Find out about the campaigns your Exec Officers and representatives have been running this academic year
With elections nominations open until 17 February, there’s never been a better time to look back on what your student representatives have been doing for you this academic year. One of the main activities of the Students’ Union is running campaigns to improve the student experience. But what is a campaign? And what campaigns have your Executive Officers and representatives been running? Answers below:
What is a campaign?
A campaign is an organised and active way of achieving a specific goal. In terms of the Students’ Union, this goal is anything which matters to the student body, be it increased awareness around mental health, more study space or longer Library opening hours. We choose campaigns based on student feedback about what we should focus on.
What have we been doing this academic year?
Back in October, our Students’ Union President Carolina Mantzalos and Vice President (Barts and The London) Will Atkins met local MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, Rushanara Ali, for the NUS #CutTheCosts campaign. The campaign sought to put pressure on the government to not scrap maintenance grants in favour of loans, thereby saddling students from poorer backgrounds with even more debt.
Aside from taking part in nation-wide campaigns, our Executive Officers have also been running their own. One main campaign recently has been the extension of Mile End Library Opening Hours. For the past year and a half, Carolina (QMSU President) has been working on this project with the help of other officers and staff from Library services. From the 1st February, the weekend opening hours of the library will be changed to 8 am to midnight as a trial until 28th March. From the 29th March, the Library will turn to the 24/7 opening period for the examination period until Friday 3rd June 2016. Carolina will be putting another bid into the annual PAR process in order to increase the opening hours to 24/7 all year round, not only limited to the examination period. Imran, VP Education, worked with Carolina to gather over 1,300 petition signatures in favour of longer Library hours.This is a great first step in providing extended library opening hours, and something that many officers have been working towards over the past few years.
Other campaigns of this academic year include:
- Vote QMBL: With the help of various stakeholders in the University and our Executive Officers, students were able to run a campaign on getting students to register to vote, in light of the run up to the London Mayoral elections in May.
- Supporting Junior Doctors: Will Atkins, VP Barts and The London, has worked hard to support the junior doctors' campaign against proposed contract changes from attending meetings to marches to facilitating an official QMSU statement of support.
- Developing the BLSA building: Recently Will also sourced funding for developing and refurbishing the BLSA building, a huge triumph which will make a marked difference to the student experience.
- ‘Mean Girls’ Sexual Health Week: During Sexual Health Week, a week of events to build sexual health awareness, Miranda Black, VP Welfare, gave out all of the STI and STD kits brought onto campus, and handed out over 500 condoms.
- Mental Health: Miranda also coordinated the Elephant in the Room Campaign (a campaign to help remove stigmas around mental health) in October. Along with QMBL Mental Health Awareness Society, Miranda got the Mile End and Whitchapel campuses talking about mental health aided by some elephant onesies!
- Study Well: Emma Norris, BL Welfare Officer, launched Study Well on the BL campus, running 3 Chill Zones for the December exams. She also set up a Halls Pass scheme, matching up those in halls with those who aren’t on both the Whitechapel and Charterhouse Square campus.
This term will also see the launch of "LBGT+ Inclusion In Sport" and Study Well on the Mile End campus.