After a non-stop few weeks, the Sabbs reflect on everything from Leadership Elections to Colours Ball, Women's History Month and the Never Ok campaign. Find out what they've been up to since our last update!
After a non-stop few weeks, the Sabbs reflect on everything from Leadership Elections to Colours Ball, Women's History Month and the Never Ok campaign. Find out what they've been up to since our last update!
President - Hannah
- Planning for Summer Ball 2024 began after the kickoff meeting earlier this month.
- I’ve been involved with promoting the SU Leadership Elections, delivering a campaign training session and even hosting Results Night with Alastair. Congratulations to the new team and well done to all candidates - we saw brilliant and innovative campaigns!
- Nisha, Sharanya, Olivia and I attended an International Women's Day event hosted by the Careers Service. The event aimed to empower women and create a supportive space for women to network and get to know one another.
- I’ve also been on Insanity for their Community Hour to discuss my time as a sabbatical officer, what campaigns I'm working on and what I’m looking forward to.
- I had the honour of presenting Coach of the Year and Most Improved Club of the Year at our annual sports awards, Colours Ball. It's such an amazing event, so sad it’s my last Colours Ball.
- I’ve also had a range of University meetings such as the Joint Executive Committee, Finance Committee and Estates Planning Committee.
Manifesto Updates
- NeverOk - I’ve recently met with the NeverOk campaign student working group to discuss the action plan, community, culture and conduct training. Last term, students from the working group and I delivered a consent and active bystander workshop. Societies and clubs that attended now have a badge added to their web pages, recognising that they've attended and engaged with the workshop.
- Cost of Living - I've been supporting the University’s National Student Money Week by talking on their Instagram live panel. We discussed budgeting, how to find affordable housing and how our wellbeing has been affected by finances. I am also working on promotion for the Meal Deal Giveaway next Thursday in the EWD Building!
VP Education - Sharanya
Hi everyone, it's been a rollercoaster of a couple of weeks!
This week was Grad Week: Next Steps, an employability campaign to get students feeling more confident about their next steps. We held an Alumni Panel where students learned more about past students' experiences at Royal Holloway and beyond!
Next was our Student Futures Fair, we brought in our global partners and students could chat with them about Turing schemes, volunteering abroad etc.
Finally, we held our International Student Futures Q&Q session led by the Head of International Money and Advice, Tom Pease.
Other than that, the Sabbs and I have met with our local MP to discuss issues affecting our students. This includes the housing crisis, funding, fees and cost of living, lack of support for the LGBT+ community (particularly for transgender students) and support for student wellbeing and international students. There were some very interesting conversations and some movement on issues – particularly around one of my manifesto points for next year (safety around Egham and Englefield at night).
Next year, you ask? I’m so excited to announce that you have elected me as your next SU President. We have an incredible team for next year and I’m looking forward to the year ahead!
VP Wellbeing & Diversity - Nisha
It has been a busy few weeks with the launch of Women’s History Month (WHM). This year, we have decided to have a different theme for each week of the month. The national theme this year is women who advocate for equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI.) To mark this, we hosted a few fun events including an EDI panel where we invited student volunteers and staff members to talk about the work they do to advocate for EDI at Royal Holloway.
The theme for the second week (this week) is Women’s Wellbeing, which aims to raise awareness of women's health and mental health. We have lots of events planned this week such as an art expression session with Art Society, Yoga with Dance Society a fun kids-style sports day and much more. We will also be in the library today giving out free period products and will have lots of resources and helpful information related to women’s mental and physical health.
The theme for the third week is women’s rights. The fight for women's rights has been ongoing for centuries and it continues to evolve today. So during this week, we will honour the courageous women who have fought and continue to fight for gender equality, reproductive rights, and social justice.
The final theme for the last week of WHM is celebrating the women in our community so we will turn our focus to the incredible women within our community to celebrate the achievements and contributions that enrich our lives and inspire us every day.
During WHM, we are also launching a feedback survey aimed at female students. The purpose of the survey is to find out how we can make sport and physical activity at Royal Holloway more accessible to female students. The survey also gives students the opportunity to sign up to be involved in future focus groups on this topic.
I also gave out the Sophie Christiansen Shield Award at Colours Ball. This award is named after alumnus and 8x Paralympic Gold medalist, Sophie Christiansen and is dedicated to celebrating inclusivity, it’s a sign of acknowledgement for those who have gone above and beyond in creating a culture of diversity and inclusion within their sports club. It was an honour to present this award to the winning sports group at Colours Ball as VP of Wellbeing & Diversity. The winner of the award was Cheerleading and Dance and the runner-up was Ultimate Frisby. Both groups have done some amazing work this year to ensure their groups are inclusive to all students.