Ravensbourne Student Parliament 2014/15

Ravensbourne Student Parliament 2014/15
Meeting 3 minutes
Date: Thursday 23rd April 2015
Location: 212
3.1 Opening remarks by the Chair (including apologies)
Hassan Haji welcomed everyone to the third and final Student Parliament meeting of this
academic year. He mentioned that Kyron Goode has resigned as the SU President
recently for personal reasons. More details will be provided during the ‘briefing by the
Students’ Union Team’ section. Hassan Haji invited everyone to the Volunteering Social
on Friday 24th April on Level 4.
The Chair also presented a list of apologies.
Present:
Hassan Haji
Chair
Student Rep BA (Hons) Interior Design
Environment Architectures (Level 1)
Paul Sternberg
Jill Leigh
Jennifer Grant
Management Team and Members of Staff
Director and Chief Executive
Deputy Director, Strategic and Academic
Development and Postgraduate Studies
Director of Academic Services
Associate Dean – Fashion, Partnerships and
Business Development
Associate Dean – Content and Learning
Innovations
Associate Dean – Production
Associate Dean – Architecture and IDEAS,
International Liaison/Projects, Student
Engagement and Experience
Associate Dean – Design, Quality and Student
Experience
Associate Dean and Head of Design Innovation
Head of Quality
Head of Technical Services
Elli Weir
Honey Yeo
Robert Taylor
Sarah Amdanee
Students’ Union Executive
VP Activities, Participation and Fashion Cluster
VP Welfare and Production Cluster
VP Education and Content Cluster
VP Campaigns and Further Education
Bolanle Adeoshun
Jack Williams
Vlado Panov
Charlotte Kerens
Fionn Lucas
Jonny Gwillim
Tomas Sharman
Matt Starr
Tor-Arne Njamo
Vanessa de la Cruz
Sibrinna Kinnunen
Student Reps
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
BA (Hons) Digital Photography (L2)
BA (Hons) Music Production for Media (L2)
BA (Hons) Sound Design (L2)
BA (Hons) Sound Design (L3)
BA (Hons) Web Media (L1)
BA (Hons) Web Media (L1)
BA (Hons) Web Media (L2)
BA (Hons) Web Media (L3) and Vice Chair
BA (Hons) Web Media (L3)
BA (Hons) Architecture (L2)
Professor Linda Drew
Dr Janthia Taylor
John O’Boyle
Caroline Gilbey
Dr Rosemary Stott
Jeremy Barr
Layton Reid
Louise Prideaux
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Apology:
Andrew Seeds
Darpan Patel
Daniel Falcone
Stefan Ferrol
BSc (Hons) Broadcast Technology (L1)
BSc (Hons) Broadcast Technology (L1)
BA (Hons) Digital Film Production (L2)
BA (Hons) Digital Film Production(L2 Fast track)
Muhammad Sadi
Secretary
SU Coordinator
Annlise Scholl
James Ward
Jennie Stewart
VP Equality, Diversity and Postgraduate Studies
Associate Dean – FE and Community
Engagement
Head of Marketing
3.2 Elections
No elections took place.
3.3 Minutes of the last meeting
The minutes of the meeting held on 17 February 2015 were approved by the Parliament.
The minutes are available at www.ravesu.co.uk/studentparliament.
3.4 Matters arising from the minutes
3.4.1 To receive an update on bringing back the table tennis table and introducing other
activities on Level 4 (mins 2.4.1 – 17.02.2015 refers)
Robert Taylor: the purchase of a table tennis table has been approved by the
Director of Physical Resources. The table will be placed on Level 4 at some point
during this academic term. There will be a schedule in place for the use of the
table. No other activities will be introduced in this academic term. The incoming
SU team may, however, evaluate the possibility introducing other activities on Level
4 in the next academic year.
3.5 Briefing by the Senior Management Team
3.5.1 Welcome by the Director and CEO
Prof. Linda Drew welcomed everyone to the briefing by the Senior Management
Team session. She expressed satisfaction with seeing a lot of students taking
part both in student democracy and decision making process through the
Parliament. She hoped that this will continue in the coming academic year.
3.5.2
Strategy Development Session – Prof. Linda Drew
The Director and CEO informed the Parliament that the feedback received
through the ‘traffic light’ process (stop, continue and start) session at the last
meeting are currently being printed on fabrics. They will be on display around the
building soon and students will be able to vote for top three priorities for action.
Prof. Linda Drew also mentioned that a ‘Goto team’ has been formed recently as
part of the strategic development process. The team are currently working on
further refining values, mission and strategic priorities for Ravensbourne as well
as developing a project plan, holding an integrated stakeholder consultation and
establishing a design thinking approach.
She further stated that at the staff conference on 31st March members of staff
explored and redefined the values of the institution and contributed to the drafting
of a manifesto. The Director and CEO requested Parliament members to do the
same. All feedback received will form the basis of the development of the new
strategy.
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3.6 Questions and answers
Student Reps raised questions on matters relevant to the overall student experience in
Ravensbourne.
Pre-submitted questions and answers
3.6.1
Andrew Seeds: “It has come to my attention that over the last term there has
been significant disruption to Ravensbourne's lift system, with in term 2 alone, 3
separate emails saying that both lifts on the east side are out of action; often for
days / weeks on each occasion with one in particular being out of action nearly
continually during this time. I would like to know what is being done to improve
the reliability of the lifts within the building longer term rather than what appears
to be ‘quick patches’ of faults which are not lasting any length of time.”
Management response: “we appreciate it can be frustrating when any of the lifts
are out of order, particularly with the prolonged fault on Lift 3 (the large lift on the
east side of the building). In order to maintain the lifts they are serviced every
three months by our contractor Schindler and being mechanical they inevitably
break down at times. We share your frustration with the continued issues with Lift
3 and apologise for any inconvenience this is causing. The lift originally failed on
13 February due to a faulty drive (the component that moves the lift) and, as is
often the case, the replacement parts had a lead time of several weeks, which
naturally impacts our ability to bring a lift back on line. In this instance once the
part was replaced and the lift inspected again a further fault was identified
requiring a further part, which has obviously further delayed bringing the lift back
into service. At this moment in time we anticipate it will be fully repaired within the
next two weeks. We have investigated the option of sourcing parts elsewhere
however the lifts are closed protocol and therefore parts would still need to be
sourced from Schindler so we have requested Schindler to send us a list of
critical parts, which we will keep on site in the hope that this enables us to reduce
the period of time a lift is out of service.”
3.6.2
Honey Yeo: “Can the timetable room finder have a search engine and pictures of
each room for students to find the rooms easier when booking?”
Management response: “timetable finder does not have this level of functionality
however we have a module in Celcat that we recently procured that would make
it possible to provide more direct information and to make booking a room more
straightforward. We're not in a position to implement this at this moment in time
however it is something we intend to do in the future.”
Matters arose during the meeting
3.6.3
Comment: the problem with room 304 has been ongoing for more than six
months now and a lot of students are disappointed about it (mins 1.6.2 –
13.11.2014 and mins 2.4.1 – 17.02.2015 refer).
Management response: the institution has every intention of resolving this
matter. However, we believe that the best solution can be achieved in
consultation with students.
3.6.4
Question: is it true that the tuition fees for second year students going to third
year is increasing by £250 in the next year and why?
Management response: this decision was made two years ago due a reduction
in government funding. Moreover, the revised fees are in line with the fees
charged by institutions of the same size.
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3.6.5
Question: since the SU President has now resigned from his position, could you
please inform us where the unpaid salary is going to be invested?
Management response: the former SU President will be paid out for the notice
period. The institution is unable to provide any further information due to
employment legislation.
All members of staff shall take their leave at the conclusion of this point.
3.7 Briefing by the Students’ Union Team
3.7.1
Resignation of the RSU President and filling the vacancy – Robert Taylor
The Vice President for Education and School of Content informed the
Parliament that the Union President has resigned from his position recently
for personal reasons. According to the SU Constitution, the Executive
Committee may co-opt Officers if a position becomes vacant during the
summer term, subject to ratification by the Student Parliament. The Executive
Committee elected Robert Taylor as the Acting President of the Union who
will be performing this duty in addition to his Vice Presidential responsibilities
until the end of June 2015. The Parliament approved the decision made by
the Executive Committee.
It was noted that Robert will not serve as a sabbatical officer and will continue
to be a full-time student and part-time officer of the Union.
3.7.2
Results of the Students’ Union Elections 2015 – Robert Taylor
The Acting President of the Union presented the result of the Students’ Union
Elections 2015 to the Parliament.
President: Tor-Arne Njamo
NUS National Conference Delegate: Bemi Onadeko
Vice President for Education and Schools of Architecture &
Design: Hassan Haji
Vice President for Campaigns and School of Content: Jack
Williams
Vice President for Activities, Participation and School of Fashion:
Amile Ali
Vice President for Welfare and School of Production: Stefan
Ferrol
He also mentioned that 254 students logged in and cast 1223 votes across 6
elections. This means that more than 10 percent of students made the effort
to get involved with the Students' Union by casting their votes.
3.7.3
Summer Ball 2015 – Elli Weir and Robert Taylor
Elli Weir stated that this year’s Summer Ball is most likely to be held during
the second week of June. The Union is currently on the process of selecting a
date and venue. The event will be announced soon and the tickets will be on
sale shortly after the announcement. There will be many different categories
for students and staff to nominate themselves for an award.
3.8 Executive reports
Received from:
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



Vice President of Activities, Participation and School of Fashion: Elli Weir
Vice President of Education and School of Content: Robert Taylor
Vice President of Equality, Diversity and Postgraduate Studies: Annelise Scholl
Vice President of Welfare and School of Production: Honey Yeo
Not received from:
 President: position vacant
 Vice President of Campaign and Further Education: Sarah Amdanee
 Vice President of Sustainability and School of Design: position vacant
Sarah Amdanee apologised for not submitting her report and explained that she was
unable to do so due to inefficient time keeping.
The Student Parliament adopted all Executive Reports unanimously.
Executive Reports (February – April 2015)
Vice President of Activities, Participation and School of Fashion’s report
Position type: part-time, paid
Author: Elli Weir
Since the last Student Parliament I have been active in creating more in house events
and celebrations for students. This started by supporting the Chinese New Year
Celebration by working with the leader of the society, giving advice and support and
completing their Risk Assessment for the event.
We have continued with the Student Socials to great success recently, with the
Valentines Day Social and St. Patricks Day social. For the St. Patricks day social, I
attended, facilitated and supported all aspects of the event; such as promotion on social
media, creating free drinks tokens, booking the space and risk assessment, etc. As our
Student Socials are becoming more commonplace and popular, I have been contacted
about partnering up with the Degree Show and Futuresfest for a Networking Social 13th
May. For this, I submitted a Risk Assessment, booked the space, the bar.
I have also been working with the Brooklyn Bowl this term for an event on April 1st. For
this event, we worked out exclusive deals for Ravensbourne Students. I promoted via
social media, emails to students and printing of posters
I also planned a Society Fair 16th April. The Society Fair is an all day event with the
intention of encouraging more students to engage with what our societies have to offer –
and also help the societies pick their leaders for next year. I requested Level 4 Booking,
invited all society leaders. Created a schedule of events – some of the activity societies
to provide entertainment and show off what they can do!
I created Suggestion Box for online suggestions via Google Docs that is a part of our
paperless ethos and give a place for students to get involved with their RSU.
Towards the end of last term we have begun to plan the summer ball. We have
generated a theme and I have contacted an outside events planner about the opportunity
of a partnership. Created Summer Ball Google Drive folder. Started creating Google
Forms for Summer Ball Crew recruitment. Contributed to create Rob’s Summer Ball
Survey.
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Continue to support and facilitate the Societies. Approved the constitution of a new
Game of Thrones Society and met with the new Football Society Leader about funding. I
also reopened the Society Reward Scheme form and sent it to society leaders to enter
with the chance of winning £250 towards their society. Promoted the Scheme on
Facebook to encourage members to get their society involved.
Attended meeting with Joy from NUS. Further promotion of the Brooklyn Bowl event.
Meeting with John O'Boyle and Jill about Student Parliment motion.
End of report
Vice President of Education and School of Content’s report
Position type: part-time, paid
Author: Robert Taylor
The time since the last student parliament has been a very dynamic and interesting. We
have had lots of events and activities happening within the union and have started
planning the major events for the final term. I have continued to make a concerted effort
to understand the tasks that are going on amongst the student body and within the SU
team and have been working to maintain a constant presence within the union.
One of the big things that the Students Union lead last term was the Student Union
Elections. Throughout the election period I helped with promotion of the elections and
helped to set up election events such as the Elections Hustings. Once voting opened I
promoted and encouraged students to vote and participate in SU elections on level 4 and
around the building and attended the announcement of SU Election results. As the new
SU team have been elected now I am working on creating a handover pack for the Next
Vice President of Education, an overall Handover for the executive team and I have also
been putting together a handover to the incoming President to ensure that they have
adequate information and guidance to work from.
Within the School of Content there have been quite a few pressing issues that students
have been wanting to raise and I went to all of my school SLC meetings to hear students
feedback and concerns and took them on to the Content Board of Study to discuss them
with the relevant senior management departments.
We continued our Student Socials and started looking forward and planning further
socials. I took a lead on the St Patricks Day social. I created the promotional material for
the event, I bought and made decorations and supplies for the Social and the SU office. I
booked out and set up sound equipment for Social. , sorted out and distributed drinks
tokens and posted promo video about event on Facebook. I spoke with Dean Spratt
regarding an issue we had with the Risk Assessment for the St patricks Socia but we
managed to agree on a situation that we were all happy with so that the event could go
ahead. Liased with UK Mobile Bar before and during the event regarding issues with the
lifts and our use of tokens. For the first time we set up a Rave SU Spotify account and
curated the first playlist. This is something I hope we can continue to use this term and
something that future teams can make use of. After the I wrote a piece about the St
Patricks Day Social for the RSU website and Staff newsletter.
I took part in a meeting with Simon Allinson about putting on a social to coincide with his
Futures Fest event. This will hopefully encourage students to further discuss their work
and portfolios with eh members of industry in a more relaxed and informal setting.
Our major effort at the moment is planning and setting up the 2015 Summer Ball. I
started discussing ideas in a planning meeting with Elli and Honey. We have and will
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continue to work on the Summer Ball planning into the final term. To gauge what
students would want for Summer Ball I created a Google Form for Summer Ball
suggestions. I was then able to analyse the responses and put together a solid idea of
the type of event that would suit and engage the majority of students. I met with Eno
from room bookings regarding availability of in house spaces for Summer Ball and
started to work out a budget plan for the event. i communicated with Jill Leigh, Head of
Quality about the Summer Ball budget. We are possibly looking to work with events
company Original Sin who specialise in Summer Balls. I had meetings and phone calls
with Nick Jackson to discuss what we are thinking of doing and what he suggests might
be possible. I had a brief chat with Dean Spratt about using the building for Summer Ball
but he felt that due to size and health and safety we would need to seriously consider the
type of event we want to hold and the amount of students that would be attending. I have
met with events company Original Sin to discuss having them work for us on the
Summer Ball so that the event will be of a high quality and be able to go ahead as
planned.
Myself and two members of the executive team decided to put forward a Motion of No
Confidence in the SU President however Kyron decided to resign from the position for
his own reasons before the motion was formally put forward to students at the
parliament.
Due to the President's resignation, I worked full time before and during the break
between term 2 and term 3 to be certain that there was a constant presence in the SU
office which I will continue to do so until the end of term 3. During this time I was able to
collate a folder with maps and directions for the sustainable travel plan around cycling to
Rave from the local area. I used these to set up the Cycling hub wall in the office and
add the cycling page and travel plan page to the SU website.
As part of the effort to understand communication within Ravensbourne I had a meeting
with Simon Crouch from BItelligence and discussed how the SU works with students and
the institution and the sort of information we require and use.
Once again as part of my role as Education Officer I launched the Term 2 Student Rep
Awards and sent out promotion for it on Internal Comms and the RSU Facebook page.
After further promotion and the announced deadline for nominations, I collected the
results and determined who the winners of the Term 2 awards were announcing them via
our various social media and internal comms emails.
I received a suggestion from a student for a Game of Thrones themed night to
encourage fans of the show to watch together rather than alone at home on their laptop.
I encouraged them to take the idea further and helped them to startup the new Game of
Thrones Society. I helped them set up a weekly student night by booking a room for the
Game of Thrones event and made a promotional poster for them.
Continuing from Term 1 and 2, I once again attended the Teaching & Learning Strategy
Steering Group to discuss where the strategy is at, to articulate Graduate Attributes and
to formulate a plan as to how we could get the input of the whole institution. This was
then presented to Academic Board which I attended. During the meeting I discussed
agenda items and contributed to discussion to ensure that the views and opinions of
students were consistently at the forefront of why things were being done.
During the break between Term 2 and 3, myself and Sadi met with Colin McDonagh
about setting up a new and more comprehensive RSU Shop. We discussed potential
products we could sell and what the costs for us to purchase would be. We then worked
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out whether or not the prices would be beneficial to Students and the SU both practically
and financially.
As a last effort to push forward the registration for the national election I launched the
‘Use Your X’ campaign to encourage people to register and use their right to vote in the
upcoming national election.
Although this is the last Student Parliament of my term in office I will continue to work
tirelessly to ensure that students have the experience they want and deserve. I am
available most days for students to discuss things with me and I will do my best to help
and represent you where I can. Thank you for making this year in the SU so enjoyable by
giving me interesting tasks and projects to work on and for putting your vote and faith in
me.
End of report
Vice President of Equality, Diversity and Postgraduate Studies’ report
Position type: part-time, paid
Author: Annelise Scholl
As VP in representation of the Post Graduate students and also official in charge of
Diversity and Inclusivity at Ravensbourne, I had been wondering how we can encourage
the Post Graduate students to engage with undergraduate students and staff. For a
variety of reasons, including age, schedule and possible differences in interests, these
two populations of students don’t really get to interact much with each other.
This is why I have suggested that one of the Rave Socials be organized by the Post
Graduates, in an effort to network, wind down, relax and party at Uni. This could also be
a great opportunity to promote the Masters courses, where undergraduates could
approach the Post Graduates in a relaxed environment and ask them questions about
their respective programs. I have enrolled a group of students interested in lending a
hand in organizing it and come up with creative ideas to make the event a success. I will
be meeting with them after Easter to start planning accordingly. The event will tentatively
take place in June.
As part of the initiatives for the Green Impact award, I committed to recruit students
interested in taking part of the bike club. Once the bike club is formed, we will have a
meeting with all members to welcome them and start planning future bike club events.
End of report
Vice President of Welfare and School of Production’s report
Position type: part time, paid
Author: Honey Yeo
This term has been another exciting term for the RSU with more exciting events, social
and indoor activities based on our campaigns. I would like to highlight the fact that each
vice president has performed their roles and duties efficiently for the students. As a
welfare officer, I was receiving more serious concerns from our students based on their
health concerns, sexual health concerns and their social lives. Extra research and off
office hours meetings were absolutely necessary to support our students who have been
dealing with difficulties.
Throughout my times as a welfare officer, I have learnt that the mental health campaigns
or health-based campaigns must be done in a non-aggressive way especially when it
comes to reaching towards our students. I would like to mention that the Valentine's Day
social was particularly successful. RSU team has organised indoor activities for both
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during the day and the evening. We have organised the bar to come in to the building
like the previous social, I was in charge of the day time activity which was called, 'Find
the welfairy for a rose' It was a small activity involving students in the building to send out
a small message that everyone deserves to be loved. Additionally, the scent of roses is
proven for spreading positive energy, which calms people down that also decreases the
stress levels. I have also written 150 notes to give out to our students with roses to make
the event more entertaining. The event was a huge success, the feedbacks that the team
received was extremely positive.
Ravensbourne team has security regulations that the students were not too familiar with.
The front of the house team has been stopping students from bringing the visitors in the
building after 6pm. This caused many inconvenience situations towards students
especially the students who were bringing the guests in for production and work
purposes. The main issue was the communication; no students have received the e
mails about the changed policy since the start of this term. A few students have found
me to address the issue and the result of having a meeting with Dean S was efficient.
Students may bring the guest or visitors in after 6pm, however a student will have to get
an approval from Dean himself on the risk assessment. Once the student's risk
assessment is approved, you will be able to bring the guests in. My only concern is that
students are still not aware of this policy and the process if they do wish to bring
someone in during the evening. I am planning on holding another meeting with Dean to
further promote this new regulations and also to help students with their production work
which involves bringing in the guests.
This term, a number of students have come to me with serious issues especially based
on mental health and sexual health. Like I have mentioned earlier, I had to extend my
area of research to point out students to the right direction. A lot of information discussed
during the welfare meeting must stay confidential, it can seem positive that the students
do know where to ask for support and help when they need it. I strongly believe that the
mental health campaigns that the RSU team has been working on are making changes.
A number of students requesting for welfare meetings are continuously increasing and
this can be seen as less students struggling alone.
The LGBT group is very active, the regular meetings and activities that the group
organise are very popular. They have been organising a few more events, which sound
very exciting, we have been having discussions on how we should organise the different
types of events. As a welfare officer, I was supporting their ideas by attending the
meetings to make key decisions. I will be mainly promoting their events on the RSU
social media pages in the future. On the other hand, I would like to focus the next term
on the international event in particular. As a welfare officer I still believe that there should
be an event or campaign done involving many different cultures and backgrounds.
End of all reports
3.9 Motions
No motions were submitted by the Student Parliament members.
3.10 Emergency motions
No emergency motions were submitted by the Student Parliament members.
3.11 Guest speakers
There was no guest speaker present at the meeting.
3.12 Any other business
There was no other business.
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3.13 Next meeting
The next meeting of the Parliament will be held on Thursday 12th November 2015 at
4:00 pm.
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