First off is the President….

Monday 10th November

Trying to get the new Accounting and Financial Management up and running was one of the main tasks for today. I think highlighting at the start of term how anyone can set up their own society has really helped a lot of students as I seem to get about a different new society wanting to start up about every week.  It’s great as it gets more people involved in the Students’ Union and they have a great time doing what they love to do.

One part of being the President is trying to keep on the good side of local residents on behalf of all students. However at a Park Residents Community Liaison meeting, our neighbours in the community had only good things to say about us. This was great news as it shows that all our initiatives are working. Things such as trying to get everyone home on the bus after a big event at Park so there’s as little noise as possible and encouraging you to be respectful to the people you live near by not dropping litter and stealing signs on your way home from a night out, may seem small to you but it keeps up a good relationship between you, the Students’ Union and the residents of Gloucestershire.

Tuesday 11th November

Being a Full Time Elected Officer means that you can end up doing some very strange things with your days. On Tuesday morning for example, I spent the morning cutting and sticking like a six year old! But it was all in the name of extending my University education as along with other SU officers and staff, I was taking part in the test run of a new module in Experiential Learning. Think of it as a Reflective Essay made fun! We had to make a ‘rich picture’ showing a project we’d undertaken (ours was highlighting the dangers of excessive drinking while at University), in simple terms showing what we did and how we did it. The module encourages us to learn from our past experiences in a new way. Hopefully the module will be available for you to take from next year, and will be a valuable tool in expanding your employability once you leave university (cutting and sticking aside!).

In the afternoon we had a meeting of the SU Exec. This is where the people YOU elect discuss the policy and direction of the Students’ Union. Problems are brought to my attention so that I can then go about talking to the university about how to solve them and generally. There was also a tentative discussion about how next years elections are run…

I also represented the SU at the launch of the University’s Student Employment project. This is a great initiative as the plan is to employ as many students as possible on campus to work for the University. This will provide students the chance to work in an environment that understands their commitments and also work in areas that will hopefully build their experiences and be worthwhile in the search for that elusive job after finishing their degree.

Wednesday 12 November

A very early start this morning, I was up at 6.30 to get to Wolverhampton by mid-morning for the NUS Extraordinary Conference. This is where all the Students’ Unions in the country got together to discuss and debate the National Unions structure and how it needs to change and adapt to the current model of Higher Education. NUS Conferences are always very ‘interesting’, to say the least. There are some very strong political views put across, and there is almost a pantomime-style atmosphere, think of it as a student version of the House of Commons! I was representing Gloucestershire well as a voice of calm and reason in a very heated room!

Thursday 13 November

In the morning we had a meeting of the Students’ Union Finance Committee discussing the current state of our budget for the year. Important decisions have to be made and it would be in very few other jobs where responsibility for thousands of pounds is partly put on your shoulders directly after finishing your degree.

Following that I had a meeting with a member of the University Directorate discussing our approach to an ongoing issue within the university and what would be the best way of dealing with it for the benefit of everyone concerned. Afterwards I had to go over to Gloucester Cathedral to get myself prepared for tomorrow’s events…

Friday 14 November

For Oxstalls students that finished their degree in the summer, this was probably one of the biggest days of their lives, as today was the first day of the 2008 Graduation Ceremonies. Hundreds of Graduates and even more proud parents filled Gloucester Cathedral to watch and take part in the momentous day. The role of the SU President is to be part of the Chair’s Party, and in simple terms, that means to sit on the stage and represent current students at the ceremony. It was great to take part, wear the lovely gown and hat, and congratulate every single graduate.

As you can see pretty much every day is different for me, and what I can’t include here is the mass of emails I get each day, and a great part of each day is spent replying to them. Most of them dealing with specific student issues and I try to help everyone as best I can.
I have to say though that this is definitely a fantastic job, the amount of variety is unbelievable and it’s a pleasure to come to work every day. The vast majority is great fun, there are challenges and experiences that I’ll remember for the rest of my life, and there are opportunities that wouldn’t get in any other role. If you ever want to know what else I get up to, then please just get in touch. jdurant@glos.ac.uk

As the President of University of Gloucestershire Students’ Union, obviously I was very shocked and appalled by the behaviour shown by a tiny minority of our students when I was first shown the video broadcast by the BBC.

Their actions can not be defended or condoned by anyone. However a lot has been lost in interpretation of the events that were broadcast and reported on around the world in the last couple of weeks.

The Students’ Union does not support initiation ceremonies and they have been banned on campus for decades. 

We do everything we can to protect our students; our bars are probably the safest in the county as we are continually working with Local Residents Associations, Local Authorities and the Police so that students are safe and that they have positive impacts on towns such as Cheltenham.

At the start of the year, and continually throughout, our sports captains are given training and guidance to understand that initiation events that include intimidating or bullying behavior will not be tolerated. However though, everyone must understand that at the end of the day, students are adults. Adults are ultimately responsible for their own decisions and actions, and if they want to take part in initiation-style events, there is only so much anyone can do to stop them.

You can not reasonably stop anyone doing anything in their own homes, which is where almost all these events take place. No one is ever forced to take part, and it is not a requirement to do so to be part of a sports team. Many initiation-style events do not involve alcohol or extreme behavior. The vast majority are harmless fun and involves strong team-bonding.

I’d like to clear up a few inaccurate points that have crept into reports in the media:

· The University of Gloucestershire and the Students’ Union have always banned initiations on our campuses. This is nothing new.

· The video is months’ old footage. It was shot before many current students came to University.

· Initiations aren’t necessarily a form of ‘hazing’ from the USA. Initiations’ historical roots can most likely be traced back hundreds of years in public schools in this country. People’s poor relationship with alcohol is, and has always been, a problem with society as a whole in this country.

· Other Universities allow initiations, and have them take place on campus under supervision. This would not be a decision that would have been taken lightly, however at Gloucestershire we always felt a total outright ban is the best option.

· What has not been covered is the passion and dedication for their chosen sport, the support and sense of belonging felt by the majority of Clubs’ members and the support always at hand from both the University and Students’ Union.

· In the last academic year two very separate Club Captains asked the Students’ Union for advice as they were concerned about the drinking habits of one of their members. In both cases the Captains handled the situation sensitively and responsibly with the knowledge that the University’s Student Services were there with a team of professional help if it was needed.

· Unfortunately there are deaths across the country relating to alcohol and binge drinking culture every single day. It is unfair to suddenly place a huge amount of blame onto universities and Students’ Unions when they are trying to help and support students with pastoral care every day.

· The actions seen in the video broadcast are extreme and are of a tiny handful of students acting of their own accord. I reiterate my point that there is no defending them. This is a one-of –a-kind incident, of which no-one has ever seen anything like before and should not be used as the basis to form an opinion of the University of Gloucestershire, its students or common behavior on.

The Students’ Union supports a ‘sport for all’ stance. We want to put people’s minds at ease that they don’t have to, and are never forced to do, anything that they do not want to.

Your Students’ Union has brought you the biggest and best Freshers’ Festival in the history of the University of Gloucestershire. With events every night across all the campuses, the SU has given you huge names and memorable nights that you’ll remember for as long as you’re a student here.

It all started off on Sunday 14^th September when thousands of new students moved into halls or their new houses wondering what to expect from us. After a hectic day of carrying duvets, clothes and saucepans into new accommodation, asking our Superstars all those questions, and hoping that you’ll get along with all those people you’ll be sharing a kitchen with, we settled it down a little bit with our welcome barbeques and a chance for you to experience your SU bars for the first time, especially the £35,000 refurbishment of Park Bar.

The first week kicked off in true SU style with ‘Welcome to the Family’. At Park we had Wideboys and Claire Evers getting everyone up on the dance floor, followed by a memorable performance of ‘I See You Baby’ by Gram’ma Funk. Shy FX headlined the night with some pumping drum and bass to bring the first night proper of Freshers Festival 08 to a close.

Students’ Union favourites hypnotist Tony Lee and Stevie ‘The Regurgitator’ Starr followed on the next couple of nights with truly amazing acts that were even better than expected. The pre-show games also included one of the most over-the-top game of musical chairs that I think anyone has ever seen (and as a side note: No, what Charley, Lizzie and I were doing on stage was not pre-planned and we were making it all up on the spot!)! Tony Lee had students doing things that are best left unwritten about in space, but after speaking to some of the people that were hypnotised, they all had an amazing night and loved every minute of it like everyone in the audience. Stevie Starr had the audience gasping in astonishment and sometimes disgust at his performance, not least the incidents with the goldfish!

The largest ever Freshers Fayre engulfed Park Campus all day on Thursday with record numbers of students showing interests in sports and societies from all campuses,  loads of you signed up for volunteering projects and practically everyone getting a slice of the action from Domino’s Pizza! This was the first year that we had one gigantic Fayre on a single day and the feedback we’ve received has been incredibly positive, next year can surely only get better.

The first weekend that many Freshers spent in Gloucestershire was headlined by Natasha Hamilton, JK from JK and Joel and Sonique. Having met JK, everyone backstage can honestly say that he is the nicest guy in showbiz and would welcome him back anytime, and the banter that he had with the audience was among the best of the Freshers Festival. Even the ‘Erection Section’ of his set was legendary, also the best ensemble dancing by everyone was don’t to the tunes of ‘Saturday Night’ and ‘Tragedy’!

The Rag Rubix Cube, Hip:Shaker and Blue and Blue nights made sure that after first lectures, Freshers had amazing nights to look forward in the second week here. After 4 live bands hitting the stage on the second Thursday, lostprophets’ Ian Watkins closed the inaugural Dirty Laundry night with classic DJ set. The last huge event at Park was Scott Mills, Alexa Chung and the Headphone Disco, all of whom had the crowd screaming for more. After all of these amazing events, make sure that you keep checking www.yourstudentsunion.com and each issue of space for all the latest information on upcoming events (including the return of a Summer Ball favourite from a couple of years ago) brought to you by your Students’ Union.

Your Students’ Union is proud to announce that after 2 years of campaigning, the inter-campus university bus is back to running every 30 minutes during the day. During term time, the bus will stop at each campus in Cheltenham twice as often as it has done between 9AM and 4PM. 

There will still be an hourly service to Oxstalls in Gloucester during the day and the whole route runs every hour after 4PM until midnight. This is a significant move as it shows that the University are listening to students and the Students Union. The reinstatement of the half hour service now means students shouldn’t have to wait long to get a bus to another campus or into town before or after lectures. 

Make sure that you pick up a new bus timetable to find out when the bus stops at your campus. However it isn’t all good news. Every other Stagecoach service, which used to be free, will now cost 50p per journey. Although this is obviously not the best news, perhaps we need to remember we are one of a very small handful of universities in the country that provide a free bus of any kind and an even smaller number that provide a subsidised service for other bus services in operation. 50p is still an excellent discounted rate as the same journeys cost much more for the general public. 

The University has worked extremely hard to keep the fares down and will spend around £245,000 this year on providing the university bus, as well as subsidising fares on all other routes. The increase to a 50p charge may be the first time students will directly feel the effects of the global ‘credit crunch’. Costs for everything, not least petrol, are going up all the time and it was deemed not to be financially sustainable by the university to continue a free service on the whole Stagecoach network. The university has a limited budget for everything, and as costs go up, sacrifices have to be made. More money spent on bus services may mean less new equipment in teaching rooms, fewer new books in the Learning Centres. 

Andrew Simpson, University of Gloucestershire Operations Manager, said: “The University has benefited over the last 5 years from a very favourable partnership with Stagecoach. However over the last year Stagecoach have realised the true cost of this partnership and sadly have had to review the position.’  “They would be totally within their rights to withdraw the access to alternatives routes altogether or set a much higher price than 50 pence per journey,” he continues. “To maintain the service as per last year would have required the University to invest a considerable amount of funds to the scheme. I always wish to provide the best service I can to my customers but unfortunately there are times when this needs to be compromised and therefore the optimum delivered out of the resources available. forms of transport, such as the cycle scheme which is also free for journeys of less than 30 mins. Maybe we did too good a job in the service provision we had and therefore it is that much harder to alter expectation as a result.” 

The main point to take from all this is that the University bus is back to every 30 minutes and is still absolutely free, something the vast majority of students have been asking for 2 years for. The fact that world’s economy and costs that are out of our control have now caught up with students was always just going to be a matter of time. Although we were unable to stop the introduction of a 50p charge on other routes, this is  still a huge success for your Students’ Union as we have been pushing for a return to a 30 minute free bus service between the campuses for 2 years.

Your Students’ Union is here to make sure that you have the best possible time while you’re here at the University of Gloucestershire. We can help you with pretty much anything from representation on academic matters to joining a sports team. As your President, I’m in place to make sure that the Students’ Union is doing all it possibly can for you.

The range of services we offer covers everything that can affect your life for the next few years. If you need a job to help your bank balance, come into our Jobshop. If you want to meet someone of the same faith as yourself, join a society. if you just want to have an amazing time, come along to any of our events!

If you ever have any problems, or even if you just want a chat, please make use of me, the other two full time officers, or anyone from the Students’ Union. We are all here to make sure that problems are sorted out, and you have a fantastic time at the university.

James Durrant