► 2nd Presidents' Blog

Hi everyone,

For the first time at ULU we have entered the age of blogging! My weekly diary is up for people to see what I am doing to day to day. I will also regularly be writing blogs. Blogs are my own personal opinions and thought and do not necessarily represent the policies or practices of ULU. However, I really welcome any comments or thoughts, so if you have any please write to me click here. 

Freshers Fayre, Inductions & Welcome Talks!

Well, since September began, time has absolutely flown! The last month of Freshers Fayres and Induction talks has been very tiring but fantastic. Going out there and chatting to so many students has been incredibly informative for me. And I thought I would give you a run down of where I have been in the last few weeks. 

September 8th at Royal Academy of Music. Unfortunately we did have The Guide ready in time but it did give myself and Nicky Grant (Students with Disabilities Officer) to have a good chat with lots of students. The demographic of Students at RAM is incredibly diverse for such a small population. many are Masters students and there are lots of International students and they were asking lots of different types of questions, from what types of clubs and societies ULU has, to really wanting to get involved in the campaigns we are doing.

September 18th I went along to the LSE Exec Training Day. Jimmy Tam (LSE General Secretary) asked me to do a session on ULU. I presented the campaigns we are doing, what we as a Union have to offer and strategic and governance plans for the year ahead. LSE is a unique College in the University of London with around 70% of students being international students. LSE also is the only Union left in the country where General Meetings happen every week! The student population is very vocal and meeting the part time Exec was great and they gave me lots of ideas and thoughts to ponder on afterwards.

September 19th I travelled out to Egham to do a session at the Exec Training Week (yes, you read right- Week!) The Exec at Royal Holloway were really animated and keen to get involved with the Transport For London Campaign and promoting the NUS National Demo and developing a strategy for Coalition 2010.

September 20th I went back to Queen Mary, my home College (which was very strange for me) for their Freshers Fayre. It was really great to see QMSU prospering after several years of financial difficulty. QMSU has really started to take advantage of being a campus university and the fayre was already buzzing at 10am! I then went down the road to The Barts & The London Freshers Fayre from 12-3pm. Barts and The London has fantastic participation, which 50% of students being a member of a club or society and seeing the number of students at the fayre I'm sure things will stay that way.

September 21st I did an induction talk for the international students at The School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. I gave a run down off everything ULU has to offer as ULU is the only Union that they have and they are only based around the corner from malet Street.

September 22nd I did the Freshers Fayre at Kings Strand Campus. It was busy busy busy! We gave away boxes of the ULU guide with students being very interested in the live music at ULU and the additional clubs we have.

September 25th I went over to Heythrop for their Freshers Fayre from 11am-2pm. As a Small and Specialist College, it could not have been more different to Kings last week but it meant being able to properly chat to the students about ULU. Over 100 hundred students got a ULU card and we gave away 200 Guides so it was really successful! At 4.30pm I went to Birkbeck, next door to ULU and gave a talk to the new international students and the week before i ensured that a ULU guide was included in their welcome packs.

September 27th I travelled out to Potters Bar for the Royal Vetinary College Freshers Fayre in Surrey. This was one of the success stories of the month! We totally underestimated the interest, giving out 200 ULU Guides and 700 ULU Cards in two and a half hours! We completely ran out of everything, as just as many returning students were there as Freshers. We are going back on the 11th October at 2pm to do some more as the returning students are based out there.

September 28th September I was at Royal Holloway, again we completely underestimated just how many ULU Guides we would need! We brought 8 boxes for both days. By the end of Thursday we had given out six and half boxes. Thankfully we got another member of staff coming for the second day and could bring more boxes of Guides in his car. Again, I could really sense the benefits of a buzzing campus university and was so impressed with the array of clubs and societies they have. Over the two days we gave out about 1,500 ULU Guides. The students at Holloway were incredibly friendly and it was really enjoyable.

September 29th I was at LSE Freshers Fayre. It was absolutely massive, spreading over two buildings and four floors! The sabbs did a great job of organising it. I was exhausted by the end of the day.

October 2nd I went to St Georges Freshers Fayre in the morning and then went over to Courtaulds Induction talks at 3pm.

October 5th I went to Sutton for The Institute of Cancer Research Welcome Day. Today really did illustrate the different needs that Postgraduate Students have.

October 6th, the final Freshers Fayre...of course it is ULU's! I had a fantastic day with thousands of students coming through our door. Myself, Dan (Vice President Welfare and Student Affairs), Tim Roll-Pickering (Post-Graduate Student Officer), Rob Park (Council Chair), Laura Purll (LGBT Officer) and Nicky Grant (Student With Disabilities Officer) spent the day promoting the campaigns. It was great to get so much encouragement for my Transport For London Campaign to get the discount extended to Day and Single Tickets. It was very mixed as to whether students knew about NUS National Demo planned for the 29th October, but everyone was very interested in it and many very shocked to hear about the possible lifting of the cap on fees.

Of course, these are not the only Freshers fayres that ULU was at, but many Colleges had them on the same day so it was all hands on deck to ensure that ULU was at them all. I am really pleased to say we went to all but one of them this year.