Semester One Update - Megan Selley
It’s the final two weeks of Semester One! Want to know what your elected Executive Committee have got up to this semester? Every day they will be posting their updates as we countdown to Christmas! Kicking off the updates for last week of Semester One is Student Officer Megan Selley…
We had a very busy start to the semester with Freshers week. Alongside working all the Freshers events as part of the Student Union Venue Team, I attended some of the Welcome Week talks and engaged with many of the new first year students about what the Student Union does. It was lovely to get to know so many of our new students and explain the all the great work we do as the Student Union.
At the start of the semester I heavily focussed on my manifesto in terms of the environment. One of my main manifesto points was to ensure that we have a cleaner environment on and off campus. This was really important to me as I wanted to make sure as students we were thinking about environment and the world around us. During Freshers Week, myself and some of my fellow Officers took part in the Earth Climate Strike. Many members of the Student Union, student cohort and University staff team took part in a strike from the University Campus through the streets of Winchester. This gave us the opportunity to raise our concerns about the current climate situation. One of the other things I’ve been working on in terms of the environment is ‘Go Green Week’. The Student Union are working in collaboration with the University to plan a week full of activities to allow the students at Winchester think more environmentally friendly about their actions. As well as taking part in the Campus Blackout at the end of November, where a group of volunteers on a Friday evening go around the University campus and turn off all plugs, any monitors on standby etc, helping us reduce our electricity consumption.
Another thing I have done this semester was helping Victoria Hurley (Vice President, Education & Welfare) and Tiffany Burnett (Student Engagement Manager) tailor the StARs training to make it more effective and useful for the StARs to enhance better communication between reps and their academic cohort. Additionally, I attended the Appointments Committee, alongside Megan Ball and one of our Trustees to recommend to appointment a new Student Trustee as member of the Board of Trustees.
Lucy Dixon (Student Officer) and I, with the help of Ellen O’Dwyer (Vice President, Activities), are looking to re-invent what was once known as the ‘Volunteering and Community Advisory Group’ into the ‘Volunteering Interest Group’. We wanted to do this to provide a platform for anyone who has an interest in volunteering. It tailors the group as more of a networking opportunity to get like-minded people together that could potentially help each other out. We have also been in talks about the plan for Equality and Diversity week in Semester Two and are looking at potential ways of celebrating the diversity of our students here in Winchester.
These have been some of the main highlights of being a Student Officer in the Executive Committee this semester. It would be impossible to tell you about all the interesting work we’ve been doing but I hope this gives you a bit of an insight to my progress. I’ve been to many fascinating meetings, some including meetings about entertainment, Student Academic Council, Zone Meetings, Student Senate and many more.
It is exciting to make a positive change on campus alongside the other Officers and I can’t wait to continue the amazing work next semester!
