Union Development & Democracy Officer Blog

Hi guys, here's a quick list of all the things I've been doing since the last UGM.

• Met with PVC International to highlight some of the issues international students are facing and how we can better support our students, and got him to support the SU and out Parent carer network on some initiatives.
• This turned into a second, broader meeting about the Universities student numbers and how we can better cater to an international markets needs.
• I then spoke with the Humanities and Social Science faculties, and gave a presentation at their Internationalisation and Partnerships meeting about how academics can do more to make education more accessible for students. This led to Natural Sciences also contacting me and asking me for work on Academic Misconduct levels, and also to present to them at their faculty EDI meeting.
• Met with Mondrem Group to discuss sustainability on campus. Mondrem Group own Nurture, a green charity located on campus. Together we can offer better volunteering opportunities for students who want to get more experience in this sector. We can also co-host events and find more things for students to do during  the day which are free, and fun. 
• On the topic of sustainability, I met with Alana Wheat from Green:Keele, and we discussed turning this years Green Week into a two week celebration to give it a bigger platform, with more opportunities to engage.
• Me and Tom are working on National Student Money Week, (mainly Tom)
• After a year and a half I finally secured a Transport Committee meeting! We discussed parking issues, and I got to raise many of your problems, and also spoke about FirstBus, who had a representative there. Many of the issues around scheduling should (hopefully) be fixed by Semester 2- which I have said is already unacceptable. 
• I've been liaising with the UCU a lot around collaboration, and have used our Bi-weekly meetings to mobilise all three staff unions on campus, as well as our Parent/Carer Network to push for changes regarding the Nursery on campus.
• Unfortunately, our CEO is leaving us in January, so much of my time has been spent on recruitment and talking to our Trustees
• I've also lead the effort to appoint two new Student Trustees, who will help form the Unions strategy at the highest level!
• Also, I had the opportunity to talk at an event for Officers in Birmingham and use my experiences to give support to other officers around the country.
• Lastly, I've been doing lots of work for the Upcoming General Election! If I'm late for this AGM, its because I'm at their manifesto summit in London! I collated responses from 283 students about what they want from political parties this election and fed back to the NUS. This has all been made into a manifesto, which will be pushed to every political party.