Wellbeing Officer Blog

Union General Meeting 15/03/2021 Welfare and Internationalisation Officer Report

BAME role model system discussed with Lisa Lau
Towards the start of February, I met with Lisa Lau the head of the BAME Staff network to discuss the BAME role model system that I have been trying to implement over the last year. We discussed making it as accommodating and easy to do for staff as possible and ended with a system where willing BAME members of staff can come forward to do a semi-structured interview where questions are released ahead of time. This interview will then be turned into an article highlighting the work and accomplishments that they have done along with advice for current BAME students. The article will be sent to the staff member to make sure they are okay with it being published. Additionally, articles will be published in sets of two at a minimum so staff don’t feel overwhelmed. Hopefully this will help to combat the BAME awarding gap as reports have shown that a lack of role models within academia is a key reason behind it.

PMDD Campaign planning
PMDD is Premenstrual dysphoric disorder which is an extreme form of PMS which affects around 5% of women. It can cause severe irritability, depression, or anxiety in the weeks leading up to a period as well as physical symptoms such as cramps, headaches, and joint or muscle pain. Myself and Aysha have taken a lead on this with a proposed social media takeover from the 5th to the 9th of April.

Disabled students meeting
This is something else that came from the UGM. In at home exams many courses have been giving students longer times in order to better deal with the hassle of completing a timed task from home as opposed to the controlled exam hall where conditions are equal. This has led to exams on different courses having a window of 8, 12, or even 24 hours for all students regardless of the differing circumstances to complete the task assigned. While this may work for some students those with disabilities or caring responsibilities who still require extra time are not being considered. The standard practice for those with disabilities is to extend the time by 50% plus a 15 minute rest break but in these circumstances disabled students are only being given an extra 15 minutes which isn’t fair. Myself, Mari, Christine (our disabled students officer) Fay and Matt Steele (head of ASK) got together to create an official complaint as well as plans to bring this discussion to relevant meetings like education committee and the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion group. Furthermore, we discussed the problems with closed book, timed exams as a whole, since they are not representative of any real world tasks and promote negative aspects of university life like cramming culture. While certain courses require it from their regulatory body in order to be able to award the degree at the end others do not need closed book exams. We discussed the possibility of campaigning the university to (where it can) remove closed book timed exams which Mari and myself will be heading up.

Shortlisting for the Student Experience and Support Officer
The student experience and support officer is a new role brought about by the residence life team to assist and help students through their time at university with mental health and academic support. Over 40 candidates applied and this was then trimmed down to 24 shortlisted applicants to be interviewed in March. The position as a whole is very exciting and it is nice to see the university take a proactive stance in trying to help the student mental health crisis that we currently find ourselves in.

Physiotherapy Student BAME Network
Myself and Mari were brought into a meeting with Claire Stapleton and Sioned Davies from the Physiotherapy department about creating a BAME student network within Physiotherapy. I wanted to bring attention to this as this was a refreshing take with university staff coming to us for advice on creating a student movement. The meeting was incredibly positive on a whole and I look forward to seeing the project develop in the future

Officer 360
Towards the start of February all staff were asked to fill in 360 reviews of the student officers and towards the end we all received our personalised feedback. I am happy to say that mine came out rather well and I gained some really useful feedback to take away for the next 4 months in particular; to try to take on board more positive feedback, to try to create connections within the university, to speak out more during meetings, and to go to others for ideas when I lack creativity. The full report is available here

Interviews for Student Experience and Support Officer
As mentioned in February the Student Experience and Support Officer positions were narrowed down to 24 candidates however, disappointingly, some of the stronger candidates were removed after the shortlisting process since the OneKeele programme doesn’t consider SU or KPA staff to be internal. Considering the nature of the position to be “Student Experience” I was rather annoyed to find that those who could most easily understand the student experience from the KPA and SU were turned away simply because Keele didn’t consider them to be internal. Nevertheless, the original 24 candidates were turned into 12 after a long day of interviews and we will soon have a student experience and support team.

Elections
The week beginning March 1st brought about another round of elections and campaigning that was held fully online due to the current pandemic. Eventually after weeks of hard work and putting themselves out there we were left with a new team for next year. Which you can see below.

While I am sad that I lost and will not get to bring about many of the changes that I wanted to, I am confident in next year's team to bring the SU back after what has been an incredibly difficult year.

Manifesto updates
My manifesto priorities are as follows:

1. Increase awareness of differing forms of mental health support with a particular focus on the role of online support options (Mental health support education)
2. Include more options for mental health support in the form of stress and anxiety workshops e.g. art and music therapy
3. Increased staff training on subjects like mental health support and sexual assault
4. Work with university staff to create a BAME role model system
5. Ensure nights out are safe and fun for all students (COVID-19 permitting)

The Updates I have towards them are:

1. The upcoming counsel culture campaign will bring more education towards counselling and other mental health services at Keele and beyond. Additionally the #GetKeeleTalking campaign shone light on the isolation that students were feeling as well as highlighting mental health issues
2. The changes wellbeing programme while not as successful as I would have wanted it to be is now up and running bringing another form of support to Keele Students.
3. Keele University is currently holding training on signposting and mental health towards staff however these sessions were booked up immediately. I will be looking to get more sessions held and to get more members of SU staff involved.
4. As you saw from February the BAME role model system is starting to take place. I am currently waiting to hear back from the BAME staff network in order to get BAME staff volunteers.
5. On the week commencing the 22nd of March I will be attending a series of workshops and lectures around students usage of alcohol and drugs in order to prepare for the inevitable spike in drug and alcohol misuse that will come with lockdown restrictions lifting. The event details can be found here

Involvement in Sabbatical Team Strategic aims
Our Strategic Aims are:

1. Anti racism - Combat Racism in all forms
2. Mental Health - To continually push for a wider range of mental health and wellbeing services and to ensure all students know about these services.
3. Accessibility - Ensure Keele is an accessible and inclusive place for all
4. Our role in the Climate Emergency - To reduce our carbon footprint and to empower our students to fight climate change
5. COVID-19 - To mitigate the negative impact that COVID-19 continues to have on our students

What I have done to work towards it:

1. On top of the work towards the BAME role model system, as a team we have been working on the #BeBetterDoBetter Campaign which since the last trustee meeting has released 5 new mythbusters, and three monthly updates
2. Mental health is at a core of the Welfare and Diversity Role so the majority of my work has been pushing for better mental health services or the awareness of such like; The Counsel Culture campaign, Changes Here4U wellbeing groups, Weekly Yoga Sessions, and the upcoming Start to success #TalkSuicide campaign
3. For accessibility I have been working closely with DDS and our Disabled students officer to bring about small but meaningful changes as well as working with Mari to try to change the way that disabled students exams are held.
4. One of the UN sustainability goals is good health and wellbeing so all of the points I have raised towards improving mental health apply here however additionally I have been attending Green Impact meetings with Charlotte and the rest of the team.
5. This is a hefty one, On top of improving provisions for disabled students in at home exams, I have been signposting students to the Hardship fund as well as bringing feedback to student services about issues with the application, fighting for rent rebates on the rent rebate task force and working with Mari to ensure safety net policies