► TAKE A LOOK INSIDE

You are here:

Student Groups

Navigation

► Login

► HELP ON UNIVERSITY OF CUMBRIA SU

- Login Problems? Click Here.

► SEARCH UNIVERSITY OF CUMBRIA SU

► UNIVERSITY OF CUMBRIA SU POLL

Poll Results...

Advertise

Want to advertise through our media?

University of Cumbria Students Union has various student marketing and student advertising tools that can promote your services direct to our students. For all our student

marketing & advertising opportunities click the media pack button.

► Student Groups

Student Groups

The Strucure Review Panel looked long and hard at the current ‘operational’ and ‘campaigning’ officer roles and from drew upon the experience of being and working with officers over many years to analyze how we could possibly make it easier for students to get directly involved with the running of ‘Non-Representational’ activities within the Union such as sports, health campaigns and entertainments. There are currently issues over overlap between the jobs of staff and Sabbaticals and these officers, and there was also the fact that when five people compete for one elected position the four who do not win can be put off from volunteering to work alongside the winner.

The proposal suggest that by moving the point of selection from a formal contested election to an appointment by your peers (i.e. the Campus Activities Group, consisting of leaders of Societies, Team Captains and anyone else interested enough to turn up, simply decide amongst themselves who the overall Chair is who then liaises with the SU on behalf of the rest) we will make it easier, more accountable and remove unnecessary barriers of electoral rules, the demand of having to attend Council etc.

As such these factors cover such current positions as Sports, Clubs & Societies, Welfare, Equality & Diversity, Environmental, Entertainments and Student Media. The proposal is that these positions are covered by the peer selected Group Chairs, which are as follows: Activities Group Chair (covering Sports and Clubs & Socs), Campaigning Group Chair (covering E&D, Welfare, Environmental), Inclusion Group Chair (again covering E&D, Welfare) and Entertainments Team (covering Entz and to some degree Student Media).

These groups (Activities, Inclusion, Campaigning, Entertainments) are distinct as being ‘self-defining’, which means that their members identify as sharing something and having something in common irrespective of their relationship with the Union. (Activities Group members are involved in Clubs and Teams; Inclusion members in some way define themselves as being from a liberation campaign minority; Campaigning are politically active in some sense; Entertainments are active or interested in bars and clubs).

Groups are local campus based meetings based on the same focuses as the global Assemblies that sit above them, and act as first tier local meetings for campus activists and interested parties to meet to discuss their issues and plan activities. As well as being a springboard to take policy issues up the structure to the Assemblies the local Groups are also launch pads for campaigning and action on campus, and will have access to resources and support from the elected officials of the Union.

The intention is for the Groups to be the ‘doing’ part of the equation and the Assemblies to be the ‘thinking’ part. So the Local Groups define the problem or issue, and if they can’t solve it themselves then they take it up to the Assembly to solve, who then pass the solution back down to the Group to implement at a local level.

Groups are open and fluid collectives of volunteers, activists and interested students, and on first meeting they select from amongst their number a Chair to be the main liaison with the Union. Under the guidance and support of the local Campus Representative and appropriate Sabbatical Officer the Group Chair and their team of activists will then be able to define the issues and actions as appropriate to the needs of the Group.

As well as the Academic, Activities, Campaigns and Inclusion Groups there is also one locally specific group that does not have an associated Assembly:

Bar & Entz Group – Drawn from those students who have an interest in social events, entertainments and want to help organise and promote bar nights, the Bar & Entz group works in partnership with the local Bar Staff. Their shared aim is making sure that the social events that are run out of the local SU affiliated bars and clubs are appropriate to the tastes and fashions of students who frequent those establishments, and that the students have every opportunity to attend events and have a say in the planning of social programmes.

Bookmark with:

Delicious

Digg

Facebook

StumbleUpon