Latest Officer Update | November

SU President – Shaima Dallali

• Mental health and wellbeing: I have finalised the ‘Accessible Mental Health report’ which focuses on the barriers faced by BAME students in accessing the mental health services. Moving forward, I will be working with the mental health services looking at cultural competency and visibility of the services. I am also working on a yearlong mental health campaign addressing the stigmas around mental health and have identified different communities that may be vulnerable to mental health. I will be working with colleagues to start a video series targeting the experiences of the communities identified. We will be starting in Movember, to address men’s mental health.
• Decolonise City: The sabs have launched our ‘decolonise City’ campaign which aims to centre Black and minoritized students at the heart of our institution. The campaign aims to bring to light a decolonial perspective, which we believe is essential to anti-racist work and take a systemic approach for a systemic problem. We will be focusing on 3 areas: Education, social and support services.
• Sexual violence support: I have released a statement addressing the increase in spike drinking. I have expressed concerns around safety to the University and we have decided to create a task and finish group with the University, which will include all appropriate parties, to discuss how we can make campus, especially, City bar, safer for our students. We have also suggested improvements to the ‘You Report, We Support’ tool to make it student friendly and easy for students to use.
• COP26: I have released a joint statement with University President, Anthony Finkelstein, addressing climate change and COP26.

Vice-President Education – Ruqaiyah Javaid

• Islamophobia Awareness Month (IAM) November campaign: I am working to ensure that IAM is a successful month in which students learn more about Islamophobia as a significant issue affecting Muslims in the UK and that our events go forward. I am drafting our #OpposePREVENT IAM content, ensuring that it is accessible to students and available on time. I have also been organising for a Muslim History Bus Tour, covering little known Muslim historical sites in the City of London, to take place during IAM. Despite the challenges associated with this so far, I hope it is something that students will really enjoy. It will take place on Friday 19^th November, 14:00-18:00 from Northampton Square. Tickets are limited and I hope to see you there! Our other IAM events can be found on our Instagram page @cityunisu so follow us to keep up with our other planned events and informative pieces!
• I also supported with the SU Careers Fair that took place in the Pavilion, alongside the SU’s Employability & Micro-Placement Programme Coordinator, Tyler, and the University’s Careers department. The SU wants to ensure that City students have the best possible employment options post-graduation, as well as providing Micro-Placement opportunities. You can find out more about Micro-Placements (MPPs) on our website (hyperlink).
• I have also been running Programme Representative training sessions, where we have had good attendance from all Schools for in-person sessions and are hoping to have similar good turn out with our online training sessions taking place next week. Reps will be able to collect the Programme Rep Handbook from the SU Welcome Desk from next week and should have received some freebies during the in-person sessions. More information about Reps can be found here (hyperlink).

Vice-President Community and Wellbeing – Shahd Haj-Khalil

• Black History Month (BHM): This October, I had the opportunity to organise Black History Month and produce content for students and staff. During the month, we created different materials to highlight key events and individuals in the course of Black History. This was displayed around the university for students to view and appreciate. Not only did we have heavy social media coverage in which you can view on our Instagram @cityunisu, we planned an amazing panel event on ‘how to decolonise City’ where different members from the institution such as deans from various schools and our very own president contributed their unique perspectives to how we can go about achieving this.
• Islamophobia Awareness Month (IAM) November campaign: I have been planning and working to carry out IAM to ensure students are educated on the different issues impacting Muslims in the UK. We have also been eager to highlight the different ways in which students and individuals contribute to student experience and other sectors of society. I have partnered with City’s library to showcase various books that celebrates Islamic history and significant authors.

Women’s Officer – Melissa Dube

• Family & Career Planning Event: The aim of the event was to provide support to students as they consider how to navigate building a successful career and having a family. We had a variety of speakers joining, including our own president Anthony Finkelstein and his wife.

BME Officer – Purity Ajoko

• Movie Night: As part of Black History Month, we showed parts of black history and important events that have transpired in the past. The movie was 'The Butler' and around 40 students attended the event.

School Representative Officers

• All 5 School Representative Officers have attended the School Meet & Greets and are now meeting with each school to ensure students’ feedback is being listened to and acted on.

If you have any questions in regards to the elected officers work, you can attend Student Council on the 17th of November and ask all your questions during the meeting! More information here.