Summer at the WSA.

Summer in Winchester consisted of a range of different things, from painting and decorating to helping with the pre-sessional students. The masses of grey paint and chucking out of virtually everything was rather fun. We have a new Manager at the WSA now, Leigh Moore, who has helped hugely with the changes in Winchester. Small changes have been done in Winchester that have changed the venue massively. With a new Floor, nice new back bar, interesting gallery space at the front and a general clean and paint job, the WSA now feels fresh and welcoming. I wanted to transform the WSA in 3 months and even on a shoe string budget, the improvements are very noticeable. [All those weekends painting paid off!!] We also looked at our light and sound equipment, which made a considerable difference to our events during freshers.

Fresher’s Fever.

Freshers fortnight went fantastically well down at the WSA. Our new Fat Panda night took off and is now very popular. We have had some great feedback about both the Winchester Fresher’s and the Southampton one; our students got involved in both and seemed really excited. We have had some technical hick-ups – sound, temperamental d-j etc but on a whole, I feel the fortnight went really well. Obviously every year, we want to get it right, and I think we did this year thanks to a lot of hard work from Leigh and the SUSU team.

Aldwych/internationalisation/Monica

Aldwych visit with Billy in Sheffield was really informative. The talks were based on internationalisation and it was really interesting to see how other universities were tackling international involvement. Sheffield students union is rated number 1 and it was very easy to see why. It was great to see how other unions worked and also to highlight the things at SUSU do really well.

This year at the WSA we are trying to make sure both international and home students are catered for. I am currently working with an international student who is looking to put on some awesome events, for both Home and International students. She feels as strongly as I do about the need to cater for both Home and International students and not do events based at just one of these cohorts. Fat Panda has been popular International students and has proved a hugely popular night. I’m really excited to see how the rest of the Fat Panda nights carry on as we’ve had some great feed back as well as working strongly with Monica to make some really interesting International events.

Clubs and societies

Clubs and Societies are two things I want to focus on this year. WSA involvement with this in the past hasn’t been terribly popular. Whilst the established Clubs and Societies in Southampton prove increasingly popular I believe it is important for us in Winchester to look closely at finding ways for our students to take part in activities closely a lined with the courses we study. Whilst we do not want to duplicate societies there are obvious resources and facilities at our disposal here that would make Winchester based activity more logical.

Transport

Transport has been an age-old problem between Winchester and Southampton. This is something that hasn’t changed. Below I have included figures for the transport between campuses. I think this is something we need to look into. Regardless of whether we are bring Clubs and Societies to Winchesters doorstep, WSA students should have the option to utilize Southampton if they choose to.

Period pass

-Two instalments of £180 per term which will give the student an academic pass for £360 – subsidised by WSA by £55 (so cost to student is £125)

- (The £360 price gives the student the third term free) – subsidised by WSA by £110 (so total cost to the student for the year is £250)

-Students can purchase the second term pass at £180 but will not get the third term free

-Daily ticket for Bluestar 1 only (not valid on Nightstar 1 bus)

-For students (this will be time limited to the academic year)

-£4.50 day return tickets sold in books of 10 (£45) – subsidised by WSA by £10. So cost to the student is £35.

 Next steps -

Winchester Food/Transport -There have been some issues with the canteens food this term, which have resorted in the head of school, Bashire, getting in a “van” twice a week. After plenty of discussions with Bashire on both food and transport, I think this is one of our priorities this year. Bashire wants to work with the union to find out what the students want and how we can improve both the food and the transport situation.

Www.susu.org/surveys -Getting WSA students voices heard. Getting them passionate about their views and starting to get them thinking about the bigger picture and not just their paint and canvas [massive generalisation – we’ve already had some great feedback from our students, and many are very verbal about the Browne Report – which is brilliant and lots are filling out the survey, we now need to get more doing the same!]

Clubs and Societies!! – Getting this moving!

Changing the Gallery Space – The Gallery space at the front of the union has provoked a lot of interest, not only with students, but the general public as well. I think this space needs to be changed constantly and after receiving a large amount of requests to use this wall, I’m looking forward to see how the students take advantage of the space, making it fresh and interesting, every 3 weeks.