Reflecting on Winter Term - Thoughts from your SU President

End of Term Report: Winter 2023  

Toby Corbett – President of the Students’ Union  

Executive Summary: 

The following report details the level of motivation that PTOs currently have from the perspective of the team leader (SU President), and ways in which to improve that. Currently there has been some great work that officers have completed/are in progress with, however going into the spring term, I am ensuring that the meeting structure is changed to better motivate the officers.  

Manifesto Focus: 

Part Time Officers 

• The Manifesto that I wrote as a candidate for the role I am in now, was based off aspirations and inspirations I had garnered throughout my previous year within the Students’ Union as a Part-Time Officer (Environmental and Ethical Officer). Looking back, the ability to ‘hit the ground running’ coming into the first few months of this current role, was massively helped by educating myself on how the Students’ Union operated in my prior role. Not only is that insight something I want to replicate for the current part-time officers within the SU, but also something I would like to extend across the University as a whole. Understanding how the Students’ Union operates is key to working within and with the union. 

Within my Manifesto, I’d pointed out my aim to better utilise the part-time officers to achieve greater effectivity of the executive team (measured through the number of projects each officer is initiating and the time in which they are doing so). The improved utilisation of PTOs would likely result in greater awareness across the student body and the University of who the SU executive are and what they do. My initial approach throughout this term was to constantly be in communication with each PTO and supply them with the tools to work efficiently in their roles (beyond what is only just necessary) to garner my desired level of motivation from each of them. This would hopefully lead to the part-time officers being motivated to partake in my secondary goal for them, which would be to station them around different parts of the campus, advertising this via our various communication channels, and having the officers speak with students about their roles, the SU or whatever feedback any students have in these locations. 

However, despite efforts taken with communication and the supply of tools for PTOs, the level of projects and initiative taken by the executive team has been lesser than what I would have preferred. I have taken the necessary steps to identify the issue surrounding this; from what I can gather, I believe following the previous executive’s framework for meetings too closely is what caused the issues with motivation; these are new executives, with a new SU, so its important to pave our own way in how we structure things. Throughout most of the term, the executive would only meet every 2 weeks on a Monday afternoon; this would lead to executives being swallowed up by other responsibilities (such as their studies) in-between meetings. Moving to 1 meeting per week is the solution to this issue; there is current evidence that PTOs who are a part of more frequent meetings apart from the executive tend to have a higher work rate within their roles (Medical Officer within SALT, BSU President within BSU Executive). The higher rate of meetings will not create larger expectations of the PTOs, more just present what the expectations already are and motivate them to a higher degree, while also offering more support to them in general.  

While this aspect of the report has mainly been focused on how the approach taken towards PTOs in the next term will adapt and change, it mustn’t go without saying that there has been some tremendous activity from all the PTOs in the first term as they adjust to their roles. To name just a few, The Medical Officer has done brilliantly in providing the Students’ Union insight into the student voice of the medical school, and the BSU President has committed to supporting existing and new sports clubs as well as demonstrating great creativity when coming up with ways to work with her BSU exec team.  

PTO of the Month was also introduced this year, which recognises the work of the officers each month and a prize is given to the PTO who has proved most impressive in their role each month.  

Minutes from each of the executive meetings are always uploaded to the website, where they remain for anyone to read should they have interest in what the SU executive is working on.  

To assist the PTOs within their roles, I created a PTO Induction document which gives advice on refining manifesto plans and the general responsibilities and regulations a PTO must abide by. I also developed a PTO tracker shared sheet, which any PTO can access at any time to input whatever projects they are working on and keep track of them, noting any progress that has been made with it. This acts as a tracker that allows any officer or sabbatical to see what everyone is working on and potentially take an interest in collaborating on projects.  

Sustainability Innovation 

• Within my Manifesto, I made it clear I had the goal to innovate the University’s current approach to sustainability and the improving that; with that in mind, I am working towards that as I meet with staff within the University who have the same sustainability goals in mind. Once I completed the training stages of my role, I made sure to set up a meeting between myself and Matt Cross – Head of Estates at the University. In that meeting we discussed the current data involving sustainability and it was clear that a carbon footprint model needed to be established to help support any real kind of projects concerning the improvement of the University’s sustainability.  

Once complete, and assessed against other Universities carbon output, we will see where exactly improvements can be made and how we as a Students’ Union can approach make changes ourselves.  

In the most recent autumn term elections, the environmental and ethical officer position was sadly not applied for at all; and so, when entering the role as President, I knew that there would need to be a by-election that took place in the Winter term to have that role appointed along with a few others that weren’t appointed. Environmental and Ethical Officer is an incredibly important role for the SU to have as whoever holds that responsibility should be holding both the SU and University accountable for there focus on sustainability. With the by-election having been held and a new environmental and ethical officer appointed, I look forward to the spring term with a more complete executive team.  

In a recent visit to the Grundon Waste Management Centre, myself and the Vice President of Activities educating ourselves on how the University’s waste is treated once taken away; while we both still believe there are more routes to take in terms of recycling here at the University Campus; it must be said that the current waste management system is far better than the impression of it most students have. Having everything go in one bin gives the impression that the University doesn’t take much care into how the waste is managed, when this can be argued as not the case.  

Concluding Goals for the Spring Term: 

• Building the case further for the need for a Students’ Union Advice Centre sitting within the Union. 

• Increasing the knowledge of what the Students’ Union is around the University so that the goal of an independent union comes across less jarring to some.  

• Addressing issues around the cost-of-living crisis and seeing how the Students’ Union can hold events or have things in place to support students struggling with the crisis. 

• Garnering greater support in the UNITU platform from the schools around the University.