6 months in....

Thirteen months ago I stood to be Students' Union President and 6 months in to my year in office, I thought it would be to give you an update of where I am up to in achieving my manifesto goals.

Campaign to keep the cap on tuition fees
Unfortunately the house of commons and lords have voted to increase the cap for UK Home tuition fees to £6000. At Salford we put a lot of work and effort into raising awareness on the campus on this issue and we took 400 students to London on a national demo and 100 Salford students to a demo in Manchester. Please read my email to all students, to find how we will move this campaign forward in the coming months.

Year round timetables
Delivered!

More Student Social Space
I can't take all the credit for this one, for Adelphi Students Joe Kirwin (Last Year's VP for Arts and Humanities ) and Christabel Brown (current VP for Arts and Humanities) have worked hard to get the social space in the Adelphi building modernised. In the next few months there will be some more changes in University House that will see more student social space in the building. All new buildings currently being developed by the University will all have social learning zones in them as well.

Longer Library Opening Hours Off Peak
Working with Matt Webber (Last Years President) this has also been achieved, the Clifford Wwhitworth library is currently 24/7 for the whole of this academic year, however this will be reviewed at the end of the year dependant on usage. This really is a great win for the students' union, Salford students have been asking for a 24/7 library for years and finally we have one.

2 Day Activities Fair and Fresher’s Ball
Delivered!

Promote religious diversity and interfaith groups
I still have some work to do on this manifesto point, last semester saw a very successful Black History Month working in partnership with the University to produce a month long set of events. Currently I am working with the University to have more clearly guidance for religious observance.

My full manifesto can be seen at http://salfordstudents.com/files/minisites/2996/RickyManifesto.pdf

There is still plently of things left to do in the second half of my term of office.

Students' Union Elections 2011

The Students Union annually elects 4 sabbatical officers, 4 student trustees, and 4 NUS Conference Delegates. In addition this year, you will have the opportunity to be elected to the Union's new Student Council, a body of 22 students whose role will be to direct, review and approve the representation work of the Sabbatical Officers.
We may not have been successful in stopping an increase in tuition fees, however at Salford we have to ensure that over the next few years the impact of the cuts do not impact on our education experience. We can only do this with a strong and active students’ union.

If you are interested in standing in the elections and want to find out more check out: http://www.salfordstudents.com/takecharge
I am really looking forward to the next 6 months, if you have any questions about this blog post or want to find out more about the elections phone 01613515400 or email president-ussu@salford.ac.uk

Ricky