It’s been a long, busy summer and what has felt like the most hectic start to term I could have imagined. It’s only three weeks into the autumn term that I’ve found the time to reflect on what I’ve been up to so far as SU President.
Over the summer, a lot of planning goes on within the SU to get Welcome Week and the rest of the year ahead right. A democracy review was a key pledge in my manifesto, so I spent some time over the summer seeing how other union’s democracy works to see what we could do at Goldsmiths to make our structures more accessible, transparent and modern. Over the rest of this term I’ll be consulting students on some of my proposed changes and hopefully we can put them in place just before Christmas.
I spent time working with the estates department over the summer to establish a quiet space on campus for students with accessibility issues. It was made clear that students needed somewhere, that wasn’t a learning space, to relax and get away from the hustle and bustle of campus. Although slightly delayed, I’m hoping the space will open just after reading week. Fingers crossed!
We had an incredibly successful Welcome Week that dominated much of our time. Each year, roughly half of our student body is in their first year (UG and PG), so for us, getting their welcome right is really important and both the feedback and our membership numbers have been extremely positive.
The summer, in any university, also sees us welcome lots of new staff both to the union and the university. This has meant a lot of time sitting on interview panels for roles both within the SU and the college.
However, this term also represents a huge period of institutional change. Over the summer, the Warden and Director of Estates both announced their retirements, whilst the Director of Student Experience announced he would be moving on to a new institution. This means that over the next few months I’ll be spending a lot of time on shortlisting and interview panels to find their successors.
Although these panels are quite time consuming, they’re really important to ensure that we get the best people in post to try and improve life for students and the wider Goldsmiths community.
If you have any questions about what I’ve been up to over the summer, feel free to drop me an email at jt@goldsmithssu.org or come and ask me anything at Student Assembly on Thursday 25th October at 5pm in the SU Venue.
You can see my full officer report here.