2016 annual report by sadesign

CONTENTS ... INTRODUCTION . . . 1 - 4 foreword • sabbatical photograph • year in numbers • our mission

VOICE . . . 5 – 22 students’ representative council • accommodation • alumni • education • elections • advocacy • wellbeing • StAnd together

ACTIVITIES . . . 23 - 28 student services council • subcommittees • societies

PLACES . . . 29 – 34 weeks • subcommittees • other big events

ANY OTHER BUSINESS . . . 35 - 37 honorary life memberships • sabbatical achievements • postword

yourunion.net union@st-andrews.ac.uk fb.com/standrewsunion twitter.com/StAndrewsUnion

FOREWORD Welcome to the 2015-16 University of St Andrews Students’ Association Annual Report. Here you will find a detailed account of our past year including our successes and the challenges we faced. This past year was one of ambition and creativity. With the Union building’s redevelopment finally completed, we were given a unique opportunity to re-shape the Students’ Association for a new era. We worked tirelessly to provide students with an inclusive environment in which they had the chance to take risks and challenge themselves on the road to seeing their ideas become reality. From Mermaids’ shows to BOPs, the union has been literally packed with students working on projects and adding value to the student experience here in St Andrews. As a sabbatical team we wanted to ensure that each and every student had the ability to get involved, and we all share a firm belief that the Association should play a key role in the development and growth of our students. Our subcommittees soared to new heights taking on bigger and bolder projects, balls, and events; The redevelopment helped contribute to some of our most commercially successful events of all time, while student representation reached new levels of engagement, and recognition from Universities around Scotland. With the 2015/16 year now coming to a close we can proudly reflect on all of the hard work from our volunteers, permanent staff, and university staff who make everything we do possible. We sincerely hope you enjoy reading about some of the amazing work that has been done over the past year. Sabb Team 2015/16

SABB TEAM

YEAR BY THE NUMBERS

OUR MISSION The University of St Andrew Students’ Association is student-led and student-run. We are dedicated to supporting the St Andrews student experience, while fostering a positive and inclusive community among students of the University. Better known as ‘Your Union’, we carry out three main roles:

Representing students to the University and wider community. YOUR VOICE Supporting student development through our wide range of YOUR ACTIVITIES subcommittees and societies.

YOUR PLACES

Running and supporting a wide range of events and facilities for students.

The University of St Andrews Students’ Association is an independent, registered charity SC019883. As a charity, we are governed by a group of thirteen trustees with a student majority. We would like to thank each trustee for their time, commitment, and dedication in supporting the aims of the Students’ Association this year:

Chair of Board Lay Member Association Chair SRC Senior Officer Director of Representation Association President SSC Senior Officer Lay Member Vice Principal (Proctor) Director of Student Development & Activities Director of Events & Services Lay Member University Director of Finance

David Scott Jacqueline Cassidy Zara Evans Annie Newman Joe Tantillo Pat Mathewson Charlotte Andrew Chris Mark Professor Lorna Milne Kyle Blain Chris MacRae David Stihler Andy Goor

VOICE

INTRODUCTION The St Andrews’ Students Association has a passionate and intense commitment to student representation. With nearly 400 elected representatives across our Students’ Representative Council (SRC), School Presidents, and Class Representatives, we have a dedicated and phenomenal team capable of ensuring the student voice is heard at all levels of the Association, the University, the Government, and beyond. Students continue to engage with the Association at a very high level. This year we saw the highest level of engagement with SRC Subcommittees that we have ever seen. With more positions made available to undergraduates, postgraduates, and first year students. Subcommittees were strengthened thanks to SRC Reform passed by last year’s Councils. This year’s SRC has passed the most comprehensive SRC reform motion in recent Association history, overhauling the number of meetings, the structure, and the types of motions brought forward. This reform will create a more streamlined and effective SRC that will be able to better represent the St Andrews students. Amongst many others, members of the SRC produced a number of events and initiatives unlike any we have seen before including a cultural diversity festival (PANGEA), a bigger and better Alumni Festival Weekend, a new Zero Tolerance Policy against all forms of harassment & bullying, St Andrews first LGBT Pride Parade, a new wellbeing initiative StAnd Together, the new Open Door program, Mental Health Awareness Week, Green Week, and much more. Our Class Representatives were elected at the beginning of Semester 1 in which we had 530+ students stand for election. We built on last year’s successful training for School presidents and Class Representatives ensuring that over 90% of our academic representatives are trained by the Students’ Association and know where to ask for help. This year saw significant improvements to the system of class reps through support from our Education & Representation Coordinator, our staff member responsible for supporting and expanding academic representation. We introduced wellbeing class reps to the system and have created a more robust and action based training to be implemented in September 2016. We have achieved a significant amount in student representation this year, and have laid the groundwork for even more success in the future. I have full confidence that under the leadership of Jack Carr next year, student representation will continue to excel beyond our expectations! Joe Tantillo Director of Representation

SRC The Students’ Representative Council (SRC) is the legally recognised voice of students at the University of St Andrews since 1889. Over the past year, the 27 members of the SRC met regularly every fortnight to discuss issues important to students. 2015-16 was a year of ambition and reform for the SRC: major changes to the structure and function of the SRC were undertaken with help and leadership provided by SRC Senior Officer, Annie Newman, SSC Senior Officer, Charlotte Andrew, and Association Chair, Zara Evans. A series of motions were approved to improve the SRC’s procedure, structure, and efficiency to enhance the representation provided to all students. Through this reform the Students’ Association Executive Committee was given new purpose and greater responsibility. Over the summer our students participated in the Save Our Rector Campaign, lobbying Scottish government to leave the role of the Rector intact after the Scottish Government’s Higher Education proposed major changes to the position of Rector. Led by the Students’ Association thousands of students and alumni joined together to petition the government to leave the Rector’s role alone. In Semester 1, our Gender Equality Officer, Alice Lecointe, launched the Got Consent? campaign, addressing issues of sexual harassment and violence and how students can come together to prevent harmful behaviour and actions. At the beginning of Semester 2, the SRC passed a new and improved Zero Tolerance Policy against bullying and harassment. The new policy covers all types of harassment such as race, disability, age, and socioeconomic status, among others. Association Council 2015 - 16

We would like to thank the members of this year’s SRC for their hard work and dedication to student representation:

Association Chair Association Alumni Officer Association Community Relations Officer Association Environment & Ethics Officer Association LGBT Officer SRC Accommodation Officer Arts/Divinity Faculty President SRC Employability Officer SRC Equal Opportunities Officer SRC External Campaigns Officer SRC Member for First Years SRC Member for International Students Member for Gender Equality SRC Member for Mature Students SRC Member for Racial Equality SRC Member for Students with Disabilities SRC Member for Widening Access & Participation Postgraduate Convenor Science/Medicine Faculty President SRC Wellbeing Officer

Zara Evans Charlotte Andrew Clare Armstrong Alice Pickthall Sigrid Jørgensen Alexandre Ciric Eleanor Mullin Nils Turner Omar Ali Toby Emerson Holly Johnston Adam Stromme Alice Lecointe Aysha Marty Jackie Ashkin Kate Mayer Melissa Turner Tania Strüetzel Louise McCaul Miriam Chappell

SRC REFORM This year the SRC undertook major reform in an attempt to improve the effectiveness of the body and to provide better representation to the students of St Andrews. The reform came in three parts and looked at all aspects of the SRC. From procedure to structure, all parts of the SRC were reformed in the largest change to the body in recent Association History. Firstly in order to make meetings more productive the Students Association Executive Committee (SAEC) was given the authority to approve structural changes to the laws, while promising that any representational or substantive changes would be sent to the SRC first for consideration. In a continued effort to strengthen the subcommittee structure, it was determined that the SRC as a whole body will meet less frequently to allow subcommittees to accomplish more between meetings. SRC subcommittee officers now have a responsibility to meet one on one with their line manager weekly in order to discuss issues within their remit. To compensate for fewer SRC meetings it was decided that SAEC would meet fortnightly. To make SAEC more representative the structure was changed to include all five sabbatical officers for the first time ever, and three nominees from the SRC and the SSC. Finally the structure of SRC was reformed removing some roles and merging the responsibilities of others. The roles removed were SRC External Campaigns Officer, SRC Member for International Students, and SRC Employability Officer. The reasoning for this was that the SRC as a whole should determine which campaigns they lead, the member for international students was replaced by an international students steering group that will sit within the equal opportunities committee, and the Employability Officer was moved to the SSC. The Equal Opportunities Officer role was also expanded to an Association position, and all members of their committee were given new roles and responsibilities. Finally, in order to expand postgraduate representation, the new Postgraduate Development Officer role was created. With the major reform behind them the SRC can now begin to focus on the future of student representation in St Andrews.

ACCOMMODATION This year saw significant strides in one of the most challenging areas for St Andrews students; accommodation. Most notably, the University recently announced a 900 bed, £70 million investment in new housing, the culmination of two years of focused advocacy on behalf of the Students’ Association. This will stand as the single largest expansion of student beds in over a decade. It has been the view of the Association that current market conditions do not give students the various options necessary to turn their backs on high prices, mouldy flats, and unscrupulous landlords. This new build program will serve as an essential first step in improving the housing experience for all students. Our Accommodation Team also made significant progress launching the first ever ‘How To Rent’ talks which proved immensely popular with new students. The Private Accommodation Viewing Service (PAVS) entered its second year, providing essential support for students searching for housing while away from St Andrews. And our Accommodation Officer has strengthened the Association’s ties with halls of residence through the Senior Student Forum. Finally, the Association remains deeply committed to affordable and accessible accommodation. £450,000 of new accommodation bursaries came online this year, alongside an effort to streamline how students apply for those bursaries. Additionally, as accommodation is often one of the most challenging costs for students facing financial hardship, the new £250,000 International Hardship Fund will help ensure that housing is never a hurdle to completing one’s studies.

ALUMNI Alumni engagement has been one of the most expansive areas of growth for the Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Association over the 2015-16 academic year. Recognising that close relationships with our alumni are beneficial across the scope of our activities, the Association established the first Alumni Officer and Alumni Relations Subcommittee. In addition to overhauling door policy, ensuring all alumni now have lifetime access to their Union we successfully hosted the second Alumni Festival Weekend. Ties between the development Office, Athletic Union and ourselves are deepening and we hope this new tradition becomes firmly embedded in the St Andrews calendar.

EDUCATION This year the Education Committee worked together to tackle a number of issues affecting learning and teaching across the University. Over the past several months we lobbied the University on Advising, Study Space, Extenuating Circumstances Policy and Marking Clarity. Successful negotiations around the library redevelopment have led to confirmation that the refurbished library will have 375 new study spaces including group and flexible spaces, and more browseable stacks for a larger availability of books. The Parking Ticket system was also launched in collaboration with the library to prevent students from leaving their seats abandoned and preventing other students from using them. The Education Committee was successful in co-ordinating with the University to bring about a new Independent Learning Week in semester 1 of the next academic year. This came as a result of years of student requests and is a true example of the power of student representation. The PG Executive Forum worked to lobby the University and better and more comprehensive training for PGR Tutors. This has resulted in the creation of the Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s PGR Tutor Working Group, which will examine the training, support, and development of PGR tutors across the university. Finally with a major focus on wellbeing in schools, the School Presidents helped pave the way for initiating a review of extension and alternative assessment policies for students with extenuating personal circumstances.

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TEACHING AWARDS Winners of the Students’ Association Teaching Awards 2016:

Dissertation/Project Supervisor (Arts/Divinity Dissertation/Project Supervisor (Science/Medicine) Postgraduate Research Thesis Supervisor: Professor Excellence in Teaching – Sub-Honours (Arts/Divinity) Excellence in Teaching – Sub-Honours (Science/Medicine) Excellence in Teaching – Honours (Arts/Divinity) Excellence in Teaching – Honours (Science/Medicine) Excellence in Teaching – Postgraduate Teaching Excellence by a Postgraduate Tutor Commitment by a Support Staff Member Innovation in Teaching Contribution to Excellence In Teaching

Dr Martin Campbell Dr Tim Raub Nigel Rapport Dr Ana Del Campo Dr Will McCarthy Dr Paloma Gay y Blasco Dr Antje Kohlne Dr Eric Stoddart Julianne Mentzer Dorothy Christie Dr Maggie Ellis Dr Jeffrey Murer

ACADEMIC REPRESENTATIVES Our 330 Class Representatives are at the core of academic representation at the University of St Andrews. This year for the first time we created a new type of class rep. Recognising the importance of our students’ mental health we created the Wellbeing Class Rep! Trained in collaboration with members of Student Services these reps are responsible for organising stress free non-academic events in their schools to help their fellow students relieve stress. Another first this year was the introduction of a new School president role. The School President of English Language Teaching (ELT) will be essential in representing the voice of all students enrolled in the ELT program here in St Andrews. Jesse Galapia was elected as the inaugural ELT School President in October. We built on last year’s success of the Proctor’s Award to recognise amazing commitment by students in enhancing learning and teaching at the University of St Andrews. This year’s winner was: Eleanor Mullin We would like to thank our amazing team of 22 School Presidents who made all of these successes possible. Art History Lily Barnes Biology Amelia Hunter Chemistry Claire Brodie Classics Marjan Laila Magharehi Computer Science Maria Kustikova Divinity Tim Stackhouse Earth & Env.Sciences Sarah Alexander Economics & Finance Kirsty Mearns ELT Jesse Galapia English Eilidh Tyler Reid Film Studies & Music Kit Klaes

Geography & SD Nicholas Wells History Megan Bruce International Relations Mira Boneva Management Louis Fearn Mathematics & Statistics Raghav Mehra Medicine Hussain Raja Modern Languages Verity Baynton Philosophy Sally Allmark Physics & Astronomy Tomi Baikie Psychology & Neuroscience Deborah Moffett Social Anthropology Imogen Hawley

SCHOOL PRESIDENTS

ELECTIONS Our 2016 Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Association Elections continued our strong history of student engagement and participation in the democratic process. 136 candidates stood for 57 positions across a broad range of remits. We had 3,779 students cast a vote giving us a 38.34% turnout, the best in Scotland and one of the highest in the UK. This year we added a new debate format for sabbatical officers and live-streamed it online to the entire University and anyone who wanted to watch worldwide. This allowed more students than ever before to have a front row seat to the sabbatical race. The democratic spirit is strong in St Andrews and we believe we will continue to have one of the most engaged student bodies in the country.

ADVOCACY CENTRE Education Advocacy Iain Cupples is our full-time Education Advocate who provides free and confidential advice to students whenever they have a problem in the University. He can help students with academic appeals, academic alerts, and academic misconduct cases, and also in making complaints, in non-academic discipline cases, and in a range of other problems too. Over the summer, we produced an online student guide to academic appeals to give students an easy-to-access guidance for making an academic appeal. Our advocacy continues to be regularly used by students and over the past year, we saw a significant increase in the number of appointments and answered queries by both our Accommodation and Education Advocates.

Education and Representation Coordinator Ilaria is the first point of contact for student academic representatives at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. She helps us support and further develop our proactive student-led academic representation and she works closely with the Director of Representation and other elected student officers.

STAND TOGETHER This year the Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Association, in collaboration with the University launched a first of its kind joint student wellbeing initiative. The StAnd Together initiative is a unique evolving campaign that is centered on the belief that a united student body is the best support system you can have. The first campaign of the initiative is the Got Consent? campaign. The campaign focuses on preventing sexual harassment and violence in the St Andrews community through a bystander intervention approach. Through workshops developed by Graham Goulden of Police Scotland, and led by students, a positive dialogue is created around the importance of looking out for your friends at all times. Dr. Fergus Neville of the University of St Andrews School of Medicine is conducting ongoing research to measure the effectiveness and long-term impact of this training, so the training can adapt and grow as necessary. StAnd Together has only just begun and will look to add new projects each year covering different topics in student wellbeing, but always with a focus on peer support and community building. The committee looks forward to continuing to build upon the excellent work done this year with a new project in academic year 2016-17.

WELLBEING The Wellbeing Committee had a terrific year, in only the third year of itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s existence, and the committee led more campaigns, events, and initiatives than ever before. Early in the year the Committee led Sexual Health Awareness & Guidance Week with a number of successful events to encourage positive discussion around sexual health, sexual education, and safe sex in St Andrews. After several years of lobbying, the Committee finally saw success in increasing the provision of services provided by NHS Sexual Health Fife. Doubling the number of nurses provided and helping twice as many students be seen. Once again we worked very closely with Nightline, assisting in the creation of exam packs and positive messaging around reducing stress during the exam period. In semester 1, we ran a campaign about drink spiking awareness and the importance of remaining vigilant on a night out as well as looking out for friends. We also ran a campaign about having a safe and fun raisin and making sure that students of all ages could enjoy it without the pressure of alcohol. The committee also assisted in helping advertise about safety during the May Dip and assisted with the clean up, in semester 2. In semester 2, together with Student Minds, the committee launched Mental Health Awareness Week. A week of events centered on discussing mental health issues and educating St Andrews students on the support and resources available here at the Union and the University. The Committee also helped to organise a big revision fair in semester 2 with all sorts of stress free events like street magicians, therapy dogs, yoga, and other fun games.

ACTIVITIES

INTRODUCTION 2015-16 has been an incredible year for strengthening, widening and continuing our amazing student activities. The move from a Union with very little meeting space during redevelopment into the brand new building brought a few challenges but overall, a ton of new and exciting opportunities that our students have embraced to their full! This year has seen our subcommittees and societies achieve incredible things; the creation of the Student Project Fund has also created a new channel for students to facilitate new ideas that will benefit the student experience. I continue to be amazed by the way that our students are always striving for success just as much outside the classroom as within. This year saw the largest Freshers’ Fayre ever, not only thanks to the new spaces inside the Union but also thanks to a marquee on the lawn: as a result, we saw more students signing up to join societies and subcommittees than ever before. Moving all of our student activities back into the building has been greatly aided by the creation of our new online booking system – many thanks have to go to University Timetabling for letting this happen and to all of the administrative staff who have embraced the changes. Thanks to the move online we can quantify that 5000 hours of meetings were held by affiliated groups over the course of this academic year – these numbers are an extreme increase on usage within the old Union building. It is clear that the Union is back on the map as a hub for the student body. The introduction of the £6000 Student Project Fund to facilitate any affiliated or non-affiliated endeavour that will contribute to the student experience or provide clear student development has been an incredible asset to many students this year. In only ten months, the Fund has let students hold conferences, publish magazines, aided student theatre and helped with the creation of a Shakespeare Festival. These all stemmed from ideas that could never have come to fruition without the existence of this ring-fenced sum. It is easy to forget how wide ranging the student activities on our three streets in Fife are. This year we have supported students hitchhiking to Budapest, holding performances in Steak Barns, volunteering across Fife, an arts festival to beat all arts festivals and so much more. I am so proud of what has been achieved this year and can’t wait to see, albeit from afar, what happens as the Students’ Association settles into its second year with the new facilities. A final thank you has to go to all the permanent staff, University staff and student volunteers who make all of this possible. It is something really special. Kyle Blain Director of Student Development and Activities

SSC The officers of this year’s Student Services Council (SSC) have been incredibly busy heading up our incredible student activities, and we thank them all for their amazing energy and commitment. This year’s Student Services Council were:

Association Chair Association Alumni Officer Association Community Relations Officer Association Environment & Ethics Officer Association LGBT Officer Arts Festival Convener (On The Rocks) Broadcasting Officer (STAR) Charities Officer (Charities Campaign) Debates Officer (UDS) Design Team Convener ENTS Convener External Funding Officer Member Without Portfolio Music Officer (Music Is Love) Performing Arts Officer (Mermaids) Postgraduate Officer (Postgraduate Society) Societies Officer Volunteering Officer (SVS)

Zara Evans Charlotte Andrew Clare Armstrong Alice Pickthall Sigrid Jørgensen Caroline Christie Bruce Kerr Amy Christison Alyssa Muzyk Karla McDougall Lavin Ge Tian Tierney Riordan Annabel Romanos Ipek Ozsoy Joanna Bowman Aline Heyerick Robert Dixon Julian Urruela

SUBCOMMITTEES Every member of the Students’ Association (all students) is automatically a member of our subcommittees, as they offer some incredible activities that improve year on year. Mermaids has had an incredibly successful year this year. We have had an artistically interesting, diverse and exciting year of shows, presenting lots of new student writing, old classic texts, rehearsed readings, the English language premier of a Chinese play, promenade performances, and bags of other things. We have had small casts and massive casts, and plays in all sorts of venues. From an artistic perspective, Mermaids has been both brave and inclusive in its choices this year, culminating in a week-long Shakespeare Festival, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. We have also fully funded three productions for the 2016 Fringe, as well as supporting three affiliated groups. This year we have facilitated thirty-eight full productions, and twelve SAND shows, far more than Mermaids has seen before, a significant achievement. In terms of engagement, we have had the biggest and keenest influx of Freshers we have seen in our time here, with Freshers taking on roles in almost every show. The rebranding of the Freshers’ Plays as the Freshers’ Drama Festival has allowed us to broaden the scope of the week, meaning our affiliated societies were able to get on board too. The relaunch of SAND as rehearsed readings has been incredibly successful, and meant new people have been able to get their play on the stage. Similarly, the creation of student projects – under which both SAND and the Devising Company fall – has ensured Mermaids can engage with more genres of theatre whilst continuing our weekly workshop programme. The Barron has remained standing: we have a new floor, a newly decorated foyer, a usable workshop, and whisperings of the seating rack continue. The theatre continues to be an invaluable resource, absolutely central to the work Mermaids does throughout the year. It’s been a year which has been exciting for Mermaids, and I hope has left ideas about what we can continue and what we can change for everyone. As we look forward to the next year, and the centenary in the following year I am confident that Mermaids will continue to grow and support student theatre. You guys will make sure it is looked after.

The University of St Andrews Charities Campaign continues to raise money each year for the local, national and international charities nominated by our students, as well as supporting other student run charitable societies at the University. This year, the students voted to support Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre Fife, Nightline UK and UNICEF as the primary beneficiaries of the Campaign’s efforts. Over the past twenty years, the Campaign’s efforts have totalled over £1 million, and many of the annual events to raise such a total have continued this year as well as new projects being introduced. Our annual hitchhike ‘Race2’ went the furthest yet to Budapest raising over £30,000, RAG week collaborated with a variety of societies to put on over fifty events for different charities, and our Charities Campaign Ball became ‘Masquerade Ball’ raising over £5,000. Moreover, along with cloakrooms, bake sales and bungee jumps, the Campaign organised a Christmas Fayre in collaboration with Bubble TV as well as a gig at the Byre, welcoming students, lecturers and the wider community to both.

SUBCOMMITTEES This year has been one of the best years yet for the Union Debating Society. The year began on excellent footing, with our own Ruairidh Macintosh and Alex Don winning the European Universities Debating Championships in Vienna in August. This is the first time a Scottish University has ever won the European Championships. Coming back to St Andrews on the wave of such success, we have seen phenomenal success in competitive debating throughout the rest of the year, seeing teams in the finals or semi finals of national tournaments nearly every weekend, and notably winning three national competitions this year. Additionally, we have seen several excellent public debates, with particularly notable motions including This House Believes that Russia is a Threat to the West and This House Believes All is Fair in Counterterrorism. Moreover, we have expanded our schools debating competition to the largest-scale event it’s ever been, importantly increasing state school involvement. It has been a very exciting year for the society, and we look forward to seeing how our three competitive teams fare at the European Championships in Warsaw this coming August!

This year On The Rocks became the newest Subcommittee to join the Students’ Association. OTR continues to have more and more going on each year with events for both students and the community of the town. This year’s festival saw a line-up of art, music, drama, fashion, photography, comedy, and dance. For ten days in April, On The Rocks was able to transform this small seaside town into a haven of creativity, bringing together the vast array of talent that the St Andrews artistic community has to offer. However, the festival doesn’t just happen in April! Throughout the year the On The Rocks committee works hard to raise the profile of the festival and host a spectacular first semester event. The festival is always thrilled to have a very full and very varied programme! On The Rocks is proud to support numerous societies, groups and individuals in hosting their own events each year. 2016 saw, amongst much, much more, the production of eight plays - including one at the Balgove Steak Barn - a musical, free community art workshops, late night music cafés, open mic nights, and two sketch shows in addition to three student dance exhibitions, and a ceilidh in the castle! On The Rocks continues to have strong bonds with their patrons, including Helen Mirren, Siobhan Redmond, and Andy Serkis, which allows us to celebrates the talent, originality and creativity of this town.

SOCIETIES With over 150 affiliated societies – a number that is hard to accurately track, as we are constantly adding new ones – almost every student will be involved in a society at some point in their studies. Our societies work incredibly hard throughout the year to put on amazing events and increase their membership, so we were pleased to be able to reward their efforts at the Societies Awards. Society Awards 2016: Best Society 1st: Bute Medical Society 2nd: Investment Best Contribution to Student Life 1st: Jewish Society 2nd: Yogi Soc Most Innovative Society 1st: Save the Children 2nd: Economics Society Town and Gown Award 1st: Gilbert and Sullivan Society 2nd: Pool Society Best Event 1st: Afro Caribbean Society 2nd: Just So Best New Society 1st: Pathology Society 2nd: Entrepreneur Society Best Charitable Society 1st: UNICEF Society 2nd: Friends of MSF The Anna Kennedy O’Brien Award for Consistent Excellence 1st: Teddy Bear Hospital 2nd: Catholic Society 26

PLACES

INTRODUCTION The beginning of this academic year saw the completion of Phase 4 of the £12 million redevelopment of the Union building. This included the transformation of the old Venue 1 into two distinct spaces – a 400-capacity performance space with tiered seating capacity of 132 and a 600 capacity nightclub, separated by a retractable wall to allow for a full capacity 1,200 venue for larger events. The landscaping at the front of the building was also completed, resulting in a large piazza and more open entrance to both the reception and the club. The completion of the building has seen the Students’ Association become the hub of student activity in St Andrews. The Main Bar is used consistently throughout the day by people studying and eating our hot meals, with the introduction of Yoyo Wallet and its rewards-based system to earn free burgers proving increasingly successful as the year has gone on. Sandy’s Bar is not just used regularly during the day by those studying, but has become a very popular alternative space for those on nights out, and regularly reaches full capacity on Friday nights with its weekly karaoke. As per its intended purpose as a ‘sports bar’, Sandy’s is proving a popular place to show live sport, with the Six Nations rugby and some Champions League football matches being shown there. Beacon Bar remains one of the bars with the best views in town, as it overlooks Market Street through its giant glass windows. The premium service there is improving week-on-week as our barstaff become more accustomed to serving cocktails and we now have a dedicated team of trained staff working up there as opposed to in the Main Bar. The brand new Club 601 has proved very successful. Despite its smaller capacity as a stand-alone nightclub than the previous Venue 1, we are still seeing the highest numbers in the weekly BOP on Friday nights since 2012. The numbers are increasing every week, and traditionally smaller nights such as Wednesdays and Saturdays are growing, as Club 601 begins to cement itself as the place to be on a night out, despite added pressure from the competition around town undergoing various revamps. The new Union building has overall proved very successful and we can only foresee further growth over the coming years. Chris MacRae Director of Events and Services

WEEKS Freshers’ Week This year’s Freshers’ Week line-up was fantastically varied, with a great range of live music, DJs and comedy for the students to enjoy. We showcased both local talent – with the likes of student comedy troupe, Blind Mirth, and the A Cappella Society performing – as well as international talent, such as Dutch DJ duo TV Noise, American flute sensation Azeem, and pop stars Jedward taking to the new 601 stage. In addition to these big-name additions to the line-up, Freshers’ Week of course still included annual favourites such as Clan Warfare, Welcome To The Bubble and Sinners. Highlights include: • Most commercially successful Freshers’ Week of all time • Highest number of events of any Freshers’ Week (11) • Profit on tickets alone of over £34,000 A large factor towards these healthy figures was that due to incredibly high demand, we were forced to increase the number of Golden Ticket Freshers’ Week Passes available by over 200, resulting in the highest ever number sold (560). This meant all of our full-venue events were almost half sold out by the time individual tickets even went on sale. As with every year, the week would not have been possible without the hard work of our incredible volunteers, ranging from the Ents Crew who make every event not just possible, but look and sound amazing, through their technical expertise, to the hordes of friendly faces in the Freshers’ Volunteers Team who go out of their way to make every new student’s first week here easy and enjoyable. Refreshers’ Week We were very ambitious this year in branding the traditionally relatively calm Refreshers’ Week as ‘twice as big’ as Freshers’ Week. In the end this paid off, with an incredibly varied week including a ceilidh, a traditional Scottish folk band (Mànran), and two huge grime music artists – Big Narstie and Wiley. Wiley was one of the largest names to grace St Andrews in several years, and that showed with a 1,200 sellout event. Although there were some problems with the artist being quite difficult to work with, yet again our incredible talented Ents Crew ensured the entire week went smoothly and match Freshers’ Week with positive reviews in the student media throughout. RAG Week Our Charities Campaign ran a fantastic RAG Week yet again. Although there was some overlap in events with Refreshers’ Week resulting in some being overshadowed, such as a ceilidh and club nights, the week managed to maintain enough variety to distance itself from the better-funded preceding week. RAG showed particularly impressive use of the new building, with almost every room being used at one point or another, including even the rehearsal rooms being transformed for ‘Escape Room’ events. Once again, RAG Week kicked off the annual St Andrews Fashion Season with two incredible events – dRAG Walk and CATWALK. Both were sellouts and very highly reviews by student media, capping off a professionally-run and enjoyable week of events and raising over £20,000 for charity.

SUBCOMMITTEES Design Team A growing, but tight-knit team, the Design Team has done a great job of keep up with the demands of the many societies requiring their help with artwork and posters. A change to the constitution this year removed the mostly defunct PR aspect from their remit, allowing the Director of Events and Services to set up a separate and dedicated PR Team, and leaving the Design Team to focus on their design work. A reshuffling of the committee this year added a better structure to the way they deal with design requests, and they also continued their design workshops teaching students both digital and physical design techniques. Ents Crew Every single event in the Union, including Freshers’ Week, Refreshers’ Week, RAG Week and all of our bar entertainments, are run by our student volunteer tech crew. This includes all society events, as well as those run by the Director of Events and Services, meaning it spans from club and DJ nights, to student comedy and stage shows. Ranging from special effects to routine maintenance, the crew put together a fantastic Freshers’ Week and have been resilient during the redevelopment. We can quite honestly say that without the hard work of the Ents Crew, none of what we achieved during Freshers’ Week, or subsequently any of the student run events, could have happened. Music Is Love The St Andrews Music Committee, as it is also known, had a very ambitious year and perhaps overstepped their reach a little. Their passion for music is incredibly evident and can be seen in their far-reaching attempts to bring brilliant and unique acts to St Andrews. This, however, may have left them branching out of their remit somewhat, which states that their aim is to promote student music in St Andrews. Although they made a loss on their finances in the year, the new committee that has come in for the coming year has made wholesale changes to the way in which the subcommittee operates, bringing its roots back to where they belong – the incredibly talented musicians of the University of St Andrews. It’s a case of lesson learned, and the only way is up. STAR (St Andrews Radio) After a difficult year being displaced to the Gateway Building due to the Union redevelopment, STAR have settled well into their new studio and gone on to thrive with over 90 shows and several branch-out projects including Hearing Aid – a very professional-looking music magazine – and joint Live Lounge sessions with Music Is Love to name but a few. STAR is an ambitious subcommittee with arguably the most potential of the four the DoES deals most with. The future could hold great things, as they look to expand Hearing Aid and further develop their website.

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OTHER BIG EVENTS Of course the year expands beyond just the ‘Big Three Weeks’ of Freshers’, Refreshers’ and RAG. There are many opportunities in-between to keep the students happy with fun and varied events. A notable addition to the calendar this year was the first St Andrews Charity Battle of the Bands, run jointly by the DoES and an interviewed committee of dedicated music lovers. The event, running on 30th May, was a grand success for a first-time event and shows a lot of potential for growth in future years. Another favourite was the return of last year’s Freshers’ Week hit, Hot Dub Time Machine, doing his time-travelling audio-visual experience on what is known as ‘Back To The Future Day’ in October. In addition to the Union-run calendar of events, there were great signs of students taking the initiative to create and run their own events, which is very encouraging. A particular highlight was Label – an equality and diversity-themed fashion show, which again was a sellout and gained some fantastic endorsements from celebrities and media around the world.

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SNAP SHOT OF SABB ACHIEVEMENTS

POSTWORD We are one year removed from the completion of redevelopment. Having now had the opportunity to test our new building we can move forward and look to the future. The year ahead will truly mark the beginning of a new era for the University of St Andrews. With a new Principal at the helm, the new sabbatical team has a brilliant opportunity to continue its collaboration with the university on strategic direction. With continued expansion of the student body on the agenda there will be many hurdles to overcome but nothing that cannot be achieved if we continue to work as one team. Finally, thanks should be extended to all of those who contribute to the work we do in the Association. We will look back fondly on our time as a sabbatical team. It was a year that was nothing short of wonderful and each of us will cherish the memories we have made for the rest of our lives. The Association is in good hands next year. We have full faith in the new sabbatical team and wish all of them the best of luck. Faithfully Yours, Kyle, Joe, Pat, Sarah, and Chris

SABB TEAM 2016/17