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Activity
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Work Done
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Outcome
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Name an activity, e.g. event, meeting, work group, conference, independent work, etc. What was the theme of the activity?
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What happened? What was discussed? What sort of work did you do?
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What were the outcomes? Did you learn something? Are you going to follow-up on something?
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Student Partnership Agreement (SPA)
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We have finalized the document with 5 areas of priority: Communication & Engagement, Sustainability, Student Living, Careers & Employability, and Accessibility, Inclusion & Wellbeing. These different priorities are meeting.
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I have attended meeting for my priorities (1 and 4) and created a Teams platform for us to share our work and update on progress. Now, we are mainly working on baseline measurements and how we will implement some actions.
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Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee (EDIC)
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Next meeting is on the 4th of March, which means due to the UCU strikes I am not allowed to attend this meeting. However, after the AGM, I spoke with the student who brought up LGBT Month and they will be attending together with the BME Convener as neither Welfare Officer nor I am allowed to attend.
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A subgroup has been formed, which I am part of together with the BME Convener and Welfare Officer. During the last meeting, neither the Welfare Officer nor the BME Convener were able to attend so I attended alone. It was not a productive meeting, unfortunately.
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Equality and Human Rights Commisson report – ‘Tackling racial harassment: Universities challenged’’ (EHRC)
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A subgroup of the EDI Committee, focused on racial harassment on campus.
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See above. I also raised some concerns I had with the paper produced on this by the University.
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SUB – Student Art Exhibition
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We now have frames for students to use. Students can come in with their art work and frame it at AUSA, and then it will be put up in the Union Brew. If you are interested, you can go to this link:
https://ausa2.typeform.com/to/rR10ZS.
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Open Sessions
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Continuing with my Open Sessions on Foresterhill Campus, at Hillhead, and on Kings Campus.
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Sessions have been posted on Facebook and AUSA’s Whats On page.
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AUSA Trustee Board
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The Trustee Board attended the AGM where students had the opportunity to hold the Trustee Board to account and ask questions.
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The 3 new Student Trustees have been ratified by Student Council and are now full members of the board.
Now, it is only the University Nominee Trustee position that we need to fill.
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Brexit
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There is now a webpage you can visit (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/news/brexit/) to find out more about the situation and what it means for you as a student at Aberdeen University. If the page doesn't have the answer to your questions, you can also email brexit@abdn.ac.uk.
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No new updates. I am keeping the text in the other box so you can all have a reminder of the webpage for more Brexit information.
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Democratic Review
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The new Sabbatical Officer remits were approved by Student Council and in the current Sabbatical Elections, students will be elected into these remits.
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The latest update can be found here: https://www.ausa.org.uk/representation/ausademocraticreview2018/
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NUS - Referendum
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The Rules & Regulations that I submitted to Student Council were approved and will apply to the NUS Referendum.
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Dates were announced on the 26th February. The question will be announced on March 5th, debate will happen on the 13th March. Voting will be open 17-19th March, and results are announced on 20th March.
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NUS
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I have been working with the NUS to arrange Campaign Workshops for students for the end of February.
Event is free, and will be on 26th and 28th February.
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This event was cancelled.
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Student Partnership Agreement (plus Priority 1 and Priority 4)
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There has been some meetings that I have attended as co-lead for Priority 1 (Communication & Engagement) and Priority 4 (Student Living). There was an SPA meeting in which all groups met up and reported on progress, however I was not able to attend that.
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I met with our Representatives Services Manager as I had some concerns about what was discussed during the SPA meeting that I missed.
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University Meetings – Capital Projects
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I have attended many meetings for this.
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University Meetings – Aberdeen 2040
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The strategy was launched on the 10th February.
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University Meetings – 525 Anniversary celebrations
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See above.
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BDS Motion meetings
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I have an update regarding this at the last Student Council meeting and at the AGM.
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Following legal advice, the board have voted to overturn the policy that was passed in the General meeting in March, 2019. The policy will not stand as an AUSA policy.
Student requested the motion be re-written, I have been in contact with Student and relevant staff will offer feedback when they have submitted a draft.
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Sustainability Action Plan
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This will be incorporated into the Sustainability strategy. Sabbatical Officers will be on the steering group and report on progress.
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You can read it here: ausa.org.uk/blogs/president/2020/02/21/A-Sustainability-Success/
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Student Council/AGM
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Was livestreamed, which was fantastic, and a manifesto win for me.
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Rocking Horse Nursery
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Attended a Trustee Board meeting for the RHN. Brought some queries a student parent had regarding fees when your child is ill and you have a doctor’s note.
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You will not be refunded if your child is ill with a doctor’s note. The nursery still operated and staff still needs to be paid for their time, same as if you don’t attend a lecture.
Student fees will be calculated based on percentage of the normal fee from now on, making it easier for students to know how much they will need to pay for their child.
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Occasionwear @ Swapshop
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I have been collecting occasion wear from Swapshop for the last year, with the invaluable help from students, and AUSA staff members have also been donating clothes.
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Students can borrow these clothes and not have to buy new things. Two further events have happened.
So far, this is going well. One student did not return an outfit but we’ll survive.
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Social Interaction Spaces Group
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Attended this together with a student. They discussed social spaces on campus, there was a misconception that Union Brew closes at 5PM. Union Brew closes at 10PM.
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For the next meeting, they have requested a PG student to join, and I want to bring a non-EU International student also.
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AUSA 20th Anniversary
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I had a meeting with AUSA SMT (CEO, Activities Development Manager, Finance Manager, and Representative Services Manager) about AUSA’s 20th Anniversary being this year. We discussed how we could mark this occasion.
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Personally I think that having a week-long Freshers’ Birthday party would be so much fun.
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Qatar
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I had a meeting with a student from the Qatar Campus committee and they brought up some concerns they have, such as the date of the graduations in Qatar is very late (November) and their need for societies and clubs.
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I spoke with the Principal in Qatar and a another person from Qatar and for next year, they will look at planning two ceremonies as there will be enough students graduating that year for that to happen. The reason the ceremony is currently so late is so that PG students will be able to graduate the same year as they finish (their exam board meets in October, so they would otherwise need to wait over a year to graduate).
I have spoken with our Activities Development Manager for us to write a police regarding societies and sports clubs in Qatar. At the moment, there are some operational challenges with AUSA staff is experienced and are working on something that will work well for the Qatar students.
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Digital Strategy Committee
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We went over business cases and discussed Microsoft Teams for students, which I have been working on for students to have access to and be able to use for different things such as school work, extracurricular, starting September 2020.
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Qatar Strategic Partnership Board
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I attended my first meeting for this. We discussed new staff positions and future degrees to potentially be offered at the campus in Qatar.
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Inclusion Week
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I attended a meeting about Inclusion Week 2020. We discussed ideas for events.
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I brought up the lack of activity around LGBT Month. We received agreement that they would erect the Pride Flag over Kings for the rest of the month and an all student/staff email would be sent out.
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Work from Home/Ill
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I worked from home for half a day on the 13th February, and I was ill 17th February until 19th February.
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Governance and Nominations
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We discussed the SFC report, the appointment procedure and panel for the University Secretary and Chief Operations Officer, Court Expenses policy
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I will be on the appointments panel for University Secretary and COO, and I will be on the review working group of the SFC report.
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Complaints
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There were some complaints that I was part of the process for, due to my role as Student President (Byelaw 16).
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Policy and Resources Committee teleconference
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This was a consultation about the UCU strikes.
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UCU Strikes
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The UCU strikes have begun. Striking is between 8am and 11am, on dates:
20-21/February
24-26/February
2-5/March
9-13/March
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I have received a few complaints and concerns from students, such as wishing for refunds, concerns about no more lectures before exams, concerns that Sabbatical Officers are asking their lecturers not to teach students, etc.
I have also received some emails of support for the strikes.
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UCU Strikes – meetings missed (so far)
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Sustainable commitments 2020. Student Recruitment Committee. King’s College Transformation Programme Board.
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Flea Market
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Together with Joseph from AberGreen and Ailsa, our Events co-ordinator, we are planning a Flea Market in the Students’ Union Building.
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Will be on the 23d March.
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Sabbatical Campaigns Budget/Fund
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I have written an application form to streamline the process of requesting money from the sabbatical campaigns budget.
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This should go live shortly.
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