Food in the Library
Alongside the Free the Tea Campaign Ellie and Brandon lobbied the university to open the Woolfson room as space that you can eat as well as study. They also ensured that the library café was open for those who brought food from home and not just those who were purchasing food there.
There is an on-going discussion about being able to drink in any space around the library. We would appreciate students giving their feedback to this matter directly to library services here in order to support our lobbying.
Update Oct 2017 - Following our campaigning, hot drinks with a lid are now allowed in the library!
Academic Transcripts Free to all students
Discussions are on-going with Registry to better understand the reason behind the costings of Academic Transcripts and whether this is something that can be removed.
Update Oct 2017 - Adam will be meeting with the Director of Registry and will raise this.
Online Printing Credits
The ManagePrint Scheme should be launched in September ready for the next Academic Year; this will allow students to pay for Printer Credits online.
Update Oct 2017 - The Managed Print Service launched in August ready for the Academic Year; this will allow students to pay for Printer Credits online. More information is available here - https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/it/teams/infrastructure/end-user/clusters/Printing.aspx and the link to the dashboard is https://managedprint.bham.ac.uk:8443/web/Dashboard.jsp.
Panopto Roll Out
The Code of Practice on Lecture Capture was written and approved by University Education Committee, Senate and Academic Policy and Regulations Committee to be introduced by September 2017.
Update Oct 2017 - A new Code of Practice on Lecture Capture was introduced for this academic year meaning that more lectures should be recorded and uploaded to Canvas. Lecturers have also been asked to tell you in advance which lectures will be recorded, and if they choose not to record, alternative online resources should be provided.
Solar Panels on University Buildings
Every new building in the capital plan development will have solar panels on the top if it’s possible to do so. (I.e. if a building has a glass roof, it won’t have solar panels)
Study Space
Update Oct 2017 - Ellie and Chris have lobbied library services to re-arrange the space in the library, order more furniture and create more ‘traditional’ desk space in the library. They continue to lobby for a variety of flexible study spaces in all new buildings. The Harding and Education spaces that were closed for refurbishment will be reopened at the start of the next academic year. By lobbying the university they also made sure that the Avon Room study spaces were a priority in building schedules and this created over 100 extra study spaces.
Due to starting key discussions at the University Ellie and Adam have ensured this is a priority for the University development. Adam will now attend a Study Space Project Board and a project group about the upcoming reopening of the Harding Library.
Adam and Rose are also working on a study space campaign for later in the year.
Clearer Silent Study Signs in the Library
During exam season there will be 3 silent study rooms, all with signage. The silent room that currently has no desks will have desk before third term starts. There will also be silent study signs for the library more generally reminding students of library etiquette.
Update Oct 2017 - Adam would like clearer signage for all study spaces, and will mention this in his regular meetings with Library Services.
Affordable Convenience Store
As passed in Guild Council, the Spar contract runs until 2019 and to end this contract will have huge financial consequences. Although it will be incredibly resource intensive for the Guild to run its own shop, it will be looked at when this contract ends.
Full Time International Students’ Officer
With the idea proposer, Brandon has agreed that this will feed into the officer review that will take place in Summer 2017 and is repeated on a 3-5 year basis.
Affordable Graduations
Ellie is in discussion with staff at the University to ensure that graduations are as affordable as possible. The university have vowed the keep tickets free (at other institutions they cost £30+ each). They will also review other ways to ensure affordability, such as a free photographer to capture moments on the day where photos are posted on social media as well as a review of the gown hire company when the contract expires.
Updated Oct 2017 - Ellie has joined Degree Congregations Review Group where she will work on the affordability of Graduations.
Updated Dec 2017 - Ellie has now ensured that free photography will be in place at graduations and that it is advertised that this is a free service that people can ask to use on the day.
More Train Ticket Machines
Brandon has bought the matter up at Sustainability Task Group (a meeting with university staff members) and a new ticket machine will be placed in the learning centre. Whilst new ticket machines are difficult for us to ‘win’ (as culture is changing to paperless everything) all ticket machines were made contactless following his lobbying. There will also be an app released so that ticket machines are not even necessary. We will continue to communicate developments and changes.
Updated Oct 2017 - There is now another train ticket machine in the learning centre and staff employed at the station to ensure efficiency in ticket buying process.
Introduce Microwaves on Campus
There is currently a microwave in the Guild Kitchen (between Costa and Beorma Bar) but we are also lobbying the university to allow us to place microwaves in the Library and Learning Centre. It is a longer process than we might have hoped and we would appreciate students giving their feedback to this matter directly to library services here in order to support our lobbying.
More Accessible Elections
Our Staff lead for elections met with DAMSA at the start of the 16/17 academic year and discussed this. Following this meeting, Brandon and staff adapted the support available for disabled students when standing for election. The free and fair use list was also revised to ensure that accessible elections could be run. This included cutting the use of unlimited found materials such as wood. A financial support plan was also put in place so that elections are affordable for all students.
Feedback is currently being sought on the changes made to this process, so it can remain relevant in future years
Allow Food and Hot Drinks in the Library
Alongside the Free the Tea Campaign Ellie and Brandon lobbied the university to open the Woolfson room as space that you can eat as well as study. They also ensured that the library café was open for those who brought food from home and not just those who were purchasing food there.
There is an ongoing discussion about being able to drink in any space around the library. We would appreciate students giving their feedback to this matter directly to library services here in order to support our lobbying.
More Vegan Options in the Guild
Since opening Street Kitchen there is a daily changing vegan option available from £3.50
Condiments in Joe’s Bar
There were more condiments added into Joe’s bar at the start of the academic year 2016. They will remain as bottled condiments from now on.
More Sugar Free Drinks on Campus
Sugar Free drinks such as Coke Zero, Lilt Zero, Fanta Zero etc. were added in Joe’s bar at the start of the academic year 2016.
Realistic Election Manifestos
There were training sessions for every candidate on how to write a winning manifesto and guidelines from current officers about what is and may not be achievable. We were also very careful to ensure that candidates were still able to be creative and did not feel limited by what others thought may or may not be achievable.
Guild Breakfast
Updated 2017 - We now offer breakfast at Street Kitchen. There is a vegan and gluten free option also.
E-Tickets for Fab
This year we have doubled the number of E-Tickets available for Fab, at this stage, we do not believe that moving to an entirely online system would be sensible as this would limit flexibility for students.
More Opportunities for Students to go up Old Joe
Old Joe is not safe to be used as a tourist attraction and therefore the university estates team cannot allow every man (or woman) and his dog up there. However, as an officer team we will lobby where possible for this opportunity to be offered as a prize or reward.
More Live Music at the Guild
Natalie and Brandon have successfully organised two live music nights so far and will continue to do so as long as there is demand. We will also continue to have live acts at large events such as Welcome Week Ball, Winter Ball and Grad Ball. LUMSOC were also supported to hold ABANDON, their own live music event, in the Underground and we would like to see this continue. There will also be efforts made to put together a page with all music events / the Guild Music scene in the next academic year to be led by the committees of groups.
There are no current ideas in this section
Nap Rooms
Ross has looked into where this has been done at other unions and due to the need for space and resource (this would have to be staffed) this could not be an ongoing thing here at the Guild.
As such, this idea cannot be taken any further at this time,
Traffic Lights between Edgbaston Park Road and Somerset Road
After conversing with the council and looking at a previous case for this mandate a few years ago. Unfortunately, this cannot be taken further due to the predicted congestion levels and the structuring of the road itself.
Library Tea Making Facilities
Whilst we are working first on ensuring food and drink is allowed we are also lobbying further for this. We would appreciate students giving their feedback to this matter directly to library services here in order to support our lobbying.
Gender Neutral Toilets (on campus)
Following continuous work with the University over the past two years, we now have buy in from University Estates and a plan for implementing gender neutral toilets at the university and all new buildings will have these. A number of refurbishments are being identified and where requests are made by students in individual Schools this is being met constructively, with a number of Schools across EPS already introducing gender neutral toilets in recent months.
We feel we have completed this mandate, in the capacity that we are able to at this stage, we will continue to work towards full implementation of this, despite this.
Sanitary Bins in University Accommodation
Izzie has worked with accommodation services, to ensure that sanitary bins are trialled at all shared bathrooms in Pritchatts Park from September. If the trial is successful, the University will be looking to implement self-serving sanitary bins across all shared bathrooms in University owned accommodation in time for September 2017. It was deemed entirely inappropriate for sanitary bins to be placed in all bathrooms because this would be incredibly intrusive for students.
The trial has not been completed at this time, but we will update you on this as soon as possible.
Water Fountains on Campus
We have had conversations with the Director of Estates to establish where exactly the currently stock of water fountain are and have put out calls for feedback from students on where they feel there are shortages. The Aston Webb Student Hub has had two water fountains introduced this year and since the library opened there has been an increase in provision there too.
Disaffiliate From Castle Cars
Updated Oct 2017 - The contract between the Guild and Castle Cars has ended and we will not seek to re-affiliate with them.
Gender Neutral Toilets (in the Guild)
We have looked into this change but as this will be a structural / building change it will have to be considered in future capital developments.
This idea will be passed on to the next Officer Team to make sure this remains at the forefront of consideration for any other development plans.
Assessment Group Trans Representative
Updated Oct 2017 -This has been added in as a rep to the new version of assessment group which is called Guild Policy Development Group.
Tackling Anti-Semitism
As this was an idea to send a motion to NUS National Conference, we have submitted it and will be presenting it at conference.