At RHSU, we want to ensure we are as transparent as possible about how decisions are made and who makes them, so let’s dive into what was on the agenda at our latest meeting.
Priority 8 Update
The Officer team presented their progress report against Priority 8. A series of questions had been presented to trustees within the paper.
VP Societies and Sport asked the trustees about their view on what a student-friendly timetable would look like. In response, trustees noted that there is a need for the timetable to be friendly to commuter students (e.g. by bunching lectures) and to look at how sports and activities are timetabled with lectures. A broader sector trend is timetables being more staff friendly than student friendly and there is a need to protect Wednesday afternoons for sports and societies. Trustees also noted the difficulty of the task given the number of stakeholders and the need to find allies in the institution at a range of levels. VP Societies and Sport thanked trustees for their input and that the discussion was reflective of his thinking.
Vice President Wellbeing and Diversity asked trustees about affordable and accessible campus food. Trustees noted the need to balance affordability and ease of access and that pricing in the SU shop was good. There are facilities on campus, including in the SU, for students to heat their own food.
Vice President Education asked for trustee expertise and experience on developing systems as he is working on deadline visualisation tools to integrate with Moodle. Trustees fed back that deadline stacking should not happen and there needs to be accountability for this within departments. Integrating with Moodle would be helpful and there is a need to understand why this capability is not part of the ecosystem, whether there is a plugin available.
President asked trustees about parking systems. There is a need to look wider including public transport and car sharing options. Trustees questioned the charging regime for staff and there is possibility of speaking to the Council about renting of peoples’ drives.
Strategic Plan
Tony Logan presented the Strategic Plan Progress Report 2024-25 and Objectives 2024-26. The first year of the plan has been completed and it is well embedded. There is good progress in how this translates to Rate Your Union.
Trustees fed back that they were pleased with the progress of the plan. On risk areas it was noted that controllable areas were in good shape. There is a need to see the trend of RAG statuses. Trustees emphasised the need for good communication of the Strategic Plan to stakeholders. Priority 8 has been a success because of its simplicity. There is a need to ensure this is communicated well and with good storytelling. This could include segmentation of different audiences.
Trustees also fed back the need to separate and understand the need to run an effective business via commercial and to then reinvest the proceeds into the Union’s work. There is some tension here as some outlets may not meet commercial targets but are important to further the Union’s charitable purposes.
Annual Rate Your Union Results
Daniel Curran presented the results and the trustees took note. In response to a question from Helen Beurier about confidence in the results and the size of sample, Daniel Curran noted this was a representative view across campus. It would be helpful to assess demographic data as a comparison. The results are used to set overall KPIs for the Union with staff KPIs based on a range of factors. Agreed that sharing of the full document with free text would be helpful.
Democracy Review Update
Daniel Curran presented the update. Student and Officer trustees fed back their support of the review and in particular the support and payment for part time officers. This would allow for better engagement and reflect the range of duties we ask of part time officers. There is a need to give a clearer description of duties.
Trustees also fed back the need to be transparent in our communications with students, listen to their opinions and present meaningful choices that go beyond a binary. The work on this is very good and could be a helpful case study for the sector.
Appointment of DRO/RO and election rules and regulations
The trustees approved the appointment of Deputy Returning Officers and Returning Officer as outlined in the paper.
Political Activity and Campaigning Policy
Tony Logan and Daniel Curran presented, noting that there is a need to codify our approach in this respect. Since circulation comments have been received from the University so there will be a revised version circulated.
There was good discussion over the need for a clear policy whilst recognising RHSU’s role to support students as students who are affected by global events or crises.
Governance review actions
Tony Logan noted both annual calendar of Board and committee business, and scheme of delegation had been updated due to change of roles.
CEO Update
Tony Logan presented the update. Trustees provided scrutiny over Freshers’ accessibility and ensuring student expenses are paid on time. Questions were received on demographics of the University. The University has dropped entry requirements during clearing and how these impacts on campus will need to be monitored.