

On 10 October, we celebrated World Mental Health Day!

Standing outside our largest cafeteria on Frenchay (One Zone), giving out stress balls and the SU’s mental health-branded reusable water bottles, whilst encouraging students to share their ways of de-stressing was inspiring. Some of the Presidents also supported WMHD at both the Glenside and Bower campuses.

UWE/SU Partnership Board 

My role as President comes with many more responsibilities than most can imagine. Last week, I co-chaired the UWE/SU Partnership Board alongside the Vice Chancellor, Steve West. This meeting discussed the UWE Bristol strategy, along with how The Students’ Union (SU) vision works within this. It was a productive meeting, working with some of the UWE Bristol Directorates to further our goals and manifestos.

As a charity, the SU is headed up by a trustee board- which I chair. In our first meeting in October, there were discussions around the SU’s Financial Audit report, the external governance review and some changes to our constitution based on the review. We also welcomed some new external trustees to join the board.

Some other key meetings that have been taking place this month include: the Academic Board meeting, the student mental health-based Bristol Operational Group meeting and the Sustainability Board.

Other things I have been working on: 

I’ve been supporting our new international students and helping them settle into university life. This includes working with the Global Lounge to organise shopping trips for international students, from Asian shopping trips, to African ones, and also working to promote the Conversation Café.

I have also been working with Careers and Enterprise to encourage international students to attend the Employers Fair. You can find out more here. 

Remember, I am here to represent the UWE Bristol student community. Please feel free to pop in to The Students' Union on Frenchay Campus to see me, or catch me at our satellite campuses during one of my pop-ups.

You can contact me via supresident@uwe.ac.uk and @TheSUPresident on Facebook and Twitter.