SMSU Council Minutes 15 November 2013 2pm K21 1/ In Attendance: Aedan McDonagh (Chair, SU President), Pietro Palladino (AU President), Ryan Bing (VP Community), James Turnbull (VP Communication), Mike Moody (VP Welfare Co-opt), Noel Jacob (PR: Creative Writing), Rachel Blackburne (PR Primary Education), Zander Lavall (Rugby Union President), Humaira Mushtaq (PR). Donna Harrison (SUGM, Note taker) 2/ Chair’s Announcements: 2.1 Risk Review The SU President advised SU Council that SMSU were undergoing a risk review and had purchased a 12 month support package for implementing the recommendations for the review from Ford Risk Management. A representative of Ford Risk Management visited on 29 October 2013 and the full risk review report should be available next week (w/c 18/11/2013). 2.2 Programme Rep Forums: The SU President reminded SU Council that Programme Rep forums would take place on 19 and 21 November 2013 at 4pm in the SU Lounge. The forums are an opportunity to discuss developments, progress and issues on courses and to meet reps from other courses and schools. 2.3 Student Led Teaching Awards The SU President announced that SMSU had applied for a £1000 bursary from the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and National Union of Students (NUS) to implement teaching awards run by students. The application is to be adapted and submitted by Friday 22 November 2013. 2.4 Hall-Stars The next Hall-Stars tournament will be held on Sunday 17 November 6pm-8pm in the Tennis Hall. 2.4 Thanksgiving/International Event The SU President invited the SU Council to a free event on Thanksgiving (28 November 2013) to celebrate internationalisation. This would be in the SU Lounge and Bar from 9:30pm. 2.5 Christmas Party The end of term Christmas Party will be on Friday 13 December from 8pm. There will be photography, Santa’s Grotto, Christmas music and old favourites and giveaways. 2.6 RAG Week Raise and Give (RAG) Week will be held on the week beginning 20 January 2013. RAG Week is a week full of activities to raise money for local national and international charities. A RAG committee
has been formed and are organising activities for the week. The SU President asked that if the Council had any suggestions for activities for RAG Week then they should be forwarded to him asap. 3/ Ratify the decision to Co-opt VP Welfare: The SU President explained that due to the resignation of the elected VP Welfare, a vacancy for the role became available and that the SU Executive Committee had co-opted Mike Moody to the position. This decision would need to be ratified by SU Council. After a majority vote, there was a unanimous vote for Mike Moody to fill the vacancy of VP Welfare. 4/ The National Student Survey DH reminded the SU Council that the NSS would begin in January 2014. The NSS is for final year undergraduate students to comment on their student experience. The results are used nationally to aid prospective students choose their place of study. 5/ Sexual Health Awareness on Campus DH advised that SMSU were investigating whether the provision of sexual services was adequate on campus. The college’s ethos was restrictive compared to other HE institutions and the SU would like student opinion on this. MM commented that he was meeting with the Catholic Society and Chaplaincy to discuss the matter. SU Council suggested that the onsite medical centre was not open enough and the opening times were not communicated effectively enough. The SU Council were not aware of the Family Planning Clinic that occurred on a Tuesday evening at the main surgery in Twickenham. It was also suggested that ‘family planning’ may be a confusing name for the service as students don’t necessarily ‘want to plan a family’. There was a concern that the LGBT Society was very quiet this year and the Council did not know who was running the Society this year. SU Council suggested that more sexual health information during Freshers’ could be useful, and that the Senior Residents could be trained to deliver this. The SU Council also expressed concern about the lack of training that the Senior Residents receive. One Senior Resident that was present said that they needed more training in general. ACTION: RB and AM to take SU Council comment to next Resident Mentor meeting. 6/ Upcoming SMSU Events Item taken in Chairs’ Announcements 7/ AOB: 7.1 Ex –Club/Society Funds DH advised the SU Council that there was currently £4.6k left in club and society accounts that no longer operate. During the recent audit, the auditors asked SMSU how this money would be redistributed. DH gave suggestions of a) re-allocate the money to current clubs/societies equally, b) use the money for the predicted end of year deficit (approx. £10k) which is currently showing on SMSU monthly management accounts, c) use the money as a budget for Varsity as currently, there
is no budget set aside for this. DH also asked the Council if they had any other suggestions. No suggestions were put forward. The SU Council agreed that the money should be split evenly between Varsity and the deficit. 7.2 Module Evaluation Groups The SU President notified the Council that the college are looking into revising the way in which module evaluations are done. If any of SU Council are interested in being part of a focus group looking into this, they should contact him via supresident@smuc.ac.uk 7.3 Childcare on Campus The SU Council raised the issue of lack of childcare provision on campus. Many students travel in from all across London to attend lectures and find it difficult to find suitable provision. It was also raised that student parent issues (such as breast feeding, expressing milk, children in lectures) are not currently being addressed. The SU President recommended that SMSU set up a ‘Student Parents Group’ to highlight these issues and aid the support of student parents. ACTION: DH to organise communications about a Student Parents Group. The meeting closed at 3pm.
Date and time of next meeting: 24 January 2014 2pm.