Your Changes

What's it about?

Students need to be more able to access mental health support at the University of Reading.

What's happened?

A lot of progress was made in 2019-20 – you can see the progress with information about mental health campaign. A report from the mental health survey completed in the autumn term 2019 was taken to key members of university staff with recommendations.

The Welfare Officer also ran a Mental Health Awareness week which included calm and craft events, a talk from Hope Virgo and from the Samaritans. The Welfare Directory is also complete so that students know where else they can get support on a variety of issues.

What's next?

Ensuring mental health support is still being provided virtually and students are accessing services. The Welfare Officer will continue to lobby the university for more access to support in the coming year.

What's it about?

Working to make sure students can contact security services by text

What's happened?

Created an action plan.

What's next?

Considering logistics and key stakeholders, campaign brief has been completed. Due to current circumstances, this hasn't been a priority.

What's it about?

Creating more parking spaces for students and opening up car park 1a.

What's happened?

Created an action plan with the help of the Mature Students' Officer.

What's next?

Identified key stakeholders and reached out to them for information. Due to the circumstances not much can be achieved at the moment.

What's it about?

Ensuring that students are not disadvantaged by the COVID-19 pandemic and can progress to the next stage of their studies or graduate with minimised impact.

What's happened?

Practical measures, laid out in the Next Steps document, have been put in place to ensure that the officers are representing you in discussions around these topics. One aspect in particular is the Circumstance Impact Process (CIP) which has been improved by the university and Education Officer. It will now take into account the impact COVID-19 will have on a lot of students and to ensure it is accessible and clear.

A letter has been sent to MPs to ensure that the government offer support to students nationally. See the asks in the letter and what you can do to help.

What's next?

Continuing to lobby the university following the next steps document. Representing students’ views will continue to be a priority for officers in meetings over the summer. In particular, there will be a focus on ensuring that students taking resits are given a fair opportunity.

What's it about?

A number of students cannot afford to hire the cap and gown required in order to attend their graduation ceremony, this is about getting free graduation gown and cap hire for students due to graduate in 2020.

What's happened?

Initial planning has been carried out and the President has created a list of actions.

What's next?

Carrying out the actions. These include lobbying the university to provide free cap and gown hire as well as support to students who cannot afford the hire.

What's it about?

Students feel like they deserve compensation for the strikes due to teaching they may have missed out on so RUSU will lobby the university to provide compensation to all students.

What's happened?

Initial planning has been carried out and the President has created a list of actions.

What's next?

Carrying out the actions. These include lobbying the university to provide compensation to finalists and current students.

What's it about?

Printing is expensive, as students, we don't have a large budget. Free printing encourages students to have a copy of their work, which may be more practical for them to reread - it would be a change from using a laptop screen all the time. To change this, I think RUSU should: Lobby the university to provide a printing credit to students.

What's happened?

The RUSU Education Officer is drafting a proposal to take to the university asking for this.

What's next?

Identifying stakeholders and taking the idea to the university.

What's it about?

Making cloakroom cashless on Union nights.

What's happened?

An option to buy cloakroom on top of ticket price will be added. This should be purchased alongside the Union ticket.

What's next?

Due to COVID-19 we have not been able to use this yet. This will be implemented in Autumn term.

What's it about?

Having a student representative on School Director of Teaching and Learning recruitment panels.

What's happened?

There’s precedence for this happening, so we’ll look into University recruitment policies as this is a great idea to enhance the student voice. Fifi will be taking a paper to the University Board for Teaching and Learning and Student Experience (UBTLSE), which is the relevant committee, to achieve this. PVC Education has been emailed and included that this should be applied to all School roles; PVC Education was in support of this idea.

What's next?

Fifi will be submitting a paper to UBTLSE for approval.

What's it about?

Making sure pitch bookings by sports clubs aren't prioritised by gender.

What's happened?

We already do this, and have a non-discriminatory process in place, so we will write this process down formally in a policy.

What's next?

Daisy is currently writing this up formally.

What's happened?

RUSU to campaign for the University to support more environmentally sustainable search browsers.

What's next?

Fifi has emailed DTS to find out more information

What's it about?

Having an area at Union reserved for students who wish to go outside but not to smoke.

What's happened?

There are a few technical issues around this. We'll trial it this term to see how it goes. Keep an eye out at Union for this option!

What's next?

Awaiting trial session - this will now be trialled in Autumn term due to COVID-19.

What's it about?

To keep information from undergraduate students available for access following graduation.

What's happened?

We need to know more about the feasibility of this in relation to the University IT infrastructure. I emailed the University to find out whether this was feasible and in theory it is possible to do this. However, IT need to look at how this would interact with the other software the uni uses e.g. RISIS, Blackboard etc. I am currently waiting on a response once this has been investigated.

What's next?

Waiting to hear back for a response from IT at the University.

What's it about?

This called for the University to hold a policy relating to sustainability or our crockery and cutlery provision.

What's happened?

The University has just written a comprehensive sustainable food policy. There isn't a huge mention of crockery and cutlery so Molli will investigate why this is the case and if further information can be added.

What's next?

Molli is going to get in contact with the catering department to discuss the current policy and whether it could be expanded.

What's it about?

Many students may not feel like they have the opportunity to speak about issues that are quite damning and can cause stress by identifying them.

What's happened?

RUSU can take the following actions:

• Reiterate at committee training and on the RUSU website that any student can give feedback or share concerns about RUSU Activities Student Groups to the student activities inbox. These can be dealt with in a confidential manner- relevant staff members will know who submitted the feedback, but the student’s name will not be shared with any other student.
• Include a confidential feedback box where students can give feedback on RUSU Activities Student Groups. This could be placed on the website so students could give feedback.
• Share the names of RUSU Activity Student Groups who have been disaffiliated with brief reason for disaffiliation, e.g. behavioural issues or not for reaching minimum membership requirement. This would take place at Activity Group Meetings. Activity Group minutes are published on the website for students to access this information.

Important notes:

RUSU cannot usually share information relating to disciplinary procedures.

RUSU cannot provide an anonymous reporting process (where staff do not know who submitted report) because if there are welfare concerns, RUSU would not be able to get in touch with the student, and if it was a complaint, RUSU would not be able to deal with the complaint.

What's next?

Daisy will work with Student Activities and the Marketing Department to implement these actions.