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UBSU 2007-2008 Report
This report highlights the main areas of work that have taken place in 2007-2008. The report focuses on areas of operation, priority campaigns and officers’ individual reports.
Areas of Operation
Representation
During the summer UBSU developed a vision statement “To be an active unified community which is the first point of call for students, representing and fighting for their rights” and five values of representation, support, involvement, democracy and diversity. The strategic plan was updated, but during the year it became apparent that this document is not accessible to students or staff. The strategic plan procedure is being reviewed to ensure students and staff are consulted. This will then produce simple and memorable strategic aims and from these working plans can be developed. It is hoped that this will increase ownership and provide ways to measure performance against aims.
A democratic review was carried out over the summer to ensure there was adequate representation across both campuses and to involve students in making decisions about their Union. The review recommended restricting the membership of the Executive to the Sabbaticals, development of an Officers Committee to allow joint projects to be carried out and provide support for officers. It also stimulated the development of the Student Representative Council (SRC) and campus SRC. These allow students to pass policy and hold the officers to account. All the SRCs have taken place this year and the majority of CSRCs however it has been a struggle to reach quorum at all of these meetings. The AGM turn out was 75 
students which is an increase on last year however it failed to reach quorum. Methods of ensuring participation at the AGM and SRC are being investigated. A General Meeting took place in freshers’ week to provide students with an introduction to the Union’s democratic processes from the beginning of their time at University. This meeting also involved a campaign for laundry facilities in accommodation.
Picture - UBSU sent a bunch of dirty socks to the head of estates in order to get back washing machines
The Course Representative handbook went through a facelift this year and is now an accessible A5 booklet. Along with this, information about recruitment went out to all field chairs and was supported by a letter from the Dean of Students. Follow up emails and calls were made within the first weeks of term and resulted in a record number of 200 course representatives being recruited. Training sessions were offered within the first term which 40 representatives attended and certificates will be awarded to active representative at the end of the year. A review of the full system is being carried out to look at recruitment, training and support and representation at all academic and committee levels. Focus groups with course representatives and staff are being carried out to explore possible changes. The course representative system is at the heart of the Union and its values.
In October the By-Elections took place with 7 positions being filled by 9 candidates
across the two campuses. Two questions were put to a vote regarding the sports mascot and the May Balls. This resulted in a dramatic increase in votes to 250 which is over double the previous turnout. The results being to have two May Balls and a Lion costume was purchased as the sports mascot. Azlan the Lion, pictured right The main elections took place in March under significantly new regulations. The most prominent change being removing sabbatical officers from the role of returning officer and developing the role of a staff member as election manger. The sabbaticals acted as cheerleaders for the elections. Other additions were a launch of nomination day to raise awareness and a day of outsite voting. Unfortunately only one sabbatical position was contested, however there was a record number running for Student Officer position with nine positions being filled in Luton and three in Bedford. The voting hours were also reduced yet around 1200 votes were cast.
This year we sent three delegates to NUS extraordinary conference, two delegates to Annual Conference, four students are going to LGBT conference and we are hoping to send some delegates to Black Student Conference and Mature Student Conference. This is an increase over last year and additional NUS training and networking days have been attended. Although there has been an increase in engagement within NUS the value of this does not match the affiliation fees that we pay. Since conference a letter has been sent to NUS expressing our concerns and a visit from the National President is planned in the officer handover.
One of UBSU’s values is diversity and to ensure that the Union is inclusive and meets the needs of all students a diversity committee was established. This committee is made up mainly of Student Officers who have a diversity role and aims to organise events and ways to engage students in the Union.
Welfare & Education
The Advice Centre has changed this year into a more open plan office and provided a social area for students. The annual Pathfinder booklet has been produced and a range of in house standard UBSU advice leaflets are being proposed.
UBSU is in the process of developing two additional clinics. The first being a sexual health clinic in partnership with Luton PCT to offer an additional student satellite service. The second is a Legal Advice clinic in which students can receive legal advice about a wide range issues from current law students along with a member of University staff as a qualified supervisor.
This year the Advice Centre has seen over 800 students, of which a large majority are for signposting, general enquires or collection of free material. 1600 attack alarms have been given out and 2700 condoms issued as part of the Luton PCT condom card scheme. There have been a large number of successful cases dealt with this year. A Welfare and Education committee has been established to provide direction and guidance.
During the year a number of awareness campaigns were organised including campus watch (personal safety), worlds AIDS day, drink & drugs, no smoking day and mental health. These campaigns were delivered in a variety of methods including posters, leaflets, stalls, social events and guest speakers.
Student Activities
The number of societies has remained constant. “Give it a go” provides opportunities for students to take part in one-off activities, events and trips. These included golf lessons, snowboarding and a trip to Cadbury’s world. The International Student Association was established which aims to bring international students together and provide a range of trips and events so that they can see more of England, these included going to Cambridge and Lincoln Christmas Market. At the Luton campus sports is ran by the University therefore the Union proposed that we should run sport and this will in effect for the start of the next year.
Bedford has seen a significant growth with societies growing from three to 20 with 400 members between them. These societies include religious, cultural, interest based and non BUSA sports. BUSA sports is managed at the Bedford where 21 teams made up of 390 students. This year men’s football and rugby reached the play-offs and the swim team reached the national championship. Bedford students were also invited to attend “Give it a go” trips.
Two sports tours were arranged, Bedford went to Callelafest with 117 students which is a great increase on previous years. Luton campus went to Sports Party with 25 students at which the girls football won their tournament. Two AU award ceremonies were organised at the Shakespeare hotel in Bedford and Liquid Nightclub in Luton.
RAG (Raise & Give) fortnight was extremely successful this year raising a total of £3000 for four charities. Intercampus events took place with the largest of these being a Jail Break. This involved releasing students from Bedford prison with no money and their aim was to get as far away as possible. Teams reached Malaga, Budapest, North Spain and France and resulted in local media coverage. Other events that took place were, a comedy club, riding the shuttle bus, town centre collections, pub quizzes and a tuck shop. It was a great week and engaged students, staff and the local community.
Due the multi faceted nature of student activities a cross campus committee has been established to bring together staff and officers to provide cohesion between all areas and campuses.
Marketing & Media
This year UBSU has changed its publication from a magazine called “streaker” to a newspaper called “The Blend”. This is a new publication for the new Students’ Union and contributions by students at both campus have risen dramatically along with readership. The Newspaper Officer has been developed as a new student officer position to provide more ownership for students.
The website was redeveloped over the summer, unfortunately some delays with the provider resulted in not all functions being up and running for the start of the year. The production of an entertainment guide on the Luton campus has been popular among students.
Bars & Entertainment
Across both campuses Freshers’ Week was a great success with an increased diversity of events especially more afternoon and early evening activities. These included a pool party, ice skating trip and afternoon of inflatable fun. The Freshers’ Angels were again a great success and the scheme has now been established in Bedford. This year saw the first recruitment and training days with a total of 50 Angels in Luton and 20 in Bedford. The Angels showed great initiative in helping make the week so successful.
Bedford has no Students’ Union bar so contracts with Bar Soviet, Oxygen and Chapel 29 were negotiated to ensure the provision of events for Bedford students. Chapel 29 has organised some special guest appearances including Sisqo, Will Mellor, Matt Skelton, Danny Dyer and MC Harvey and on several nights over 1,000 students attended. A Christmas Ball was organised which included special guests Chico, Shola Ama, kele Le Roc and Scott Mills.
There has been an increased number of events provided in the Luton bar this year, with pub quizzes, charity events, kareoke, Funky House, European nights, live bands and Club NME. The venue is now open longer and has a food menu. Student led focus groups have been established to develop new nights which reflect student demands. There has also been a increased drive to encourage students to use the space to organise their own events. A Commercial services committee has been established to ensure consistent development and improvements.
After a student vote two May Balls are being organised at the two main campuses. The Luton Ball is happening on the 9th May at the Strathmore hotel and the Bedford Ball is on the 30th May at the Bedford Blues.
Student Union Evaluation Initiative (SUEI)
SUEI is a benchmarking award which measures the work that Students’ Unions do and to share good practice. UBSU is in the second cohort and have completed our pre audit visit with the final visit in January 2009. One of the main initiatives from this has been “Question of the Week” which is an informal way of gaining student feedback.
Priority Campaigns
Merger
The aim of this campaign was to bring the two campuses together as one Union. Organisationally this has taken place through the revised constitution and democratic structure. This included the development of campus SRCs and all sabbatical officers working institution wide. A number of events have been organised throughout the year including tours of the campuses, ice skating, nights out, varsity and RAG events. The Blend also provided integration between the campuses with both being actively involved in its production. The Union requested additional funding from the University to fund merger society grants. Unfortunately due to University budget restraints this was not granted. Financial support was still given to those societies which requested to work across campus.
Campus Watch
This is an awareness campaign about crime prevention and safety on campus. The campaign was based on a series of posters about personal safety, property safety and procedure on reporting crime. Along with this, students were given a plastic credit card sized card with the campus watch logo and security information. The President of the Students’ Union is also linked into the KIN (Key Individual Network) that the police have set up and is exploring the use of the Ring Master system as a way of notifying students about crime patterns.
UBSU Space in Bedford
The Union space at Bedford is limited to three offices and a reception area and was not used by students. Since the start of the year the space has been developed to include, sofas, plasma TV, notice boards, sports team information, job advertisements and a photo booth. The space is now used regularly by students and has increased the Unions presence on campus. The Bedford campus also lacks the facility of a student bar and a proposal for this has been put to the University. A working group has now been established to explore the feasibility of different sites on campus and to gauge student opinion. This group aims to outline the best possible option by June.
Sports
Over the past two years sports have been run by the University at the Luton campus and by the Union at Bedford. This has led to inconsistencies in sporting provision within the University. There have also been problems in the development of new sports as the University would only run BUSA sports and not developmental or recreational sport. The Students’ Union raised this as an issue to the University and a task and finish group was established to explore the situation. As part of this the Union wrote a full proposal including information from student focus groups. This proposal has now been accepted and UBSU will be running all sports from September 2008. This will not only ensure greater student control but also increase involvement within the Union as a whole.
Accommodation
The accommodation campaign is focused on University-provided accommodation in Luton as there have been a large number of complaints regarding this in previous years. The first part of this campaign was sending a box of dirty socks to the Director of facilities and estates regarding laundry facilities within halls. Another major problem within accommodation has been the internet provision by cablecom. A 15% refund has been received by students as the service has not been up to the required standard. Since then problems have persisted so the Union organised a Q&A session with cablecom. This was helpful for all and engineers are being organised to investigate the problems further in the coming months. Contractual issues including telephone support are under discussion with the University. The exploration of additional social space within accommodation has taken place. Through regular meetings with accommodation and the University an agreement for new accommodation has been approved by the University Governors. These will be new en-suite bedrooms which aim to be open in September 2009.
Officers Reports
President
The President has responsibility of attending many Union and University meetings and is the first point of contact within the Union. A large proportion of time this year has been spent building relationships and working on specific projects. The President works within all areas of the Union and chairs a number of committees. She has been the lead officer on the Sports and Accommodation campaigns and worked closely with officers on other campaigns including writing the merger funding proposal.
The President took the lead on conducting the democratic review and strategic plan. She also worked on developing a number of University policies including those regarding financial sanctioning, mutual respect between staff and students and assignment feedback. The President has also been heavily involved in the plans for the redevelopment of the Luton campus including the Students’ Union building. She also attended NUS Annual Conference.
Vice President
The Vice President has responsibility for attending many Union and University meetings and is the first point of call for staff at the Bedford campus. A large proportion of time this year has been spent building these relationships. He has taken a lead on the Bedford Space and Bar campaign and assisted in the merger and campus watch campaigns on the Bedford campus.
He has taken on the responsibility for recruiting and supporting course representatives and organising CSRCs on the Bedford site. A review of the course representative system is currently underway in which the Vice President is taking a lead along with the Democracy Officer. The Vice President took the lead in RAG Week organising Jail Break and town centre collections and in promoting awareness of the Union around campus. Responsibility for representing students at the Bedford campus on educational and welfare issues has also been assumed.
Bedford Officer (Student Activities Officer from 2008/9)
The Bedford Officer has spent a large proportion of time organising a variety of different events throughout the year. Freshers week saw an increase in the activities and the Freshers Angel Scheme at Bedford. A Christmas Party with celebrity special guest was organised along with a comedy club during RAG Week.
He has also taken on the responsibility for organising the Bedford Sports tour which had a record number of students involved compared to recent years. The Bedford AU awards ceremony and May Ball are also being organised by the Bedford Officer.
Communications Officer
The Communications Officer changed the Union publication to a newspaper and developed the Newspaper Officer role. He has been the main co-ordinator of all web based media and explored other methods of communication through BREO and plasma screens. The communications officer undertakes a number of design projects for various areas of the Union.
The Communications Officer took the lead on the Freshers’ Angel scheme and in supporting a number of Union events and chairs the commercial services committee. He also developed and undertook the student survey to gauge student opinion and feedback. The Communications Officer also coordinates University open days and is involved in committees which are developing the University portal. He also attended NUS Annual Conference.
Democracy Officer
The Democracy Officer has coordinated and organised the AGM and SRC’s. He also worked in supporting the Course Representatives and taking a lead in the review that the Union is undertaking. In supporting course representatives the Democracy Officer has lobbied the University for support for students during the staff redundancies. This included success within Graphic Design where a new part time member of staff was employed and visiting lecturers utilised.
He chairs the officers and diversity committees. The Democracy Officer filled the role as returning officer in the by-elections before the constitution changed in November. He has encouraged students to attend various NUS conferences.
Education & Welfare Officer
A large proportion of the Education & Welfare Officer’s time has been spent developing the Advice Centre in creating a more open and welcoming environment. He has been responsible for various awareness campaigns including drink & drugs and the priority campaign Campus Watch. A number of cases have also been his responsibility. The Education & Welfare Officer has also attend various meetings including those on accommodation. The Education & Welfare Officer is also the chair of the Welfare committee.
The Education & Welfare Officer also rewrote the course representative handbook and training programme and took on the responsibility of recruitment of course representatives and was the contact for academic staff.