Our 22/23 Presidents team have got off to an amazing start this year, achieving so much in the first term alone. Keep reading to find out a little more about the achievements of each President and what they’ve been up to over the last few months.
In response to the escalating cost of living crisis, along with the Presidents team and CEO of The Students’ Union, Rania secured funding from the University to develop our Cost of Living support package for students. This package includes weekly free meals at each campus, sustainable period product support and clothes and uniform swap shops.
In October, the Speak Up Week campaign was launched in partnership with UWE Bristol. The aim of the campaign was to raise awareness of students and staff experiences of sexual harassment, sexual assault and all forms of discrimination. On the first day of the campaign Rania launched the Speak Up Pledge, which was signed at the launch event by Vice Chancellor Steve West and Chair of Board of Governors David Lamb. Throughout the week there were also Speak Up stalls to spread awareness of the campaign among students and encourage them to sign the Pledge, as well as faith myth-busting videos shared to social media which were filmed with the Christian, Islamic and Hindu Societies.
Following on from the success of Speak Up Week, Rania was invited to speak at Westminster Insights ‘Tackling Sexual Harassment and Violence in Higher Education’ conference to share the brilliant work she had done.
Rania was also selected out of thousands of international students to represent the international students voice at a national level at this year’s UKCISA Fest.
Rania launched an International Students Committee together with our International Students Officer Sakshi to bring together the voice over 7000 international students at UWE Bristol and enhance their student experience.
Along with the President of Bath Spa Students’ Union, Rania co-founded and is also co-Chair of the Southwest Sabbatical Officers Network (SSON) in 2022, bringing together elected student leaders from several Students’ Unions to amplify the student voice in the Southwest Region and even nationally. The Students’ Union at UWE hosted the first network in-person meet-up earlier this year (August).
Rania also joined the One City Living Rent Commission as a Board member, which was established by Bristol City Council and the City Office to explore ways to make Bristol an affordable living rent city and empower tenants’ rights in the Private Rented Sector. She was responsible for representing the student voice in the commission alongside the Student Living Officer from Bristol Students' Union. The outcome of the commission work will feed into Bristol City Council’s response to Renters Reform Bill.
Lily led the launch of this year’s Celebrating Culture Hall of Fame along with last year’s VP Education Oluwadamilola Racheal Okeyoyin. The Hall of Fame featured UWE Bristol staff and students from a wide variety of ethnically diverse backgrounds to celebrate their great successes and achievements. The inspiring launch event also featured the official launch of Issue 2 of the No More Silence Zine. You can check out the Hall of Fame in D Block, beside careers and enterprise on Frenchay Campus.
Lily has also organised Human Library Days at each campus. These events gave students an opportunity to speak to people from different walks of life, and learn about how they excelled against all odds and the challenges they overcame, to inspire students in their own goals and plans.
In November, Lily spoke at the Closing Awarding Gaps Conference in CHSS to share her experience as a student, what had helped her, and what she had done differently to improve her grades. She also urged everyone to do the best that they could in their corner to close the gaps that exist in the college.
With Disability History Month running from 16 November until 16 December, Rahul has worked on a number of events to celebrate and support disabled students and demonstrate allyship. As well as film screenings, the highlights of the month were the Disability Awareness Action Breakfast and Brunch events. These relaxed events were open to all students whether they identified as disabled or just wanted to improve their knowledge and offered peer to peer conversations as well as casual advice and information.
Rahul has also worked on delivering some very successful Speed Friending events, a great addition to the first term, giving students an opportunity to meet lots of new people and make new friends.
During the Celebrating Black Excellence campaign Rahul worked on Mental Health Among The Black Student Community events at both Frenchay and Glenside campus. These sessions were hosted by Oge Obioha, co-founder of Minds of people of Colour, and explored Black identity at University, vulnerability, stress and how to support your Black friends and peers.
Doha started the year by attending the BUCS Conference to represent TeamUWE.
She’s also been behind the TeamUWE Instagram account, posting results, fixtures and building the overall brand image. She has a created a coursework in hand with the module leader of BSc Media Communication about Varsity and TeamUWE, giving students the opportunity to work on real campaigns and bring their creativity to them.
In October Doha worked alongside Bethel to organise a series of Sports and Colours events as a part of the Celebrating Black Excellence campaign. These events were open to all students, but encouraged Black students especially to come along to try a new sport and meet new people through friendly games of football, basketball and volleyball.
Throughout this term Doha has been working on reducing Wednesday classes for students in sports teams. By surveying students she discovered that this was an issue that was affecting their studies and students were having to choose between falling behind in their studies or letting their teams down. After bringing it up to the Board of Governors, one of the first actions that was taken was to ensure that all lectures were recorded as for many students they weren’t.
Currently, Doha is working on a Sports Swap shop to provide a way for students to exchange their unwanted sports clothes, shoes and equipment, not only giving students an affordable way to update their sports kit, but preventing unwanted items from ending up in a landfill.
Doha has also been working closely with MSc Exercise Psychology, giving students the opportunity to take part in some extracurricular applied work by delivering sessions to UWE Student athletes about mental imagery, breathing and much more.
She has organised a photoshoot with the clubs by setting up a studio and taking the pictures of those who were interested to create a TeamUWE Banner. Watch out for them coming soon!
Bethel was the President lead for the Celebrating Black Excellence campaign for Black History Month. He worked alongside other Presidents and coordinators to deliver an exciting an interesting programme of events throughout the month, such as sport events, mental health workshops, movie nights and more.
Throughout the term Bethel has arranged a number of Movie Nights. One when first resumed office as well as topical movies during Celebrating Black Excellence and Disability History Month which were followed with meaningful discussions on the movies themes.
Bethel is also working on celebrating the talents of students through UWE Bristol’s Got Talent. Call outs are open for students to demonstrate any talent they may have, from dancing to magic, with auditions taking place in February, and a Grand Finale in March.
To coincide with the football World Cup, Bethel has organised a UWE World Cup, in which national societies have been invited to form a football teams and compete in a tournament.
Bethel is also a part of the One City Living Rent Commission, helping to ensure that students’ voices are heard in discussions surrounding rent and accommodation in Bristol.
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2023 Welcome wristbands are out now! We've got a very exciting calendar of events in store...
