Week Beginning 22nd March

This week has been quite hectic for me with regards to my personal studies; I have 4 assignments due in shortly after easter so have been spending a lot of time in the library!

On Tuesday some of you may have seen me having my legs waxed for charity; a painful event which raised over £120 for Haiti, organised by RAG.

Today I'm just off to take some of the SU Volounteer Awards posters out, and on Friday I'll be sitting on the Bullet Review Group.

Looking forward to the easter break!

This week...

The last two weeks have been relatively busy for me, both in terms of my Officer activities and personal studies....

Last Tuesday I attended an NUS Course Rep training event with two of our School Reps and VP Education; it was a really useful event, and something that in the future I'd hope more Reps would be attending - hopefully we can take experiences from that to help our own in-house Rep Training as well...

Wednesday's Exec Committee saw a great proposal from Emily Gough for a week of being out and about gathering student opinion on what we've been up to recently, and finding out essentially what students want now; similar to what I wanted to do at the beginning of the year but due to other initiatives looking at communications with students was scaled down a little...
On the Friday we had a meeting to discuss how this would work and the frameworks look really fun...

Also, I met Lord Young with regard to general student experience; the meeting was productive, and a report will be submitted from him to the Vice Chancellor about what we talked about; namely issues such as accommodation, contact time with academics and student involvement with many aspects of the Uni.

This Monday I attended Board of Trustees, which again had some interesting proposals, including amended sports and societies constitutions... I'll be giving a report back to Student Council on Thursday.

Yesterday (Tuesday) I attended a Communication Strategy Working Group meeting; we discussed how best to find out what our stakeholders need to know about the SU and how they could best find out that information, amongst other things.
The Comms Strat group is progressing at a slow, yet steadily productive pace; communications - particularly with regard to students - is something that we can't deal with quickly; we need to ensure that every detail and possibility is considered into the strategy, which hopefully will provide a good set of guidelines to improve communication in the future.

The last two weeks...

Over the last two weeks as many of you will know I've been out Campaigning for the position of Campaigns Officer in the 2010/2011 SU Elections; a brilliant experience...

I've met loads of new people and made good friends with many of the other candidates running alongside me, and am pleased to say I was elected by 590 votes to my opposing candidates 221.

I'm really looking forward to acting in this role next year, and can't wait to be out talking to students specifically on what they want to campaign for...

In the meantime though, I'll be back out there talking to students with regard to my position this year, taking part in a number of internal working groups pressing for particular improvements in the way we communicate with students, starting off with how we find out how they wish to interact with the SU.

Over the next few weeks, as a School Liaison Rep, me and the Law and Faculty Reps for Business and Law will be organising a kindof student/academic forum - a casual coffee-and-a-chat style meeting to bridge the massive time difference between Subject Committees and Faculty Board Meetings, which I can see being a great success which we can roll out across all faculties next year...

Hopefully this will enable students and Course Reps to have a more direct route of access to academics with issues or queries, and has been accepted as a positive move forward by members of Student Council.

Have a good week everyone! :)

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