Want to explore some of Leah's past progress updates? Here, you'll find a short profile of what they've been up to since being elected!
This regularly updated page will help you track what Leah has been up to since being elected...
15/07 - I started the week with a catch-up meeting where I got more information about APP (Access and Participation Plan) – one of the boards I sit on! I got to give my thoughts on certain parts of APP as an officer representing students as well as a current outgoing student, especially about how we can make students more aware of the support the university offers and how we can keep applications accessible (specifically those who are neurodiverse and those who do not speak English as a first language). The next day was the operational board for the APP, where we discussed how we plan to put the APP into effect. I also had a meeting later in the week to discuss potential plans involving cooperating with student groups and students after Welcome. Hopefully, we will be able to discuss some of those plans and opportunities soon, so keep an eye out!
22/07 - The last week was fairly quiet for the most part due to the focus being on graduation! I attended graduation on the 18th of July for students from the Institute of Business and Innovation. This gave me the chance to meet a variety of university staff I hadn’t met yet, but the highlight was getting to see all the happy, smiling graduate faces leaving Kings Hall and getting to take pictures of the gorgeous interiors of the building during my downtime. Congratulations to those graduating!
29/07 - This week, I attended the chancellor's dinner, as well as the SUSV groundbreaking session, where we saw the new student village get started! I also attended my first student conduct panel, something that I found quite difficult. This was otherwise a fairly quiet week for me outside of induction, though.
05/08 - This week included a lot of travelling for us, with me moving back home to work remotely, our officer team travelling to Birmingham for the Lead and Change event run by NUS and my final hand-in of the year! While I could spend this update shilling my master's project after all the long hours, I think the real highlight was getting to meet officers from other universities and comparing/contrasting our issues. Especially the Warwick sabs that adopted me!
12/08 - We had our regular catch-up with Christina Matthews, executive director of student services, and discussed some of our relevant issues - including connecting up regarding a statement on the recent political violence. We ended up making our own statement on this as an officer team, which was shortly followed by the university's! I moved back to Stoke this week, and it was also the first time I got to attend one of our Union Leadership Team, where we talked to managers of all of our departments! We discussed Welcome plans here, and I look forward to getting to present that to all of you soon!
19/08 - This was a very busy week for me, between a reflection on module feedback with the evaluation team to a catch-up with one of the Staffs UCU heads. These are both important to me as a big focus of my manifesto was on communication, so making sure that the feedback loop is being closed for students, as well as maintaining good communication with the other Unions/staff, is crucial to me. We also did some in-depth planning for some of our yearly plans, helping us coordinate to see where we have shared interests, not just with each other, but with ongoing university activities. With so many changes around the university, I want to make sure that student needs are being actively considered to ensure that our student experience isn't compromised. I definitely feel I have a better idea of how to push for that now!
27/08 - This week, I was involved in the Digital Transformation Board, as well as a couple of other meetings where we discussed some changes happening to the University's systems in future that will make it easier for students to access/contact support and services going forward. I was also involved in the course monitoring meeting for Creative Industries courses, where we discussed issues impacting these courses with the course teams (including some areas which tie into my manifesto regarding space and facilities).