A game of two halves...

At the start of this term I blogged my end of term report for Spetember through to December. Within that report there are several on-going projects such as department reviews and meetings that I attend but I wanted to take this chance to highlight some of the headline projects that I am going to be working on:

National Blood Service

They will be returning to the Guild on Friday 22nd January. Whether you have donated before or would like to do so for the first time then everyone is welcome. Please check you are eligible to donate at http://www.blood.co.uk/ then call Guild reception to book an appointment on 0121 251 2300


SHAG week

Stands for Sexual Health Awareness and Guidance week, this is the opportunity to tackle sexual health issues straight on. I for one am tired of sexual health still being a taboo subject that you laugh about with friends but cannot be discussed any more openly than that. I am also tired about people preaching about sexual health. That is why I will be taking a different approach, a non judgemental, fun way to talk about the sexual habits of students whilst hopefully delivering some relevant advice that students will take note of. Look out for Fab and S.H.A.G coming your way very soon!

Maximum working Hours

The maximum amount of hours the University allows students to work and the Jobzone to advertise is simply not fit for purpose in the top up fee era. Students are having to work more than ever to support themselves and this limit on hours means that we are unable to protect exploited student workers where necessity dictates working more. I will be lobbying for a raise of a maximum of 20 hours and also looking at the guidelines for post grads and part time students.

Know your Guild

Know your Guild is a massive campaign across the Guild to promote and show case the work that the Guild does. Market research shows us that 75% of students are occasional users of the Guild but far fewer of them use the Guild regularly or know about the services we offer. How many first years know that both the Mentors and the RA's are Guild services? How many students know that we run the Student Reps? We aim to change this and lots more!

Taxi tender

I will be involved in re-negotiating the taxi tender for an accredited company, interlinked with this is our Nightbus service and I will be pushing hard to get a great deal which will allow us to expand the service and make it sustainable.

Mentors / RA's love

Working with the new RA's to continue the positve work we started last term in helping them and the Mentors to understand what each group does and how they can work together. We will also be taking a step back and seeing what issues remain and how we can tackle them.

Prayer facilities

I will be liasing with the estates department at the University to map the current provision of facilities across campus and get this advertised better for example having a prayer facility icon on campus maps. Once we have assessed the provision we can decide if we need to lobby for more facilities.

Mitigations process

This is a big priority for me this term, I want to lobby the colleges to take a unified approach within each college as to when the deadline is going to be for mitigations, all colleges to use the terminology of mitigations officer to which forms need to be handed and a clear protocol for what joint honours students need to do. Once this has happened we can push for a Univeristy wide approach.

Joint honours support

A joint honours review is already happening in the College of Arts of Law and their has been a noticeable shift in attitued towards creating a more joined up approach within colleges. I am going to watching with interest the current review and using its momentum to try and push forward reform across the University.

Student Parent submission

I will be continuing to work with the Student Parents networks I am now working with in the Guild to submit a report to the University, in it will be some of our and the NUS key findings with regards to problems for student parents as well as our recommendations.

Street lights

This is a big issue that has been around for a number of years. The volume and type of lighting throughout Selly Oak and Selly Park is completely inadequate, this means that students are uncomfortable walking through this area after dark and especially when lectures finish late this is unacceptable. I will be working to change this. In the meantime anyone who has concerns for safety can pick up a personal attack alarm for free from the ARC in the Guild.


I would love to know your thoughts on the above, so please comment or contact me.
Keep protecting your Welfare with a Johnny