The new sabbatical team has entered office on the 1st of June! You might be wondering what we have been up to...
The first two days were mainly introductory meetings with Union staff and University senior management to start building relationships and find our feet in our roles.
On to the actual work that I have been doing, I have particularly focused on the joint strategy between the University and the Union to prevent sexual violence and misconduct. I have been looking over the protocols and the website to ensure that they are up to scratch from a student perspective. There is still a lot of work to be done here so I will continue to work hard on this to ensure that everything is up and running for when the new academic year begins.
I have also worked with your VP communities, Jamie, and his co-ordinator, Alban, to reshape STEER. This has focused on how we can restructure the programme to better the experience of both the volunteers and those who sign up to the programme.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to vote in the general election myself as I am not a UK national or commonwealth citizen. I did meet with Rebecca and Jamie to get their picture outside of the polling station though! It was fantastic to see them up bright and early to vote before going into work.
On election night the outgoing and incoming sabbatical teams went out for dinner with the Principal & Vice Chancellor of the University, Gerry McCormac. After dinner the old and new sabbatical team went out for a few drinks to wait for the election results to start rolling in!
I have also been thinking hard about how the Equalities Steering group will function. I am determined to find a solution that makes the steering group more active and successful. I haven’t found the answer yet but I will ensure that I have found a viable solution by September!
Another exciting development from last week was being invited to sit on a joint mental health strategy group. This will hopefully help me address a major talking point throughout the Student Union election which is mental ill-health. The Students' Union and University of Stirling are hoping to devise a strategy that would reduce mental ill-health within the student population. I look forward to having the first meeting for this and voicing student concerns at these meetings.
If you want to get in touch with me, email president.union@stir.ac.uk or pop in to the offices!
-Astrid