Olesea, Malek and Zulkaif share their departing message as they leave their roles as City Students' Union sabbatical team.
As you all may be aware, our time as the student representatives is coming to an end on the 1st of July and you shall be getting your new representatives. We wanted to speak about a few of our wins this year while representing you. We as a sabbatical officers team worked on City's largest ever Study Well Campaign by helping organise over 100 events and securing more resources for years to ensure your welfare was our priority during the examination season. We also began work on reducing the external speaker time and got a pledge from the University that they would work to do this by the end of the next academic year.
City Students' Union President 2017/18 Olesea Matcovschi
As your President I worked on many projects and sat on many boards fighting for your interests every day. To name just a few, I managed to secure a Community building fund which will kick start in the 2018/19 academic year ensuring that there are resources for you to enhance your course-based community. During the biggest industrial action in the higher education sector in 30 years, I ensured that your voice was heard and that the learning outcomes that were affected did not potentially compromise the value of your degree. Finally, in a joint effort with PhD students and trade union, I managed to lobby the University to commit to better employment rights for Research Students who teach at City.
City Students' Union Vice-President (Education) 2017/18 Malek Arab
As your Vice-President Education I worked closely with Olesea Matcovschi and Zulkaif Riaz on a number of projects. These include the timely release of the University Examination timetable, as well as ensuring there were no evening exams as I knew that it would be beneficial to the welfare of City Students. I also organised and hosted the tenth anniversary of the Academic Impact Awards, where I worked to ensure that we received a record number of nominations and significant increase in attendance compared to years prior. As part of my manifesto I wanted to increase communication with students as such I began City's first ever in person training for Programme Representatives and ensured that next year City Students' Union would be leading on the elections of their Programme Representatives.
City Students' Union Vice-President (Activities and Development) 2017/18 Zulkaif Riaz
Upon taking my role a year ago I made a commitment to ensure that every subject would have a society to help with students' academic experience and success at City. I am proud to say that I have worked with students from all disciplines across City to ensure that every course now has a society. Throughout the year, student groups raised their concerns with me about the awful state of the Societies storage space. I lobbied the University to get a better space that would be significantly more accessible and welcoming to all students at City. I worked with the University staff and student volunteers to ensure there was equipment for our brand-new radio room!
We want to take this opportunity to thank you for entrusting us with the honourable job of representing you in what has been an interesting journey. This year we leave City Students' Union a much stronger and more dynamic organisation that is better equipped to fight for your best interests. Your Students' Union has grown in capacity, ensuring that there is a better team to support you through your journey at City and beyond.
Best wishes from your outgoing sabbatical officers,
Olesea Matcovschi, Malek Arab and Zulkaif Riaz.