Reports 1st Week Trinity 2008

Sabbatical Officers

Martin McCluskey              President

Welcome to First Week Council! I hope everyone has had a good break.

The Easter vacation was probably the quietest yet, allowing plenty of time to prepare for Trinity. However, there’s still been lots going on.

Rent

Dom and I hosted had a final rent meeting on Tuesday of 8th Week to wrap up things from this term. We had a useful exchange of news from across the colleges as well as sharing ideas about how things can be taken forward in Trinity.

Over Easter, I also met with some University and College officials over rent and, since then, have emailed Tim Knowles (Lincoln Bursar) seeking representation on the Fees and Charges Working Group of Conference of Colleges. I’m awaiting a reply.

QAA Institutional Audit

Ingrid has been leading on the Institutional Audit, which is due to take place in Hilary 2009. As part of this, OUSU is expected to submit a document on the student experience at Oxford.

In order to make sure we have the best document possible, we’ve set up a Project Management Board of the Exec with members taking a lead on different sections. Over Easter, we conducted some University-wide research on a number of areas. Our Student Experience survey received over 1,500 responses. We also surveyed JCC and Divisional Board reps for the section on Student Representation. The Survey of JCR Presidents (on the Council agenda later today) will also form a part of this consultation.

We’ll be running more consultations for the Institutional Audit and hope to bring a draft of our submission to Council before the end of the term.

Elections Working Group

There have been two meetings of the Election Working Group since the end of last term. This Group is charged with reforming OUSU’s Election regulations. The Group hopes to report to Council in 5th Week of this term.

Policy Working Group

The Group has met twice since the end of term and is charged with reforming OUSU’s Policy Making Process. The Group will report to Council in 5th Week of this term.

SAS Review Group

Council established this group in Michaelmas Term to review the Student Advice Service. The Group has been meeting with individuals to canvas views on the future structure and management of the Service. The Group hopes to report to Council in 5th Week of this term.

JCC Funding Working Group

The Funding Working Group – a joint Group with members of University staff and faculty – met once over Easter. We’re continuing to discuss the new funding mix for OUSU and will continue to report throughout the term.

University Council

Since the last Council, I have attended two meetings of University Council.

Nominating Committee for the Vice Chancellor

Along with Ingrid, James and Daniel Zoughbie (St. Antony’s), I attended the Nominating Committee for the Vice Chancellor.

We had a wide-ranging discussion with the committee touching not only on the qualities we wanted to see in the next Vice Chancellor, but also how the University should respond to issues such as access, postgraduate funding and also how students can be more involved in the selection process in the future.

It is expected that the selection process will conclude over the Summer.

I will circulate the minutes of the meeting to Council members when I receive them.

Groupware

I attended a meeting of the Groupware Selection Panel

Meeting with University Officials

I met with the Vice Chancellor prior to University Council and discussed the University Council agenda as well as Student Representation in colleges.

I’ll also be meeting with Elizabeth Fallaize, Pro Vice Chancellor (Education), on Friday morning to discuss student representation. I’ll report on this at Council.

NUS

I attended two NUS events over the Easter Vacation. The first was the Higher Education Funding Debate in London in 10th Week. This event was particularly useful and brought together students, academics and government leaders to discuss the future direction of Higher Education funding.

The second was NUS Annual Conference in Blackpool from 1st – 3rd April. This was my third NUS Conference and by far the most productive yet. Despite the disappointing failure of NUS’ Governance Reforms, the Conference did manage to pass a new Higher Education Funding policy and elect a good set of new officers including Wes Streeting as National President.

You can find the full record of motions passed at Conference at http://www.officeronline.co.uk/events/nationalevents/274295.aspx.

Diversity Week

After the popularity of International Student’s Week last term, we’re planning a Diversity Week later in this term. More information soon.

Common Rooms

I attended Magdalen College JCR Meeting on Sunday evening, prior to the affiliation referendum on Tuesday. Magdalen choose to reaffiliate to OUSU by 98 votes to 28.

Rich Hardiman              V-P (Finance)

Hi everyone.

Welcome back to Oxford, hope your terms are proceeding smoothly. Well, enough of this delightful small talk...

Business Manager appointment

At the moment we're in the middle of finding a new business manager to take over from Dave in June. In keeping with the general trend towards professionalisation of OUSU we're looking to make this a far more rigorous process then it's ever been before. It's going to take a while, I expect, but it'll be worth it in the end. During my time as VP (F) I've worked very closely with our current BM, and I know how difficult the job can be. I can only imagine (and I don't like to) how hard it's going to be next year without a VP (F), but I'm sure that whoever we appoint will cope with it admirably.

On a related note, this is another year in which the appointments board will be sitting without members elected in council. To be honest that's not a huge problem – obviously we're all about the student representation in OUSU, but in the case of OSSL, and particularly in the BM appointment, the need for expertise and experience is paramount – this is not an appointment to a representative position after all. This appointments board is comprised of myself and my fellow sabs, the current business manager and two members of the part time exec, with advice available from a member of the University's subsidiary companies unit and our own general manager, who has seen all shades of BM in the past! Before any appointment is confirmed I will also speak to the President-elect and any other interested sabs-elect. I'm satisfied that the flair and drive needed to pick a great BM is all in place...

That having been said, I know that a lot of people are keen to see more current students involved in the picking a BM. I welcome any suggestions of how we go about getting people onto the board who are not, as it were, OUSU insiders.

ZOO

Fresh @ Risa continues to perform very well, hopefully we'll see a lot of you there tonight. There's been a change of staff and management, who have brought with them a couple of changes in the way we run the night, but these have all been positive. The aim for this term is to continue building the night, especially amongst 1st and 2nd years, with a view to handing it over as the dominant Friday night in Oxford for next year.

ZOO Na Na has been rebooted following a dip in performance last term. I'll be taking a special interest in this one this term (if you pop down next week you'll be able to see me in my now quasi-legendary “DJ Hang” persona...) We've got a new DJ and are returning the night to the format that worked well in Michaelmas – we're also introducing college cocktails (which is an idea we totally made up ourselves, honest). So expect a return to form here.

ZOO has a target of £12000 profit this term, which is steep but not unmanageable given current performance. I'll keep you up to date on how we proceed.

Budget and preparation for next year

Lucky, lucky me. I get to write a budget that next year's team will immediately make irrelevant by having different priorities to the current team. Such is the life of a VP (F). Actually it's unlikely to be that bad, and the crucial thing is that it'll provide a plan for the next team to build on. Anyway, the constitution calls for me to present the budget in 5th week council (note to Martin – this is something we should change in the new constitution, who wants a budget debate that late?), but I'm aiming to get it out by 4th week, so you've got time to mull it over before 5th. I'll probably also propose that we delay the debate until 7th week, as it's really crucial that this gets scrutinised and not just nodded through.

Other preparation stuff... We had to abandon the idea of producing the Freshers' Guide during easter because we had to focus on sales for this year. That's a bit of a bummer, and should circumstances change next year I'd heartily recommend moving production to the Easter vac. In more successful news, I've invited a number of companies to tender for OUSU/OSSL's printing contract for next year. In previous years we've exclusively used Stephens and George, who've given us pretty good deals. This year we've worked with a variety of printers, which has been a nightmare logistically, but has opened up new relationships that we can now capitalise on to get the best deals. Executive summary: Rich started a bidding war and is now screaming 'Dance, puppets, dance!' at various printing companies.

Oxford Student/Bang!/Oxford Forum/Oxide

Just a quick word in support of the new editorial team on the OxStu; an excellent job being done by all concerned. Much better than that Holehouse character we employed last term...

Bang! is not going to be produced this term, due to a lack of candidates for the editorial team (what with scientists having exams in every year). Looking back at the two editions produced so far this year I think everyone will agree that it's an astonishingly good product. Special thanks must go to David and Marcus, who have been the driving force behind this success. Kudos. Anyone interested in joining the team should visit www.bangscience.org.

The Oxford Forum is causing me a bit of a headache at the moment. Put simply, and without disclosing any commercially sensitive information, it's proving very hard to run this venture profitably - something my predecessor and his BM didn't see coming when they took it on at the end of last year. We're looking at options for moving forward on this one.

Oxide is performing well; continuing the strides forward in professionalism and reform of the station. Who knows, perhaps the claims of its irrelevance made by Cherwell's new gossip columnist, Saint Aldate, is actually securing the station's place in the minds of both his readers...

Affiliations

In true Logical Positivist style: 'Affiliation fees Boo!' Believe me, none of us like them any more than you do. But with the time of year approaching when affiliations debates start in earnest (hello Magdalen) I thought it best to give a brief refresher on how we calculate the fees and why we charge them.

Basically, we charge fees because we couldn't afford to operate without them. Whereas at a non-collegiate university the authorities make a large block grant payment to the SU here we receive a much smaller amount, with most of the money for student support and welfare distributed to CRs via colleges. This is far from ideal, since it muddies the waters on disaffiliation. Of course I support the right of common rooms to disaffiliate as a protest against the way the SU is being run (although I hope you all think we're doing at least a satisfactory job!) but the sad fact is that at the moment disaffiliations actually inhibit our ability to do a good job by reducing our budget.

Since the affiliation fees are a) an unstable source of income and b) a burden on common rooms, we work as hard as we can to limit our dependence on them. At present we draw about a third of OUSU's income from this source, with the remainder made up from grants and (increasingly) commercially sourced income. We are always looking for ways to decrease this dependency, whether through expanding our commercial income or lobbying the university for more money.

The affiliation fee for each college is worked out using the following formula:

((Block grant received from college / number of students) x 2.6% per capita rate) + RPI base rate

The RPI we have no control over, it increases by about 10p per year. The per capita rate we can control, and for the last few years we have resisted the urge to increase it in the interests of keeping affiliation fees as low as possible. So, as an example, if you have 400 common room members and a grant from college of £25000 this is how that breaks down:

((25000 / 300) x 2.6%) + 4.33
(83.3 x 2.6%) + 4.33
2.17+ 4.33 = £6.50 per head (or £1950 for the whole CR).

As you can see, the cost is both means tested (since it takes into account the amount of money you get from college) and proportionate (since you pay per head). Let me say this categorically: we do not charge differential rates based on our perception of how rich your common room is.

If you think that you're being charged the wrong amount please get in touch with me and we can discuss your situation, it may be that a previous treasurer has not mentioned a mitigating circumstance (such as funds given to the JCR but ringfenced for a specific activity). Of course it may be that you're paying exactly the right amount, or in an extreme minority of cases that you're underpaying, but hey, that's the gamble you take... Whatever, I'm always happy to run the numbers for you.

If you have any questions at all about fees, finances or anything else money related get in touch and I'll do my best  help you out.

Membership of Oxford Student Services Ltd.

I mentioned this last term, and the response was overwhelming indifference. At present OSSL is a subsidiary company of OUSU, and all CR presidents and OUSU reps of affiliated common rooms are 'members' of the company. This will change when the new constitution comes in and OUSU becomes the sole member of the company, but in order for that to happen you'll all need to resign membership at the end of term. Unfortunately our current register of members (which needs to be signed) is, well, slim...

This is really just a formality, but it could have serious implications. At the moment OSSL is not fulfilling its statutory obligations as a business and, as members, I'm afraid that you guys are legally liable. Scary huh? Probably best to come and see me for one of the membership forms I've brought with me at some point during council...

From JCRs I have at the moment membership forms from:

Univ (Out of date)
Teddy Hall (Out of date)
Merton (Out of date)
Jesus (Out of date)
Hertford (Out of date)
Exeter (Incomplete and out of date)
Regent's Park (Incomplete and out of date)
LMH (Incomplete and out of date)

Dani, I'm sorry, I know you sent me one, but my office appears to have eaten it...

Right, that's enough from me. On to the important sabs....

Louise Randall    V-P (Welfare and Equal Opportunities)

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful break over Easter! Certainly the sabs in OUSU towers are feeling much more alive after a bit of time off. It’s always good to be back in term time, with students about again, and remember why it is that we are doing the things that we do!

The most exciting news to report to you is that after years of campaigning, the University have agreed to give us £12000 funding for the first year of the employment of a part time professional Student Advisor. Back in the Good Old Days the Student Advice Service benefited from a professionally trained advisor to run drop in sessions on everything from finance to dodgy landlords, and to provide continuity between the yearly flow of new sabbatical officers. We’ve been without one for 4 years now, and I’m so excited about the difference that this will make for students. Increasingly students are being faced with problems with housing, finances etc, which colleges simply aren’t able to help students with. The student advisor will have an invaluable support and administration role for the SAS sabbatical officers, who will be freed up to spend less time on administration and simple information requests, and more time advocacting on behalf of students, which is a role only the sabbatical officers as student representatives can fulfil.

As we get back into term time, I am further reminded of what an urgent necessity further support for the SAS is. The casework load is increasing daily, and much of the time I feel like a full time caseworker. We often never hear back from students that we’re involved with, but it’s fantastic when a student gets back in touch and tells us that their situation has been resolved because of the help we were able to give them. We’re becoming increasingly aware that the welfare role that we have in the University is one that only we can do. Students come to us when they are desperate and nobody else is able to help. We refer any casework that can be more suitably dealt with by another service, such as the Counselling Service, and the work that we do, we do out of necessity. Colleges should always be, and will always be, the first port of call for student support. Unfortunately, sometimes it is colleges, departments, or the University as a whole, that is the cause of the problem, and that is where we are able to help. Independence is a wonderful thing. The review of the Student Advice Service is progressing well, and we are looking not only into its structure, but into its management as well. Resources are limited, but the commitment of the group to review and reform OUSU’s welfare services is not. Watch this space. And sorry for the monologue on the SAS – it’s my baby, I believe strongly in the good that it can do, and I’m determined that I’ll be able to hand it over to my successor in the best possible form it can be.

I’m excited by recent developments in the equal opportunities work that goes on at OUSU too. Slowly I have been increasing and improving links with LGBTQ reps and we’re currently working together with LGBSoc and the OUSU LGBTQ autonomous campaign, to work on a possible collaborative event for later this term. Also on the cards is a Diversity week for later in the term. I’m also currently working with various dyslexic and dyspraxic students in the university as we campaign for the University to improve the way it currently deals with such students.

As always, do get in touch about anything, or ask me any questions that you may have.

Hannah Roe                V-P (Women)

Student Parents:
There have now been two meetings of the Student Parents Committee. Feedback about the meetings has been very encouraging and the members are keen to continue. The multitude of issues facing student parents is quite astounding and there are a number of different paths of action to follow. One is holding an event for student families - we have now set a date and located a venue for this, and the Executive has passed a small budget. One key issue raised by student parents is how difficult it is to meet other student parents in Oxford, and how the 'safety net' of a community which they expected on arriving doesn't seem to exist.
The University appears to be doing very little to support student parents in this way. According to my predecessors records, the termly student parents event used to be funded by the University Childcare Committee, which has not met in the past two years.
This lack of University Committee means that OUSU has not been able to represent to the University the many policy and funding issues which affect student parents - hence the motion to Council today.
I said in my last report that the main reason for OUSU's difficulty in finding out the issues Student Parents face is the lack of a central University Data base. From the two meetings which I have organised, I recognise that though undeniably important, this is not the only issue. Student Parents have incredibly busy schedules and so can take on only small amounts of work in relation to a Committee. The VP(Women)'s role is therefore very large in relation to supporting the committee, compiling research, publicising the group and the maillist etc, if the concerns of Student Parents are to be effectively addressed.
I have contacted Oxford Council to ask for a copy of their Gender Equality Scheme and whether it would be possible to have representation on its steering group, because childcare issues (ie playground facilities etc) , especially in the way that they still disproportionately affect women ( including amongst the student parents as anecdotal evidence shows) do have a significant gender impact.

Access and Education:
Research: The Gender Panel of the University Educational Policy and Standards Committee are currently conducting research via surverying English and PPE Finalists. The research will be used to recommend potentially very significant improvements to support for students in teaching and revision provision, and is part of a body of ongoing research. Unfortunately the response rate to the surveys was too  low last year for the results to be significant. I'm working to publicise this via the JCR President's maillist, the womens officers maillist and a short article that I wrote about it.

Paper to the Gender Panel:
This had two key focuses, following extensive discussion within Women's Campaign and research through the . One was to improve the confidentiality of parts of the tutorial feedback form, the other was to increase the visibility of women academics through for example lectures such as the Dorothy Hodgkin Memorial Lecture within Faculties, Departments and Colleges. The first was a way of addressing occasions of behaviour by tutors which students found upsetting, but which had not translated into a formal complaint. The second was to address the 'role model' issue which research indicates as a significant factor in the Finals Gender Gap. There was also a report on the OUSU Finals Forums this year - something OUSU has long been 'pioneering' and lobbying the University to integrate more into their own work. The first OUSU Women's Finals Forums started in the 1990s in response to the Gender Gap.

Tutorial Workshop:
Another factor that research has identified as causal in the Finals Gap is the confrontational nature of the Tutorial system. I'm working with the Balliol JCR Women's Officers to organise a Tutorial Workshop, where students can discuss with a Tutor what issues they face in tutorials and we can see what potential solutions can be found. Ideally this will lead to the University working to establish greater clarity as to the appropriate expectations for a student of tutorials, as well as a better explanation of how problems with tutorials can be dealt with.
 
Women in Science-Access events:
I had another meeting the relevant University Access people and the students involved - the scheme looks promising. It will run as a pilot project and an appropriate school and funding is now being sought.

Women's Open Day:
I'm about to send out the letters. Pretty much everything else is in place, due to having followed my predecessors advice and organising it all almost eleven months in advance.

Safety Bus:
This is requiring a great deal of liasing with Brookes.

Eating Disorders:
The new OUSU Guide to Eating Distress has now finished the editing process. It is currently being turned into a PDF format and will be on the website by third week. I am seeking funding from the University for a large paper copy print run next year- given the higher than average percentages of students affected by eating disorders in Oxford. Along with the other co-ordinators of Enough I am preparing for a presentation of the groups work to the Oxford Student Mental Health Network Shared Practices Day.

Women's Officers Support:
Along with the weekly e-mail, I have arranged 3 training sessions for women's officers, women's welfare officers and other appropriate CR officers this term: on campaigning, childcare and harassment.
The meetings are held every two weeks and are extremely useful to ensure that OUSU is addressing College concerns. eg. self defence classes, women's handbook, discussion groups, events for women freshers, tutorial workshops. At the last meeting we worked on a questionnaire to send to all women's and women's welfare officers.
The first Women's Officer Dinner is happening this term.
 
NUS Women's Conference:
This was very useful for the discussion of the issues facing student parents and Women's Studies courses and I have incorporated this directly into my work this term.

Women's Campaign: Lots of prior planning on the part of the Committee means that the organisation for events this term are reasonably under control, allowing the campaign somewhat more flexibility for campaigning and discussion.

Feminist Seminar Series:
A project arising out of Oxford International Women's Festival last term - I have helped advertise a joint initiative between myself and the Women's Studies MSt course. The first event  on Wednesday evening this week was attended by 43 students, so clearly an academic initiative of interest.


Upcoming Events:
Know Your Body-
A welfare event I am organising predominantly with the International Students Campaign.

Ingrid Frater          V-P (Graduates)

Welcome back to Trinity Term – hope you had a lovely Easter! This report will update on what happened at the end of last term, and what’s been going on since then.

International Festival
We held the first ever OUSU International Festival in seventh week last term. It was a great success with hundreds of people involved. During the week, the evenings all had scheduled events and activities. The final day was a large culminating fair at Keble with nearly 500 attendees (students, University staff and local residents) and many societies and groups involved. We had all sorts going on, including Japanese Theatre, capoeira, gumboots dancing, salsa, Scottish ceilidh dancing, gamalan performances etc etc. The aims of the whole festival were to raise awareness of and celebrate the vast array of nationalities and cultures represented in Oxford, and to gain publicity for the OUSU International Students’ Campaign. We certainly celebrated different nationalities and cultures, and the festival has also raised our profile amongst staff and students. We’re thinking at the moment of nominating the Campaign for the NUS Awards to recognise the hard work they’ve put in this year.

Institutional Audit
The auditors are coming in Hilary 2009 and our preparations for this are going well. We’ll be bringing a student briefing document (submitted to the auditors) draft to Council in 7th week. The survey we wrote and sent to all students has had over 1500 responses – plenty of data for us to analyse and include.

Graduate Admissions
Work on this is continuing and developing. I’m sitting on four committees/working groups covering all areas of graduate admissions and though it’s an arduous task to undertake for the University, it’s a highly necessary one and one which we thoroughly support.

Casework
Casework has been rising in numbers in recent weeks but has been going ok.

Student Academic Representation
The paper James and I brought to Council last term was taken to EPSC and passed with amendments (very minor ones) required. We made these amendments and now EPSC has it to send out to all Divisions.

University Council and Presentation
Martin, James and I have been to two University Councils since the last OUSU Council. At the end of last term, the three of us gave a presentation to Council about the work OUSU does, which went down very well – lots of interesting questions.

We think this certainly helped in securing funding for a part-time Student Advisor – we passed policy in favour of employing a student advisor in Michaelmas, and that’s now secured.  

BME Open Day
I helped with one the of BME Open Days in ninth week – it went very well!

Reach Oxford Applications
Last term I was on the selection panel looking at applications for this funding.


Second BA students
Having been alerted to some of the specific problems which second BA students can face, I’ve set up a meeting with Uni administration to discuss second BA students and how they are catered for.

Teaching and Learning Space Review Group
This group met again at the end of last term and is nearing its completion, at which point it will submit a document detailing how the University should proceed in building projects/restorations.,

Admissions Day in Newcastle
While at home, I helped out with one of the Admissions Conferences.

PVC Development
Martin and I met with the PVC for the first time, to discuss some of the main issues facing students and to hear how the University is currently working on the Development side.

Elections Working Group
I’m a member of this working group which has met twice and which will be bring recommendations on how OUSU runs elections to fifth week Council.

MCR PresCom and CR outreach
MCR PresCom is organised next at Mansfield in third week. I’ve arranged for Richard Hughes, the University’s Head of Academic Policy, to join us. I’m currently sorting out visits to MCR for the term and am contacting disaffiliated MCRs to see whether any progress can be made in reaffiliations.  

Diversity Oxford
We held a first meeting to discuss the possibility of a Diversity Week – hopefully we can go ahead with this in sixth week.

Graduate Alternative Prospectus
I have been keen for a long time to sort a Grad Alternative Prospectus, to appear online on our website. This is something I intend to work on this term – writing and collecting copy.

Student Bus Discounts
No joy as yet on this front – a complete lack of replies from Brookes SU and from the Oxford Bus Company. We’ll work on it though.

University Accommodation Tenancy Agreements
These need to be reviewed and we’re currently looking at how to sort these out for graduate students living in University Accommodation.

James Lamming         V-P (Access & Academic Affairs)

West Wing fans will hopefully remember the episode in Series Six where Leo draws a number on a white board and circles it.  “What’s that supposed to mean?” he’s asked.  “It’s the total days we got left, so what do you want to do with them?” he responds.  I paraphrase, but the current sab teams number is 68 (including weekends) at time of writing, so read this report in part as my attempt to fill up the proverbial whiteboard.

Before setting out ideas for our final few weeks, you’ll provide a quick summary of the work undertaken over the Easter vacation.  A bulk of my vacation was spent using up my remaining holiday days, but there was still time for open days, admissions conferences, Target Schools work, progress on the institutional audit and a working group on academic discipline.  

Access

Open Days – Over 100 students attended the two BME Open Days and Womens’ Open Day on the 11th March.  Thank you to the many volunteers who helped make the day such a success, and the feedback from the students attending was very positive.  I hope that similar events will be run in the future.

Admissions Conferences – I attended conferences in Newcastle, Manchester and Cheltenham where I distributed Alternative Prospectuses and answered questions about applying to Oxford.

Alternative Prospectus – The Alternative Prospectus has arrived and looks fabulous.  You can download your own copy from www.ousu.org/prospective-students/ap.  Copies were sent out alongside the University’s official prospectus to every single school in the country.  This is the first time this has happened, and I hope the AP proves to be a useful resource.

Target Schools – The committee have been accelerating away with recruitment, launch party, training materials and publicity that includes an EDM in Parliament.  The launch party is next Tuesday in Escape from 7:30pm and it’d be good to see lots of support (I believe free drinks are also available).  The Oxford Access Scheme and Target Schools have also agreed to merge into one campaign.  We will be looking at ways to use the funds OAS had remaining to finance new initiatives as part of OUSU’s access work.

Misc – Admissions Executive, Access Advisory Group, Teacher Information Evening, few school visits.

Academic Affairs

Academic Discipline – Member of working group looking at academic discipline regulations following the paper I presented to Senior Tutors committee.  The group has finished its work, and is recommending principles that emphasise the rehabilitative motives of academic discipline arrangements.  It is hoped that all colleges will endorse these principles and review their own regulations to bring them into line with the recommendations.

Misc – Curators of University Library, OUSU Presentation to Council, Institutional Audit work.

Targets for the Term

•    Work with Ingrid and others to complete substantial draft of Student Written Submission.
•    Support Target Schools in organising student visits to local schools.
•    Set up OUSU Shadowing Scheme to start operating in Michaelmas 2008.
•    Prepare handover for Paul Dwyer.

Claire Addison                 V-P (Charities & Community)

Welcome back to Oxford and what will hopefully be a nice sunny Trinity term. The vacation was oddly quiet at OUSU Towers so it's nice that you're all back. Apologies for my absence in council today - I'm in London at a charity communications seminar which is too thrilling to miss.  Detailed below are the main areas I've been focusing on over the vacation and first week:

COMMUNITY AND VOLUNTEERING
Links with the local community are going well.  I've attended meetings with Oxford Poverty Action Trust, Cowley Soup Kitchen, Marie Curie, Cancer Research, the Cowley Carnival committee, SpecialEffect, Oxford Adaptive Rowing and several others.  Most of the new volunteering opportunities are being advertised now, with a few waiting until Michaelmas to kick off.

The new student volunteering committee is coming on in leaps and bounds.  We're applying for funding to run some new projects including a new youth club in Headington and some conservation days.  We're having a soft launch this term - with projects in schools and homeless shelters mainly - in preparation for a huge launch in Freshers' Week.  If you're interested in helping to raise the profile of volunteering in the university get in touch.

1st May is the local elections.  If you're registered to vote in Oxford make sure you go along and take part.  Local councillors affect many aspects of student life - bike parking provisions, recycling, accommodation rules for the number of students 'allowed' to live out, planning applications etc.

RAG
Preparations are underway for RAG's events for Trinity term, including a cocktail evening, the famous RAG haircuts, a sports day event and more.

ENVIRONMENT
Daniel and I have started working with the E&E committee to plan 'Green Week', provisionally booked for 4th week.  We'll be hosting lots of events to highlight particular green issues.  Get in touch if you'd like to help out.

I'm also working on a paper for the university's Environment Panel about cycling provisions around libraries and departments, designed to stress the need for more bicycle stands than currently planned at the new R.I site.  If you have any information, insights or horror stories it would be really useful to hear them!

The college bags for life are going well, with some environment reps having met the 200 target and sending off orders.  We'd like to see them in every college by the end of the year!

GENERAL OUSU
The usual business of being a sab continues, with lots of meetings and lugging of heavy stuff around the office.

PART TIME OFFICERS

Adam McIvor         Common Room Support Officer

Last term, after a lot of commitment by members of the Exec, the visits by members of Exec to your CR meetings were a great success. This term we’re going to continue this and hope to have visited a meeting of every common room by the end of Trinity. I’d appreciate (if you haven’t already) if you could email me (commonrooms@ousu.org) the time of your regular CR meeting. If you have a preference over what week you’d like us to visit, or what area of our work you’d like us to discuss, also let us know this. Also, if you’re having an affiliation debate and you’d like one of us to come to your meeting please let us know.

This term I’m also working on a consolidated database of all the JCR/MCR officers in every college. This will serve as a vital resource for both us as a student union and you in your common rooms. I’ve had a number of replies already, and I’d appreciate if anyone who hasn’t, could email me to let me know: a)all elected/appointed officers/reps in your common rooms (both titles and names); and b)when these normally take up their positions (this will allow us to keep the list up-to-date). Thanks to those of you who have already responded - please send all responses to commonrooms@ousu.org.

Daniel Lowe                            Environment and Ethics Officer

Welcome back one and all I hope you're rested and recharged (yeah right). I'm very happy to declare this coming fourth week Green Week. The week will feature many eco-minded events throughout the city and colleges; a few debates, we're hijacking Zoo Na Na for an evening and we hope to swing a special flavour at G&Ds. I've also been in contact with a a group of residents interested in greening up Oxford, so who knows, something town related may come up.

Laith Dilaimi                            Access and Admissions Officer

My main work over the vacation was in preparing for and assisting the VP (AccAcAff) in the co-ordination of the OUSU Equal Opportunities Access Days on the 11th March, as well as day organising one of the two BME Access Days. The Access Days (one for Women, two for Black and Minority Ethnic students, and Students with Disabilities being catered for within the other days because of a lack of demand for a solely SWD day) went very well, with a lot of wonderful, enthusiastic student helpers and a tremendous number of enthused prospective students. There was a high level of feedback from school students and teachers, and was almost entirely positive and constructive. Thank you so much to all those involved!
Also, I have been providing assistance where required to the resurgent Target Schools campaign, and have been attending meetings of the Election Regulations Working Group and of Appointments Board.

Sarah Hutchinson                            Graduate Welfare Officer

Its been quite quiet since the last council - I participated in the discussion on the Audit Survey, have designed a survey on alcohol at social events for graduates that will hopefully be going out soon.  I also helped deliver the excellent new Welfare Cards, wallet-sized cards with useful welfare contacts on that are being pidged to every student.

Jaimie Li                            International Students Officer

Welcome to Trinity Term everyone! The International Students Campaign committee has had its first meeting of term and is pleased to announce a few of its big projects for the upcoming weeks.

1. The Careers Service is hosting a Careers Fair on Thursday of 2nd Week from 7 to 9 pm. This fair is especially geared towards international students as there will be an immigration lawyer in attendance to answer any concerns that international students may have about living and working in the UK after completing their studies.

2. A comprehensive handbook for international students will be published by the end of term for distribution in Michaelmas 2008. The committee is currently encouraging new members to participate in this major project, which involves writing, editing, photography, and design. Those who are interested are encouraged to attend one of our open meetings announced through our mailing list and on our OUSU webpage.

3. The international students newsletter is continuing this term so subscribe now! The newsletter is distributed through our online mailing list weekly and includes events and announcements from various national interest societies in Oxford. Then newsletter can also be found on the campaign’s OUSU webpage.

4. Diversity Week is happening this term, and we look forward to hosting a variety of events for international students alongside the efforts of OUSU’s other autonomous campaigns. The week promises to be informative and fun, so stay tuned for further developments.

5. Lastly, the international office, with the help of the International Students Committee, is organizing a “meet and greet” system for next year’s incoming international students. This unprecedented program would involve meeting students at Heathrow airport and making sure that they arrive in Oxford safely and at their colleges without confusion. There may even be a Podcast to help guide them to their colleges! The international office will definitely be looking for volunteers later on in term.

These projects are just a sample of what the International Students Campaign hopes to accomplish, as we are still looking for new ways to improve our presence in common rooms in order to better communicate the services we offer. Until then, we encourage any interested students to subscribe to our mailing list and attend our open meetings this term!