Jess Green - Equal Opps Exec

Replaced and Rubbished

2008-03-07T07:08:00.000-08:00

And so, already I have a replacement! I don't know if you can ever imagine how weird that is - to have someone eager and willing and waiting in the wings. Matt (the new me!) will, I have no doubts, be an excellent Equal Opportunities Executive due to his passion which he has shown as the current Education Officer.

One example of this was that on Wednesday night we joined the Hallam Amnesty International society, STAR, Sheffield Amnesty and actual asylum seekers to protest and raise awareness of the Government's treatment of refused asylum seekers. The idea was to spend 12 hours on the street (8pm-8am), sleeping on little more than cardboard boxes and sleeping bags. I managed until 4am when I became absolutely chilled to the bone and felt sick. I am not a good person to go camping with as many of my friends can testify! I am not a nice person without sleep and I always sleep badly when I'm not in my bed. Seeing as I was going to work the next morning I opted to take a fold out bed which I incurred some wrath for, however I figured if I could function in the morning then it was worth it. But even the bed didn't help and in the early hours, after all the abuse from students kicking out of Juice, I gave in and went home. Everyone else managed the entire night and they have my sincerest admiration (apart from the fact many didn't have to go to work in the morning - although a few did!!!).

There is, as usual, so much going on that it would be difficult to write it all here in the half hour I've allowed myself to write this blog. With Collegiate Week, Diversity Week and the sexual health training over I imagined that things would slow down, but they haven't! And so I am looking forward to the weekend immensely and catching up on my sleep is my number one priority! Hopefully I'll find time to fill you in on more next week.
Jess :)

Belated Happy New Year!

2008-01-17T09:37:00.000-08:00

Hello and a belated happy new year to you all! This is my first quick blog of the year just to let you know what will be going on over the next few weeks and also to let you know that nominations are now open for exec positions! If you fancy yourself as the next president or the new me come in and chat to us or pick up and application pack (also available from hallamunion.com from Monday).

So...Oscar (the welfare exec) and I will be wrapping up our research around student housing and are moving onto our next project. This will take place during Collegiate Week, which is the first week in February. We're concentrating on helping all students with their mental health and in doing so, Oscar is creating a booklet all about good mental health and what you can do to improve yours! Plus we're arranging yoga sessions and self defence sessions which will be launched so you can chill out or release some aggression! Look out for the meditation services too being offered by the University in the new and improved multi-faith chaplaincy. Look on the University's website for more details.

My new year's resolution was to get the sections of the website updated which I am responsible for. I'd planned to do this on Tuesday but I'm having excruciating pains with my teeth and so had to go to the hospital. Watch out for me on the 1st and15th of Feb as they're the dates after my teeth operations - I will be literally a bear with a sore head! Avoid me like the plague if you're sensible! Back to the website though, I promise to get it done as soon as I can!

That's enough for today apart from to say, we're on training tomorrow if you're looking for us at the HUBs - sorry!

Jess :)

ps. If you wanted me to do something and mentioned it to me earlier in the term please ring or email me again now we're back. A gentle reminder would not go amiss and I certainly don't want to miss any of your priorities out! (To many 'misses' there!) I don't mind at all being prodded - I have a mind like a sieve!

1.2 This week I have mostly....

2007-11-16T07:40:00.000-08:00

Friday 16th November 2007

This week I have mostly.... been on Facebook! And not out of choice either! I had this bright idea to cheat at our 'Go Out And Talk', which is an initiative the Exec have committed themselves to. Basically it means each week we 'GOAT' to a certain number of students to see how they feel about the Union and the services which it offers. Then we can try and make things better. Sarah (the president,) suggested that we should aim for at least ten people a week but, because I've been so extremely, extremely busy I thought I'd set up a Facebook group into which I'd ask ten new people each week from the Hallam network, plus all my friends at Hallam to get more responses - genius! Or so I thought!

This has back-fired somewhat and the group has turned into a bit of a slanging match with plenty of stick being fired at the Union. That's not to say that 'we' as the Union don't deserve it because I - the Union's strictest critic in years gone by - know that the Union is far from perfect. However now I'm in post I've been able to find out why certain things happen and I can't help thinking that when someone wants to point the finger then they might want to firstly check out the basis of their accusations. But I will hold up my hands as someone who didn't do that when I was swinging my abuse at the Union!

On a different note - In my role I would love to support every initiative, campaign and charity which comes my way but unfortunately I don't have the time or money. Right now I've spent nearly £800of my campaign budget on materials for one project concerning housing and I'm deliberating whether I could have spent it differently so I could have covered more topics or dealt with more issues. However, on reflection I know I'm doing the right thing and sticking by my guns. I know that if I'd have followed the advice I want to spread to the students through my campaign that my days living in student accommodation would have been a lot more pleasant!

Apart from spending money my days at work are so jam-packed that I feel I cannot do my full role justice and instead am having to concentrate on certain elements which means delays in areas, for which I apologise. This is, in a way, a good thing as it shows that the Exec needs to change its format (at least in my opinion!) and I'm hoping with the help of URC that we can this year, put the work in place to allow reform. But more on that nearer the time when URC begins the review.

I'm starting to feel as if I may have taken too much up so far and there are still, everyday, new problems, issues and situations which require my attention. I know why I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed though. It's mainly due to the amount of time which has been taken up this week with the graduation ceremonies which the Exec are asked to sit through, plus we have a another week of them left to do. Although it's lovely to see all your friends graduate it can be boring once you've heard the same thing over and over again and your hands hurt from clapping so much!!! My own graduation was a fiasco this week, as everything always is with me! I managed to loose my hat (or mortarboard,) on stage which was hilarious for everyone apart from me!

Right, I've spent enough time really on this for one week! Back to the graduations....

ps. If you want to get in contact with me my email is j.green@shu.ac.uk

2007-10-23T08:35:00.000-07:00

My first blog! I apologise for how long it took to get up here on the website but hopefully there should be more on their way!

23rd October 2007 - Blog 1.1

Hello & thanks for taking the time to read this, my first ever blog as the Equal Opportunities Executive at Hallam Union. Firstly I'd like to thank those who took the time to vote for me. After we were elected by the students in February we took up office at the end of June. So, now just as you're all facing up to the fact that term is about to start [[& the work with it]] spare a minute to think about the exec who have been in office, working hard [[or not so hard sometimes! Hehe!]] throughout the entire summer! Stuck in a giant silver building with no windows during the summer months has not been fun but getting to know the staff at the Union and planning all the exciting stuff for this upcoming semester has been!

The summer has been packed with allsorts from team building events to telephone training, planning the freshers week to packing the freshers packs, and dinners on the wavy grass, & with the 'executives'! The most exciting thing which we've been involved with has been recruiting a new General Manager to look after us all which was a surreal experience, knowing that you, [[who was 'just' a student weeks ago]] are now influencing whether someone gets a job or not!

I've also really enjoyed all the training we've been on which has been all around the country! Last week I went to London's Canary Wharf and Manchester and this week I've been to Huddersfield. We've also been to loads of other student unions and have met other execs who have been voted in by their students too and it's been a great opportunity to share ideas and exchange thoughts. At one of these meetings we found out about NEYAH which is a regional group and recently I've spent time getting the rest of the execs to agree to join and have started working on projects for it. It's for student execs like us to meet up and work with others at different universities and colleges in our region to campaign for big issues which affect us all, no matter which institution we are at.

Projects I've been working on over the summer include:

· Re-launching the 'Hate Crime Reporting Centre' which is in the Advice Centre
· Organising my Winter Term housing project, aimed at stopping students from signing up to housing too early & then getting a rough deal
· Achieving a partnership between the Police & Union to help keep us all safer!
· Establishing a sexual health centre run by students for students
· Working closely with the Liberation Campaigns
· Purchasing and organising materials for the Freshers Fayres

I've also been working closely with the University's International Students department to try and ensure that students from all countries can use the Union and get something out of it. This year the whole exec is concentrating on trying to provide a quality service for all students and we want to help students from other cultures feel just as involved as students from the UK.

Well that's plenty for now but I hope you've got a flavour for some of the things we've been involved with this summer while you were hopefully enjoying yourselves. I hope you enjoyed Freshers Week and please, if you need to contact me about anything, please feel free to contact me at j.green@shu.ac.uk. If it's not something I can help you with then at least I'll be able to point you in the right direction! Also, if you would like to be involved with the Sexual Health Centre at the Union or want more information about any of the Liberation Societies [[LGBT, Women's, Students With Disabilities - SWD, International Students' or Black & Ethnic Minority Students campaigns,]] please feel free too!
Jess :)