November Assembly Full Papers - Brunel Students€¦ · Zein Owfar, Leon Evans, Chelsea Crosson Smith, Sobi Kalan, Ashley Rowe, Chadley Richards, Jackson Smith Zion Zakari. Candidates

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AGENDA

Assembly Meeting

Meeting: 02

Date: Thursday 21st

November 2013

Venue: LC-063 Time 18.00 – 20.00 hours

1. Members Present and Apologies

2. Minutes of the previous meeting (7th

November 2013)

3. Matters Arising

4. Elections

5. Motions to revoke or amend the Constitution and Bye-Laws

6. Motions

7. Student officer reports

• SU President

• VP Academic Representation

• VP Student Activities

• VP Community Welfare

8. Standing Committee reports

• Sports Federation chair

• Societies Guild chair

• RAG Chair

• Media Association Chair

9. Working Group reports

• Equality and Diversity working group chair

• Environmental Strategy working group chair

• Student Volunteering working group chair

• Campaigns working group chair

• World Students working group chair

• Postgraduate Students working group chair

10. AOB

11. Date of next meeting - AUM 28th

November and Student Assembly 12th

December 2013.

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UBS STUDENT ASSEMBLY MINUTES

Student Assembly meeting 1

Date: 7th

November 2013 (postponed from 24th

October)

Venue: Council Chambers 18.00 to 20.00

Present:

Aanika Khan Senior Rep, Law School

Abigail Barton Assembly Community Member

Andrew Baker Assembly Community Member

Annemarie Fry Assembly Community Member

Ashley Roye-Banton Assembly Member School of Arts

Cam McKirdy VP Student Activities

Chadley Richards Media Assoc Chair

Chelsea Crosson-Smith

Assembly Member School of Health and Social

Care

Eloise Chiles Assembly Community Member

Grace Witherden Senior Rep Arts

Hannah Jones Sports Federation Chair

Jackson Smith Assembly Community Member

James Ward VP Community Welfare

Jemima Khalli Volunteer Group Chair

Joseph Hogan Assembly Community Member

Juhani Mantyranta World Students Chair

Katie Stewart Campaigns Chair

Katy Simitzi (Aikaterini Simitzi) Assembly Member School of Law

Kerri-Anne Prince Assembly Community Member

Lisa Boyles Assembly Community Member

Martin Zaranyika SU President (Chair)

Matt Cahill RAG Team Chair

Michael Darlow Assembly Community Member

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Muneer Rabah Assembly Community Member

Nicholas Crust Assembly Community Member

Nicholas Wonacott Assembly Community Member

Priya Bhardwaj Assembly Community Member

Rob Barnstone Assembly Community Member

Samuel Aylett Postgraduate Chair

Sobi Kalan Environmental Strat Group Chair

Sonia Bhangu Senior Rep HSSC

Zarar Ali Assembly Community Member

Zaryab Bijarani Senior Rep Business School

Zein Owfar VP Academic Representation

Zion Zakari Societies Guild Chair

Apologies Sent By:

Addam Reynolds

Senior Rep School of Informations Systems,

Computing and Maths

Anthony Chilvers Senior Rep Engineering and Design

Ben Olby-Clements Senior Rep School of Social Sciences

Robyn Fitzharris Equality and Diversity Chair

Absent/Not Signed in, no apologies:

Christina Ross Assembly Community Member

Leon Evans Assembly Member School of Social Sciences

Mark Cryer Senior Rep, School of Sports and Education

Marko Jenic Assembly Community Member

Mohammed Koiki Assembly Community Member

Sawsan Hamawandy Assembly Member Business School

Tevin Tom Assembly Community Member

Non Assembly Members and UBS Staff in attendance:

Craig Lithgow Chief Executive, UBS

George Coates Manager, Radio Brunel

Rebecca Davies Democratic Support Co-ordinator

Richard Walker Director of Membership Engagement

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Sarah Crowner Democratic Support Administrator

Meeting declared indicatively quorate by the Chair.

2. Minutes of the previous meeting

Members were invited to comment or query the minutes from May 2013 AUM. Voting was held and

the Minutes were declared accurate by an indicative vote.

3. Matters Arising

Governance Review

The Chief Executive of UBS invited Assembly members to take part in our Governance survey which

goes live w/c 11th

November. It will help us determine the way we do things as a Union and will give

us an indication of how students would like us to make decisions on their behalf.

To complete the survey, please go online to UBS Website Brunelstudents.com/makeachange or log

onto Brunelstudents.com and look for the “choose change icon”.

UBS also appealed for Student Volunteers to help promote the survey.

4. Elections

As this is the first Student Assembly of 2013/2014 a number of Elections were required for the

following positions:

a) Student Assembly Chair and Vice Chair

Nominations were invited by show of hands. DSC explained the role of Chair and Vice Chair to

Assembly members.

Chair Nominations: Abigail Barton

Abigail was asked to give a one minute speech as to why she should be elected and then she was

asked to leave the room while Assembly members voted.

Vote

For: 27

Against: 7

Abstain: 0

Abigail Barton was elected as Chair.

Vice Chair Nominations: Priya Bhardwaj

Priya was asked to give a one minute speech as to why she should be elected and then she was asked

to leave the room while Assembly members voted.

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Vote

For: 33

Against: 1

Abstain: 0

Priya Bhardwaj was elected as Vice Chair.

Please note indicative (as opposed to ballot papers) voting was used as there was only one candidate

per election.

Committee Elections

b) Election and Referenda Committee (3 posts)

DSC explained the role of Election and Referenda Committee members.

Assembly members invited to nominate themselves by a show of hands:

Candidates were:

James Ward, Katy Simitzi, Sonia Bhangu, Annika Khan.

Candidates offered the chance to give a one minute speech as to why members should vote for

them. Ballot papers then handed round to members, members asked to write candidate name and

order of preference to elect. Ballot papers collected for counting by DoME.

c) Complaints and Disciplinary Committee (8 posts)

DSC explained the role of Complaints and Disciplinary Committee members.


Candidates were:

Zein Owfar, Leon Evans, Chelsea Crosson Smith, Sobi Kalan, Ashley Rowe, Chadley Richards, Jackson

Smith

Zion Zakari.




d) Senate Committee Member (1 post)

DSC explained the role of Senate Committee members.


Candidates were:

Sam Aylett, Chadley Richards, Hannah Jones




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e) Ratification of Trustee Continuation.

CEO explained the role of Trustees in the Student Union. One of the external Trustees Matthew

Bruce has been with us three years, we have asked him to continue in his position and he is glad to

do so. We are asking Student Assembly to vote on his continuation for a further three years.

Maximum term of six years. A vote by show of hands was held.

Vote:

For: 36

Against: 0

Abstain:0

Passed unanimously.

5. Motions

A Motion to Amend Byelaw H 3.4.5.1

Matt Cahill spoke for the motion.

Members were invited to speak against the motion. No one spoke against.

Voting by show of hands:

Motion passes indicative.

B Motion to Change the Union Meetings Byelaws

Chair for the meeting was taken by Vice President Academic Representation so that SU President was

able to speak for the Motion.

Members were invited to speak against the motion. No one spoke against the motion.

Questions:

Q: What is the advantage of Student Assembly members being a normal representative at an

AUM?

A: In Student Assembly you are representing a group of people. In AUM you should be allowed

to just represent yourself, as every Student can attend.


Motion passes indicative

C Motion to Elect 6 specific RAG Committee positions.

Matt Cahill spoke for the motion.

Members were invited to speak against. No one spoke against.


Motion passes indicative

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D Motion to Elect Standing Committees in Term 3

VPAR took over as Chair for the meeting while SU President spoke for the motion.

Members invited to speak against. No one spoke against the motion.

Questions:

Q: Could you be more specific, what part of Term 3 would you do this, what with the exam

period taking three weeks and FACE week.

A: We are looking to do it straight after the exam period in FACE week.


Motion passed indicative

E Motion to Amend Bye Law H 3.3.8 and 3.3.9

George Coates - Radio Station Manager spoke for the Motion.

Questions:

Q: Why was this motion not in the original papers

A: Due to admin error.

Q: Would all decisions through this committee – or would you be looking to retain any control

as Radio Station Manager.

A: Control' is precisely the sort of phraseology which encourages a mindset of selfishness, and

perpetuates the idea of one person being able to efficiently run a form of media without

being inhibited by their own self interest.

So, while I would maintain the position, I would relinquish any sole responsibility of decision

making.

Q: If decisions are made by a committee then how can we hold the Chair accountable?

A: I view the role of chair as accountability or responsibility, not a position of power. I'm not

putting this motion forward to stifle any one person, just to ensure that everyone has a say in

the out put of the Media Association.

Chadley Richards spoke against the motion.

Point of clarification

Q: Are all Students allowed to vote for Media Association members during the election?

A: Yes

Members invited to speak in a second round, for and against the motion.

Cam Mckirdy spoke for the motion.

Jackson Smith spoke against the motion.

Point of clarification

Q: Was the media association voted for as widely as the Media Chair position?

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A: No, less candidates ran, less people voted.

Point of Clarification

Q: The elections were open to the same amount of students?

A: Yes

Summation speeches for and against.


For: 15

Against: 15

Abstain:3

Motion falls as this is not a 2 thirds majority.

F Change to Bye Law H 3.5 Student Representative Forum Committee

Vice President Academic Representation spoke for the motion.

Members invited to speak against the motion. No one spoke against.


Motion passed indicative.

G Motion to allow secure storage of Brunel University Target Shooting Club firearms on

campus.

Motion withdrawn by the proposer, statement read out by the SU President as follows:

“Following discussion with members of University management, positive steps have been made towards

achieving additional safe and secure storage of Brunel University Target Shooting Club's firearms. This will be

at an off campus location which is convenient for our use and our ability to train adequately for BUCs

competitions. Consequently, at the present time I am withdrawing the motion in support of firearms on

campus from the Student Assembly.

Thank you for your help on this Cam. You have been the only member of the UBS who has provided us with any

real help towards a positive outcome in the last few years. Without your support this issue would not have

made the positive steps that it has done recently and I have high hopes that this will provide a solution to our

problems in the coming months.”

H Motion to Eject Lazy Committee Members

Hannah Jones spoke for the motion.

Suggested Amendment – change the Motion title to read: Motion to eject Ineffective Committee

members. Amendment accepted by the proposer

Point of clarification.

Q: Three absences in a row or three during a term?

A.Three during a term.

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Members invited to speak against the motion. Lisa Boyles spoke against this motion.

Point of clarification/Questions

Q: How would you eject a lazy member?

A: If they don't attend 3 meetings without apologies then they will not be on the committee

anymore so in that way the committee members know and the chair will inform them and

the other committee members.

Q: How do you intend to monitor a lazy or ineffective member?

A: By keeping a record of who attends meetings.

Q: if committee member gets kicked out or will there be re-elections?

A: Yes

Q: Is this for Standing Committees or Working Groups or both.

A: Standing Committees only.

Q: Is this just about committee members attending the meetings?

A: Yes.

Summations given by members speaking for and against.


For: 17

Against: 8

Abstain: 10

Motion passes.

I Motion to Lobby the University to support the creation of, and to create volunteering

opportunities abroad.

Jemima Khalli spoke for the motion.

Questions:

Q: How about using charities like Childreach (instead of using the University to go through?).

A: I think that some students feel more comfortable going through the university for this, than

approaching an unknown organisation.

Q: What exactly is meant by “lobby the university”?

A: This refers to us going to the university and arguing the case.

Question:

Q: Do you feel that all volunteering opportunities within the UK have been exacerbated? Do

you think people are just going for the travel opportunities? Voluntourism?

A: Yes, aware of this but we wouldn’t allow that to happen, the working group will create a

guide/document to outline what constitutes voluntourism and how to tackle it.

Members were invited to speak against the motion. No one spoke against.


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Motion passed indicative

J UBS to sign the Time to Change Pledge

Kerry Prince gave a 2 minute speech for the motion (Kerri spoke on behalf of the proposer and

seconder who could not make the meeting).

Members invited to speak against. No one spoke against.

Voting by show of hands.


K Accommodation Steering Group

VPAR took over as Chair for the meeting while SU President spoke for this motion.

Members invited to speak against.

Rob Barnstone spoke against the motion

Questions/point of clarifications for SU President.

Q: You mentioned a three year freeze, deposits or accommodation costs?

A: This is for halls deposits at the moment.

Q: Do you want the steering group to be made up of Student Assembly members or other

students?

A: Ideally Student Assembly members, but any student can be involved.

Questions for Rob Barnstone

Q: What would you propose that the SU President does? Why wouldn’t you propose he deal

with it for the next three years?

A: Assembly members are here to ask Officers questions, not to give solutions.

Summations were given by the proposer and the opposition.



6. Student Officer Reports

Questions invited to Officers on their reports.

SU President

Q: What do you mean as known activist?

A: We invited students who take an active interest in the Union.

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Q: What is happening with regards to Cost cutter in the Atrium?

A It’s great that we've got a new shop where we can fit more students in. Perhaps we can we

get take out the smaller Cost Cutter in the Atrium to make space for something else. SU

President to bring further updates to Student Assembly.

Vote:

Report passes indicative.

VP Academic Representation

Point of Clarification

VPAR handed round additional document about a policy that he passed last week. Further

questions to be asked outside of Student Assembly.

Vote:


VP Student Activities

Q: Could you explain the Romeo and Juliet analogy in your report?

A: It was an anecdote about Freshers week, basically about making each event as fresh as if it

is the very first time we do it.

Vote:

Report passes indicative

VP Community Welfare

No questions;

Vote:


Standing Committee Reports

Sports Federation Chair

No questions

Vote:


Societies Guild Chair

No questions

Vote:


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RAG Chair

Q: How much have we raised so far?

A: Just over £5K

Vote


Media Association Chair Report

Verbal update – no report, questions allowed.

Q: Not many students running for the media association committee meetings, do you think you

could clarify why?

A: We normally elect our committee before term, it was difficult to sustain interest from

Summer. Freshers who showed an interest were concerned about running for elections without

knowing what they were about.

Q: There were a significant number of Le Nurbs that haven’t gone out. How many did we order,

what can we do next time to make sure there is not as much waste?

A: As we are a small team, we didn’t have enough time or volunteers to distribute as we would

have wanted to. The copies we printed for Freshers Fayre was 5000 on the advice of Tom Scott –

but we weren’t at Freshers Fayre early enough to distribute to all the Freshers. We will return to

our normal level of 2000 copies for the next edition.

Unable to vote on verbal report.

Working Group Reports

Equality and Diversity

Q: Will students be charged for the Dyslexia service?

A: (James answered on behalf of Robyn who was unable to make the meeting)

I can confirm that there will be some means testing. Still in talks with the University on

this.

Q: Apply for access for Learning – will the student get assistance to apply?

A: Yes

Vote:


Environmental Strategy

No questions

Vote:

Report passed indicative

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Student Volunteering Report

No questions

Vote:


Campaigns Chair Report

Q: About the Hillingdon Council – have you contacted Keith Burrows? He could be a good

person to contact.

A: Katie confirmed that she will check with her committee.

Vote:


World Students Chair

No questions

Vote:


Postgraduate Students Chair

No report this time, due to only recently being elected.

7. AOB

Q: What was the relevance of TXP presentation at the beginning and why did we spend such a

long time on this during the meeting?

A: We originally asked for a ten/fifteen minute report which did over run. The relevance is that

it will feed into the student Consultation process.

Q: Can drinks and refreshments should be provided at Student Assembly?

A: We can look at this, obviously there are budgetary implications.

Election Results read out by DoME.

Student Assembly Chair: Abigail Barton

Student Assembly Vice Chair: Priya Bhardwaj

Senate: Samuel Aylett

Elections and Referenda: Annika Khan, James Ward and Katy Simitzi

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Complaints and Disciplinary:

Zein Owfar

Leon Evans

Chelsea Crosson Smith

Sobi Kalan

Ashley Rowe

Chadley Richards

Jackson Smith

Zion Zakari

Date of next meeting Thursday 21st

November 2013.

Meeting Closed at 9.15pm

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REPORT

To: Student Assembly

Meeting: 02

From: Martin Zaranyika, UBS President

Date: 12 November 2013

Congratulations to all the members that were elected at our last Assembly. A special well done!!! to

both Abigail Barton and Priya Bhardwaj. I look forward to working with you both to ensure that the

discussions and decisions that are made by this body are communicated to the wider student body.

The Campus Incident

It is with great sadness to announce the tragic death of one of our members who appeared to have

taken his own life. The incident sparked the University’s major incident response which we were

involved in. Upon hearing the news, we held an emergency cabinet meeting. In the meeting we

decided to cancel student assembly as a number of people had been affected. We also met with

some of the student’s flatmates and offered any help where possible. Throughout the Vice-President

Community Welfare was in regular contact with Student Services. Days later, we were invited to the

Remembrance Service and I was asked to read a short piece.

Society and Citizenship Zone

On 28th

-29th

October I attended the Society and Citizenship Zone Conference. Each year NUS hold 5

Zone Conferences, the Zones work to enable in-depth and wide ranging research and discussion on

issues important to students. In order to carry out the work, Union members are given the

opportunity to run in the committee elections. There are 7 spaces for Higher Education members

and 2 spaces for Further Education members. 24 members entered the election and I am pleased to

announce that I was elected on to the Committee. It was also great to hear that the Vice-President

Student Activities was also elected in the Union Development Zone We set out within our strategic

plan to engage better with NUS and now with 3 officers holding national committee positions we are

well on the way to putting ourselves in a position to maximise the benefit of our contact and our

membership fee

Union’s Financial Position

The auditors have now completed their work and I will announce our year end position after I have

signed off the accounts at Trustee Board.

President/VC Campus Walks

At our last meeting with the Vice-Chancellor we agreed that both the Union and the University

should do more to engage with students. As a result I have asked the Vice-Chancellor to do regular

campus walk arounds with me. This will give students the opportunity to directly engage with both

of us. In addition, my Vice-Presidents and I have also started initial conversations around having

certain members of the University’s Executive board giving briefings at Annual Union Meetings.

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Trust Endowment Funds

During the Summer I agreed with the Director of Finance to have briefings before Finance

Committee meetings. At one of our briefings, I found that the University are currently holding £1.9

million in Trust Funds and are finding it very had to release the money due to the rigid requirements

from donors. I suggested that the Union should work with the University appealing to donors to

release the money. The money could go to projects that will help the entire student body. This

something we have started work on.

Ents Forum

This year a lot of changes have been made to Ents. A number of positives have been achieved as a

result. First year students will not know the difference, however some returning students have

voiced some concerns about the changes. As a result, I have asked the Ents Coordinator to set up the

Ents Forum. The first forum will be held on 21st November at 3pm. The purpose behind these

forums is to allow students to comment on what we are doing or suggest what we should do.

HR Briefings and Department Change

As President one of my duties is to (alongside the Chief Executive) manage staff. I felt that I did not

have the right level of information in order for me to discharge such a duty and as I result we have

set up weekly HR briefings.

In addition, we have changed the Projects Department to the Events Department. The major change

is that the Events Department will now work on planning and delivering varies Union events such

(SLTAs, Sports Fed Ball and Freshers Fare) throughout the year. This now means that department

managers who may not have any event planning experience will no longer have to do that job.

VP Recruitment

Since the last assembly, I chaired the student panel. On the 1st

November and 6th

November we

interviewed four candidates, (two internal and two external). After the interviews I drafted the

report which outlined the following:

- Who was on the panel,

- What questions were asked,

- What the panel thought of which candidate

- A ranking system

I presented the report to the Vice-Chancellor, Vice-Principal (International) Director of Finance, and

the Chair of Council. They thanked the panel members for their assistance.

Learning and Teaching Centre Brief

Having finished her initial round of surveying the possibility of having a new Learning and Teaching

Centre; the Library Services Director drafted a report covering the issues that had been discussed in

all the focus groups. The report was sent to the Vice-President Academic Representation and I, we

discussed it and came to the conclusion that what the student focus group had suggested had been

articulated well within the report.

Ready Programme Pilot/Personal Development Programme and PCC

The Union and University both have separate strategic plans. Within both plans

employability/personal development are key themes. Moving forward I believe that we need a much

more joined up approach in how we work together to achieve common aims.

- Union activity so far

We have started work on the first event ‘How to get a First’ and we have signed up over 100

students at the employability fair. I would like to thank the PDP committee for all their hard work so

far and I know they will deliver amazing work in term 2 and 3. In addition, as a cabinet we will

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hopefully be having an away in week 13 to work out how we can make personal development run

throughout the entire organisation.

- University activity so far (Ready Programme)

The first cohort of students are about to finish the programme and a lot of work has and will

continue to be put into gathering data to shape the structure for 2nd

cohort. At the board meeting

the Vice-President and I pushed for more student involved for term 2 and we will now start planning

exactly how that will be achieved.

Visit to Mayor’s Parlour

On 5th

November we visited the Mayor's Parlour, the visit gave us an insight into how Local

Government operates and the Mayor also took us on a trip down memory lane, showing us the rich

history of the Borough. We were also given a tour of the Council Chambers and our student trustee

Leon Evans and Brunel Sports Fed Chair Hannah Jones were given the chance to give their 60 second

'maiden speech' (that was the Mayoress's idea btw). At the end of the session, the Mayor opened up

the floor for questions and our Rag Chair Matt James Cahill asked whether we could hold our Annual

Union Meeting in the Chambers and the Mayor said yes!!! I will contact the Council to see if we can

get this arranged, so watch out for updates

Events

Brunel Sports Scholarship Programme Welcome Reception - The evening was great as we got to see

all the new sports scholars; we also got the opportunity to have a conference call with Mo Farah

who was in South Africa at the time.

Mayor’s Parlour - . Lastly, I would like to thank the Mayor and Mayoress for having us and I’d also

like to thank all of the students who attended #TeamBrunel

Good Deed Day – Massive WELL DONE to Brunel Volunteers and the Volunteer Chair

Fireworks Night – Massive WELL DONE to the University’s events department and all the student

volunteers

Campaigns

Governance Review

Shoebox Appeal

Training

Data Protection

Conferences

NUS Society and Citizenship Zone Conference

Meetings

- Vice-Chancellor

- Vice- Principal (International)

- Pro Vice-Chancellors

- Chief Operating Officer

- Dean of Students

- Good Campus Relations

- Teaching Quality Action Group

- Weekly Monday Morning and Friday Debriefs

- Regular Friday Officer catch ups/project planning

- Regular catch ups with Media Chair

- Regular catch ups with Campaigns Chair

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- PDP meetings

- Brunel Volunteers – Clubs and Societies volunteering hours

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REPORT


Meeting: 02

From: Vice President Academic Representation

Date: 12th

November 2013

Library 24/7

It is absolutely wonderful that we finally have 24/7 library opening hours here. I have spoken to

numerous students regarding how beneficial they are finding the opening hours. I am planning to do

a survey to gather information on how students have found the change in the opening hours. The

reason for this survey being that to collect data and information we can in turn use to lobby the

university.

Academic Tutoring

The paper was passed at the learning and teaching committee meeting. This is great news as the “I

Love PT” campaign data indicated that academic tutoring was identified to be what students wanted

from their personal tutors.

A pilot will be launched in January with the full implementation coming in the academic year

2014/2015. The Pro-Vice Chancellor of Quality Affairs and myself are currently planning how the

pilot in January will work.

Undergraduate Dissertation Clinic Week

This campaign is finally picking up pace. The update on it is that I am in the final stages of putting the

schedule together. Each day will be divided into three slots; 11-12pm, 12-12.30pm and 1-2pm. All

the workshops will be delivered in the Library seminar room. The reason for the location is that I

wanted to get some consistency and create familiarity on where students can access the workshops

throughout the week.

Student Charter

The Student Charter is something I took over from my predecessor and have been working on with

our Director of Membership Engagement, the Head of Registry and a university Quality & Standards

Officer.

The document is now finished and we have decided on the final draft. The document is attached to

my report. Please have a look and send me some feedback. My email address is

[email protected] ☺

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Student Reps.

I have been to talk to nearing all the HSCC course representatives. This is something I am planning to

do with all course representatives. The reason for this being that I want to relay the seriousness of

the role across to all representatives,

In terms of the Senior Representatives, I have got them a sit down dinner with the Dean of Students

to just have a chat. I believe the role of the Senior Representative to be one of great importance and

this year, thus the reason why I would essentially like them to meet more of the top university staff

members.

Academic Student Complaints

I have been helping a group of students with their academic appeal for the last 6-7 weeks. I was

disappointed at the School’s response to the complaint the students made. It took me to contact the

Dean of Students and make him aware of the issue for it to start being taken seriously.

I want to find out the process of how academic appeals are dealt within schools and with this

information to lobby university in actually ensuring that complaints made by students are taken

seriously and dealt with in an according timely fashion,

Zone Conference

On the 31st

of October to the 1st of November, I went to Manchester for the NUS Higher Education

Zone Conference, This was one of the most insightful and thought provoking NUS conferences I have

been to. There were some excellent workshops looking at informal learning spaces, learning

resources and many more. All the workshops seemed to be relevant to things that are happening

here at Brunel.

I was approached by NUS Vice President of Higher Education to write a blog on my academic

tutoring policy paper, I have accepted this opportunity, as I believe it will bring some more positive

attention to our students’ union.

ReThink Forum

I am happy to announce the first of many lunch time sessions of discussions between academics and

students kicked off on the 12th

of November. That particular discussion looked at Quality Contact

Time, what it is and how we can achieve it here at Brunel.

There are more opportunities to attend these discussions so please do contact me if you are

interested. Also, forgot to mention that they provide food ☺

Academic Societies

The VPSA and myself are exploring how we can increase the interaction between academic societies

and their respective departments.

Meetings

Cabinet

Social Policy

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Trustee Board and Sub-committees

Regular Catch Ups with Pro-Vice Chancellor and Vice Principal (Education)

Academic Services and Schools

Director of the Library

Head of Registry

Brunel Educational Excellence Centre Committee

Head of Exchange & Study Abroad Programmes

Acting Director of ASK

Education Strategy Committee

Head of Professional Development

Dean of Students

Vice Principal

Democratic Support Co-Ordinator

Student Charter Amendments –appendix to VPAR Report

Brunel University is made up of staff and students who live, study and work within a multicultural

community. We all support the right to study and participate in a community where equality is

promoted, diversity and inclusivity are valued, and where student representation and engagement

opportunities are valued as a vital contribution to continuous improvement in the quality of learning

and teaching.

The Brunel Student Charter summarises the way in which we work in a three-way partnership with

our students, staff and the Union of Brunel students to develop a high quality education experience,

generating employable and community-aware graduates who are responsible for themselves as

learners and as individuals.

Our community will develop and thrive as a result of all parties participating within it with dignity

and respect - respecting the right of others - within the law - to express opinions, to question and

test received wisdom, respecting the physical environment of the whole University and respecting

our local community, building positive mutually beneficial relationships with our neighbours.

2.1 The University is expected to:

1. Strive to provide high standards of teaching, academic support, advice, guidance and

professional support.

2. Encourage students to seek study support through pastoral and academic assistance and to

enable the development and progression of their studies from academic staff feedback.

3. Provide programmes of study and extra curricula activities which prepare students for a

work/life balance after their time at University.

4. Strive to provide excellent sporting and extra-curricula facilities that are prioritised for and

accessible to students.

5. Provide a secure and safe environment for work and study on campus.

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6. Respect the Union of Brunel Students in its position as the sole recognised voice of Brunel

students, ensuring that it works with and listens to the union in all decision making.

7. Ensure staff encourage student participation in the shaping of quality programmes, by

promoting and supporting UBS’ democratic election and the training of student

representatives, and engaging with the recognised student representatives through agreed

formal and informal channels.

8. Provide an easily accessible and inclusive campus and learning environment and clear and

transparent information on regulations, policies and costs in a timely manner.

9. Provide suitable learning resources and to ensure that relevant investment is made in our

learning resources, including teaching spaces, the Library and IT Services.

10. Provide, maintain and clearly identify official communications routes for students, ensuring

that clear and timely information is provided.

2.2 As a Brunel student you are expected to:

1. Take responsibility for your development as an independent learner by attending and

actively engaging in all the education activities your programme provides.

2. Ensure your School is made aware of any circumstances, such as illness or any other matter,

which might affect your attendance and participation in your studies.

3. Regularly check University-established channels of communication such as Brunel email

accounts, and Visual Learning Environment (e.g., Blackboard Learn) announcements.

4. Develop your understanding of academic and professional integrity in preparation for

employability.

5. Submit your assignments and/or assessed work on time and ensure the work is your own.

6. Contribute to the feedback opportunities presented, ensuring that the university experience

can be improved for both you and your successors.

7. Pay all fees and charges at the agreed time.

8. Engage with the appropriate student representation opportunities in a timely fashion,

enabling your views to positively influence the quality of learning and teaching.

9. Comply with the rules and regulations of the University and your programme of study.

2.3 The Students’ Union is expected to:

1. Be the independent, recognised voice of Brunel students acting for the benefit of Brunel

students at all times, ensuring that a sustainable, membership led Union thrives as a result.

2. Uphold its core values, working towards an equality of experience for its members and

ensuring that all students are aware of their rights and responsibilities.

23

3. To be a powerful lobbying organisation, campaigning on the issues that matter and relate to

students.

4. Drive student participation in quality enhancement activities, taking responsibility for the

election, development and support of Student representatives and ensuring the voice of

Brunel students is heard in the development of University plans and policies.

5. Provide guidance and support to students who face difficulties in their academic or personal

life in a confidential setting, free from undue influence of the university.

6. Develop and make available information and strategies for students to overcome or avoid

obstacles in their life at Brunel.

7. Assist students with academic and welfare issues. Offer information, advice or

representation to students through ARC.

8. Support and organise all student sports clubs and societies (from faith and political through

to hobbies and special interests), ensuring that Brunel students have the opportunity to

enhance their overall experience, and that participants in these groups receive personal and

professional development opportunities.

9. Engage and communicate with Brunel students, listening to their views and seeking to

understand their experiences in order to effectively represent and empower them to drive

positive change at institutional, local and national levels.

10. Fulfil its obligations as a democratic student-driven organisation, delivering fair and

transparent elections processes for all leadership positions, and providing an accessible

structure for students to influence and prioritise Union policy.

24

REPORT


Meeting: 02

From: Cam McKirdy - Vice President Student Activities

Date: 11/11/2013

___________________________________________________________________

RAG Week

This year the RAG chair decided to push RAG week forward to term one to increase engagement due

to less students having hand ins and exams in this term. So in week 5 we had RAG week, I helped

plan some of the events with the RAG chair with the aim of the events to not only raise money but

to raise awareness of RAG. The week in my opinion could have been more successful as some events

didn’t run or were not organised in time, we did however have a very successful line of coins

surpassing last year’s efforts and raising more than £400. I also managed to achieve one of my

manifesto points in delivering a RAG totalizer, although the totalizer was never launched on time

and is still sat in the RAG office waiting its unveiling. I think the RAG chairs work and effort during

this week should be commended, after only having a Committee for just over a week the events that

did run ran very well.

One on One Sessions with Clubs and Societies

My one to one sessions with Clubs have continued and I am now going to begin branching out and

meeting with societies, this will be enhanced further by my drop in sessions in which I will park

myself on the sofa in the union reception on a given day each week and be available to talk to any

clubs or society representatives that drop in. hopefully this will increase the relationship the Student

union has with its Clubs and Societies and I will be able to mould future projects and plans around

what I have gained during the sessions. It reiterates my Campaign in which I said it’s not about what

I want it’s what the students want so I shall be looking forward to speaking to students about what

they want so I can help push that.

Meetings with the Student Activities Chairs

I have continued to have regular meetings with The RAG chair and The Sports Federation chair,

working on the projects they are keen to get involved in and attending a social for the Sports

Federation Committee to bond and gain a good relationship with. The Sports Federation Chair has

been compiling information from clubs on the problems they are having and I have been working

with her to combat these issues. Lack of indoor and outdoor pitches and courts during key times for

students who want to train is a key issue and I will be looking to work with The Sports Federation

chair on delivering a campaign to combat this. The RAG chair and I have been discussing potential

25

projects such as a second RAG week and ways in which we can raise awareness of current charity

events such as children in need and Movember.

Projects to drive accessibility in sport

I recently met with the Equality and diversity chair and LGBT+ chair regarding my plan to create a

document/ contract for all sports teams to agree to working towards equal and accessible sport. We

proposed a launch of the scheme in the New Year and then branding it and promoting further during

Varsity. As one of our biggest sporting events of the year it would be fantastic to promote and

demonstrate our support for accessibility and inclusivity. I have also secured a session of Goalball

the blind football game for Give it ago week 10 to be run by local disability charity DASH. This will

hopefully raise more awareness of inclusive sport getting able bodied students potentially playing

with disabled students. if you don’t know what inclusive sport is, watch the Guinness advert, a bunch

of lads playing wheel chair basketball all bar one get out of the chairs at the end with one guy still in

his chair and they all go for a pint at the pub. Sport should be for everyone, let’s let everyone feel

involved.

Fixing the Radio

Despite not being in charge of the media remit it’s something I take a keen interest in and as I work

closely with the Student Activities team and have some minor experience with setting up online

radio I wanted to help get it up and running. So I and the student activities manager have been

working on fixing the radio, lots of the equipment was broken and needed re building and we still

have a few bits to set up before its fully working. We hope for a launch in early December and

hopefully the Radio Station Manager can recruit for shows at the start of the second term.

NUS Zone Conference

I spent 2 days of this month in Manchester at the NUS Union development Zone Conference which

looks at pushing forward student unions and creating policy for NUS to push that forward. I also ran

for Union Development committee and won and will be traveling to Manchester in early December

for my first official business.

Event Planning

I have begun planning 4 key events for the coming New Year. First of all, Tour, we spoke with two

companies about out 2014 Sports tour “I Love Tour” and “Sports Vest” after some deliberation with

the team and the sports fed committee we will be going to Croatia with I love tour, their package

although slightly expensive has a lot more included with a higher claims rate and a brand new

location. I have also met with the Ents manager to discuss the re naming and Re branding and then

the launch of what we called the social cab. I felt it needed a new name and perhaps an act to launch

it so we will be looking at a January launch for our society led entertainment evening. And finally

meetings are planned for the Sports Federation Ball and the brand new Society and RAG awards, so

hopefully I will be able to update you on that in my next report.

Meetings attended

- Catch up with the Chief Executive

- Catch up with Director of Membership Engagement

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- Fresher’s Fayre de brief with V.P the events team

- Meeting with the Vice chancellor

- Sport Development meeting with Brunel Sport, director of membership engagement and

Sports Federation chair

- Active Brunel meeting

- Officers Catch-up

- Cabinet

- A Variety of meetings with Clubs

- Meeting with student activities development coordinator on give it a go

27

REPORT


Meeting: 02

From: James Ward, VP Community Welfare

Date: Monday 11th

November 2013

NSS talk

On the 31st

October 2013, alongside the Chief Executive of the union, I attended a talk from the Bath

Pro Vice-Chancellor Student Experience on the NSS. Bath are among the top universities and

students unions for student experience last year and the purpose of the talk was to pass on the story

of their success. With the NSS looming over us, we need to ensure that we tighten up our lobbying

and make our successes clear to the university as a whole. The talk provided us with key

development areas and allows us to shape our lobbying activity to make positive changes for the

benefit of the Brunel students.

Our next step is to develop an action plan, alongside the Dean of Students. As part of our continual

efforts to improve and see things happen, we are looking into doing away days at various unions to

help us shape our activity and make changes in terms of governance and from an NSS perspective.

Subsequent meetings with the Dean of Students and Vice Chancellor will shape how we move

forward on the NSS, with us looking to include the reps (senior, school and course) within the NSS.

Community Development

We have been working on developing our community strategy by working with stakeholders to

change the perceptions of Brunel students in our local wards. Following the community project

launch, we have begun work on the reading scheme, developing links with a primary school to help

raise aspirations. The scheme will involve Brunel students volunteering in local schools helping

children to read and to develop their aspirations.

The Community Development Coordinator is also focusing on Civic Engagement, with the president

and I fronting this engagement strategy. We have already developed a relationship with the mayor

and his wife, having visited the mayor’s parlour. We were invited on a tour of the parlour and were

able to understand some of the historical significance of the borough, and the interaction of the

people. Furthermore, we gained a better understanding of local government, and the roles and

responsibilities of the councillors, the mayoral political positions and how a council meeting runs,

not too dissimilar from our own. We had the opportunity to take pictures with the mayor, sit in the

council chambers and get acquainted over cups of tea and confectionery. The visit provided us with

the opportunity to think about going to a council meeting and using that experience of governance

in our governance review. It was also a good opportunity for the mayor to understand what a

students’ union is and how we operate, as well as a good opportunity for us to build a better

28

relationship with the mayor. Getting involved with the community on that level underlines our

significance to the borough and underpins our intentions to create a better Hillingdon.

Planning is underway for a visit to the MP John Randall in parliament. Talks have opened over this

event and we look forward to developing a good relationship with our local MP. It is about time that

students in this borough were taken seriously and our issues made important in this constituency.

There are also plans to develop a similar relationship with our councillors to start investigating some

of the issues that affect students across the Brunel and Uxbridge South wards. This would then lead

into a Voter Registration and Vote Campaign, something which a student assembly member has

made us aware of, and will help to deliver. It is important that we encourage students to make a

change for the area that they reside in (albeit temporarily).

Volunteering

Good Deed Day

Tuesday 12th

November saw Good Deed Day, whereby a mass of students descended onto Uxbridge

to do a series of Good Deeds. This project was initiated by Brunel Volunteers and Uxbridge College,

and we supported the event. A number of clubs and societies attended and supported the event,

including American Football, Hindu Soc and Sikh soc. I was impressed with the commitment shown

by the volunteers to follow through with the events. Although I could not attend for long, the

Community Development Coordinator and the Volunteer Chair attended all day to support the

event. More things such as these are planned for the future, and I intend to make sure that the

union are involved with such projects again. At present, we have initially spoken about February for

a repeat event, as NUS have brought in a new student volunteering week for that time of year.

BV-UBS

Meetings are still ongoing with Brunel Volunteers and we have sat down to discuss the potential of

sports club and society volunteering hours and how we proceed. We are still in the process of

developing a process and further updates will be given where possible. At present, a group formed

of the Volunteer Chair, Community Development Coordinator and I meet with BV fortnightly to

discuss our progress. With the changes happening at the university, we will be looking to clarify our

relationship and perhaps introduce a partnership agreement.

Mental Health

During the summer, the ARC advisors underlined the need to take part in a more hands-on, specific

mental health training session, which would allow us to understand students with mental health

conditions better. Both I and the Equality and Diversity chair have a vested interest in Mental Health

and therefore attended this session. It was organised by MIND who helped us change the way we

think about Mental Health and student support. Because it was a close knit group, we were able to

do more activity and ask questions. It provided us with an opportunity to really think about what we

need to do, and why our approach needs to be general and open. We talked through some of the

conditions, spotting the signs and what those actually meant in terms of pursuing education. We

also had an opportunity to look at the national picture, in terms of stats and information on how

much we spend on mental health, why it is a topical issue and times where action may need to be

taken.

I am still working on ensuring that all tutors know where to signpost students, and I am currently in

the process of reviewing some of the documents that go out to students. There needs to be a

29

greater link between the schools and the support services, something which does not exist to any

great measure at present. I am in talks with the university about the best way forward on this, but it

is hoped that with the new college structure, there will be someone in place who will deal with

student support services. For example, a senior tutor may have pastoral care duties within their job

description, meaning that there would be a central point of contact for students who needed

support. Options are still being discussed at this point, and I will continue to keep working on this to

ensure that people know what services exist and where to go.

Let's Talk About...

I have been working on the Let’s Talk About Series with Well @ Brunel. At this point, we are working

on Let’s Talk About Sex, which has seen us increase our sexual health testing and plan for World

AIDS Day. Working with Terence Higgins Trust, we have introduced testing on some evenings and

the C-Card scheme across campus. We are supporting with a few events too, there are talks on Trans

issues and HIV later this month which we have booked the academy for and will be promoting

alongside our current activity.

Policy work

Over the last month, I have been involved in two consultations on various policies that the university

is looking to change. One has been the social media policy, to which we have provided effective

feedback. This has been done alongside the review of the complaints procedure.

Recruitment

Vice Principal

Alongside the president and other selected students, I represented the UBS on a recruitment panel

for the Vice Principal position. My role was helping to develop questions, as well as providing an

opinion on the candidates.

During the summer, I was invited by the Vice Chancellor to help recruit a new Vice Principal,

(Education and International). Alongside the Chief Operating Officer, I undertook a campus tour with

the candidates and we conversed along the way, speaking about the student experience and key

tensions between students and the university. We also spoke about their previous roles, and what

they understand of students’ unions across the country.

The successful candidate displayed an impressive amount of knowledge of Brunel and the issues that

we face moving forward, specifically from a Welfare and Student Experience perspective.

I was pleased to have the opportunity to support with the recruitment process and hope that we as

a union will be involved in as much senior university recruitment as possible in the future. This is

important, because we do not want people in student-facing posts who do not understand the

student view or what we do, something which we have seen a lot of in recent times.

Projects/Events Department

Additionally, I took part in a recruitment exercise to change the Projects Department to more of an

Events Department. I interviewed candidates for the Events Coordinator role, with the VP Student

Activities interviewing candidates for the assistant role.

30

Christmas Engagement Activity

I am currently in the process of developing a program of activity for the Christmas period, as we

currently do gift wrapping in InTu Uxbridge. This is something we are looking to do again. We are

also interested in having a choir sing at our Christmas market on 26th

November, to add some

atmosphere. It would be a good way for us to build links with another school and ensure that we

maintain our community development goals.

Saturday Open Day

The 26th

October saw Brunel University commit to its first Saturday open day. Over 2,500 visitors

came to Brunel on that day for the open day. The President, VP Academic Representation, World

Students Chair and I supported the day, with many future students and their families taking part in

our stalls and activity.

For the day, we ensured that Locos was opened earlier attracting potential students and their

families to the bar. I also made sure that the day would be communicated across the campus,

specifically because there were accommodation, library and campus tours which may have caused

extra distraction to students. On the day, our main measure of involvement was to ensure that we

provided enough information on the student life, student living and what Brunel has to offer on an

extra-curricular level. We ran an information stall, speaking to various parents and students,

ensuring that they knew themself or their child would be comfortable at Brunel. Another aspect of

the day was to deliver a presentation on the student experience at Brunel. This was something that

had been missing from previous open days, and gave us a chance to provide all the information at

one time or another. People also had the opportunity to ask questions and find out more.

It was a successful day for the university, and as NSS scores become even more pivotal in university

choice, it is important that we continue to promote the student experience at open days alongside

the university. The more this happens, the more students that come to Brunel, and this means more

funding for future students.

Environment

Work is continuing on the Green Impact program, as now we finalise and gather our evidence for the

workbook. All the staff members have been assigned areas to look at and develop. It is hoped that

within the next couple of weeks I will be carrying out a mini-audit and judging our standard so far.

The gold award is still very achievable, and we will continue to put our efforts into attaining that

award. We have also spoken about Litter in the lecture centre, and how we can stop the litter

accumulating, encouraging people to recycle.

OIA

The ARC manager, SU president and I met with Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA), who are

an external body who oversee the complaints process at universities across the UK. The OIA work

with the NUS, the QAA and HEFCE to ensure that all complaints are managed. They also spot the

trends within the complaints. The OIA will normally advise a university on what complaints keep

coming up and why they should make changes.

31

Our role within this process is to keep an eye on the complaints, and use that as a measure to lobby

the university, and hold them to account. We will now have access to the complaints that the

university receive, and be able to input into the process.

Incident on campus

On Thursday 24th

October, there was an incident on campus. A student fatally fell out of a sixth floor

window in the Bishops Complex at Brunel. Cabinet managed the unions response to this incident,

and made decisions to postpone student assembly and our promotional communications and to

inform students of the incident. From there, I chased up the services to ensure there was specific

support being given to students.

I attended a meeting shortly afterwards, discussing how incidents are managed and discovered that

there is a need for the union to be involved in emergency planning procedures. This means that the

union will be able to manage the responses in a more efficient manner. Although we managed the

incident well, we (union and university) have to work on our communications plan in times of crisis,

so I intend to meet with the university Head of Communications to discuss how we can do this. It is

worth noting that this applies to dealing with the press. We needed to have a universal response

that we could all buy in to, and solidifying those links will be essential in how we deal with any future

incidents of a similar nature.

I was impressed by the solace and compassion shown by our students, and how the incident was

dealt with by the university and the union.

National Activity

Since my last report, I have been to Macclesfield to chair the Finance and Resources Meeting of the

NUSSL board. By this time this report has been published, I will have been to Manchester for the

board meeting and away day dinner planning session.

Meetings attended

Town and Gown

Ready to Work Programme Board

Cabinet

BV Catch ups

Social Policy

Trustee Board and Sub-committees

Regular Catch Ups with Pro-Vice Chancellor and Vice Principal (Education)

Catch ups with the Head of Student Services

Catch Ups with the Deputy Chief Operating Officer

Meetings with the University Environment Team

Induction and Registration Review Group

Halls Committee Meetings

32

REPORT


Meeting: 02

From: Hannah Jones, Sports Federation Chair

Date: 10/11/13

Sports Federation

Since writing my last report, I have received responses from nearly all sport clubs regarding sport

development where upon a number of issues have been raised that I plan to discuss at the next

Sport Strategy meeting I attend which is due Friday 15th

November.

Once I have gathered all information from the Sports Clubs I will have a strong case to present to the

University regarding the importance of Sport and how we can improve each club and also will have a

lot of data regarding external bookings taking training times which can hopefully highlight to the

University the importance to put our Sports Clubs first over external booking.

I have hosted another Sports Federation Forum where upon the Clubs were informed of relevant

information and were reminded to attend.

I have been in contact with Mariana and the events team to set up a first meeting regarding Sports

Federation Ball, this meeting will be happening on Thursday 14th

November. Before and after this

meeting I shall discuss issues with my committee and will also be asking all Sport Clubs what they

want from this year’s Ball.

Sport Federation Committee

The committee and I have met up 3 times since being elected; we have discussed various topics,

where upon the committee where permitted to choose which clubs they will be responsible for.

- Hannah: Canoe & Kayaking, Equestrian, Fencing, Golf, Kung Fu, Sub Aqua, Target Shooting,

TROGS, Karate

- Rachel: Netball, Rounders, Rowing, Squash, Sailing

- Aaron: Climbing, Hour of Power, Karting, Sky Diving, Tennis

- Joe: Cricket (Men), Cricket (Women), Lacross, Rugby Union, Ultimate Frisbee

- Rebecca: Dance, Handball, Hockey, Swimming, Trampolining

- Mark: Athletics, Jitsu, Judo, MMA, Triathlon

- Gemma: Boxing, Football (Men), Football (Women), Futsal, Tae-kwon Do

33

- Michael: Basketball, Archery, Cheerleading, Table Tennis, Volleyball

- Nick: American Football, Badminton, Rugby League, Snow, Ten Pin

The committee and I have been relaying important information to all the clubs via email regarding

several different events and plans happening within the Union such as Give it a Go week, the

Governance review, the shoebox appeal and UBS Volunteer Chairs wrapping stations.

From our meetings we have discussed ways to promote Sport and to make more students aware of

it, we are currently in the process of setting up a twitter feed which will tweet information on the

fixtures and results, also each week myself and the committee will now have access to a list of the

fixtures that are happening every Wednesday so we can advertise that through social media. We are

also currently looking for a Sport camera person to take pictures of Sport fixtures, these photos can

be published online and also feature in leNurb. We’ve also asked all Sports Clubs to write a short

report on their fixtures/club which we are hoping will get featured in leNurb regularly.

Sports Clubs are now informed about what they need to do if they want to host an Academy night,

after meeting with Adam Philpot from UBS Ents, I was able to clarify and inform Sports Clubs of how

they can host a night. This is also a great way to raise awareness of a particular Sport and raise

money for their club.

Mayors Parlour

On Tuesday 5th

November myself and some of the SLT team as well as some students were invited to

the Mayors Parlour where upon we learnt about the history of Uxbridge and the Mayors duties and

had the chance to speak to the Mayor about our plans etc. A lovely tea was laid out for us and it was

a good afternoon. We also visited the council chambers where upon the Mayors’ wife asked me to

speak about something I am passionate about, so naturally I spoke about Sport.

Other

I would just like to say thank you to members of Student Assembly for passing my motion, the

motion was to ensure that standing committee members are committed to their role.

Future Plans

I intend to keep meeting up with my committee regularly to discuss matters regarding Sport such as

the outcome of meetings I attend, Sports federation ball and various events happening within the

Union.

To begin gathering data from Sports Clubs regarding Sports Federation Ball and what they would like

to see at the Ball this year. Also to revise all the awards and ensure the criteria of each award is

available to each club.

To work with those clubs who are in debt, to help and give ideas on ways they can get out of debt.

To work with Cam (VPSA) and my committee to plan and event or something of that sort to do with

inclusive Sport.

34

Meetings Attended

Sports Federation Committee meetings

James Hughes, Student Activities Development Coordinator, & Peter Brooks Student Activities

Assistant, to discuss Sports Federation Forum

Cam Mckirdy, Vice President of Student Activities, to catch up and go over plans for the year

Paul Dimmock, Director of Sport, Neil Young, Deputy Director of Sport, Cam Mckirdy, Vice President

of Student Activities, Richard Walker, Director of Membership Engagement, and Richard Wiltshire,

Student Activities Manager, for a Sports Development Meeting

Adam Philpot, Academy Manager, Nathan Carrington (Student Activities Assistant) and Cam

McKirdy, Vice President of Student Activities to discuss Sport Clubs hosting nights in Academy

35

REPORT


Meeting: 02

From: Zion Zakari, Societies Guild Chair

Date: Wednesday 16th

October 2013 (unchanged for November Assembly)

Elections/ Training

First of all, I am ecstatic to have been elected by Brunel Students as the Societies Guild Chair. I am

delighted and honoured to take on such a responsibility and relish the opportunity to make a

positive impact in the lives of Brunel Students through my role as the Societies Guild Chair.

Before the official Training residential for all the Student chairs, I took the initiative and met with the

previous Societies Guild Chair, Cam Mckirdy. In this meeting I gained good insight on what to expect

during my time on the role and good advice regarding my duties as the Societies Guild Chair.

The training residential was essential for me because it helped me to develop my goals for the year

and formulate how I would achieve them. I also learned more about how the Union works as a

collective and bonded very well with all the newly Elected officers and chairs.

Fresher’s week

Fresher’s week aims to welcome new students and give them a taste of all Brunel has to offer them

all jam packed into one week!

Overall I felt fresher’s week was a great success. During this time I took the opportunity to meet and

greet as many fresher’s as I could to introduce myself and explain my role as the Societies Guild

Chair. In Fresher’s Fayre I paused at as many society stalls as I could to introduce myself and

encourage and motivate all the society officers running the stalls.

Aims for the year

Increase Society Presence & Participation

36

I aim to achieve this by creating a strategic plan for the development of societies. This strategic plan

will not just focus on hosting one off events which do not benefit societies long term, but building a

foundation of excellence and consistently encouraging society officers in Forum meetings, to be

Innovative when setting their goals for the year and planning events.

The desired outcome of this initiative is for there to be an increase in the awareness of societies and

a 10% increase student participation in Societies this academic year compared to the last academic

year.

I will be working alongside Cam Mckirdy (VP Student Activities) and James Hughes (Development Co-

ordinator) to implement and monitor this.

To add to the aim of increasing the awareness of societies on campus, I will be creating a video

montage, which will show a compilation of what we offer students through our societies at Brunel.

This video will show short clips and pictures of societies in action. I have already mentioned this in

the first Guild meeting and I took note of the enthusiasm shown by the Society officers towards the

idea. I want this video to viewable first and foremost on the Brunel students website before

broadcasting it on any external websites such as YouTube to promote the use of the Union site.

Every year there is a Sports Federation Ball, which rewards Sports clubs at Brunel with awards for

their achievements and a ceremony at the end of the year. I believe it is not fair that societies

shouldn’t be rewarded and acknowledged for their efforts and achievements with such an event of

their own. Bearing this in mind, I will be working towards organising a ‘Societies Award Show’ which

will be held at the end of the academic year to celebrate societies achievements and to inspire newly

elected officers to aim even higher for the coming year.

Committee elections

I am very pleased that the Societies Guild Committee has been elected and I look forward to working

with the elected members towards helping societies achieve their goals for the year.

There are still 2 positions available for election and I will look to promote these 2 positions in the

next Societies Guild Committee meeting so that the posts can be filled.

Personal Quote

“I believe in giving more than I receive, so rest assured and know that in all things I set my hands

to do to help societies at Brunel, I will do with all my heart.”

- Zion Zakari- Societies Guild Chair 2013/14

37

REPORT


Meeting: 02

From: Matt Cahill, RAG Chair

Date: November 2013

RAG Week 2013

This was a very exciting week for RAG, we broke records & made a lot of new friends! In the process

of these engagements we successfully raised just over £3000! I will do a breakdown and report of

each days events:

Monday

Our charity fayre was cancelled due to a lack of contact from our charities. This was rather

disappointed as I really wanted Brunel to see the charities they selected and find out about all the

hard work they do. I look to re-attempt this fayre as soon as possible. The day was saved though by

the ever wonderful Netball club, who's consistent and persistent dedication to yet another awesome

Pink Night, raising yet another whopping amount for Breast Cancer charities!

Tuesday

Line of Coins was a very very successful event in many ways. Firstly it raised around £420 in donated

coins (£200 more than last year). Secondly, it stretched all the way from Costcutter to the road and

looped back on itself around 10 metres (smashing last years' record). Thirdly, it raised a lot of

awareness to RAG's activities & purpose, we received lots of positive feedback and people keen to

get involved with future events! Also thank you to Rob Macredie from the University for his

donation of £80, which took our total above £500, a very generous donation!

Wednesday

Our chill out area & smoothie stall did not go ahead as planned, I hold my hands up and admit that I

made a bad call on this. I saw the lack of traffic in the Atrium and called the event off on the basis

that there would be not enough interest. This became a bad call when the atrium later became very

busy due to the rain outside, but by then it was too late to set anything up - my bad!

38

Thursday

This was our Childreach Power Day. As I mentioned in my previous report, Brunel was chosen as

their "Power University" due to our great potential for sign-ups. On this day Childreach Staff and

RAG Committee came out in full force in the name of our Kilimanjaro Challenge & Big Build Nepal

mission - and to great effect! At the start of the day the Kilimanjaro team consisted of 8 sign-ups, by

7pm that evening, we hit an astonishing 19 sign-ups! A truly herculean effort from all that day is to

thank for this excellent increase of interest!

Friday

Today was the day of RAG's first ever Global. We hosted a traffic light party and had a fantastic time

representing RAG in academy and locos. I would like to thank the fantastic ladies from Dance Club

for their efforts in jelly shot sales & transfer tattoos - amazing work! Also a big well done to the Kung

Fu club for their 24 hour punching event which raised nearly £300!

Saturday & Sunday

This weekend was very tiring but also a great success. Trampolining Club, which I am proud to be

part of, successfully completed a 24 hour bounce! I took part in all 24 hours of this effort and

enjoyed every sleepy bounce of it! Congratulations also to the wonderful Tennis Club who

successfully set a Guinness World Record for the most consecutive touch tennis matches by one

player. James Ireland played 28 back to back 3 set matches to set the record, and achieved a very

impressive 24 wins! Heroic work from him!

Overall, I am extremely happy with how this wonderful week went. Again a massive thank you to all

of the clubs, societies & people that I have not managed to thank, you all put on an excellent show

and have helped RAG continue their ever growing levels of engagement!

Fireworks 2013

Just like last year RAG threw all hands on deck to support the University ran firework event. On the

whole, this was a very enjoyable and successful experience, we raised a bit of money and had a lot of

fun. However I am not impressed with how my team and I were treated both in the build up too the

event, and also on the night itself. Inconsistent and confusing lines of communication from the

organisers and general lack of care or courtesy to my team. We will always endeavour to help out at

events like these though, as a team we are more than happy to knuckle down and deliver!

Childreach International

As I mentioned previously, RAG Week's Childreach Power Day led to great increase in our Childreach

Projects. Further to the interest shown in that week itself, the following week saw a continued

interest too with Kili sign-ups going from 19 to a record breaking 25! After this we held a recruitment

day and final information meeting for our African Adventure, the ever brilliant Saviour of Brunel RAG

herself came to campus to help recruit for Kilimanjaro. She is interning at Childreach International's

London HQ, and was sent by them to help out on this day! The meeting was a great success and in

the 30 minutes that followed we gained a further 5 sign-ups. Putting us well on our way to becoming

the largest Kilimanjaro teams in our 5 year history of conquering this mountain EVER!

39

Our focus will now shift to getting more sign-ups to our Big Build Nepal trip. We will hold a

recruitment day and meeting to encourage sign-ups. The beautiful Volunteer chair has kindly agreed

to help promo the big build event, good considering it is the kind of international opportunity that

she was successfully mandated to lobby the university for so I hope it goes well!

A few weeks ago I attended the Childreach Student awards where Brunel RAG were nominated for

Most Supportive University. Unfortunately we did not win, unsurprisingly though, considering the

universities non existent support or endorsement of RAG activity. Brunel did however represent

strongly though, Lisa Boyles won 2 awards, one for the best fundraising event, and the other for

being the country’s highest student fundraiser - a massive congratulations to her!

Sports Federation Committee

I set about attending the sports federation meetings as a way of strengthening RAG's relationship

with our sporty brethren, something which I would like to thank the Sports Federation chair for

supporting and accepting. This can only lead to good things for Brunel RAG.

RAG & Society Awards Night

I have met with VPSA, the ProjEnts team & the events manager about the possibility and probability

of a RAG & Society awards night. Talks are ongoing.

Second RAG Week

I have also discussed with my Committee and the VPSA regarding a second RAG Week in this

academic year. The first one was such a success it would be a mistake not to attempt this. Currently

looking to have it early on in the second term.

Personal Quote

I honestly do not mean to mock or cause offence by this section, I saw the Societies Guild Chair

include this in his last report and really like the idea. The following quote is one of my own and really

is how I approach day to day tasks.

"If you smile at life, life will smile back" - Matt Cahill 2013

Meetings Attended

Vice President Student Activities - Various things

RAG Committee

ProjEnts

Sports Federation Committee

Events/Nightlife

James Hughes

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REPORT


Meeting: 02

From: Chadley Richards, Media Association Chair

Date: November 2013

Give a brief update on what you’ve been doing…..

• Give it a go Week, in week 10 the members of my committee and myself have been planning

a re-launch of student media as a collective taking into consideration all our ideas and

wants. We explore ways in which to promote to students and increase the volunteering

across student media as a whole.

• Plans have been made with the aid of Democratic support to fill the reaming committee

slots and plans have also been made to appoint the other voluntary roles within each

platform.

• The Mayor and Mayoress of Hillingdon have been contacted and are on board to do a

Christmas broadcast and feature in the newspaper. This will be included in our bumper

Christmas issue of Le Nurb set to arrive on campus the start of December.

• University 50th

Anniversary Project: A Project I will be taking on with the aid of my

committee and interested volunteers to delve into archives of some of the Union’s activities.

So looking through the archives of student media we have as well as speaking to some of the

older citizens of Brunel to get their accounts of pass events and personalities that have

graced Brunel. This project will also look at the important and controversial decisions made

that has shaped Brunel, the famous faces that have visited, as well as reflecting on the

changing attitudes of Brunel and its demographic.

Give a list of internal/external meetings attended

• Several Committee meeting to plan Week 10

• Meeting with Kirsty Capes (Le Nurb Editor) and Jo Borough (Chief Designer): Bumper Edition

of Le Nurb and design workshop

• Meeting with George Coates (Radio Brunel Station Manager): Discussing radio shows, format

and recruitment.

• Meeting with the Mayor to plan the photo-shoot for Le Nurb

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• Meeting with Martin: Regular Catch up, Promotion of the NUS student survey and Shoebox

appeal.

42

REPORT


Meeting: 02

From: Robyn Fitzharris, Equality and Diversity Chair

Date: Tuesday 12th November 2013

General

Alongside working with the separate equality strand groups I have been working on the following -

- Communications

I have now set up and established an Equality and Diversity Chair Blog, this is partly due to the fact

articles are deleted from the UBS website after a certain amount of time. I intend to write blogs and

encourage members of working groups to do the same. I also plan to establish a Twitter account.

- Accessibility to Sports Clubs and Societies

This month I had a meeting with VPSA to discuss sports inclusivity. We will be looking at

implementing a charter for sports clubs to sign, which will be included in the Clubs and Societies

Evaluation Scheme (CASES). We will also be looking at how to implement this with societies.

Hopefully, I will soon be able to meet with the Sports Federation Chair and Committee and the

Society Guild Chair and Committee to agree on an action plan to take this forward. My current aim is

to launch the charter/campaign at Varsity.

- Personal Tutors

Unfortunately I have been unable to start working towards Personal Tutors this month, mainly due

to a lack of time. I have however talked through the idea with VPCW and I’m glad to hear that the

pastoral side of personal tutoring is being taken seriously during TxP. I plan to talk with my Equality

and Diversity committee to gather together some recommendations to present to the Dean of

Students regarding this issue.

- Personal Development and Support

Through my role, I have established working groups with various committee members. I hope that

through these roles they will be able to develop transferrable skills and I intend to support them

every step of the way. I will be looking to create handovers/advice guides for people in future.

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- Equality and Diversity Committee

I’m pleased to say that the Equality and Diversity committee is now mostly formed with the

members consisting of the chair and vice chair from each of the working groups. Now that it’s

formed I will be working with them to create a new Equality and Diversity policy and

implement/create guidelines for the accessibility to sports clubs and societies.

I am continuing to work with the World Students Chair to create an InterFaith forum and Cultural

Societies forum to ensure representation of BME and faith students. This is something I hope to have

established by the new year.

Disability and Dyslexia

After the first meeting, I asked members to approach me if they would like to run for committee. I’m

pleased to say all four suggested roles were filled quickly, meaning the group now has a Chair, Vice

Chair, Secretary and Events/Marketing Officer.

Following the meeting, I have spoken with the Operations Manager of the Disability and Dyslexia

Service. The ideas for a Christmas Social and Disability in the Workplace event were well received

and the DDS are happy to support them.

The ‘Disability in the Workplace’ event will be running as part of the UBS Personal Development

Programme. I want to ensure the event reaches out to as many people as possible and I look forward

to continuing to work with the Personal Development Team in implementing the event. The event

will be taking place in February.

Following recommendations, the Disability and Dyslexia Service will now be producing and

circulating a new document to students. The document will outline the processes a student can take

if they do not feel their lectures/lecture notes are accessible to them. A lot of work already goes into

making lectures/lecture notes as accessible as possible, however it can be slow progress. This way I

hope that students who do face any issues can at least have clear guidance on the support available

to them.

I will also be making contact with the PCC to discuss careers advisors knowledge of disability rights in

the workplace and advice available for disabled students going on placement. I will update further in

my next report.

I attended the Hillingdon Assembly for People with Disabilities steering group on the 9th November.

It was great to be able to speak to members of the local community about issues surrounding

disability and establish a connection with Brunel. Myself and members of the Working Group will be

attending the next Hillingdon Disability Forum in February, I will be liaising further with the steering

group to see what role Brunel students can play in future.

Gender

I have established a Gender Equality Working Group, I was hoping to be able to run an initial

meeting to discuss campaigns, however due to a large number of members not being able to agree

on a time, I alternatively set up an online survey. The survey was well received with over 40 students

responding in just a few days. The survey made clear that the issues students would like to focus on

over the next year are -

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- Sexual Harassment

- Consent

- Domestic Violence

- Women in Leadership

Therefore, I will be picking up on a Domestic Violence campaign which was started at the end of the

last academic year. I will also be liaising with the chairs of the GEWG and Feminism Society how best

we can run and implement a sexual harassment/consent campaign. From current discussions, we are

looking at running an awareness week in term two.

The GEWG now has a Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Events/Marketing Officer. We will soon be

having a meeting as a whole working group.

I have met with the President and Vice-President Community Welfare to discuss Women in

Leadership. The current plan is to run a workshop on leadership as part of the Personal Development

Programme in February. We will also be looking at different ways we can empower women to stand

in the spring elections.

Mental Health

On the 29th of November, the Vice President Community Welfare and I joined members of the ARC

team for some Mind training on supporting and advising students with mental health concerns or

conditions. I enjoyed the training and found it useful, I hope to see more union staff undertaking

similar training in future.

Also on the 29th, I held the first Mental Health Working Group meeting. The main part of the

meeting was spent discussing issues that surround mental health, mainly discrimination and stigma.

We then started to look at campaign ideas, at present the only decision made is that the campaign

will be entitled ‘Open Minds’. Following the meeting, the working group now has a chair, vice chair

and two events officers. The committee and I will soon be meeting with the Vice President

Community Welfare to discuss our plans for the year.

I’m very pleased that at the last student assembly the ‘Time to Change’ motion was passed. I have

made contact with the director of Hillingdon Mind and will be investigating how we can collaborate

in the future.

The Mental Health Peer Support Student Drop In continues to run every Tuesday in the Chaplaincy.

Due to request the Drop In is now 2 hours long, running from 4:30-6:30pm. I have been advertising

the group on my Facebook account and am pleased to say there has be an increased uptake. I will be

working with the Chaplaincy to establish the group for future years to come and look at giving

regular members some basic listening skills training.

Sexuality/Gender Reassignment

Since forming, the LGBT+ working group committee have been very active and I am confident they

will have a great year. The first event they are working towards is for Transgender Awareness Week.

During the week they will be hosting a film screening for Transgender Remembrance Day and

supporting a University ‘Gender Agenda’ talk. This will be advertised through posters, social media

and stalls in the Atrium.

45

On the 28th November the working group will be working with Terrance Higgins Trust, the Vice

President Community Welfare, and Student Services to run a World Aids Day event.

The current plan includes:

-Ribbon Selling

-Cake sale

-‘Wear it Red’

-Sexual Health Testing

-C-Card sign up

-‘My Life with HIV’ Talk

The group would also like to focus on the fact that although HIV is a prevalent issue in the LGBT

community it is also widespread throughout society.

Looking forward to the rest of the year, the group will also be working on a Domestic Violence

campaign and have big plans for LGBT history month.

Unfortunately there have been reports of homophobia at the recent Brunel fireworks event.

Although the incident was reported stewards failed to act and students were left to feel

uncomfortable. I will be discussing with the University events department on how best to train

stewards in future to deal with these sorts of issues.

Other

If you have any questions or would like to be involved in any of the working groups please feel free

to email me at [email protected] or search ‘Brunel Equality Chair’ on Facebook.

46

REPORT


Meeting: 02

From: Sobi Kalan, Environmental Chair

Date: Tuesday 12th November 2013

Subway Waste Plan

Subway is undeniably a successful catering sector on campus. This popular catering can however

become more sustainable by reducing the volume of packaging plastic bags. Although Subway Plastic

bags are 100% recyclable, reduction is more desirable. Goal is to reduce the unnecessary waste at

the on-campus subway, which in turn will increase the awareness unnecessary packaging we as

students create. Solution is to liaise Sodexo and Subway crew to facilitate use of trays instead of

plastic bags for the costumers who eat in and paper bags for take away (minor incurred cost). This is

already applied to other subways around the world. Also other major chains now use trays for eating

in and use paper bags instead of plastic.

Double-Sided Printing

Personnel in charge of printing services are contacted. Negotiation is being done and updates are

submitted to EWG regularly.

Green Week

Green Week is being discussed in EWG. There are innovative, engaging projects being planned. This

ranges from social activities to talks and workshops. These includes, Interactive workshops run by

NUS as well as external bodies such as Borough schools to perform on campus during the week. This

will increase Union’s engagement with community.

Environmental Working Group Committee

I decided to form my committee in week 4 because I wanted students to nominate

themselves, not only by passion and interest, but through the acknowledgement of their own

time management. A EWG committee meeting was held on the 16th October in which I

formed my committee by running a mini election. I decided to form my committee this way,

simply because democracy is of our core values. Overall, the meeting went really well and I

also informed the attendees of the EWG main goals.

Goals and Plans

My main goal this year is to make the Environmental aspect of union more active, and

consequently improve student engagement. This will be done through workshops and

training sessions which will be discussed shortly with the EWG committee.

Other goals are decreasing the cost of double-sided printing, running a Fix it off mini website

and engaging with Environmental volunteering companies.

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Chairs Residential Training

I really liked the team building activities. However, I think it could be a lot better if we had

more time in Question and Answer session. Session we had was short and didn’t cover all of

our questions.

Election and Referenda Committee member

I was a member of the ERC for the Autumn 2013 election, this gave me a clear

understanding of how elections are being run and supervised.

Community Engagement Project

At the ‘Community Engagement Project’ launch, I talked to the Mayor and Mayoress of

London Borough of Hillingdon. I successfully grabbed their attention to projects we can do

for the benefit of Brunel Students, as well as residents of the borough. This will be discussed

further in the EWG committee and plans will be forwarded to LBH accordingly. This was followed by

discussions in Mayor Parlour and future meeting with useful contacts was requested.

Green Impact

I attended the ‘Green Impact’ meeting; we discussed what has been done previously as well

as going through some of the criteria’s and examples. Our aim this year is to achieve the

Gold Award and all departments in union were asked to oversee their activities and impacts. EWG is

actively reviewing criteria’s and putting action into them.

Carbon Academy Training

Last year, I attended the ‘Carbon Academy Training’ and learnt a lot about carbon

emissions, especially how small things like changing light bulbs affect the environmental

impact. After taking a test and achieving above 90%, I was awarded with Special demerit

Certificate. I am planning to provide this training for EWG committee as well as an open workshop in

Green Week.

Fresher’s Week

During ‘Freshers’ Fayre’ and other events during the week I talked to a number of freshers

and met really enthusiastic people. I also attended the ‘School of Engineering and Design’

social in which I met highly motivated freshers and returners. I am still in touch with them

and we are currently planning to stop the unnecessarily printings happening in their school.

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REPORT


Meeting: 02

From: Jemima Khalli, Volunteering Chair

Date: 21st

November 2013

• UBS Volunteers Christmas Wrap Up & Christmas Cracker Talent Show

This month saw the launch of the UBS Christmas Wrap Up Station, which saw a big response from

the student body wishing to volunteer. The project is the collection of non-perishable foods, books,

blankets and anything else deemed appropriate for the elderly. We are aiming for a total of 80 gifts

to give to the residence of Orwell and Bridge House. UBS Volunteers Marketing and PR Chair created

posters that have been sent to the homes in order to promote this fantastic cause alongside the

mini-talent show, which will take place on the 10th

of December. On the first day of the Wrap Up

Station (11th

November 2013) we focused on the promotion of the event.

UBS Volunteers are currently in the process of recruiting acts to take part in the show. We are

looking to engage between 5-10 students who will perform on the day. They will be taken to the

venue and picked up at the end. With an endless supply of cakes and mince pies it is looking to be a

very good day indeed. It is extremely imperative as a union to remain involved in the local

community and volunteering is a key part in doing so.

• Good Deed Day 2013

On the topic of strong engagement in the local community it is worth noting the incredible success

of Good Deed Day 2013. With over 150 students from both Brunel University and Uxbridge students

joining forcing in completing a significant number of good deeds; whether it be cleaning shop

windows (and receiving a free milkshake for doing so!), bag packing in Tesco, leafleting for Age UK,

performing outside the pavilions, litter picking or simple spontaneous deeds such as helping a

person with their shopping or making them a cup of tea. As a team leader, it was really encouraging

to hear the positive response from the community. One elderly woman said, “today was a real

pleasure.” While another gentleman in Tesco’s told me it was lovely to see so many smiles during his

day. It was very refreshing to see Brunel Students integrate with Uxbridge college students to

accomplish the very best they could during the day.

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The Mayor and Mayoress was sure to congratulate all those involved which was a fantastic end to

what could only be described as a truly successful day. They are now talks of having Good Deed Day

implemented annual in the Brunel calendar.

• Be Brunel

Myself, the VPCW and the VPSA alongside the Chief Executive of Community Development had a

meeting to discuss the plans of Be Brunel 2014. A date is set and we are soon to be looking for

project managers so please keep your eyes peeled. A talk of the project will be given at the club and

societies forum.

Meetings Attended:

• Meeting with VPCW

• Meeting with Brunel Volunteers (Team leaders for Good Deed day present)

• Meeting with Volunteer Working Group

• Meeting with VPCW/ VPSA/ Community development re: Be Brunel

• Meeting with volunteers taking part in UBS Wrap Up project

50

REPORT


Meeting: 02

From: Katie Stewart, Campaigns Chair

Date: 21st

November 2013

Although my working group open day was not as busy as I had anticipated, through social media

promotion I still managed to gain much interest. I held my first meeting during week 5 and

established the roles of the working group. These include Aaron Lowman as Vice Chair, Erin O’Neill

as secretary and Shylene Ncube in charge of Marketing and PR.

I outlined my 3 campaign ideas to the group stating what I wanted my outcomes to be. These were

the Road Safety Campaign, the Nursery on Campus and the First Aid Campaign. After this I explained

the type of things my group would have to do such as using social media, researching and talking to

students.

As I have 4 campaigns running simultaneously (the 4th

being the shoebox appeal) I decided to divide

my group into 4 with a delegated campaign leaders. This way I could easily manage the different

campaigns and ensure that all members of the group will have tasks and remain engaged with the

group. My most pressing campaign at the moment is the Shoebox Appeal, lead by Maliaka Oyortey

and assisted by Grace Witherden.

So far we have devised ways to make this year’s shoebox appeal the most successful year yet. I have

arranged for stalls to be set up from Tuesday to Thursday of week 8 for two hours a day with the

help of my working group. Our aim is to wrap as many shoeboxes as possible and distribute them to

students. We have also contacted sports clubs and societies asking them to donate a shoebox in

exchange for their club or society being featured on a video we are making to promote the event.

We decided to make a ‘thank you’ video which will contain footage and photos leading up to the

shoebox appeal and the hand-in day on Wednesday 20th

November. We are also going to enter each

student who returns a filled shoebox into a prize draw where 3 people will win a global ticket for

them and a plus one. We aim to get staff members involved and are in contact with Brunel library

and Big Mouth Brunel.

The First Aid campaign is next in regards to time. This group so far have contacted a large number of

sports clubs and societies who have agreed to send at least one committee member to a first aid

training day where members of the L.I.N.Ks society will teach them basic first aid. Currently the first

aid team are working on posters to advertise the training day to the general student population, as

51

well as leaflets to distribute on campus containing basic first aid information. Currently we are

looking to set a date which suits both the L.I.N.Ks team, the club and society members and the

campaigning group.

My next campaign is the Road Safety on a road directly outside the parameters of the university

campus. So far this group have investigated the area taking photos and publishing them on a

document which identifies the key dangers- we plan to put this document up online once the details

have been finalised along with an online petition to generate student interest. In the meantime the

group have downloaded a document from the Hillingdon council website, which has allowed them

to submit a complaint regarding the dangerous road. If Hillingdon does not initially put into place

any safety measures we plan to collate statistics on road traffic incidents, student accounts of their

own personal experiences regarding that road, and a video outlining exactly where and how the

road is dangerous.

Lastly is my campaign to lobby the university to provide nursery facilities on campus. This has proven

to be the most challenging campaign as we are trying to gain information from university officials as

to why they do not provide such facilities. However, we are confident that we can make a

compromise with the university. Myself and Abigail Barton, who first came to me about the

nurseries, researched facts about other university nurseries and thought of compromising solutions

we could bring to the university.

So far the group have researched legislation concerning where a nursery can be situated and the

regulation regarding the number of children in the nursery, staff and so on, as well as grants which

are given to students with dependents.

There is also a survey compiled by the union which has a specific section for student parents and

childcare issues. However we plan to attain our own information from student parents to make our

argument to the university stronger.

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my gratitude and appreciation to my working group,

without their enthusiasm and dedication, the aforementioned campaigns would not run as

efficiently as they have been thus far.

In general I am currently setting up a blog where I can frequently update readers on what we have

been doing and what we plan to do in the near future as well as making it more accessible to the

wider population.

My aims for next month are to use social media more effectively, to promote ongoing campaigns

and to pay further attention to my 3 remaining campaigns once the shoebox appeal has been

completed.

Overall it has been a very successful month especially in regards to establishing my working group.

All things being equal, I hope to have my campaigns completed by the end of term or at the latest,

early term 2.

52

REPORT


Meeting: 02

From: Juhani Mäntyranta, World Students’ Chair

Date: Tuesday 13 November 2013

Meeting with cultural societies

I have been continuing to meet up with different cultural societies. Apart from the earlier emails

sent, I have also posted on the societies Facebook pages. Unfortunately there have only been a

couple of replies, so in total I have met with just under ten societies. However there are some more

meetings lined up as well. In the near future I will send another patch of emails, and also look at the

events calendar and start gate-crashing their events.

Within the meetings some good conversations have taken place. The discussions have revolved

around ideas the relevant societies have had. We have also discussed the cultural societies forum,

cultural societies Facebook group, One World Week and collaborations with different societies. My

idea with the Facebook group is to get it up and running after a few more meetings. An event, a

debate on the situation of Palestine, has also started to take place thanks to these conversations.

Brunel International

I have been continuing to keep close contact with Brunel International. Between the last report and

now, I have had two additional meetings with them. As a result, we have been able to set up a

meeting with the Great Wall society, which should in turn be the beginning of the work on involving

Oriental-Asian students with the Union.

Brett Halsey has been appointed as an International Student Services Officer within BI. I have met up

with him on a couple of occasions and we have also been able to work together, for example with a

late orientation for PhD students. Brett also took part in my first working group meeting. Brett has

also set up some interesting events through BI, which I will be attending.

Exchange and study abroad

We are currently planning an event to be held in December. I have asked the exchange students on

what they would like to do and currently we are working on the event. There was also an exchange

53

student present in my first working group meeting, and she has kindly promised to try to get some

more of them to take part in the working group, as well as to be a correspondent between me and

the rest of the group.

Working groups

I had my first working group meeting on November 12th

. During the meeting we made preparations

for the future meetings, as well as discussed ways to have more students involved with the working

group.

I will invite the president of the Great Wall society to help me out with my second working group. It

is difficult to come up with ways of making non-integrated international communities to be a bigger

part of the Union, if you already are integrated. Hopefully, with his help, work can truly begin with

this working group, and that we can start getting proper feedback on what to improve.

Cultural Societies forum

I’m thinking of postponing this until the next academic year. As stated earlier, it has been difficult to

set up meetings with the majority of the cultural societies. Because of it, not much work has been

done with regards to the Cultural Societies Forum. More work will be done on this, after the cultural

societies Facebook group is up and running.

LIBT

I was invited to visit LIBT. Right now I am in the midst of arranging a visit for myself, the

Postgraduate Chair and VPAR to visit LIBT and see how things are over there. I am also looking at it

as an opportunity to advertise the vacant positions of Student Assembly member for LIBT and Senior

Rep for LIBT. My hope is to also try and find people in LIBT, who would be interested in coming up

with different ways of tightening the bonds between the Union and LIBT, on a student-level.

Other things

On October 26th

I was in the Union stall on an open day. During the day we met up, and chatted,

with a large number of prospective students. We also gave presentations on what the student life is

like in Brunel. Apart from that I was also a member in an interview panel for the new Vice-Principal

of Brunel.

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REPORT


Meeting: 02

From: Senator Samuel Paul Tobias Aylett, Postgraduate Students Chair

Date: November 2013

Postgraduate Network Committee (PGT/PGR)

I have recently formed a committee with a number of colleagues, both postgraduate taught and

postgraduate research students from a number of different schools and departments, to look at

strengthening the postgraduate network at Brunel using existing graduate study space and the

research commons. On Wednesday the 6th

we had our first meeting, including Rob Wannerton

(Brunel Library) and Monique Ritchie (Research Librarian) which was very successful and produced a

number of exciting ideas and projects. One particular idea was ‘researcher speed-dating’ which will

help to foster cross-disciplinary research collaboration between PGR students. This committee is

part of a larger project too look at re-purposing space (postgraduate) in the library and including the

graduate school.

Goals & Plans

It has occurred to me from my research and experience as a PGT student that there has been a

severe lack of attention given to the issues postgraduate students face (financial); which is

particularly important given the recent shifts in higher education. This is something I wish to pursue

with vigour and I am grateful to the assembly for voting me to senate, which I am sure will prove to

be an effective platform with which to raise such issues. To this end I have been invited to sit with

the financial services at Brunel to discuss the way in which postgraduates pay their tuition and

accommodation fees. Furthermore there are a number of other groups and committees that I sit on,

and I am in the process of creating another working group to help tackle these issues.

55

StudyWell (Well@Brunel)

I have been invited to sit on the StudyWell working group part of the Well@Brunel project. On the

31st

of October I met with the working group headed up by Leslie Bowen and we decided on a

number of different ways in which to approach launching the StudyWell programme and what

themes it should incorporate. I want to focus particularly on the pastoral dynamics of academic

study, looking at tutoring and mental wellbeing. By this I mean ensuring that academics are included

in the project; taking a holistic approach to StudyWell (making sure they are adequately trained to

provide that care). In regards to mental wellbeing, I want to ensure that alongside the extended

library services and other academic services and pressure that students are well informed of how

best to manage their workload and that they have the support through more busy times of the year.

Of course this will affect both postgraduate and undergraduate students. We have already

scheduled a next meeting for the 2nd

of December.

CDBU (Council for the Defence of British Universities)

Something that has been of great concern to me of late has been the way in which certain principals

of university study both postgraduate and undergraduate have been corrupted by the recent shift in

higher education. The Council for the Defence of British Universities works to uphold the principals

of British higher education specifically the privatisation of universities and the instrumentalisation of

knowledge. With the pending TxP and other changes within Brunel University I want to ensure that

these principals are not forgotten. The first meeting will be taking place on the 20th

of November at

Royal Holloway and will address issues of University Governance, with a lecture from Andrew

McGettigan. Brunel is part of the London SW group along with RHUL (Royal Holloway), Reading,

Roehampton and Greenwich. Further to this I wish to establish a separate working group to address

such issues.

Re-Think Forum

I will be attending the ReThink forum which is a series of fortnightly lunchtime discussion sessions to

share ideas and explore solutions on key areas in learning and teaching. The next session held on

Tuesday the 12th

of November will look at Quality Contact Time, and how the university can achieve

this. This is particularly important for PGT/PGR students especially those studying part-time who

have less contact with the university and their tutors. This also fits in well with the other activities I

have mentioned.

Documents

November Assembly Full Papers - Brunel Students€¦ · Zein Owfar, Leon Evans, Chelsea Crosson Smith, Sobi Kalan, Ashley Rowe, Chadley Richards, Jackson Smith Zion Zakari. Candidates