The last few weeks of January

Over the last few of weeks I've been so busy I've hardly had time to do anything else!
Thursday 21st saw me and VP Comms going round Chad Varah and Greestone; putting up a few new posters, but more importantly talking to a large number of students about the Union following my view to improving communication within the Union...
I also had a group of students come to me asking how to raise a particular issue, which I was more than happy to advise and assist with and believe that they plan to submit a motion to council.

Monday and Tuesday of the week of the 25th were particularly hectic for me, with now having a 7 hour day on the Monday - all my lectures for the week bar one! - and Tuesday with me being out filming for a documentary, followed by an informal yet productive meeting with my fellow Faculty Reps to discuss papers for Wednesday's meeting...

Wednesday was undoubtedly the most eventful day that week; with an intensly productive Exec Committee Meeting followed by an even more productive Faculty Board meeting...
Although not directly related to my Student Officer role and particularly of interest to B&L Faculty Students, the main points which we submitted in our report are shown below:

Action point A5 (2009-11-11)

-Business School course reps were contacted by Joe Hicks, however many failed to respond.

-This issue has been presented to Student Rep Exec. Committee and is being tackled.

This was an initiative I proposed to improve communication with students within my faculty before I was elected as a Student Officer; It is now being taken further and applied across every academic school in conjunction with an internet directory.

Staff/Student Communications

-A significant number of students have reported contacting academics, particularly through email, to be unreliable

-Proposition of a ‘good practice’ guide regarding timescale of email communications for academics.

This was received well by the board; explanations were given that sometimes when academics are away or ill, they do not have auto-messaging enabled to let students know, which is something being looked into...

Leniency during bad weather

-During the recent period of bad weather, many students had problems coming into University – particularly those spending time at home for Christmas – to hand in assignments.

-Proposition of a degree of leniency towards hand-in dates during extreme situations.

Again, the board agreed as many of the academics had been in similar situations; we were informed that deadlines can be met via post; I suggested that students needed to be more informed of this facility. 

Electronic submissions are also being considered.

Time-tabling issues

­-A number of students, particularly level 1 and 2, were unhappy about the scheduling of tests/exams at the start of the calendar year when they were otherwise not required to be in University for a significant amount of time.

-Proposition of more student-centred timetabling of such tests.

Academics were aware of this, and apparently timetabling is being looked at as a much bigger project, which hopefully will sort this out in the long term, however we were reminded that those weeks were still academic weeks and the timetables have to fit around other students, academics and room bookings.

Subject Committee Scheduling

-As senior reps, we feel that our Subject Committees should be held prior to Faculty Board meetings.

-This way, any issues not resolved in these meetings can be brought to Faculty Board.

-Proposition for Subject Committee meetings to be scheduled before Faculty Board Meetings, with enough time for Actions to be carried out.

This is being taken under consideration for next year, however we are taking steps to try and arrange more regular meetings (covered later in this post)

Venue Times

-It has been raised by the student body that increasingly frequently academics are allowing their tuition periods to continue past the ’ten-to’ deadline.

-This makes it difficult when students have one lecture/seminar following another which runs over.

-Proposition to remind Academics of these timing guidelines

Academics will be reminded of this policy; hopefully this will prevent future problems.

Academic Freedom Policy Statement - Regarding Reps

-Some academics appear offended, abrasive and are unhelpful when approached by both students and reps.

-The guidelines of this policy do not only apply to academics, but to students and reps as well.

-Proposition to remind academics of this policy’s relevance to students and reps, and of their duties as academic tutors in support of students.

This was accepted, and we were encouraged to (and inform students to) essentially stand up for ourselves; academics are there to give knowledge and sometimes take any queries as a personal attack, it should be stressed that students have full rights to talk to academics without receiving hostility. 

NSS

-08/09 - These results show particular weaknesses in certain courses and specific areas across the board (i.e. – Assessment Feedback)

-How are these issues to be tackled?

-09/10 - Action Plan not included in papers with NSS starting soon

-What is the Action Plan for the Business and Law Faculty?

These plans were delayed due to unforeseen circumstances... We were told those particular weaknesses are general across the whole University, and are something many faculties are striving to improve for the future.

Other Progressions:

Following on from the faculty board meeting, myself, James Spittlehouse and Kimberly Smith (Business/Law/Faculty, respectively) met with Heather Hughes, to discuss mainly NSS and communication...

It has been decided that a 'Rep Forum' for the Faculty will be held (more frequently than faculty and subject committees) for reps to discuss issues arising; eventually, we hope that academics will also come along, in a very informal 'coffee and a chat' scenario, to try and get issues sorted out as quickly as possible...

This was mentioned at the end of student council last week, and it has been suggested that our faculty run the initiative to see how it works, with a view to all faculties doing the same next year...

Hopefully, this will make communication within specific faculties much more comprehensive and resolutions much quicker...

Apologies for this blog post being a little belated, I have much more to say, but I'm conscious of this getting a little too long for comfort; expect an update of my activities soon!

-Joe

So far this week...

Yesterday we were out on a Strategy Planning Out-Day, which proved to be very successful with many ideas, suggestions and potential projects coming to light...

Today...
I've been planning what I'm currently calling the 'Student Out-Reach Week', in which I'll be spending a lot of time out and about round the Brayford Campus, going directly to students and finding out a little about how they feel about the Union, what they like about how we communicate and what they think can be improved.

Students are essentially our reason for existence, so I feel keeping up to date with what specifically they want from the Union is important, however so nothing is lost in translation keeping a finger on the evolving preferences of communication is essential to fully representing the student body.

Tomorrow...
A busy day for me tomorrow, with an Exec meeting, then an economics test, and then I'll be around photographing at the Housing Event at the Engine Shed organised by the Union.

It'll be a really great help to anyone looking for accommodation for the future, particularly for first years (like me!)  - there are many local accommodation agencies coming, so come for a chat and see what's on offer!

The rest of the week...
The rest of the week will be relatively quiet as far as meetings go, but I have a lot of organisation and work to do for the week after with regard to my Out-Reach project, so I'll be keeping busy!

I've also been thinking about my plans for next year, with the elections opening soon... I've been considering whether I want to run, and trying to establish out of the new Officer Structure where I'd best fit in...

Following on from what will have been a relatively short term as Student Officer this year, I'm now pretty sure I'll be running for Campaigns Officer, as I feel the position will lead on nicely from the groundwork around communication I've been looking into this year.

With Campaigns, I'd still be able to continue improving and looking further into communications, whilst being able to encourage and support students to manage their own projects and campaigns; I can see there being great scope for students interested in political campaigning right the way down to simply wanting to offer suggestions to the Union - in which I think with my experience so far I'd be capable of supporting them.

Keep an eye out when we hit elections for my manifesto, as I'm sure if I do decide to run I'll have thought of many more opportunities in which I could support and represent students!

Enjoy they time we have before semester B! :)
Big love,
-Joe

1st day Back...

I arrived back in Lincoln on Friday at around 1:45, and straight to the office it was! :)

After having a chat some some of the other officers about various developments that'd been going on over Christmas, I activated my shiny new staff account and began putting together a more specific plan of how I want to work towards improving communication...
Over the next few weeks, hopefully a lot of you will be seeing me around, in various roles!

englishinguiabasico.wordpress.com

Some of the suggestions that have come up so far are; more publication of facebook groups for schools so that all students with facebook can join, coffee meetings with students who want to chat about anything and posters to improve the rep system, with photos and contact details of reps - something I myself was looking into as a Faculty Rep.
I'll be trying to find out through what methods people actually want to be contacted by, and how they'd prefer to approach the Union, and I'm sure some of the suggestions above will prove to be very popular!

Welcome back everyone!

[Also, my new e-mail address is: jhicks@lincoln.ac.uk - email links on this page will be amended soon.]

Christmas!

I'm sat here on the night of Christmas, pounding out tunes from my new Gatecrashers Anthems CD, reading a book which in honesty displays a total lack of literary interest and if the fact it was published was astonishing enough, the lack of punctuation in dialogue makes me think this woman has lungs the size of small pillows... So, sod the book, lets write something :D

I've been a student officer for 2 and a bit weeks now, with one of them being at home, still - I've been up to a few things in the mean time...

The Parkour Society:

Before the Christmas break, I've been talking to Chris Farrell about going forward with the recently approved Parkour Society which - expecting it to be quite popular - has surprised even me with the level of interest from students; we have over 30 students' details on file, and about 20 more who have showed interest...

Hopefully, as soon as we get back after Christmas the Society's membership details will be set up on the main computer at SOAP, so you can go in and sign up. We plan on booking in a couple of training sessions, though the location, date and time are unconfirmed, about a month in advance to make sure everyone who has paid membership can go.

Travel (if required) will be supplied, and the cost of the session covered - these sessions are where most of the membership funds will go - and we can have a professionally led session to get those who haven't done Parkour before introduced to it.
I'll be on hand, with 2 other experienced students, as we are qualified to coach 5 members each which means we can definitely have everyone involved who wants to be!

Communication:

If you've read my first post, you'll know my manifesto comprises mainly of looking into the communication between the Union and Students across the board, and trying to identify and implement ways of improving this.

I've been thinking more about how I want to achieve this, and have given myself a bit of a 'mental action plan':
-Find out how students feel the Union communicated with them; if they have enough information of SU activites etc...
-Find out how Students communicate with the SU, or rather - how they would WANT to communicate with the SU
-Do a little research into the feasibility of  changing communication methods to what students want
-Put these changes to Exec. Committee/Student Council

Yes, it's a very brief plan and could be considered an obvious way forward to look at communication, but it's a plan non the less, involving potentially quite a lot of time, something we all have little of!

Have a good holiday everyone,
See you all in January!
-Joe

Joe Hicks: Student Officer

After being voted in by Student Council, I've been working on getting to grips with the workings of the Union, one of which being the creation of this blog to keep people up to date with what I've been up to.

So far I've been finding my way around the offices, talking to other Officers in more detail about their projects and how I feel what I want to achieve can fit in with their aims.

Coming in pretty much halfway through the year has given me the opportunity to jump in right at the deep end, with a team of equally enthusiastic Sabbatical and Student Officers.

More in depth reports of my activities will follow soon, but for now I'll leave you with the manifesto I presented to council...


Joe Hicks – Manifesto for Student Officer Position:

So far this year, I’ve come from being a new student to the University, to being involved with student representation at Course Rep, Business School Liaison Rep and Student Trustee levels, in which I believe I have succeeded in putting students opinions forward, and encouraging students to become more involved with the Student’s Union’s representation system.

I feel these experiences have given me a comprehensive understanding of the operations of the Student’s Union, and opportunities to put forward changes in the interest of students; with an officer position, I feel that I could continue to represent the student body with a more active role.

One of the major concerns which has arisen from my current representational roles is that of communication with students; something I will direct my efforts to improving given this position. I’m keen on taking the initiative with regard to helping Liaison Reps and Course Reps improve their contact with students; something I have begun to do within the Business School via a poster campaign with Reps’ photos and contact details, which has been received as a great suggestion both by the Faculty Board and other reps I have spoken to.

I’ve had other students suggesting communication could be improved; as a Student Officer, I feel that I would be able to concentrate on making this happen across the whole of the Student’s Union.

I have been involved in assisting the SU team over numerous events during the past few months; such as the Board of Trustee’s AGM, in which I chaired a number of motions submitted by students.

This is another aspect I wish to concentrate on maintaining and moving forward with should I be elected as Student Officer; I’m a confident, articulate speaker who’s very approachable and understanding, yet determined and tenacious when it comes to getting the best for students – attributes I will continue to employ in supporting the Student’s Union.

I feel as well as having my own ideas of how I could work for the benefits of the student body as an Officer, I’m very interested in assisting the other Officers in their projects and campaigns; for example, in my aims for improving communication with students across the board, I would liaise with the other officers support of their own projects, such as the Course Rep system in which I feel I could offer assistance and synergy. I also have interests within the Sports Societies’, Media Crew and RAG – other areas of the Union in where I could offer my skills.

I think I could also work well with the VP Communication and Media Officer in their operations, in an effort to further implement contact with students via different sources of media.

All in all, I believe I have a lot to offer the Officer team; I would love the opportunity to have a more dynamic role within the Student’s Union and be able to fully represent and work for students to the best of my abilities.