President Update

Hi guys! Welcome back to yet another President Update Blog! Spring break has been a bit a quiter period. With a lot of you being off campus for the break (and me taking some holiday as well), it has been a slower-paced and yet very productive month! Here are some of the highlights of the last couple weeks:

Strike Action

With the strike action period in Feb-March coming to an end, I have been working with the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education to make sure that students get adequate support in this period, as well as ensuring that missed teaching is appropirately replaced where possible. We are also liaising to host a Q&A panel to address some of the concerns you may have following this period of strikes, as well as other general concerns about the future of your education in the midst the cuts that the university is currently undergoing. 

National Advocacy

We are continuing to work on two national campaigns lead by Essex SU. Last week we officially launched the Fix University Funding campaign. We are leading this campaign as a team to create a national conversation around the crisis in Higher Education and call for reform of the funding system for universities.

We have created an Instagram account for the campaign and have posted our first video. Besides this, we are doing a lot of background work, including reaching out to SUs, MPs and other organisations like trade unions to build momentum and make this a truly national, student-led movement. Make sure to sign the petition and share it with friends!

We are also continuing our work on the Pay the Placement campaign. We have achieved over 10,000 signatures on the petition and are working up to activation week from the 11th to 17th of May.

To support the campaign and raise awareness, Chloe and I were recently interviewed by WonkHE for their podcast, which will be released later this week!

New SCOs Structure

As you all know, we did not put the VP Southend role up for this year’s Leadership Election, due to the Southend Campus closure. As a Student Leader team, we decided that it was important to maintain strong democratic representation for students, which is why we proposed that the budget allocated for the VP Southend position for 26/27 go to paying a consolidated number of Student Community Officers (SCOs).

I lead on this effort by proposing a paper to the SU Trustees Board, making sure to cover the financial implications of this change, as well as other challenges it might present. The paper was approved and we are now in the process of operationalizing this proposal, bringing in 7 new SCOs that will be up for election as paid, part time members of student staff for next year!

As someone that has always cared a lot about SU Council, as well as student politics and activism more generally, I think this change will bring great changes to campus next year. If you or anyone you know is interested in running for one of these positions, check out the SU Communities Election landing page!

Gender Affirmation Fund

I am extremely happy to share that the Gender Affirmation Fund has been officially launched! With this, we have secured £4000 worth of funding to support trans students on campus to acquire gender affirming items, with them being able to access £150 per academic year.

Thank you to Theo, our Trans+ Officer, SU Advice and SU Engagement for all of their invaluable support through this process as we worked together to get this resource readily available to the trans community on campus as soon as possible.

Food Affordability

This continues to be a Big Plan item that Hareem and I are focused on. We are close to launching the Food Bundles, which will be officially called SU Value Meal Kits. We have ordered the materials for the bags themselves and have agreed on two specific bags to trial over the next couple weeks.

Once we finish this trial, we will review their performance and assessing how this project will continue into the next academic year.

I have also continued emphasizing the importance of keeping an affordable meal option on campus venues. Essex Food has announced the inclusion of £3 and £5 value meals onto its menu.

I am now focused on making sure that these meals are representative to students’ needs, which is why I am collaborating with Essex Food to host a focus group about food on campus for students to give direct input into how these value meals should look like.

Demilitarization Campaign

While working with the University, we are looking to create ethical career guidance for students, in order to help students make informed decisions about the career path that they choose to pursue, and how this decision can be aligned with their values.

I have also drafted the Arms Manufacturers Off Campus policy, which is going to a vote on the upcoming SU Council meeting. The policy calls for the SU to lobby the University to introduce stricter due diligence checks for companies in the arms industry, with the end goal to terminate any partnerships the university holds with them, including BAE Systems.

Beyond this, I continue to work with Demilitarise Education to call for change policy that governs the processes to assess our research partners to ensure that arms manufacturers and companies complicit in war crimes around the world are excluded.

Community Market

We hosted the 4th Community Market on the 17th of March, which has officially brought the total fundraising of this project to over £5000. All of this funding will hopefully allow Societies and Sports Clubs to continue to offer a great experience to their members.

The final Community Market of this academic year will take place on the 19th of May. We are already making arrangements for it and have officially opened applications for Societies and Clubs to join in.