And it’s that time of the fortnight again! 

As the leaves fall and the days get shorter, I have been busy getting used to the during semester pace of the job, while also trying to stay warm and keep energy levels up. 

One exciting piece of work I’ve been doing is “a student’s guide to influencing”. I am currently mapping all the different ways a student can influence the SU as well as the university on anything related to the student's experience. I’m dividing this guide into four categories: operational changes; university influence; representational change; and SU related proposals. I won’t go into too much detail about each of these now but watch this space! Hopefully, this should be ready to share before you all go away for the Winter break. 

I also got appointed as the Quality Assurance Agency’s board of trustees, as their independent student member! This is great news for a number of reasons. One, the QAA is a national (and international) body in charge of looking after quality and standards of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), so us having a seat at that table is great exposure for us as a union, giving us great insight as to what is coming up in the sector. Secondly, it will allow me to build more connections with relevant people in the sector. Finally, it is a great professional opportunity for me! If you’re curious about the QAA’s work and what this post means for us as a union, do let me know and we can have a chat about it.  

I was also involved in the recruitment of the deputy director for major projects in the campus infrastructure department at the university. Long big job title! But essentially, this is the person that will look after the biggest infrastructure projects on our campus, whether that is fixing existing buildings or developing new ones. So, naturally, me being able to look after this person caring about the student experience was a well-received invitation! We still have one more candidate to see, so I can’t comment on the candidates or who’ll be appointed. 

Black History Month is now over! I had the chance to participate in a couple of events, including the launch of the month and the closure of it. I thought it was fascinating, with the whole month focusing on reclaiming narratives in all kinds of aspects, but mostly around histories and – in a university setting – the academic resources we offer our students. This was all incredibly interesting and educational. Shoutout to Benji for all the work he put into supporting our student groups and the university in moving this forward.  

We also had our training session for SUmmit members. I have spoken about SUmmit A LOT in my blog posts, but here’s the link to it if you’re still not sure what it’s about: https://www.thesubath.com/voice/summit/ . Our first meeting for this year will be on 19 November, and don’t worry, my next blog WILL include a lot more info on it.  

There’s a few more bits and bobs going on, but I’ll leave it here for now. As usual, let me know if there’s anything that isn’t clear or that you’d like more information on. In the meantime, stay warm and be kind to one another.  

Much love, 

Jiji x