Student Council and Making Your Voice Heard
Thursday 15-10-2020 - 10:57
On Wednesday 30th September we had our first Student Council of the 20/21 academic year. As your President, I wanted to write a quick summary of issues that we discussed as we had a very productive meeting, representing you! Items on the agenda included: approving the Student Experience Rep (SER) Policy, discussing and approving the Societies Development Committee (which sees society leaders deciding in a committee where funds are distributed) and discussing Big Ideas.
The biggest discussion area was Big Ideas. This is an initiative to get student voice and ideas around the table and acted on. Any student can submit a Big Idea on the SU website, and students can up vote or down vote if they agree or disagree. If the idea gets a minimum of 25 votes, with more than half of those ‘up’ votes, then the idea will be discussed at Student Council – and hopefully made policy, or get implemented.
The initiative was launched on the 21st September, and already we had two Big Ideas brought to Student Council.
The first was a Disability Campaign, that focuses around careers support, raising awareness of hidden disabilities and accessibility. This was passed unanimously by Council and we will be working to building this campaign over the next few weeks.
The second was Recording Lectures, renamed to a ‘Lecture Capture Policy’. This would mean that all lectures are recorded, whether virtual or in-person, particularly now where students may find it unsafe to come to a face-to-face session. It allows students to have options, and increases accessibility by making choices for the student. This was unanimously voted on by Council and Jack, VP Education, will be working to get this written and implemented.
Council also discussed how CSU were becoming an explicitly anti-racist organisation and we will be providing Council with updates on this at every meeting.
Nominations are open for the Student Council by-elections. Positions available are Visible Disability rep, Sustainability rep and Open-seat rep. Nominations are also open for Department Reps, that will also sit on Student Council. If you would like to represent your department or the wider student body, nominate yourself here now!
To read the full Student Council minutes click here.
Eleanor Lewis – CSU President
