A tragic accident

Following the tragic death of a 2nd year Law student here at the University of Birmingham, I would like to send my condolences to all of his family and his friends. This student's death has come as a great surprise to everyone and is an emotional time for all of you who had the pleasure of knowing this student before his life was cut short.

The Guild and the University would like to assure students that this event has been confirmed as an accident by West Midlands Police and although you should always be vigilent when it comes to personal safety there is absouloutely no need to unduly worry.

For any students who have been affected by the events of the last few days please remeber the following Guild and University services are available to offer you help and support.

• University Counselling and Guidance - head along to 3 Elms Road for further details or call 0121 414 5130

• The ARC in the Guild of Students - confidential service provided by trained volunteers and advisors, come in between 10-4 weekdays, email arc@guild.bham.ac.uk or call 0121 251 2400


• Student Mentors a confidential service provided by trained students, avaialble in halls of residence.


• Nightline - nightline@guild.bham.ac.uk

Also please be aware that you can contact the chaplaincy right next door to the Guild or for any more questions or queries please email me at j.davis@guild.bham.ac.uk

A run down of my activities

Yet again I need to apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to send this blog, I really will try to keep them more frequent in the future... I am going to give you a run down below of the activities that I have been up to in the last couple of weeks, if you would like any more info on anything then please let me know...

• Attended the NUS Welfare Zone conference in Manchester, making sure that I am representing your interests in the most effective way possible and making sure that the NUS is pushing the agenda that our students want them to.


• Atteneded the first Guild Council, the elections for the Equality and Diversity election took place (there is still 1 position to fill, come to the next Guild Council and stand for election!). I also saw my NBS policy accepted which is fantastic news moving forward....I look forward to seeing them back on campus in the new year.


• I went on a visit to Central Kitchen over at the Vale to see how all our food on campus is made...disapointingly there were no samples.


• I have also been working hard with Tom (VPDR) to develop a corporate social responsibilty policy for the Guild.


• We have now finshed recruiting staff for the ARC, we are now back at full strength and we have a host of fantastic advisors ready to help you with any problems you have.


• Been continuing the planning for Multi-cultural week in February


• Began the process of Job evaluation in the Guild, making sure our staffing is as effective as possible and making sure the staff are getting the support and development opportunities they deserve.


• Me and the rest of the team have represented a large volume of students in appeals, misconduct cases, fitness to practice complaints and mediation. This has been very time consuming but definately the most rewarding part of my job.


• I have met with the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) to talk about how our University manages appeals and the like and how we can improve our service.


• I charied the student staff working group, working towards the xmas social for all student staff


• I have booked everything for World Aids Day (will blog seperately next week)


• I have finalised plans for the Student Parent Coffee morning, hopefully this will give all student parents the chance to meet other parents and find out about Guild Services.

Well thats it for now, I promise to blog again soon