Lowri Jones - UPSU President
Twitter // Facebook
Manifesto update:
Have your Say sessions
to hold me to account and to give students an opportunity to talk about different things they’d like to see change. Strengthening democracy including expanding the Union Council, empowering part-time officers, creating an online area for all students to get involved with council decisions and motions.
- Working on the officer role review and pushing for a full democratic review.
- The Q&A/Have your say sessions on Facebook live started on Monday 9th October with Alex, VP Activities also participating. We gave our recent updates, answered questions and had over a thousand views. The next one will be with Philippa, Deputy President and VP Sport, on Tuesday 7th November.
- For the November Union Council, I am writing a policy about holding our NUS delegates to account. This will ensure that our student body actually has a say on how delegates vote on their behalf at conference.
- The online portal ‘Make a Change’ is being launched this week. This area of the UPSU.com allows students to submit ideas for change in the SU/University and then vote on other students’ ideas. The ideas that reach 250 up-votes (and have 75 more up-votes than down-votes) within 4 weeks will get progressed either with Student Voice, Sabbatical Officers or at Union Council.
Redo Students as Partners Policy
Ensure students have a louder voice on all matters and are always consulted, with a representative always at the forefront.
- Working with Maja, VP Education, and key staff members at the union and the university to create a Student Charter and Students as Partners Policy
- researching other institutions’ charters
- going out on campus and hosting focus groups to gather initial thoughts from students, including at the Course Rep conferences
- the first draft will be circulated for more consultation in the second semester
- Gaining a fuller understanding of the university structure myself by observing extra meetings and pushing to be involved in committees that the SU hasn’t been before
- after asking the VC previously about having a student governor on the Remuneration Committee, I brought this up at Board of Governors itself on October 4th
- the Board were more than happy for me to write a recommendation/research paper on this to be brought to the next Remuneration Committee for discussion in November
- Arranging sessions for students to understand the university structure better and for more transparency
- working with Julian Chaudhuri (DVC Education & Student Experience) on hosting ‘informal conversation’ sessions where students will be able to sit in a group with a member of University Executive Group or a Head of Service and ask questions around a particular topic
- there will be more information about these sessions asap
A safety, wellbeing and health campaign around drugs
Including confidential service on campus for drug-related advice, drug testing kits.
- Researching the use of drug testing kits at festivals and other unions such as Newcastle
- Will be attending a working group on the university drugs policy in the coming weeks
- Developing the broader campaign, now titled Practice Safe Sesh, which will be launched in November with information online for students regarding safe drug taking
- meeting with numerous stakeholders who will be able to help me develop the information page
Key role related activities update
Alcohol Impact
- Completing my action list on Alcohol Impact, but the lead on this has now been passed to James, VP Welfare, as it fits in his remit better.
Environment and sustainability
- Eat, Sleep, Recycle, Repeat
- Met with the University/Viridor regarding the new waste contract
- All bins across campus will now have matching labels (general waste and mixed recycling)
- Met with Ian Short, UPSU Head of Facilities to ensure that our bins will be consistent with the University ones
- University/Viridor have decided to adopt this awareness/education campaign and will be using it on their material too
- Posted online for feedback from students regarding what students find confusing/difficult with recycling – will be used in the awareness promotion
- Will be planning awareness days with UoP/Viridor, student socieities, PCC and hopefully other SUs in Plymouth
- Meeting with student societies to progress the awareness days on campus
Other key updates
Arranging meetings with the Environment & Sustainability, Women and LGBT+ Part-time Officers (these are the PTOs that I support in my role) to find out their aims for the year and how I can help. I also attended the PTOs and School Reps training to meet the new members of Union Council and to hear some of their plans and ideas.
The role of the president involves:
- Leading the Sabbatical Officer Team
- Internal and External communications
- Representing Plymouth students in the local community, nationally and across the University, and developing community relations
- Leading on sustainability, employability and key campaigns
- Working as a trustee of UPSU