Union Council Meeting
date:
time:
location:
08.10.2015
5.00pm
S3.04
Minutes
1
1.2
1.3
Present: Tristan Tipping, Joe Collins, Jenny Wade, Ohio Orumen, Matthew Kitching, Will
Hoskin, Stephen Taylor, Greg Pike, Reece Buckingham, Jon Wright, Dan Lawrence, James
Bingham, Simon Reason, Ben Parmar, Alex Brown, Owen Simpson, Rachael Hunt, Katie
Savage, Kieran Young, Emma Wednesday, Jess Walbridge, Rhona Noel, Jill Salt, Joanna
Dudderidge, Shekir Rezak, James Taylor, Amin Choudhury, Jade Bacon, Liv Jones, Josh
Hepworth, Luke Brookes, Matthew Rudkin, Ben Wooldridge, Lianne Griffiths, Matthew Davy,
Tom Nickson, Jean-Luke Laister, David Reid, Vicky Harris, Emma Kiy, Honey Darwood, Brad
Roberts, Sarah Baker, Justin O’Brien, Aquila Burgess.
In attendance: Janet Gladstone
Apologies for Absence (SU Officers only): None
1.4
Absent without apologies: None
1.1
2
Minutes of the Last Meeting (28.05.2015)
Approved with no amendments.
3
Welcome and introduction to the role and purpose of Union Council
TT introduced himself and thanked everyone for attending. Union Council was a regular
monthly meeting and was very important to the SU as it was used for information sharing and
consultation on a variety of areas. Everyone was welcome to attend. It was an open forum for
the SU to share ideas with its members and for guests from the University to come and talk
directly to students. It was also there for the members to raise issues that they felt were
important. The best way to get updates and information about upcoming Union Council
meetings was to join the Union Council Facebook page.
Union Council had a student Chair, and anybody who was interested in standing was asked to
contact TT or any member of the Sabbatical Team for a chat about what the role would
involve. Elections for the post of Chair would hopefully be held at the next meeting.
4
Employability – Kath Dunn
KD thanked the SU for the invitation to talk about employability. She introduced the Careers
and Employability service (C&E) and said that she was there to consult with the student body
about some possible new initiatives to be brought in.
The idea was The Bucks Employability Award. Briefly it was a way to gather points and
experiences and gain an award at the end. A series of tasks would need to be completed that
was specific to each course or subject area which would be used to develop or enhance an eportfolio that could then be used to develop or enhance a CV. The C&E team would help
people to build their portfolio and once this had been scrutinised and accredited by a panel
then an award would be given. KD asked the members present for feedback on various topics
including what incentives should be given for completion, what should it be called and did
people think it was a good idea. Various points were raised:
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Would it be implemented on line or face to face?
What would it look like? Many people already had a personal record that could be used
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so the C&E Team would work with these and use a template on Google docs for those
starting from scratch.
The criteria to achieve would be something like Gold, Silver and Bronze but it would not
be too demanding. The detail of this still needed to be worked out.
Internships or personal development experience was popular as an incentive, as were
ipads.
It was asked if the scheme would have any sort of external accreditation so that it would
be recognised by possible employers. KD said that this was difficult at the moment, but
had not been ruled out completely. It was thought that it might be possible to accredit it
through a professional body, for instance the CIPD. Also, local employers would be on the
scrutiny panel which would raise the profile of the scheme locally.
If this scheme was brought in it was suggested that careers advice would be helpful right
from the start of the first year. KD said that this was already being considered.
Another suggestion was that instead of running such a scheme that employers should be
brought in to the University to engage with students. KD responded that this was also
already happening and would be increased over time.
KD requested that if anyone had any other ideas or suggestions that they get in contact
with her or with the C&E team.
KD thanked everybody for their input and said that she would return to a future Union Council
meeting to give everyone an update.
5
Sabbatical Officer Update
Jenny Wade
 The mental health awareness campaign was launching on the 26th October 2015 with
various events happening (a balloon launch, massages, events in the venue, workshops
etc.).
 Rep training had been freshened up and strengthened. Rep Shout-Outs were going well
and she and Mark Sweeney had also held a bitesize session for University staff on the
benefits of having course reps. She was also working with the Partner Colleges on
training their reps as well.
 Course Collaboration – JWa was helping to co-ordinate an interdisciplinary collaboration
project between the Swan Theatre and the University. The first meeting for this would be
held in E1.01 on 14th October and all those interested in taking part were invited to come.
 The new campus shuttlebus was now running and it had wifi, disabled access and air
conditioning.
 The SU were looking to appoint a new BME student ambassador to help co-ordinate
events including Black History Month.
 International Girls Day was taking place on Saturday 10th October in conjunction with the
Thames Valley Partnership in The Room between 11.00am and 4.00pm.
Joe Collins
 JC reminded everyone that they could log their time attending Union Council as
volunteering hours.
 There were now new Amazon Lockers on the ground floor of East Wing so everybody
could have parcels delivered there rather than have to wait in for them at home.
 The underpass between the High Wycombe Campus and the town was being cleaned up
by the Council and the SU wanted to paint it. However, this had been delayed whilst
funding for the project was sorted out.
 The Sabbatical Officers had held their first coffee morning on the concourse and the event
would be repeated again soon.
 The Student Ideas platform had been launched. See item 6 below for details.
 A new study lounge was coming soon to enable courses to collaborate in a relaxed
environment. It would be opposite the Dance Studio near Beats and was completed
except for the furniture. Hopefully once this was sorted it would be open shortly.
 Personal Tutoring – Many students did not know who their personal tutor was so this
would be made available on Blackboard shortly.
 An anti-homophobic pledge was now part of the membership procedures for sports and
societies.
 A new anti-sexual harassment campaign #NeverOk was about to be launched and wrist
bands were available from the SU. There would also be a poster to sign on the concourse
as well as other events.
Ohio Orumen
 Two Activities Assistant positions in the SU had been created and filled by students,
providing valuable work experience.
 An extra 30m of shelving for the library had been negotiated at Uxbridge Campus.
 AU and Societies Council had been re-profiled over the summer and hopefully this would
raise awareness. The accreditation process for societies and clubs had also been revised
over the summer with the help of JWr and was now split into five separate areas. It was
hoped that this would be a much more beneficial process for all involved.
 Student Retention – The ‘’Drop In, Don’t Drop Out’ campaign aimed at disengaged
students would be launched shortly. This was being headed up by the Advice Centre,
Counselling and the Head of Student Experience.
 Black History Month – The Urban Music night ‘Boombox’ had been a great success and
the SU was now liaising with Hertfordshire and Brunel Universities to both continue and
expand this event.
 Human Performance Centre – It was hoped that the SU would be able to negotiate times
for clubs to use the centre to improve their strength and conditioning training.
 Radio Station – Rusty’s Radio Shack, a streamed radio station based in the SU, was
being launched in November. Anyone interested in taking part was asked to contact the
SU for more details.
6
Student Ideas
A new Student Ideas platform had been launched on the SU website so that people could put
forward ideas for topics to be voted on and discussed at Union Council.
(http://www.bucksstudentsunion.org/union/studentideas/)
If the idea was approved it would then be posted up on the website for a two week period and
if it received 25 votes or more it would be brought to Union Council for a full discussion. Ideas
and discussion points could still be brought forward directly and this was just another platform
for students to use.
7
NUS
This topic had been brought up last year at Union Council and in various other forums.
Currently, Bucks SU affiliated to the NUS which in return provided a range of services for a
fee. The cost of affiliation was based on student numbers (or more accurately Block Grant)
and at Bucks it was about £23k per year. Potentially the SU could leave the NUS and the
money could instead be spent on other things (free drinks for students had been suggested).
A topic had been suggested on Student Ideas and although it had not reached 25 votes it had
been decided to discuss it.
The member proposing disaffiliation put their case forward.
They had already spoken to a number of Student Unions who had already taken the decision
to leave the NUS (including Imperial and Cardiff Met) and all of them said that they were
better off as a result. Since disaffiliation their bar prices had either stayed the same or in some
cased decreased. All of them had made arrangements with brewers regarding supplies and
some were thinking of forming a buying consortium which Bucks could join if they decided to
leave the NUS. Motions brought forward at the NUS conference did not benefit students or
their University experience and debates simply reflected the National Executive who ‘refused’
to condemn ISIS. The member thought that the Bucks SU should not stand for this and should
be campaigning for the benefit of students and also locally. They requested that the Bucks SU
should leave the NUS immediately and that the Trustee Board should debate where the
money saved by disaffiliation should be spent for the benefit of Bucks students.
There was then a discussion on the floor regarding whether cheap alcohol was actually a
benefit to students considering all the harm that it caused within society as a whole. The
proposer argued that cheap drinks would mean more money for the SU which could in turn be
invested in societies and clubs.
TT advised that affiliation had been discussed in the past and that how the SU spent its
money was indeed a very important topic. He felt that the proposers’ arguments could be
divided into two areas which should be tackled separately:
 Should the SU spend money affiliating to the NUS and was this economically beneficial.
 Are the members of Bucks SU happy with the political stance of the NUS.
1) Affiliation
TT advised that different Student Unions benefited from being NUS members in different
ways. Some did not have shops and bars and so did not benefit from NUSSL and it was
easier for them to disaffiliate. Some had far bigger bars and shops and therefore
benefited from the cheaper prices available to them through the NUS. There were some
200 SU’s in the NUS consortium. The next largest one that Bucks SU could join (called
TUCO) had been looked into previously and would cost the SU between £15k - £20k
more than buying products from NUSSL. If it went with TUCO, the SU would either have
to put up their prices accordingly or keep them the same and bear the loss of profit.
Membership of the NUS also brought other benefits, for instance a discount in the cost of
a PRS music licence. The sale of NUS cards also made a profit for the SU. If all these
additional benefits were removed the cost to the SU would be an additional £23k over and
above the affiliation costs. TT thought that the SU would struggle outside of the NUS as
there was no consortium that it could join that would offer the same benefits. TT offered to
go through the figures with the proposer and conduct another investigation into whether it
was feasible to disaffiliate. If there was a better consortium with lower pricing this
information would be shared with the student body who would then be able to vote on
whether to disaffiliate.
2) Political Stance
The proposer felt that politically the NUS did nothing to benefit students. OO advised that
the NUS did provide great training for new Sabbatical Officers which made them more
efficient in their roles. JWa said they had also done some really good work on the
disabled student allowance and mature student loans as well as other campaigns. Thus,
they did have a positive influence on the student experience overall. Their political stance
did not affect Bucks SU at all and therefore made no difference. Those present were
asked by a show of hands whether the political stance of the NUS affected them. The
overwhelming majority of people present indicated that it didn’t. The proposer therefore
dropped the political part of the resolution.
It was pointed out from the floor that if the SU did change suppliers then this would pose
possible ethical difficulties regarding non-fairtrade goods or possible use of child labour. The
NUS made a policy of purchasing ethically, with every company it used having to fulfil industry
leading criteria including fairtrade and green initiatives. There were other arguments apart
from the economic ones for staying with the NUS.
In summary the political parts of the proposal were dropped. TT undertook to go over the
figures on the benefits of affiliation to the NUS with the proposer.
8
8.1
8.2
9
Open Discussion / Suggestions from the floor
Pizza – It was suggested that although Domino’s pizza was good, that Farmhouse Pizza on
Desborough Road might be a cheaper alternative and this should be investigated.
Big Deal on Course Review – One of the members had attended this event which had been
run by the University last year. He felt that The Big Deal On Course needed to be rebranded
as the name was too similar to The Big Deal and it was confusing. Also, what each student
was entitled to under The Big Deal On Course needed to be made much clearer. Each
student needed to know how much money had been allocated to them and what it had been
spent on. JCo advised that he had been to a meeting about this issue recently and there was
a lot of confusion. It was being reviewed shortly and in all probability would be phased out
gradually. Future students would be getting a very different offer. It was suggested that each
student could be given a number of credits to ‘spend’ on a website on what was best for them
and in fact several Universities did do this. The Sabbatical Officers asked that this topic be put
on the Student Ideas site so that it could be taken further.
Any Other Business
None Notified.
10
Date and time of subsequent meetings:
19th November – 5.00pm G5.05