Issue 6// January 2016
ENO’S EDITORIAL
“Hi Councillors, Welcome back from the holidays. I hope you all had a nice one. Term 2 started on a bright note with most of us sitting exams and good luck with you results.
Our CUSU annual elections are here again, please let’s try and encourage students to nominate themselves and cast their votes during this period. Nominations Open on the 1st February and Closes on the 26th February. Hustings will be held on 10th March. Voting opens 14th March and closes 17th March. Preparations are up and running for One World Week and other Campaigns. I want to encourage us all to try and get involved. Thank you.”
The Spring Elections will be opening on 1st February 2016 and this year it is even more exciting because of the changes to the Sabbatical posts that Student Council passed earlier this year! So this year we will be electing a President and FIVE (yes FIVE) vice presidents, meaning for the first time we will have a six person Sabbatical Team. We will also be electing our Faculty Representatives and our Liberation, Sectional and Open Place Student Councillors. Nominations will be open until 26th February with Question Time being held on 10th March in the Hub Canteen from 5:30pm onwards, and this year we will be offering free pizza for the first 100 people there! Voting will be opening on 14th March at Midday and will close on Thursday 17th March at Midday. To make things a little extra sweeter, all voters will not only be deciding who will lead the SU but they will also be entered into a prize draw to win an iPad mini 2! Finally, potentially the most exciting part of the elections, the Results Evening! The Results Evening will be held on Friday 18th March in Empire from 6pm and promises to not only being exciting but also entertaining as you will be treated to performances by our very own Musical Theatre Society! So if you are thinking of re-running or maybe even running for a different position take a look on www.cusu.org/democracy to see more details about all the roles and also to look over the guidelines for the elections. Good luck to all those who decide to run!!
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A CLOSE UP LOOK AT THE MEMBERS OF STAFF THAT HELP MAKE IT ALL HAPPEN AT CUSU
Representation & Democracy
Paul Burt My role, as Membership Services Manager, is to oversee a number of areas including Sports, Societies, Advice, Community, Volunteering and Employability, Democracy, Representation and Postgraduate students. Another major area that I oversee is Add+vantage modules. CUSU run 8 credit bearing modules in 16/17, for which I am the Module Leader. I have a large team of staff that work with me and I am always proud of the dedication and skill they have in delivering services for students. The best part of the job is always seeing the difference that the team make often (without sounding too dramatic!!) altering the course of students’ life’s.
Adrien Lennon “I oversee Reps, Democracy and the new Postgraduate Coordinator role. It’s a very exciting department we are always busy and we love nothing more than to engage new students to be involved in our areas. I am very lucky to have such a fantastic staff team, based in the Hub office 1.25, they are always happy to help students who would like to get involved in becoming a student rep or student leader/councillor. Having recently recruited a dedicated staff member (the lovely Aysa!) watch this space for some exciting new ways of engaging postgraduates across all CUSU services.”
name is Grace Cappy and I am the Student Representation Coordinator “Hi! My here at CUSU. involves looking after the day to day running of the Undergraduate Rep My role Service Rep System and CUC Reps System. System, This involves making sure that all of your forums take place, training student reps, running conferences and generally making sure that all our student reps have everything they need to ensure the student voice is heard across the campus! I am based in room 1.25 on the 1st floor of the Hub, pop by to find out more about becoming a Rep!” Coming up this term… Reps on tour…meet some of your Course Reps and find out how to sign up, they will be in Faculty buildings and the Hub Planning for student rep conferences Applications will open for new Rep positions for 2016/17 Elections for Faculty Chairs Have a coffee with your Representation and Welfare Officer – outreach events Service Rep Outreach Event
Hi my name is Sue Davies and I am the Student Leadership Assistant. My role has recently changed to incorporate Leadership. This allows me to take a more active role in Elections, Your Idea’s and Student Council.
One of the things I love about the new role is the increased interaction I have with students!! We are currently working hard on the upcoming Spring Elections. There will be some exciting new incentives happening so keep your eye on the CUSU website!!
Hi my name is Zach and I am the new Student Reps Assistant. I complete all the administrative processes involved within the Reps department at CUSU and act as a point of contact for anybody who has any questions about the Rep system. I am always very keen to talk to people who are interested in Student Reps so please feel free to come see me in the Hub.
Hi all, I am sure that a lot of you in Student Council may already know me but I am Lauren and I am the Student Leadership and Engagement Coordinator. I look after all areas of democracy and student leadership in the SU including the elections, the ASM and Student Council
Aysa Ozcan Hi everyone, I am the Postgraduate Coordinator, both myself and my role are new to CUSU. The introduction of the postgraduate student loans for home/EU students and an increased focus on internationalisation means that many more postgraduate students are likely to be coming to Coventry University. In line with the anticipated increase of postgraduate students it was decided we needed more emphasis within the Students’ Union for Postgraduates, hence the introduction of the new full time sabbatical officer role as well as mine. My aim is to make the postgraduate student voice on campus louder and create a sense of community amongst postgraduates themselves. I am excited for the challenge and can’t wait to see the changes that the New Year brings.
V and E will be involved in Refreshers activities in The Hub on the 26th and 27th Jan 2016 our services and recruit new volunteers to promote School Volunteer placements start this month for both general and our Module students, which means around 200 students will be supporting pupils in local schools on a weekly basis during term two. Teaching of the Add+vantage Volunteering Modules A101CSU, A102CSU, A202CSU and A302CSU will soon commence for Term two involving around 300 students. We are re launching our Language Register Activities as we have a number of schools who are looking for support for their pupils who have English as an additional Language as well as examination language classes. We also have Student Volunteering Week 22nd Feb - 28th Feb which involves a week of activities that links in with a national agenda to promote volunteering and engage students in volunteering activities. Please ask students to check out the CUSU website to see what’s happening and encourage them to come to the HUB that week and get involved with Volunteering! Gen2Gen training session is taking place on 2nd February to recruit more volunteers to the project. Based at Coventry Central Library, students provide one to one IT support to the local community, so far this academic year we have trained over 50 volunteers. ‘Green Force Pocket Park’ project has now commenced in Hillfields. In partnership with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, we have recruited volunteers to join local residents in helping to add some colour, wildlife and greenery to the neighbourhood. The work undertaken will be to improve public parks, flower beds as well as outdoor areas attached to community centres. We hope to plant many flowers, fruit bushes and trees which can be used and enjoyed by the local people. Our Warwickshire Wildlife Trust Nature Force Volunteers have carried out their 5th volunteering day this year at Claybrooks Marsh, Coventry. Volunteers have taken part in shrub clearance and repairing boardwalks, providing the nature reserve with better public access, and allowing re growth of vegetation. Two Student Volunteer Team members are project leaders for ChildReach International. Volunteers will take on the challenge of climbing the world’s highest freestanding mountain – Mount Kilimanjaro or trekking along the Great Wall of China! Currently they have 11volunteers on the Kilimanjaro team and 3 on the China team which is fantastic. These students are aiming to raise over £30,000! We are hoping to recruit another 15-20 people this term and ChildReach will have stalls in the HUB 4th and 5th Feb and during Student Volunteer Week to talk about their organisation and recruit volunteers.
THE CUSU Business Plan for 2016/17
Hello Council Members The Board of Trustees and Executive Committee are now in the process of putting together the business plan for CUSU for the next year. The Board had an away day earlier in the month to review the progress on this year’s plan and ideas for the next year. The business plan provides the direction the Union should take in the year, what objectives to aim for and new services and initiatives to fulfil the purpose of CUSU. It is an opportunity to look afresh at how we are doing against our strategic plan for the next 5 years. The business plan forms the submission to the University for the Annual Grant to CUSU. We want the Council members to play a part in the business plan process. How you do that is very much up to you. However, you need to know the timeline for this planning. We basically want your ideas to us by the end of February. This is because we need to put your proposals to the Board of Trustees by the end of March at the latest. The final draft of the business plan will be put to the Council for your approval. We are open to new ideas, revising the old and perhaps dropping things we have done in the past. What we do need though is some idea about what we do as something that could be measured or have evidence that we have either done it or will likely achieve it. So, ‘be a better union’ is a good idea it’s not something we can measure. But we can measure things like ‘increase the number of volunteers in local schools by 20%’. You get the idea I’m sure. We will be asking students through a survey and focus groups and through other sources to find out what our members look for from us. So now it is over to you. If you have a specific idea or suggestions then please let us know by emailing Susan Davies: ab3295@coventry.ac.uk Who will forward to the management and sabbatical team. If we need to discuss with you further your ideas then we will contact you for a meeting.
Successful Staff Appointments: Societies Support Assistant – Sarah Shipley Student Union Co-ordinator – Laura Zeidan Student Representation Assistant – Zach Featherstone Sales & Marketing Coordinator – Raj Dhillon
Staffing update
CUSU Calendar
Executive Committee Meeting: 28th January 2016; 14:00-16:00 11th February 2016; 14:00-16:00 25th February 2016; 14:00-16:00 Student Council Meeting: 26th January 2016; 17:00-19:00 23rd February 2016; 17:00-19:00
Zones Meetings Week Beginning 8th February Board of Trustee Subcommittee Meeting: 19th February 2016; 14:00-16:00
Campaigns Coventry University Mental Health Week wb 15th Feb, which is a campaign that CUSU is supporting. The aim is to raise the awareness of Mental health issues surrounding our students, offering guidance and support. There will be two main days of activities in the HUB with activities happening throughout the week in areas in and around the University.
Useful Links CUSU 2020 Vision, Articles of Association, Impact Report and Consolidated Accounts http://www.cusu.org/yourunion/documents/
You can find the yearly CUSU Democracy Calendar by following the link below: http://www.cusu.org/your-union/studentleaders/the-student-council/democracycalendar-and-attendance/