Sheffield Union Council
Good afternoon,
29th April was my first Union Council in a while (woops I missed the last one because of NUS National Conference), but even then I feel slightly less representative than usual because I had to leave early because of the Town Planning Ball! The meetings are far less controversial these days compared to last year when there was so much to be angry and passionate about, although there was another “welcome” return to a motion on Gaza that I would otherwise talk for England on but by then I’d lost touch and got tense instead (I left during the motion). All I will say is that until a fair system of providing aid to “countries, areas or educations in conflict” is suggested I will continue to dismiss the reasoning to specify Gaza as the special example in the world. I find it extremely exclusionary to whatever else is going on here, and it could not come at a worse time when our Union and University will no doubt have to cut back its own resources.
Did I speak during the meeting?
You can always guarantee that I’ll have an opinion on matters at Union Council, and the meeting commenced with a presentation by the head of Univesity of Sheffield Accommodation and Campus Services, Pat McGrath. After a typical presentation of statistical data about how wonderful ACS was, and how poor it was in other areas like International Student integration and value for money (now there is a surprise), I gave Pat a few suggestions.
- The survey that ACS gives out to students for opinion of accommodation had a large increase of take up this year, but still stood at a woeful amount. As a fierce advocate of mandating methods like surveys, job roles, responsibilites and contracts I suggested why ACS had not logically thought to use the login system for new students at university to their advantage. ACS requires students to access a secure area for their housing contract, and with them having to keep details on file it seems fair to mandate students to reuse this login at the end of the year to a) fill in the survey and b) only after the survey is filled in, they can click on their room and sign out of the accommodation c) give over the keys in person at the desk as normal.
- I also suggested that in light of recent open days that I have been to with prospective students, it was unfair to solely ‘glamorise’ the new accommodation premises and skirt over the issue that well over 1,000 places are provided in cheaper university owned accommodation like Stephenson/Halifax Halls, Crew Flats, Endcliffe Crescent and so on. With prices now being severely high I expected better from ACS and suggested that this be included for the benefit of students that might not be able to afford rents of four thousand pounds a year and counting.
I also spoke under ‘Councillors Business’, reporting on a meeting between myself, the Sheffield Union Welfare Officer (Jenni Hastings), Womens Officer (Amy Sutherland), and the Disability/Dyslexia Support Service/Student Health and Well Being. This was to discuss the prospect of a meeting room or ‘rest space’ for students with additional support needs, for example in between lecture times or away from the often presumed ‘haven’ of the library. I know that the library is not a haven at times, particularly the IC which has reformed into a “have a chat about any old tat” space during lunchtime, so it was important to find an alternative solution. Many academic departments also lack such a facility and an eventual aim from future meetings may be to direct faculties at Sheffield University to oversee and provide rest spaces for the representation of our students. In the meantime I reported that the meeting had brought an agreement to launch a pilot rest space in the Octagon Centre that could be overseen by existing security staff in the building, although a risk assessment would have to be conducted by the Disability/Dyslexia Support Service. It is envisaged that this pilot study will commence in September 2010 at the start of the next academic year.
Chrisadvisor 