Term 1 Communities Officer Blog
Hey everyone! I hope you’re all well and excited for the break. I want to share an update on everything I’ve been working on so far this term as your Communities Officer. I have learned so much already, had a lot of fun representing students and can’t wait to do even more next term.
Below are some of the main things I’m proud of achieving this term!
Building a case for more sport space
This has been the big objective and where most of my energy has gone. UAL has very limited (basically no) sports space, and until now, this issue hasn’t really been pushed at an institutional level. This term, I’ve made sure that sports and physical activity are firmly on the minds of UAL staff and the Executive Board, which is already a big step forward!
Here’s what I’ve done so far:
- Audit of our current sports spaces (hours available, costs, studio use, how much we spend on external venues, etc)
- Benchmarked against other universities. (I visited LSE for a walk around and omg they have such nice sports facilities I’m jealous)
- Met with staff across UAL to get the right people on board and build momentum behind the idea.
- Secured a place at key meetings:
- Successfully pushed to join an estates meeting,
- Which then led to the SU being invited to the Space Management Committee which is where early ideas about estates projects begin.
- Presented at the Student Forum to gather student feedback and build support.
- Spoke about the idea at UAL’s Spaces & Places Forum.
- Working with CCW Student Journey to improve community.
- Researched ALOT
- Potentially adding a new question to the AES (application experience survey) around physical activity and extracurriculars because UAL currently collects no data on this!
- Attended the BUCS Officer Network to learn from other universities nationally.
- And of course… I’ve mentioned sports facilities at every opportunity in every important meeting possible (sorry to anyone who’s tired of hearing about it but I’m not going to give up!).
All of this is feeding into a formal proposal I’m preparing, which will go to Executive Board next year. Slowly but surely, the groundwork is being laid for something UAL has never seriously explored before.
More Support, Safer & Inclusive Communities
I started the term by delivering committee training focused on safeguarding and reporting as I wanted to make sure student leaders feel confident dealing with issues within their groups.
To build on that, I launched the Communities Feedback Form which is a new space for members of societies and sports teams to tell us what’s going well, what’s not going so well, and what support they’d like from the SU. It launched last week and will stay open throughout the winter break and start of January. The Communities Team will create a report in Term 2 based on your feedback: “Here’s what you told us and here’s what we’re doing about it.” I’m hoping this becomes a meaningful tool for change every year.
Strengthening Relationships Between Sports & Societies
One of my goals is to bring sports clubs and societies closer together so this term I hosted the Communities Quiz Night.
We had over 80 signups and more than 10 groups show up on the night. The Indian Society smashed it and took first place, with Taekwondo coming in a close second :)
It went so well that I’m already planning Communities Quiz Night 2 for Term 2!
Everything Else (The Side Quests)
This role comes with a lot of unexpected and exciting bits, and this term I’ve been involved in:
- Sitting on interview panels for SU staff
- Sitting on academic misconduct panels
- Sitting on BUCS misconduct panels
- Helping plan LGBTQ+ History Month for February
- Given multiple welcome talks
- Supported the by-elections
- Assisting with various SU events
- And much more that pops up day to day!
Final Thoughts
I’ve honestly had such a fun term! It’s been a busy one, but in the best possible way. Thank you to every student who has come to events, filled out forms, messaged, emailed, or stopped me for a chat on campus!
Shout out to the other sabbatical officer as well as they’ve been doing just as much!
And finally, it’s only right to end on this note…. Let’s keep pushing for sports facilities! <3