UNION 37
December 7th 2009/Student Direct
www.student-direct.co.uk
Union
State of the Union With USSU President Matt Webber
NEWS
president-ussu@salford.ac.uk
Find out about the future of HE Funding and enjoy some free mince pies! IF YOU’RE concerned about the future of higher education funding, don’t miss You Decide this week. Guest speaker will be Aaron Porter, Vice President for Higher Education at the National Union of Students (NUS). Aaron will discuss how changes to tuition fees might affect you, what action the NUS is taking on behalf of students to achieve fairer higher education funding and Salford’s involvement in its key campaigns. You Decide will take place at 4pm on
Wednesday 8 December in Chapman Lecture Theatre 4. Attending You Decide will mean you’ll hear the arguments for and against adopting proposed changes to your Union’s constitution – a controversial topic at AGM! All students will be able to vote on this in a referendum held at the same time as our elections in February. Other issues for debate include University proposals to monitor student attendance. Find out what this could involve and help shape what the Union’s position
on the issue will be. Maybe there’s an important issue affecting life at Salford that you’d like the Union to take action on, you can let us know at You Decide. You can also celebrate Christmas early – there will be free mince pies for everyone who attends! Come along and join us, you can take part in the debates or sit back and listen to the discussion. For further information, visit: www.salfordstudents.com or contact Matt Webber at: president-ussu@salford.ac.uk
Sabbs Ask, You Say. . . Every week, your sabbatical officers will be asking a different question to students in each of their faculties regarding university life – so if you see them around, tell them what you’re thinking!
This week’s question is:
“What are your plans for Christmas?”
Jim Dale
Ricky Chotai
Joe Kirwin
VP for Business, Law and Built Environment Email: vpblbeussu@salford.ac.uk
VP for Health and Social Care Email: vphscussu@salford.ac.uk
VP for Arts, Media and Social Sciences Email: vpamssussu@salford.ac.uk
Asking the important questions THE LAST fortnight has been rather busy with our AGM and our very own University Question Time, with students and student reps asking the important questions to the Vice Chancellor. At the annual general meeting we had a great discussion and debate on how the University was spending money on students with the University Vice Chancellor Martin Hall and Director of Finance Simon Atwell fielding questions. We seemed to have a really interesting and frank discussion about where the money went. Also discussed at length were policies to approve the new constitution, a policy to ban extremists from campus and a motion to ask the University to adopt a fair-trade policy. The motion on the new constitution attracted some concerns but hopefully anyone who comes to You Decide on Tuesday will have their mind put at rest. The other two motions were agreed, which I was delighted with. There is no way I want racists or fascists being on campus or any students being subjected to such vile hatred. There were also questions asked at the Question Time event with the Vice-Chancellor and three students (including myself ) on the panel. There were interesting questions asked on a variety of subjects including contact hours, how education is funded and the lack of decent car parking. We also had our student reps asking questions to the Vice Chancellor at a separate event where concerns were raised about resources in libraries and classrooms, the new academic regulations and the number of part-time lecturers. What is clear after these questions have been asked is that the Vice Chancellor, the University and to some extent the Students’ Union (in terms of pushing for change) all have big challenges ahead in making sure that we all work together to get the best experience for everyone at University. We need more car parking (or at the very least more buses for a park & ride scheme), we need more contact hours with lecturers and we need to make sure no student is penalised for academic regulations that they are unsure about.
Want to be President? ALTHOUGH IT’S only December, it’s not too early to be thinking about the Students’ Union elections which take place next February. There are a number of different positions you can stand for in the Students’ Union elections and all you need to do to stand is get a nomination form and complete it in the correct time frame. There are several different positions you can stand for and you get loads of training during your time as a candidate. You might wish to be a delegate for the National Union of Students annual conference which takes place at Easter next year. Or you may wish to stand to be one of the student trustees, where you attend board meetings six times a year and are legally responsible for the organisation. You may want to take on a full time role which traditionally means you take a break from your studies for a year, or if this is your last year at University, go straight into this role on 1 July 2010. So how would that work? Well, there are five roles. You can run for President or for Vice President. There is only one President but the four people who get the top votes for Vice President are elected and then assigned a faculty to represent by the current Trustee Board. There are three meetings next week where you can find out a bit more about the roles and how to stand. They are at 12.30pm-1.30pm on each day, and if you have a lecture until 1pm you can still turn up after and get a basic gist of what the roles entail and ask any questions.
The motion on “ the new constitution attracted some concerns but hopefully anyone who comes to You Decide on Tuesday will have their mind put at rest.
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The meetings are: 7 Dec room AA113, Adelphi building 8 Dec room A127, Allerton Building 11 Dec Boardroom 2 University House.
Salford needs YOU Joe Kirwin
Lorna Cole. Level 2 Business & Management “I'm going skiing in the French Alps so I'll be having a white Christmas (with plenty of revision around that of course!)”
Samantha Dale 1st Year Podiatry “Spending time with the family!”
Vickie Scullard Masters Journalism “The three w's: working, getting wasted, and wishing I wasn't working!”
HELP DIRECT STUDENT DIRECT! GET INVOLVED with your weekly student newspaper, Student Direct! Is there something you think is missing from the paper? Perhaps you’ve thought of a great feature that you think could be included? Getting involved with your student paper is a fantastic thing to put on your CV, and you’ll improve your writing and organisational skills at the same time. Whether you’d like to contribute and get some work
experience, help run the website, or just let us know what you’d like to see more of or less of in the paper, come along to the Media Collective on Thursday 10 December at 2pm, in the Harold Riley Boardroom, University House. For more information, please contact Vice president Jim Dale on vpblbe-ussu@ salford.ac.uk or Editor Steph Bartup on s.bartup@salford.ac.uk
DO YOU want to be a Community Rep? What’s a Community Rep I hear you ask? Well, I will tell you. The Students’ Union and the University are working together on a project to build better links between the students, University and local community. As a Community Rep you will be helping us build
these links, and it will only take a small amount of time. As long as you live anywhere in Salford, this is your chance to become involved in your local community, get training and skills for future employment, get a free CRB check if required, improve your CV and be an ambassador for the students of Salford. If you would like to be a Community Rep or just want more information, contact Joe Kirwin at vpamss-ussu@salford.ac.uk.