FE Colleges and campaigning for student activities

This week I've been working on all the things I said I would be - the chat with Paul Roberts was really useful and has given us some aims. I saw Francesca Bingley on Monday and fleshed out some ideas for Spark training. I sent an e-mail around the STADIA (see earlier posts for what STADIA is) with the idea of doing a one afternoon introduction to the paper for Freshers. The idea is that instead of the first thing a Fresher goes to being a planning meeting they get a chance to produce something immediate. This has got a lot of support from Fran and various Media and Activities Sabbs across the UK, many of whom want to replicate it if it's successful. It's nice for Reading to be leading the way on something else!

Yesterday the other Sabbs and I went to the NUS Campaigns Launch in London.This was a fantastic event and really helped me place the aims of the NUS NEC (National Executive Committee) in relation to both RUSU and the South East Area.

The three main priority campaigns for the year can be found on the NUS website soon, but they cover anonymous marking, the importance (and drastic neglect) of Further Education Colleges and also Student Activities. I'm hoping that RUSU will be supporting all three of these campaigns but I want to discuss the last two particularly.

As a Higher Education institution you may think its weird for Reading University Students to be campaigning for better support within FE colleges. In fact, better and more active FE students lead to better and more active HE students. For so many people at Reading it is the activities offered to them by the Union that become the happiest times at Uni. This may be their games for the Netball Team or the friends they made through RUDS. We can only provide this becasue of our funding from the University Block Grant and - more fruitfully - the our commercial services. We can run a democratic, supportive and representative organisation - though obviously we still never have enough money! At RUSU we represent 16,000 students through 6 Sabbatical and 6 Part Time Officers, have a regular student council and clear staff structure to support us. We run a Nightclub, Bar, Cafe and Shop to finance this. Compare Thames Valley Students Union's Reading campus - as many students to represent but no commercial services to support it and only a Single Sabbatical officer. I think FEs can be vibrant and active places - but considering most FE Unions only receive 2p of every £100 that their parent organisations have it is no surprise that they can't work fully. And can I add that Ellie Russel the VP Further Education delivered one of the most rousing and fantastic speeches I have ever heard. And she's a lovely person too damn it!

The Student Activities Campaign recognises that most people involved in the Union do so not through a hobby, sport or volunteer opportunity. On this year's Sabbatical team we have 2 ex Nightliners, 2 JCR heads, 2 Junction11 presenters, a Sports club president, a Society President, a Course Rep and a previous Part-Time Officer. That's all student activities leading the way into the Union. We are proud of our sports teams and our community action. The University loves to showcase our Sports and describe the benefits of our volunteers - but we need to protect these things. We need to protect our Wednesday afternoons so that students can compete in sports and other activities, make sure the University Sports Centre is for University Students first and local residents second. We need to make sure our activities are accessible to all no matter their race, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender, marital or child status. I'm passionate about student activities - that's why I love my job and I want to protect the environment at RUSU that allows them to happen and happen fully.

I'm pledging now to support these campaigns through both my role on RUSU and through SEANUS - and if I don't hold me up on it at Council, e-mail me and come to my office and shout.