Minutes Executive Committee Monday 3 October 2016 1. Welcome and Apologies In Attendance: Zander Lavall: SU President (Chair), Eleanor Bowman: School Rep ETL, Henry Morrant: VPC, Sam Cliffe: VPSS, Matthew Janvier: Welfare Officer, Jess Carey: Sports Chair, Dom Crosby: Entertainments Officer, Chris Murray: Societies Chair, Eve Lugg: SHAS School Rep, Anais Hemetsberger: A+H School Rep, Eleanor Bowman: School Rep ETL, Donna Smith: CEO, Jenny Carr: Representation, Democracy and Communications Intern (Secretary) Apologies: James Roberts: Postgraduate Officer, Lilla Varga: International Officer
Declarations of Interest: No declarations to note.
2. Approve the minutes of the last meeting: 20/05/2016 EB discussed that although the personal tutoring system has been put into place for first years across the university, ETL will also include the support system for 3rd year students. The minutes were approved as an accurate record of the meeting. 3. Chairs Announcements The Chair had no announcements for the committee. 4. Terms of Reference Approved by the committee. 5. NSS Report SUP discussed with the NSS report with the committee. Focus groups will be set up with the lowest scoring programmes to discuss why scores may be low e.g. sociology, history, media, nutrition. Teaching Excellence Framework scoring – bronze, silver, gold – will allow a university to increase tuition fees in line with their grade. St Mary’s would sit quite highly in this table, compared with the Sunday Times league tables. 6.
Executive Committee Activity Reports
Minutes Executive Committee Monday 3 October 2016 SHAS School Rep: Meeting with head of school resulted in feedback that lecturers would prefer to use the personal tutoring system within class groups rather than as 1-1. This contradicts with what was agreed by all staff members within the personal tutoring paper. This issue discussed with the committee, SUP highlighted that drop-out rates at St Mary’s are at 14% which is quite high, so this shall be followed up to ensure students in SHAS are being given the correct support. Arts and Humanities School Rep: Met with head of school and appears that arts and humanities are unsure of programme reps and board etiquette. Action: CEO to resend programme rep information to A&H Societies Chair: The societies conference and fair were successful, with good feedback about splitting the societies from the sports. Development committee is set up with first meetings soon. Entertainments Officer: Hall Stars was not as popular as hoped, however those that attended did really enjoy the event. Feedback from the session suggested silly games as well as sports competitions. The date of halls stars in October is being moved away from the half-term week, to encourage more numbers. RAG and Christmas Community Festivals will start next week. ETL School Rep: Met with academic director to discuss that the theology programme is not up to the standard of the rest of the school- further meeting is scheduled to discuss why this is an issue. The programme reps for this course have not been selected correctly in the past, staff members are not informing head of school about ideas they are implementing and the topics covered during lecturers. EB has collected feedback from students regarding concerns of future career prospects. Theology students feel that they are left to themselves, as other teaching courses within the school have set career pathways- Theology students would like a seminar with the careers service to discuss their own options. Theology students also do not graduate with their own school, the council discussed that theology students should perhaps choose the course that they may want to graduate with (particularly joint honours students). Library books for theology students are very out of date and students struggle to find the topics they need- often resulting in buying expensive books for themselves. The issue with the limited books available in the library is then extended with the extension of borrowing time as it takes longer for students to get access to the books they need. The SUP advised the council that alongside extended borrowing time, he was also assured that there would be increased online resources for students such as e-books, this is expected to be put into place soon.
Minutes Executive Committee Monday 3 October 2016 Sports Chair – Sports conference was successful with the guest speaker, and the fair was also very popular. Ski trip is also looking very popular this year with a bus nearly sold out and the official ski trip launch hasn’t happened yet. Looking to still promote the trip to encourage enough people for another coach. New Sport St Mary’s staff are now members of the sports development team. Discussions of a Move for Movember- to encourage men to get involved with sport at St Mary’s. VPC- Welcome fortnight was very successful with lots of good feedback regarding the quieter events- games night and home comforts. Home comforts is now due to run fortnightly rather than monthly and the video game night is likely to return later in the year. Remembrance Day event- On the Friday there will be the first service on campus, meetings to organise this will begin soon. Would like to get the clubs and societies involved. Suggested involvement of CathSoc. VPSS- Sports clubs fees have been reduced this year with accommodation, travel and equipment now all centrally funded. Each club gets to keep the £95 to spend as they wish. Applications for scholarships are now closed and being considered by the sports development team. 25 sports coaches have been hired for each club. Positive responses from the societies now that sports and societies have been split and treated separately. Welfare Officer – Simmies Angels was very successful over Welcome Fortnight, with the issues being fixed across the two weeks. Looking for more senior resident volunteers. Lots of volunteers from the CU and CathSoc, as well as rugby league (welcome helpers). The CEO asks that all volunteers receive the Simmie’s Angels Handbook, wear the high vis jackets as well as the medi bags. Volunteers/ VPC will need to ensure that security are always informed that SA are there, they should open the SU building and have cooperation from the bus. VPC to email security supervisors to ensure they are aware of the system. Discussions that the multi-faith prayer room is not an appropriate space for the Islamic Society, also does not have disabled access. SUP – Working on the 24hour library paper to take to SMT, for 6week blocks at both the Naylor library and on-campus. Varsity paper- to allow students on placement to get the day off. Board of governors- attended with PG Rep, to discuss that Postgraduate and foundation degree fees will be increasing next year. 7. Upcoming Events
Minutes Executive Committee Monday 3 October 2016 - Mental Health Awareness Week(10-15 October) – SUP reported that throughout the week will include puppy rooms, guided meditation in the Chaplaincy, as well as tea and talks, wear it pink day, free hugs with the bear and the charity – taking control- will be on-campus. It will also be FA girls football week - Programme Rep Training (17-28 October) – All organised and ready to go - RAG Week (14-18 November) – VPC reported that meetings will start next week, with a few ideas in place but new ideas from the committee would be welcomed. Sports teams such as Ladies Gaelic and Cheerleading will plan their own fundraising events throughout the week including a 24 hour sport-a-thon and a Take Me Out event. During the quiz on Tuesday there will be an auction, so the VPC is looking for prizes. The charities chosen for the week are Children in Need, Molly’s Smile Fund and Team Aidan (CLICSargeant and CanTeen). There is a new RAG-O-METER to track the funds raised outside the Sabbatical team’s office. - Christmas Community Festival (2-4 December) – VPC reported that meetings will start next week. Christmas Food Festival idea. CathSoc would like to officially help with the festival this year.
8. Sports and Societies Update Fees are due next Monday (10 October), for both sports and societies. The emphasis is on sports teams for insurance purposes. 9. Degree+ All exec members will be entered into the degree+ system 10. National Demo 19 November The SUP advised the committee that the national demo is to protest against the rise in tuition fees in response to the universities TEF scores. The Teaching Excellence Framework measures universities across different standards to other league tables, and provides a scoring system of bronze, silver and gold. The mock tef table puts St Mary’s in a very good position in comparison to The Sunday Times league tables. It’s up to the executive committee to decide if we want to inform the students of the opportunity to attend the staff. It is proposed that we have a table based in the Shannon corridor in order to explain this to students face to face. Members of the committee asked for a little more clarity on the reasons for the march. The SUP explained that the NUS originally passed a motion for student unions to sabotage/ boycott the NSS. This would be detrimental to St Mary’s, as we are quite responsive to our scores and use them as a valuable tool for changes/ improvements within the university. As a students union we have been asked to write a letter to the NUS to call a national ballot, for
Minutes Executive Committee Monday 3 October 2016 students to vote whether or not they should have the opportunity to boycott the NSS. The result of this would not need to be implemented, however it allows students to have a voice. The committee approved the motion for the SUP to send the letter in support. 11. AOB Ref food transparency – The chicken served in the ref is halal and this currently is not advertised or told to the students in any way. As a result, Muslim students have avoided the food for fear of eating non-halal chicken, and other students may uncomfortable eating halal. Catering services have been asked to provide notice of this but the issue will also be discussed in the Student Experience Working Group. Green Impact – the students union is looking to improve sustainability with by registering for this NSS scheme. A paper will be drawn up and taken to People and Places sub-committee. Suggestion of a bicycle repair station on campus. Welcome Fortnight – some feedback has suggested that students would prefer just 1 week of events rather than 2. Students to ask around for feedback regarding this.
Date and time of next meeting: 15 October 2016 4pm