Over the summer the Sabbatical Officers have been working hard on the RHSU Priority 8. Here’s an update from David, VP Societies & Sport, on his two priorities.
David Gallardo González
VP Societies & Sport
Over the summer the Sabbatical Officers have been working hard on the RHSU Priority 8. Here’s an update from David, VP Societies & Sport, on his two priorities.
OVERVIEW
During the 2025 Leadership Elections, the Priority 8 replaced Officer manifestos and students ranked 20 issues impacting them to decide the final Priority 8. Of these priorities, I am working to have ‘More Student Friendly Timetables’ and ‘More Affordable SU Events’ . I want to update you about all the work I’ve done over the summer to drive impactful change for these two priorities, and I will be updating you over this year!
More Student Friendly Timetables
This priority is going to take time for changes to be made, because at Royal Holloway, timetables for the whole year are done in September, and the ones for the following year are planned from November. I hoping to be able to make timetable releases earlier, have less early mornings and late afternoons, and to also provide an alternative for students that cannot attend a Wednesday lecture. This is what I’ve been working on this summer to achieve this long-term priority:
- I have checked the results of various events and cost of living surveys that RHUL students completed to see what their issues with timetables were. In addition to this, I gathered information from testimonies students gave me about their personal experiences and how timetables have affected them.
- I did research on how timetabling processes in other Universities are and how they have managed to resolve their timetabling problems and also met with the timetables team at RHUL to discover what the process of getting timetables made is.
- Matthew, VP Education, and I have been speaking to community centres in Egham about spaces, so students can use those non transactional spaces during their free time. If this is something you’re interested in, you can reach out to the Egham Literary Institute or the Pride Hub to see what spaces are available to book.
- I will be meeting with the University staff to further discuss how we can make changes to our timetables, so they better accommodate the changing needs of the student population.
More Affordable SU Events
For this Priority, I have had the privilege of working with the SU Venues team to ensure we can provide Events for our students that are high quality and worth the money:
- When it comes to quick wins, freshers are having the opportunity of going to various free events that are taking place at the Packhorse. We are also giving 100 free tickets per night for night club events after freshers.
- I am working on improving clarity on the use of generated funds.
- The SU provides low-cost events that many people don’t know about, so I am working with the SU Marketing team to better highlight them.
- For a more long-term vision, I am working on bringing a bigger variety and quantity of nights out for students to enjoy.
GET INVOLVED
Go check out the Priority 8 Hub where all the Officers have action logs on our Priorities to keep up to date with our progress!
Priority 8
If you have any questions or feedback on my priorities, always feel free to reach out to me on email or on Instagram @rhsusocsport. The more questions and feedback I get, the more I have to build my approach and make sure your student voice is heard!