Environment
Reduce the amount of Single-Use Plastics on Campus
Making good Progress!
| Latest Update |
Date |
| We switched to a plasticc free packaging sandwich range. |
21/01/2020 |
| Our retail venues will switch to a more eco-friendly coffee cup by the end of this academic year and will start implementing 'reverse charging' (charge more if you don't have a reusable cup). |
21/01/2020 |
| Jake Tran (VP International) and Ana Bichir (VP Community & Welfare) attended a sustainability conference at Nottingham Trent University. They met with the environment group to discuss new ideas, especially around food and plastic use in the stores. They will also be meeting with the council to discuss how we can educate students living off campus about recycling and sustainable living. |
02/12/2019 |
- Ran the Plastic mountain and engaged with approx 100 students during the listening exercise Met with UOE Climate change group to identify opportunities to work together.
- 1st meeting with sustainability team Sustainability plan for University expires next year – which means we can input. They will set up a group that meets monthly.
- All SU marketing stall holders held a meeting re reducing single use plastic. Following this they want to engage marketing dept to advertise to customers to bring their own reusable bags.
- Marketing have started to produce socials and posters. We will sell reusable bags from reception.
- Hot food stalls most have gone over to biodegradable (only 1 left).
- Reusable bags will be branded up with Big Plan branding and as part of the “environment” - we will distribute a number of these for free to saver card holders. We removed 185k sandwiches with plastic packaging and replaced with HC.
|
10/10/2019 |
| Big win! We’ve switched sandwich supplier across the SU’s shops to Honest Crust sandwiches, which are 100% recyclable and contain zero plastic! |
25/09/2019 |
| Project team visited UEA to look at alternatives to single use plastic. |
06/08/2019 |
Reduce the Carbon Footprint of the Campus and influence the University's 5 year sustainability Plan
Making Good Progress!
| Latest Update |
Date |
| Link in with Colchester Woodland project to potentially help them to plant trees. |
21/01/2020 |
| 1st meeting with sustainability team. Sustainability plan for University expires next year – which means we can input. They will set up a group that meets monthly. Uni wants to hit 43% reduction and is currently at 37%. Focus on Towers and buildings to achieve. Team will discuss with Uni group on how we can calculate our carbon footprint |
10/10/2019 |
| The SU attended the climate strike protest in Colchester and made contact with students interested in supporting the campaign. |
20/09/2019 |
| We’ve now received the Carbon foot print reduction plan from the University so that we can start to review it. |
13/09/2019 |
| We’ve set up regular meetings with the university to work together on this aim. |
02/09/2019 |
Educate Students on the positive impact they can have on the Environment
Making Good Progress!
| Latest Update |
Date |
| Starting to look at ways we can implement Green Impact in our organisation. |
21/01/2020 |
| Splash event carried out and 6 students provided details. Listening exercise to be carried out at Splash event to look at best way to educate students on positive impact they can have 92% of students asked at Plastic Mountain said they recycled (250 students asked). |
10/10/2019 |
| We held a very positive first meeting with the University’s Sustainability Manager, who has shared their long-term plans with us. |
06/08/2019 |
These are the people we are working with to deliver these changes for you:
Pete Brizio - Deputy Director of Services
Jake Tran, VP International
Sabbatical Officer working on this project, Email me
ana - Maria Bichir, VP Community & Welfare
Sabbatical Officer working on this project, Email me
Retail Manager
Manager working on this project, Email me
Mental Health
Push for better communication of the services available to students
Making good Progress!
| Latest Update |
Date |
| As part of our commitment to push for better communications of the services available, we have had a soft launch of our Support Service Flowchart. The aim of the platform is to offer students a clear service to get in contact with that is relevant to the issue they are facing. We want to add this as a central tab for students to click on, with an extra button named “Need support?” to be added on our main SU website menu. You can find the flowchart here. |
20/02/2020 |
| The platform is due to be finalised by the end of January, with interest from both SU and University staff to use it in order to signpost students to relevant services. We have been in contact with the Student Wellbeing service and expressed our concern that students are confused as to what exactly the service offers. I was adamant that there is more support and information they could offer students around the path they may take to obtain professional support, and there was mention of a flyer to be given to students that are referred to local services that will summarise the steps they may have to take in order to receive professional support from the NHS. |
14/01/2020 |
| VP Welfare met with the University to create a flow chart of mental health services available on campus. Once finalised, this will be shared with students and staff to enable better access to the services. Referral slips are also being created. |
02/12/2019 |
| VP Welfare met with students to collect feedback and stories, in order to show what real feedback looks like. Members are encouraged to contact vpwelfare@essex.ac.uk , as are the members of their communities, with any feedback, questions etc. |
02/12/2019 |
| A communication sub-group has been set up and met with representatives from the University’s Student Wellbeing And inclusivity team. Together they are looking at developing flow charts for respective websites to explain where to go if individuals are facing specific mental health issues and developing a clearer referall slip between the Uni and SU Advice, so students understand why they are being referred. |
25/09/2019 |
| We are looking at more training with SWIS and SU Advice staff, so each side would train the other on what each service does. |
18/09/2019 |
| We are looking to develop some insta stories, virtual tours and researching digital ways to access services. |
18/09/2019 |
Actively represent students’ honest views on the services
Making good Progress!
| Latest Update |
Date |
| We have decided to run a survey for students. The survey will seek feedback around both campus and local support services, in order to better understand what are some of the blockages our students face when trying to access support. This feedback will be collected in a central place, which will make it easier for us as an SU to write a report followed by recommendations which will then be shared with both campus services and local services (via a petition given to the local MP). |
20/02/2020 |
| We are considering the best option of collecting student feedback on both campus and local Mental Health support services. This will probably be in the form of a survey for both students and staff, with the information collected being further used as a list of recommendations and a petition for the local MP. We are in touch with local services that have any links to Mental Health support to collect more information about existing petitions and demands regarding appropriate funding of the NHS. Hopefully this campaign will gain traction and will involve other Higher Education Institutions in the East of England. |
14/01/2020 |
| We are working with various networks where services don’t meet individual needs so we can highlight and feed this back to the University. |
25/09/2019 |
| We are attending regular meetings with the University to feedback any views that students present to us. |
25/09/2019 |
Use SU services to help tackle stress and loneliness amongst students
Making good Progress!
| Latest Update |
Date |
| We have successfully supported events put on by Just Play, Societies and VTeam such as the Wellness Walks and Love Yourself Day. The feedback has been very positive and we will continue to support events which help tackle stress and loneliness. |
20/02/2020 |
| We have fully trained 25 Wellbeing Ambassadors in Bystander, Signposting and Mental Health Awareness. Their role is to attend events set up by the Students’ Union and to ensure that if any students are struggling with loneliness and stress, to signpost them to the relevant services. Equally, we’ve encouraged them to have open conversations about the struggles everyone may face as a student and helpful coping mechanisms. |
14/01/2020 |
| We are setting up an interactive project for the start of term, which features an emphasis on mental health and we hope will help students and the campus community start to talk about mental health. |
25/09/2019 |
These are the people we are working with to deliver these changes for you:
Fiona Harvey - Deputy Director of Activities & Support
Michael Banahene, VP Student Experience
Sabb working on this project, Email me
Ana - Maria Bichir, VP Community & Welfare
Sabb working on this project, Email me
SU Advice Manager
Manager working on this project, Email me
Transport
Lobby First Bus to provide more reliable bus services to campus
Making good Progress!
| Latest Update |
Date |
The Transport group met with First Bus on February 20th to discuss some of the issues brought forward by students. We were joined by:
- Jon Smith (co-chair for Citizens UK)
- Andrea Newlyn (Sustainability (Travel and Transport) Officer for the University)
and from the Students’ Union we had:
- Molly Purcell (VP Services and Engagement)
- Harrison Andrews (Facilities Manager)
Our first request was to reimburse the bus passes purchased by users of the 97/98, which has now been overtaken by Hedingham Bus Company. The First Bus representatives confirmed that they would refund pro-rata from January. We are waiting for confirmation on who specifically is to be contacted regarding this.
We asked for the bus app to provide more reliable data as out key issues were ‘Phantom Buses’ and inaccurate information. First bus will be looking at reworking the app to deal with the phantom bus problem, and it has been suggested that buses should show as cancelled on the app. We will be bringing more data to them to help fix the problem.
First bus have said that they will not be reinstating the 75b, and will be creating a guide for people to find alternative routes for their journey. We have also been in discussion with Hedingham bus company to look into the possibility of them taking over the route. We will be gathering more information at the request of First Bus about the problems we have about the services with a particular focus on the 62 and 64 routes.
Another meeting will be arranged at a later date with First Bus.
In addition to this meeting, we have been discussing with Hedingham the possibility of a student discount for bus passes, and have met with the University to discuss how we can collaborate on solving this issue. |
25/02/2020 |
| Social media post about changes to First Bus service has been circulated to SU members. |
07/01/2020 |
| Still liasing with First Bus management RE challenging them with the help of Citizens UK. |
07/01/2020 |
| A splash event was held to collect feedback. The SU will now meet with FirstBus to discuss the findings, but currently due to internal business issues at their end, no date has been set. There will be service changes commencing 6th January, including the cancellation of the 75 bus. The SU is aware of how this will affect students and is taking this into consideration. The new bus service changes will be published by the SU to help students adapt. |
02/12/2019 |
| We have met with Citizens UK to discuss next steps forward. Splash day/listening exercise planned for Tuesday 15th October. |
11/10/2019 |
| We’ve arranged a meeting for October 3rd with Colchester Citizens UK leaders to gain wider community support for our buses campaign. |
25/09/2019 |
| We are organising a listening exercise for the start of term to look at how the new First Bus app is working and how many people are late because of the buses. |
15/09/2019 |
| We met with the University’s Transport Manager to discuss our plans as the issue of buses affects staff as well as students. |
13/09/2019 |
Find ways to introduce improvements to parking in this academic year
Making good Progress!
| Latest Update |
Date |
We have met with the Sustainability (Energy and Transport) Manager and the Head of Sustainability and Grounds to discuss what we are able to do in regards to parking.
As it currently stands, the university is adamant that there is enough parking currently available on campus, and has said that they will not be building any more parking in the near future. They will be focusing on more holistic approaches, such as improving cycle routes and encouraging public transport usage. We will continue pushing back against this, and finding alternative ways to improve the parking on campus.
The university have also told us that they plan to encourage car sharing, and potentially introducing reserved spaces for those who car share. They are also looking to introduce a new car share system in the form of an app. |
25/02/2020 |
| Parking splash event (listening exercise) scheduled for next Monday 13th |
07/01/2020 |
| The SU also met with the estates manager to discuss parking. Long term, there may be a potential reshuffle of the North Tower car park but this would not be soon. There will be a listening exercise held to look into the parking issue further. |
02/12/2019 |
| We have met with Rob Davey – Head of sustainability |
11/10/2019 |
| We have met with the University to discuss their future plans for parking and have agreed to further meetings to make sure that students’ voices are included in the plans |
25/09/2019 |
| We’ve been looking at the feasibility of a live signage system that highlights how many spaces are available in each car park, avoiding students driving around for ages looking for spaces.. |
10/09/2019 |
| We are looking at how we can promote alternative forms of transport and car sharing to and from campus. |
05/09/2019 |
These are the people we are working with to deliver these changes for you:
Fiona Harvey - Deputy Director of Activities & Support
Laura Robinson, VP Education
Sabb working on this project, Email me
Molly Purcell, VP Services & Engagement
Sabb working on this project, Email me
Facilities and Health & Safety Manager
Manager working on this project, Email me
Cost Of Living
Challenge the current laundry contract
Making good Progress!
| Latest Update |
Date |
| A meeting will be set to discuss the laundry contract. Other providers are being considered, although it appears that Circuit offers the best deal. The SU and University are in discussion about the different laundry prices in different accommodations and this is being looked into. |
02/12/2019 |
| WIN: Members of the SU have met with the University who have agreed that we will be part of the negotiating team for the renewal of the laundry contract! |
25/09/2019 |
| Data gathering and information day is being planned for early part of term. |
25/09/2019 |
| We’ve conducted research on laundry costs at 10 other Universities that use Circuit Laundry as their provider. |
25/09/2019 |
| We’ve gathered the costs of laundry from each launderette on campus. |
31/08/2019 |
Challenge the cost of student accommodation
Making good Progress!
| Latest Update |
Date |
| The prices for accommodation have been set for next year next and prices have increased only in line with RPI, except South Courts. RPI is used rather than CPI because it was written into the original contract. |
02/12/2019 |
| We have a seat at the table when the University is discussing changes in rent prices/contracts. This years rent increases are broadly in line with RPI. |
25/09/2019 |
| We’ve set up meetings to find out more about how all decisions regarding accommodation are made. |
25/09/2019 |
| We’ve decided to undertake an accommodation audit to look at oncampus and offcampus costs in order to be able to highlight them to students. |
25/09/2019 |
Continue to challenge the cost of sport
Making good Progress!
| Latest Update |
Date |
| Working with Just Play to increase the amount of free non-competitive sporting/active opportunities. Such as Archery Tag. |
09/01/2020 |
| Emails and social media posts sent out to all 18/19 Essex Blades members and Executive Club Committees informing them of the removal of £20 Essex Blades Pass |
25/09/2019 |
| Budgets have been submitted to sports clubs highlighting the removal of £20 fees and highlighting the opportunity to maximise club income for activities that suit members. |
18/09/2019 |
| WIN!: We’ve reached agreement with the University for the removal of the £20 Essex Blades Pass for the coming year that’s a saving of £20 per Essex Blades member!! |
01/09/2019 |
Increase access to free outdoor equipment
Making good Progress!
| Latest Update |
Date |
| The implementation of external equipment, eg basketball hoops, is planned. Currently we are waiting for permission and funding. |
02/12/2019 |
| A member of the group has attended a meeting to discuss this and will update at our next meeting. |
25/09/2019 |
These are the people we are working with to deliver these changes for you:
Fiona Harvey - Deputy Director of Activities & Support
Jake Tran, VP International
Sabb working on this project, Email me
Michael Banahene, VP Student Experience
Sabb working on this project, Email me
Sports Development Manager
Manager working on this project, Email me
Food On Campus
Find ways to increase the diversity of food available
Proving Challenging!
| Latest Update |
Date |
| Specific wins from Splash event feedback: desserts available in SU Bar Food from term 2. |
04/12/2019 |
| Conversations around expansion of Thursday market, awaiting feedback from Black & Asian community officers for this to be implemented. |
04/12/2019 |
| Find You Food webpage design underway with marketing for publication in term 2 – to include allergens, dietary requirements and where to find specific cuisines throughout all outlets on campus & Thursday Market. |
04/12/2019 |
| Liaised with Essex Food for them to send over their allergen matrixes – currently being formatted for the webpage. |
04/12/2019 |
| A lot of the suggestions were for things that are already available, so there will be a push in marketing to promote these things. |
02/12/2019 |
| Desserts have now been added to SU Bar menu. |
02/12/2019 |
| A splash event was held that garnered lots of responses, focused around food diversity, quality and pricing. The data collected will be used to create change. VP Services will be meeting with the Black and Asian officers to look at expanding the Thursday market to increase the diversity of food available. |
02/12/2019 |
| Allergen and menus from SU outlets collated into a basic landing page called ‘Findyourfood’. |
25/09/2019 |
| Collected all menus and allergen information from SU catering outlets – waiting for the same info from University outlets. |
18/09/2019 |
Challenge the cost and quality of food on campus
Proving Challenging!
| Latest Update |
Date |
| We’re working on a package of food discounts and offers as part of the SU Saver card, which will launch on Arrivals Sunday |
21/09/2019 |
These are the people we are working with to deliver these changes for you:
Pete Brizio - Deputy Director of Services
Molly Purcell, VP Services & Engagement
Sabb working on this project, Email me
Bar and Catering Operations Manager
Manager working on this project, Email me
My Course
Work with Students and Departments to challenge how deadlines are set and influence the University’s Education strategy on this point
Making good Progress!
| Latest Update |
Date |
We want to say a huge thank you to the Sociology department who have been doing some incredible work in ensuring students have less deadline clashes this year.
Where Sociology students have multiple clashes in a week and assessments have a weighting of 20% or more than students can have a 7 day extension for one of the assignments. This is having a really positive impact on our members.
In the long term Sociology have committed to spacing deadlines far more evenly at the start of term to ensure minimal clashes. |
25/02/2020 |
| A Splash event spoke to over 100 students about their deadlines, which was used to work with departments on setting better deadlines within their courses. A project team sat and reviewed every deadline from last year to identify where the issues are. They have also checked that department deadlines are online to help students prepare better. |
02/12/2019 |
| An extenuating circumstances trial is also being looked into. |
02/12/2019 |
| Talis(Online book repository) is currently at about 80% of resources being available online. |
02/12/2019 |
| SU attended the Directors of Education network meeting. PVC Education (ME) directed all departments to review the setting of deadlines as part of their away days. She has also asked this to be on agendas for the first student voice groups of the new term. Faculty Coordinators to ensure this occur. |
04/10/2019 |
| The University’s PVC Education is meeting with departments to propose a student centered review of deadlines. |
25/09/2019 |
| The SU Education team is reviewing whether deadlines were all uploaded on Enrol by the deadline provided by University. |
16/09/2019 |
Fix The Paternoster
Making good Progress!
| Latest Update |
Date |
| The paternoster will be fixed for the 20/21 academic year. This was challenged but it is not possible to do this any quicker. However, the temporary sign has finally been removed after 16 months. A communication plan will be developed with the library to help keep people updated. |
02/12/2019 |
| Works timetable has been provided by university for paternoster - we are reviewing |
04/10/2019 |
| The University have given us a provisional timetable for repair works that we are reviewing. |
23/09/2019 |
| We’ve established a connection with Sheffield University to find out more about their paternoster repair works. |
23/09/2019 |
These are the people we are working with to deliver these changes for you:
Pete Brizio - Deputy Director of Services
Laura Robinson, VP Education
Sabb working on this project, Email me
Education Manager
Manager working on this project, Email me
ALL OF THE WORK AND PROGRESS FROM OUR BIG PlAN COMMITTEES FEEDS INTO STUDENT PARLIAMENT
Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion
Plastic Mountain
Plastic Mountain
Better Transport
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Circuit
Sociology
*If you'd like to share your own ideas or join in on the discussion just click on one of the Big Plan topics. We'll also share more details about how the group is doing and when we have updates they’ll be posted on here.The more students involved in these projects, the more we can achieve together. You can join in the conversation anytime and power this project forward- just click on one of the links above.
**We're a group of over 15,000 students on a mission, an adventure to become the world’s most student-centred organisation. It’s ambitious and challenging, yet short enough to fit in a tweet.