Hello again, these last two weeks have flown by! I hope you’re all well and staying safe! Only around 5 weeks until the start of the Academic Year 2020/21 for most students!

I can’t imagine my next update will be very long but don’t worry I will make up for that by making this one humungous. As ever, there is a TLDR (too long didn’t read) at the bottom of this with a list of some of the things I did in the last two weeks and my plans for the next two.

I’m quite thankful that we’ve seen quite a bit of rain this last two weeks; has meant that I’ve not been so hot! Although I have got rained on a number of occasions which was less fun. I’ve now moved to a new house which in itself was stressful, but it is complete!

My last two weeks was supposed to be less full on; however, meetings having been put in last minute, and work coming from those meetings meant that a lot happened. I, again, had meetings with many Senior University managers and recorded a Q&A with Madeline Eacott, the Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education) – this went up across our social media on Wednesday and there she answers questions from the library to graduation. I also attended meetings with the University about PG Study and looked at how the University ensures that PG students are being listened to. I also, with the other officers, answered as many of your questions on the Q&A on Instagram to give you as much insight into next year as I could!

I presented my Democratic Review, that I conducted while Union Chair, to the rest of the Sabbatical Officer team and we decided as a group which parts are moving forward and which bits are not; and work on this is now ongoing with support from SU Staff. In addition, I have spent the last couple of weeks working with the other officers on the next steps of the Big Plan; where it’s going to go and how we’re going to tackle it.

With Adrian, I attended a meeting on WiFi which was productive and insightful, and heard all about the WiFi access points that had been installed in the last few months to help students get access to the internet while on campus. I’m really keen to ensure you have the opportunity to feed into that to ensure that the WiFi fits your needs, so keep an eye out for how you can do that! With Vinny, I attended a pilot session for blended learning which gave me more information on where the University is at with it’s blended learning approach.

I had a meeting with the Head of Technology Enhanced Learning – the team responsible for your welcome (and the PUG) on Moodle (among other things!). At this meeting we discussed possible changes to the Welcome and to the PUG, as well as what they can do to support students as they return to campus. In addition, I met with the Director of Comms to start working on making sure communications from the University are accessible, shorter, and more readable.

I recorded a short video about how to find your classroom and wrote an article about how you can do that; and these will be going out on the website at some point in the near future. I also had extended conversations about the future of student reps; the role they carry out and how that will be different on account of the pandemic, as well as how we can get more student reps so that we can build a fuller picture of how learning is looking at Essex this year.

My next two weeks are looking pretty nice; I’ve annual leave, but when I’m not I’ve got Audit and Risk Committee in my role as Trustee, a discussion on Student Reps, I’m attending Rules of Assessment Group at the University, hoping to record answers to your questions, and catching up with the library. I’m sure by the time I’m back from leave my calendar will be even more full!

That’s my second update, I’ll be providing my next one in two weeks – stay safe!

TLDR:

• Did Sabbatical Officer Takeover Q&A
• Attended University meetings about PG study
• Presented the Democratic Review to the rest of the Sabbs
• Amended University policy for approval at Education Committee
• Met with Madeline, PVC (Education) & did my Q&A with her
• Discussed Wi-Fi problems
• Attended a pilot for Blended Learning
• Made a Finding your classroom video
• Met with the Head of UK Admissions, the Head of Technology Enhanced Learning, the Deputy Dean for PGRE (Social Sciences) and others.
• Made suggested changes to the Pre-Undergraduate Course, and Welcome Course
• Discussed the role of Student Reps and how we can make students aware of the awesome power of SU Reps
• Worked with other Sabbatical Officers on the Big Plan and our next steps on it
• Met with Director of Communications to discuss making comms from the University more accessible

Next two weeks:

• Audit and Risk Committee
• Student Reps Discussion
• ROA Group
• Recording answers to your questions
• Catching up with the library
• Annual leave!