Sabbatical officer changes made/achievements of 2010/11

President wins

• Funding our Future- Kent Unions Priority campaign:
  • We had 500 students attend the national demo.
  • We sent 2500 protest postcards to local Kent MP’s.
  • We held debates with MP’s, NUS and UCU.
  • Had representation at a lobby meeting with the leader of the opposition in parliament.
  • Hosted a balloon launch to symbolise how many students are against the rise in fees.
  • Took 50 students to the vote day at parliament where we had one last lobby at our local MP to vote against.
  • We also had many interviews and reports written about out action in local papers, radio and TV.
  • Students also took this matter into their own hands and went into occupation of the University Senate building.
  • Kent Union hosted the 2^nd community fun day on the University of Kent Campus. We saw 150 members of the community come and join in with bouncy castle fun and using the facilities on the campus.
  • Completed a comprehensive Democracy review and Kent Union are ready to implement this in the term
  • Governance review completed and all aspects of the role has been rolled out and working well.
  • Help elect a full UMSA executive committee
  • Lobbied the Medway MP to vote against the rise in tuition fees in November.
  • Increased amount of press coverage for the FoF campaign and Higher Education.
  • been elected to the NUS Union Development Zone committee.
  • Persuaded the University to look into working with the community and this may be down to benefit students in the area.
  • Lobbied the University to have a community officer position within the Uni to screen calls and work with the local community.
  • Been to many residents’ association meetings representing students and Kent Union.
  • Continuous lobby to get residents to refer to students as residents!
  • Improved support for the students who study at the Brussels campus.  

Education wins

• £200,000 funding for core text books.
• £18m library extension currently being looked into
• 500 students at the National Demonstration.
• 2500 postcards signed and sent to local MPs.
• First pilot of Teaching Awards run successfully with 500 nominations.
• Complete review of the course rep system with many new changes including a new course rep coordinator.
• Rewritten and relaunching of the personal tutor system with many recommendations being implemented from the new academic year.
• New study resources released as part of the I <3 My Library campaign.
• Highest turnout in years at Education Forum.
• Successfully lobbied Canterbury MP to not vote in favour of scrapping EMA.
• Successfully lobbied Medway MP to vote against higher tuition fees.
• Established the Graduate Students’ Association and increased postgraduate representation on Union Council.
• Have been on BBC Radio Kent, Kentish Gazette, Canterbury Times, KMFM, Kent on Sunday and more.
• Held a successful open debate between Julian Brazier, Usman Ali and Owen Lyne attracting 120 students and local press.
• Held a balloon launch on campus, with 1000 balloons, with each balloon symbolising a student in support of the FOF campaign.
• Held local action (march and teach in) on campus and sent 50 students to London on the day of the vote.
• Carried out a #shamethedame campaign in reaction to this letter signed by our Vice-Chancellor Dame Julia Goodfellow, with over 800 emails in her inbox in 4 days.
• New Faculty Committees established and working well.
• Rewrote Course Rep handbook and training session.
• Completed ‘What would you exchange for £9k?’ consultation and presented to the university/continuing to lobby for.
• Lobbied for and currently have the university looking into online recorded lectures and getting rid of hidden course costs.
• Secured building of social/study hub within Park Wood.
• Extensive research into feedback on assessment – with the Faculty Deans currently investigating how to implement report’s recommendations.

Welfare wins

• Tyler Hill – steps removed – new route onto campus helping disabled access
• Right to Rent – 800 signature petition to City Council against their proposal to cap HMOs at 20% in any 100m radius along with over 100 written comments submitted to the consultation. Including the consultation on Article 4 directions over 150 written submissions were made to City Council consultations by students on this issue. Extensive press coverage was secured for the campaign throughout the year locally as well as on Progress Online and coverage on NUS Connect.
• First Years Off-Campus – press coverage secured in the Guardian about the housing problems first year students were facing finding somewhere to live after the University informed 500 first years that they did not have a room on-campus. This coverage put pressure on the University to react and provide support for these students.
• Rate Your Landlord – pilot launched successfully with 744 students taking part.
• Vote for Students – Around 700 students were engaged with the campaign in a number of ways – we registered them to vote, for postal votes, got them to the polling stations on May 5^th and talked to them about the issues locally. Two University of Kent students stood as candidates in Blean Forest (the ward which covers campus) and University of Kent students we elected in Thanet, Thurrock and Ashford (that I know of, there could have been more).  Turnout for Blean Forest went up by 4% on the last local elections (2007, 18%-22%).
• Housing Week – run with the Advice Centre we had the biggest Housing Week so far. 200 students attended the Q&A’s on house hunting and around 100 attended a workshop on tenancy agreements or house hunting at the Housing Fair. In Keynes College approximately a third of residents attended the Q&A.
• The Lock and Get On Board campaigns have also been continued this year.
• Photos from all campaigns are available on the shared drive or from me/Colum.
• Community: Residents Associations: Kent Union officers have attended Down’s Road Residents Association & Neighbourhood Watch, St Michaels Road Area Residents Association, Market Way Area Residents Association, London Road Estate Community Group and St Stephens Residents Associations throughout the year. In November a student was elected to the committee of SMRARA. We also ran the third annual Hales Place BBQ in the first week of the year to welcome new students to the area and provide information to all residents about local services
• Over 1,000 students pledging to use their ‘Vote for Students’ in the General Election for a candidate who would vote against higher fees – the 2nd highest number of sign-ups of any students’ union
  Secured £46,000 to make our Graduate College fully accessible to disabled students.
• Fully accessible buses on our University bus route as well as a new route introduced to our main student area previously not connected by public transport to campus.
• Secured funding from the Home Office to run The Lock campaign across campus to highlight easy ways to prevent crime.
• Built up links with local Residents Associations and secured places on two for students.

Student Activities wins

• Ran the national RAG Conference and made over £1000 profit for Kent RAG.
• Helped Kent RAG over more than double their record for money sent to Charity in the academic year by introducing Challenge events to the team.
• New record for the amount of members signed up to societies.
• Took the lead on the first ever Kent Union Awards which received great feedback.
• Attended Lounge on the Farm with CSR and helped to promote the station.
• Changed the way grants are allocated from the Union to Societies (the old way of doing this was illegal).
• Ran a successful Re-Freshers Fayre to help promote societies.
• Achieved every point in my manifesto including getting a new CSR website, adding Sudoku, quizzes and vouchers to InQuire.
• Put together guidelines for InQuire Editors to help with the continuity of the paper and a few tips on how to improve their section of the paper.
• Began a review into RAG which is looking into how the group is growing, what is and isn’t working and the support they may need in the coming years.
• Ran the International Showcase and WorldFest 2011 where three societies won shared a prize of £400 to help develop their society in the next year. Over 150 students from many different cultures took part attracting people from the University, other students and even a coach load of people from London.
• Begun the society storage campaign that has asked societies what they own and where it is kept. It is looking like the storage problem will be solved in the coming year.

Sport wins

• First Student Sport’s Therapy Clinic set up at the Pavilion.
• Biggest ever Colours Ball which made a profit of £800.
• Highest Membership numbers at 3000 members.
• Selling sports equipment in Unique.
• Enhanced promotion of Fixtures and the Sports Federation through – mentor groups with Presidents, Venue nights, Sports Board and Facebook Group.
• Complete review of all Sports Federation Policies.
• Sports Review to assess the future of Sports Clubs at Kent – Rebranding, Better Communication with Kent Sport & finding better avenues for funding.
• Kent University finishing 28^th in the BUCS league- the highest we have ever finished.