Referendum

Last week saw the most important change in the Students' Union since beginning my post. Myself and the other officers have been busy pulling apart the current structure of the SU and working hard to see how best we can fairly represent students from each site at UCA. After much thought, discussion, feedback, drafts and re-drafts, we arrived at the beginning of January with a proposal for a brand new constitution to present to all you students to pass by calling a referendum last week. 

To sum up the main change - currently there are 4 sabbatical officers elected across the 5 sites, with each officer responsible for multiple campuses. Unfortunately, this means that not every campus can be represented by a student officer who studied at their site. This doesn't mean a campus won't have officers working for them but sadly for Epsom this year, there is no officer based full-time on their site due to having 4 officers and 5 campuses. When taking into account that Epsom is the largest campus in terms of student numbers, they have sorely missed out this year from not having an officer who is based there and who understands the campus and its students. This is not fair representation. If the current structure was still in place for the coming elections, there would again be the possibility of one campus electing 3 officers, 1 from another campus, leaving 2 campuses without representation from their own students.

BUT - what we have proposed to you is for each campus to vote their own sabbatical officer to represent just the students from that site, based full time with them. We think this is vital for there to be a strong SU presence at each campus with officers who can effectively represent the student body. This means 5 officers, less travel expenses and better representation for you. 

We were pleased to see this proposal met with such strong support last week when we put this up for the student vote. What we needed to pass the constitution was for 2% of the student population to vote on this change and from that 2%, for over 50% to vote in favour of the change. What we in fact managed to achieve, was well over 10% of the student population taking part in the vote, with 98.7% of you in agreement to pass the new constitution. That's 717 students actively changing their Students' Union for the good. This is a great victory for us and for you students. Well done!

On a side note - alongside the referendum, I was also elected to represent UCA along with Lee Gavin at the NUS conference next month where we will be in a position to vote on national policies and to elect the National Students' Union Presidents and Vice Presidents. Thanks for your support!

Student Forum

I went along to the student forum last week - basically an open discussion organised by the University giving course reps the opportunity to raise any concerns be it academic or non academic issues, with most of the departments in the Uni being represented on the forum to answer these queries. With all of this packed into one hour there is rarely the opportunity for in-depth discussions and often students leave having only scratched the surface of one of the various concerns brought forward as a student rep. Having said this, all comments are noted and assigned staff/departments to take responsibility in taking action which is then communicated back to the next forum

I won't go into the specific course issues here but something that has come up repeatedly to me over the last few months is students demanding to know where their fees go, usually as a result of a course not delivering on all those great promises made on application. After putting this question to the last forum, the Uni has responded with this initial document which was presented to the forum for comments. To me however, this really isn't detailed or relevant enough to be of great use in answering the question raised. 

From this, I am now pushing the Uni to make this document more course specific to give you a better idea of what money goes into teaching hours on your course, facilities etc so you can have a better understanding of what you can expect to receive in education time, equipment and studio time over the year. This will enable you to keep check on whether your course delivers fully in these areas and whether you are actually getting what you are paying for in your education.

Open-Mic goes late night

SU Ents are trialling the popular open-mic nights on a Thursday this week to take advantage of the venue's late license on this night. This event has proved popular this year and has become a regular for many of you guys but unfortunately this has meant that you are often pushed for time as the venue is only allowed to open until 11pm on Wednesdays. The move means that we can keep it relaxed and hopefully have time for everyone to get up and perform. 

Right, so the deal this week is Thursday evening - anything goes - music, comedy, backflips... also, it's free before 11pm and you can go right up until 2pm

Clubs & Societies Update

This semester we are pleased to welcome the addition of some new clubs and societies alongside our existing activities available to you students. After many months of trials and failed attempts we are very pleased to say we have a weekly Yoga class every Tuesday from 5.30 in GO3. Also new this semester we have Drop Out Circus, Hip Hop Fusion Dancing and Cinema Club.

Remember, If you want to start a society come and see Anna in the offices and she will help you get this in motion.

Here's our full list of activities from the SU:

Football Mens 1st - Football Mens 2nd - Football Women’s 5-a-side - Netball - Badminton - Thai Boxing - Salsa - Hip Hop Fusion Dancing - Yoga - Christian Union - Circus Skills - Theatrical Society - Cinema Club

Haiti Fundraising Total

Just to announce - on the Farnham campus we have managed to raise £440 from the cake sales, raffle and music appeal that took place all last week. This is a great achievement and thanks to all of you who took part. 

From the other sites Rochester raised £41.05, Canterbury £5 and Maidstone an impressive £293. I just want to make a special mention to Zach and all of those in Maidstone who endured a chili eating competition to up their total! I was definitely happy to settle for cakes and light acoustic melodies over here. 

This means that across  the 5 sites the SU has raised £779. Thanks again guys

For those who took part in the raffle, the winners have been informed - congratulations to you. I am pleased to say that I won 4 bags of starbucks coffee. I assure you, this wasn't a fix - I was definitely in it for the free haircut...

UCASU LGBT Presents Drag Night

Well done to UCASU LGBT who put on their first night at the Union on Thursday. There was a great turn-out and some even better dress-ups. I know there are plenty of pictures from the night on the UCASU LGBT page so enjoy all those. Remember, if you're a society and want to put on an event, come and speak to us with your proposals.

Haiti Music Appeal

To run alongside our fundraising for this week, SU Entertainments are putting on a Live Acoustic Music night to raise further money in support of Haiti. Headlining will be one of our former students (and my old housemate) Emme Hastings. She's traveling down especially for the night, with support from our resident open mic compere Roland Bodenham. Come down on Friday to show your support and enjoy some drinks and live music. £1 entry (plus donations) 10:00pm - 1:00am

Volunteer Rep's Cake Sale for Haiti

A big thank-you to Aimee and Hannah who braved the freezing temperatures yesterday to sell cakes to add to the SU fundraising total for Haiti. Aimee our Women's Welfare Rep and Hannah our LGBT Rep have also been helping to sell tickets for the raffle - check out the post below for more details on this

Raffle Fundraiser

The SU are running a raffle all week to raise money for Haiti and we've managed to assemble a mighty list of prizes from local businesses in the area. May I make particularly mention to the party gift voucher worth £200 for you and 9 friends from Benefit Make-Up. I think this is the big one. Anyway, it's £1 a strip and we will be announcing the winners next week.

Pool Table

Right some good news to report - we have managed to get the pool table fixed and ready for use during the daytime and evenings after negotiations with catering for space and placement. I know from our survey comments off the back of the social and learning space campaign, this was something many of you specifically mentioned so hopefully this will please quite a few of you. It's also our first show of action as a result of the campaign, be it small but hopefully the start of bigger things to come over the next few months.

It's 50p-a-play and you can collect the cues from the SU offices during the daytime or behind the bar in evenings. 

February Entertainments

Here's the events planner for February from the Entertainments team. 

Enjoy!

UCA Hoodies

Just a reminder that we are in stock of UCA hoodies in grey, purple and green for £20. We are in discussion about releasing another colour as these proved popular last term and i'll let you know when this has been decided. Come find us in the offices to buy a hoodie

UCAn Change Social & Learning Space Campaign

Happy new year everyone. Just to say if you haven't done so already - there's still time to fill out our survey if you want to add your voice to the SU campaign for better social facilities. Just a quick background on this - we are pushing the Uni for investment in the canteen/SU venue as currently the space is in desperate need of a full refurbishment and general re-think. Firstly, we need your support and opinions to make this happen. Once we have the student voice, I can then present this to the Uni and campaign on your behalf. Come find me the offices to pick up your survey. Thank you!

Education & Welfare Officer

I thought I would kick this off with a quick introduction and a copy of my original manifesto from back in March 2009 when I ran for election to represent you students, taking the job in July. My name is Benjo and I was born 23 years ago in the land of Cornwall. I studied here from 2005 - 2009 and neither love nor hate marmite. 

Don't worry, this won't be a platform for emotional rants - strictly professional here I promise. I just thought it would be good to have a way of communicating to you guys all the events, activities, changes, referendums, elections and welfare events that are going on this year at the SU and to hopefully involve as many of you in this as we can. I know when I was student I never fully knew what went on in the SU other than a bar and a website that never quite worked. Hopefully I can try to keep you a bit more in the loop here, be it in gentle measures.