Thank You and Goodnight

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Hey all,

It’s finally coming to the end of term! This means that this is my final blog post for quite some time, but lucky for you I have some important information to share.

First up, a reminder that this term’s second Corpus Converses will be held tomorrow from 1-2.30pm in the Seminar Room. This will be discussing the impact of tuition fees on university structures like teaching – should be an interesting discussion particularly after the election results from Thursday.

Having got that out the way, I’ll now go into detail about the various meetings I’ve been to this term. On Monday I went to Equality Committee. This hasn’t been held in some time, but it has been decided that college will now have at least two a year. It was also decided that both the JCR President and the Equal Opportunities President should attend. As it is a committee that has not been visited in a long time, there is as of yet no link on weblearn to the agenda, but hopefully this will be made available imminently. If you’d like to learn more about what was discussed please just give me an email.

Second committee meeting of the week was Academic Committee on Wednesday. Here, the results of the undergraduate feedback questionnaire were discussed. I was asked how the relationship between senior and junior members could be improved. This was quite a large question but the main points I brought up where that it was often felt that decisions made by senior members , even if the decision process involved undergraduates, was not feedback properly and decisions were not fully explained often leading to confusion and students feeling undermined. I also said that students needed to be more involved in big decision making in college, such as the planned renovations to the library. Focus groups should be sued more to give direct feedback as to what might be good/bad about designs and to properly incorporate students into the planning process. In short, students should be involved more and when they are decisions made by senior members should be explained properly.

On the same day I went to OUSU Council. Here various motions were discussed including whether OUSU sabbatical officers should pressure the university to end wearing of scholars gowns to final examinations. After lengthy debate it was agreed upon that this motion had been hastily put forward and that a student consultation should be undergone before such a motion was agreed upon. Let me know if you’d like to see the detailed minutes of this debate.

On the Thursday I attended JCC informal lunch. Here, there was further discussion on the library renovations and how students could be involved. However, added to this was a discussion on decanal fines policy and how, as of next term, the college would undergo a trial period of using community service instead of a fine in instances where students have broken the code of conduct. Finally, further discussions were made about acquiring a coffee machine for the JCR and MCR. Hopefully a decision will be made on this during the summer vacation, though I will continue to ask for updates!

Today I held a final freshers’ week meeting where we finalised plans and worked out what needs to be done. Keep an eye out for emails about how you can get involved and help with the week. We also had a JCR meeting this evening where decisions included purchasing a kettle and cushions for the welfare room.

That’s it for now! Hope I managed to cover everything that might be of interest and do let me know if there’s anything achieved next term so I can plan over the Summer.

Love,

Alice

xox

P.S. Bulletin

Categories: Bulletin