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Kelly Russell President Elect 2012/14

Where do I start? Well it is now my 2nd year as Students' Union President, and it’s great to be back! My election campaign was good fun and broke the SU election turnouts. It was a pri-ority of mine that more of the mem-bers were involved in the democracy of the Union and this will be some-thing that I continue to promote.

My real focus for this term has been Welfare of our students. I have seen and spoken to many students who are being affected at the moment by food poverty, bedroom tax, unemploy-ment, disability welfare reforms and just general inability to meet the costs of their living which is resulting in in-creased stress levels and stress and de-pression.

I have arranged with the Executive a number of activities to support mem-bers in their time of need but the big-gest message I will be promoting this year is that we should not be silenced and it is time to hold decision makers to account and every day people CAN do that.

We hope you enjoy this read, I wel-come any comments and questions.

Life’s a Beach with

Dudley SU!

This years Freshers event was based on a BEACH

theme, with non-alcoholic cocktails at the SU bar,

ride the waves with the surf simulator, singing

on the karaoke, face painting, free food from the

Venue, chocolate fountain, nail painting and hair

styling from hair and beauty students!!

Over 1000 Students and staff really enjoyed the

day and we were super pleased with our efforts

to introduce the new students to the Dudley

College experience :)

We would like to say a huge thank the Travel and

Tourism Students who volunteered their

services on the day!

Look out for lots more events and activi-

ties over the coming year organised by

VP Social Activities, Rich

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Freshers’ pics

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NUS APPOINTS BEN KERNIGHAN AS THE

NEW CHIEF EXEC - AND GUESS WHO HE

CHOSE TO MEET?

The National Union of Students announced that

Ben Kernighan (pictured

right) would be appointed

as the new chief executive

of NUS during the

Summer months. One of

Bens first priorities was to

visit student unions

across the country.

He visited 40 altogether out of a possible 600 and

only 2 in the West Midlands, we were honoured to

be one of the Unions he visited. It was a fact

finding mission for him to explore the way in

which the movement viewed itself and engaged

with NUS. We are looking forward to taking part

in the upcoming consultation to help formulate the

new strategic plan of NUS.

Joe Vinson Vice President

Further Education NUS (pictured

left) also came to visit during the

Black Country Colleges Students’

Unions meet organised by Kelly.

He was

impressed by Kellys plans to

organise a Black country wide campaigns network

and offered NUS endorsement

James says...

(VP

Student

Matters’)

Wow guys what a crazy time

its been as we have busily

logged a SU record breaking 315 class rep

details forms onto our database! This year sees the

biggest turn out ever for reps which is great and

means that the figure since 2008 has increased by a

massive 1125%!!!

We have provided 21 class rep training sessions, one

for each curriculum area, and will run mop up

sessions in Jan for new starts and anyone who was

missed. I was really pleased that the Executive team

took time out of their busy schedules to support some

of the sessions. I know that we have some excellent

reps taking us forward and I look forward to

supporting you in your roles.

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Whats happening with the ‘Learner Voice’

Reps attend Student Council where cross college issues are debated and the SU leader team (Exec) are mandated (tasked) to take action on issues that the

majority vote for

As you may now be aware ‘learner voice’ at Dudley College is considered extremely important. We want to ensure that your views are heard and acted upon to make your learning

and overall college experience the best it can possibly be.

One of the key ways in which this is achieved is through the

class rep system. You should have already been asked to elect a class member to take on this responsible role of listening to the students and taking any issues forward to Centre Manager meetings OR Student Council.

Below is a simple example of how the system works.

Class is shown a short presentation about the role and responsibilities of a class rep.

Class then elect a rep in a secret ballot.

Elected reps attend training with other reps from their curriculum area. This training gives rep a

deeper insight into the expectations of class reps and how to fulfil their role successfully

Reps spend time alone with their class to discuss any college or course related issues that the class feel are

a problem impacting on their college experience

Reps discuss issues raised with class teacher if appropriate. Reps attend one meeting per term with the Centre manager to discuss issues that have not

been successfully resolved prior to this time

Curriculum manager responds to issues raised and commit to take action on those that they are able to. Issues related to factors outside of teaching/learning

are to be forwarded by reps to Student Council LIS

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Dudley SU heart our

class reps!

FOUNDATION AND PRE ACCESS REPS ARE LOOK ON WITH PRIDE

APPRETICESHIP REPS

THIS PIC GOT MOST FACEBOOK

LIKES!

ART, MEDIA AND DESIGN REPS STRUCK A POSE

JORDAN AND LAURA SPOKE

OF THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS AS

REPS LAST YEAR

THANKS TO ALL THE REPS THAT CAME TO

TRAINING AND AGREED TO HAVE A PIC TAKEN—FIND EM ON FACEBOOK

Dudley SU

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Hi my name is Darryll Garland and this is my third year as Student Governor here at Dudley College as elected by students. As the Student Governor my primary role is to represent students from all the campuses on the Corporation. I view the strategy of the college from an objective point and always ensure that the college are serving the students, com-munity and its wider stakeholders for the best outcome for these groups. As Student Governor I have full speaking/voting rights in parity with any other board member! I have a responsibility to ensure that I understand the issues of stakeholders and I hope that I am some way able to achieve this acting as Chair on both the Students’ Union Executive Meetings held every month and the tri-annual Student Council meetings on which I hold “NO VOTING RIGHTS”. I have been fully supportive of the Students’ Union and learner voice processes here at Dudley College for the last 5 years

A WORD FROM… THE GUVNER!

A Massive Thankyou!

Black History month celebrates the history and contribution of those from African, Arab, Asian and Caribbean heri-tage. As this no longer features on the college calendar of cross college E&D events, as a black student, I felt that it was really important that the Students’ Union didn't’ let the month pass by with-

out celebration. We were lucky enough that dance students supported by Hannah Dulson agreed to run a ‘dance a thon’ incorporating different styles of dance from black origins into the day. They managed to raise

an Amazing £446.00 in sponsorship which will be

donated to The White House Cancer Support. I will be lobbying the college to reinstate Black History month celebrations into the college calendar. I have also represented students on the local Dudley Police Stop and Search panel representing the Black community of young people disproportionately affected and hope that my input can offer positive support to the Police and my community.

Welfare–Every little helps...

We are regularly told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day

however for a variety of reasons we know that many of our members are coming to college hungry. Having been provided a free school meal at school

for those who needed moving onto college does not afford the same opportunity.

Jade VP Welfare says ‘I have personally spoke to students who have told me

that they have had no money for food and on some occasions the SU has had to provide students with a snack, just to keep them going throughout the

day’.

Kelly and I wanted the SU to make a small difference as ’every little helps’ so we managed to make links with the Community Officer from Tesco Sue

(pictured top right). We successfully lobbied Sue to understand our cause and persuaded her to use the Tesco Dudley community fund to provide free

cereal, fruit, croissants and juices for students every other week as a pilot scheme. Since the launch of the scheme, which currently runs every other

week on a Monday, the average number of students accessing a free break-fast item per morning is 100.

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Welfare– Every little helps

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Items Students, Staff and

Governors can donate

Milk (UHT or powder, preferably semi-skimmed) Pasta/cooking sauces

Fruit Juice (Carton long life) Fruit Squash Rice/ Sponge Pudding (tin) Tomatoes (Tinned)

Cereal (Preferably non-sugared) Pasta/Rice/Cous Cous (500g/1kg) Tinned Veg (carrots, sweetcorn, peas, mixed) Tinned soup

Tea bags (40’s/80s) Coffee (Small) Potato (Instant mash or tinned) Tinned meat/fish Baby foods/milk

Tinned Fruit (in juice preferably) Sugar (500g/1kg) Biscuits, crackers, crispbreads Healthy snacks (Raisins, Apricots etc)

We will be collecting charitable

donations to the food bank for the full academic year, running up

Xmas we are keen to receive selection boxes or any

soft toys/children’s games too.

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‘This year see’s the first in which the SU has decided to make Green issues their issues... I’m really pleased that I am able to head up this campaign as Environmental health and sustainability is really important to me’ says Ray VP Finance ‘and I’m hoping that I can persuade others that it is important to them too’! This year to help us along our way we have signed up to the NUS Green Impact Award The Green Impact Award is an environmental accreditation and scheme run by the National Union of Students, bringing staff and students together with their wider communities to enable and showcase positive changes in environmental practice. From recycling, to investing in more efficient equip-ment, to encouraging biodiver-sity, or Fairtrade, the various criteria cover a broad range of issues under the sustainability umbrella, all tailored to an Individual institution Hoping to feed into cover local policy and processes. We have already had one really positive meeting with Dudley Council Environmental health whom we will be looking to work with in the near future around some of our initiatives. We are working towards our bronze award this year. I am also helping to encourage students to sit on the cross college working party, the Green Team. For more info see: http://www.green-impact.org.uk

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In every termly report we will be identifying one of our superstar volunteers, it’s going to be tough as we have so many but this term was pretty easy.

Emily Simmons the founder of SU Club ‘We Socialise Too! Was entered by the SU

into the Dudley Community Voluntary Service awards and won! Emily has been

recognised as the Dudley Borough Young Volunteer of the Year! As you can imagine this is a great honour and

Emily is unbelievably excited that

she won. Well Done Emily! :)

SU Superstars!!!

Emily making plans for the

groups activities

Emily picks up her well deserved award at a

prestigious evening presented by Mayor Finch

See more about the project here: http://t.co/eUpe4KjTJM / DUDLEY News

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As you know the Students’

Union work to a very tight and

strict budget where our funds are

ring fenced for particular

activities so when we come

across inspiring

opportunities to draw in funding with

advantageous impacts for our members

we take em!!!

About the Money For Life Challenge

The Money for Life Challenge is a chance for young people

to learn new skills and gain financial experience.

We entered two project teams who came up with fab ideas to help improve their own money management skills and those of their friends, families and communities. We are pleased to announce both applications were successful and we have been awarded £500 for each to run their project. One project team have focused on supporting the ageing population in our community and got this special mention,

from Irfan Zaman, below in the latest money for life challenge blog: ‘We have seen some exciting new themes this year such as young people wanting to work with, and learn from, pensioners in their Community’.

www.moneyforlifechallenge.org.uk

Irfan Zaman—Manager of the

Money for life challenge

FE ZONE Tuesday 29th October-Wednesday 30th October For exec members only, to look at the issues that are affecting FE students and how we can support NUS on their campaigns. Location: Manchester

STUDENT COUNCIL MONDAY 12th December COME ALONG AND HAVE YOUR SAY, MEET THE EXECUTIVE, 12.00 - 2.00PM Location: THE MAIN HALL—BROADWAY Price: FREE

WEST MIDLANDS SAFARI PARK-SPOOKY SPECTULAR

Saturday 26th October Join in with the fun for Halloween, visit the animals and rides. 2.30pm till late Price: £22

Upcoming Events ...

INTER CURRICULLUM BOWLING TOURNAMENT THURSDAY 19th DECEMBER ENTER A TEAM FOR THIS EVER POPULAR EVENT. PIT YOUR BOWLING SKILLS AGAINST THOSE FROM ACROSS THE COLLEGE TO FIGHT IT OUT FOR THE COVETED SU BOWLING TROPHY 12.00 - 4.00PM Location: BOLWPLEX Price: £5.00 PER PERSON (2 GAMES)

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION WITH IAN AUSTIN MP Friday 11th October For students to discuss any issues that are affecting them and Labours manifesto for the general election. Location: The Base

ALTON TOWERS FIREWORKS DISPLAY Sunday 10th November Come and see the beautiful firework display and visit the new ride Smiler. 1pm till late Price:£25

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Vice Pres

Equality and

Diversity Jade E&D VP Jade is prioritising mental

health on this year’s agenda looking to campaign to

promote good mental health and tackle the negative

attitudes that exist about mental ill health.

She says ‘We want a healthy, happy students but

even more so, we want a student body that can talk

openly, without concern about their mental

wellbeing’.

Jade hopes to research

the experiences that

students have and

whether they may cause

mental health concerns at

college and what this may

be related to.

Jade says ‘We hope that

this work will help our

student welfare services

at College to have a

better understanding of the best way to support

students and ensure student health needs are being

met.

One of Jades first initiatives a ’choc and chat’ was

really popular with around 200 students in

attendance. As chocolate promotes a natural feel

good hormone it was the perfect accompaniment to

the day. We have partnered with Dudley Mind on

this campaign and will be looking to work with them

throughout this academic year.

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Choc and Chat pics

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This year the HE section will be welcoming the Quality Assurance agency to inspect the colleges Higher Education

provision. At the very centre of the QAA inspection process is student engagement so much so that on every inspecting team one member is a trained

student! As we know student engagement is all about involving and empowering

students in the process of shaping the student learning experience, this is at the very centre of college life at

Dudley. This year the SU has been lucky enough in securing some additional funding to be

able to offer a bursary payment to a student lead representative from the HE

section who has the remit of compiling a ‘Student Submission’ for the QAA inspector team in addition to,

in the first instance, building up a sense of community

amongst the HE students. Steven says ‘this is my first year studying a HE pro-

gramme at Dudley so I’m learning on the job, I’m aware that the learner voice systems at Dudley are really good but I’m just trying to gauge the overall experience of HE learners, I’m excited to take on this challenge’!

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Steve—Pre grad

Officer 2013/14

APPLY TODAY! Only £12.00 for 12 months

WWW.NUS.ORG NUS extra sales team will be touring all of the campuses soon, have a chat to them about the fantastic savings you

could make when you purchase an NUS Extra discount card. Please note online sales only apply.

Students and Staff can now apply for the NUS card with over 160 discounts from national

retailers it’s well worth it! Now also including the Co-Op food!

Vice Pres

Campaigns

Nathan I’m really excited to announce our priority cam-paigns for the academic year 13/14 are ‘Welfare at the Heart of what we do, Green Impact and Political Education of our members GE15. ‘We have a brand new team of campus vice Presidents who I’m looking forward to working with to

help me promote our campaigning activities on their campuses. We are busily planning a political education takeover

week in March, where we will be inviting a whole raft of guest speakers and workshop hosts to deliver a variety of interactive activities to get our members talking about the difference that they can and do make. There are exciting times ahead’!!!

NICK VP AS SIXTH

&

JULIA TURNER

VP A2

YARA VP BROADWAY &

MONS

GEETA VP EVOLVE &

WOLVO St

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WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR DUDLEY SU...

Volunteer

Take part in an event or trip

Set up a club or society

Tell your class rep your concerns, issues

and compliments

Chat to one of the Exec

Join the NUS Extra sales team

Come and visit us at the office B4 Broadway campus

Buy an NUS card

KEEP IN TOUCH! FRIEND US ON FACEBOOK

SEARCH DudleySU

CHECK OUT WHATS HAPPENING DAY TO DAY IN THE OFFICE

Follow us on TWITTER

http://twitter.com/DudleySU

Vicky VP Marketing is keen that this is the year we smash the communi-

cation issues we’ve faced in the past with a range of new and up-

dated approaches to talking to the members. She says ‘My first goal is to ensure that we ensure a stream-

lined and consistent approach to the way in which we are communicating. We have an excellent Facebook page

and Twitter feed and You tube account that are con-stantly being updated on a daily basis, I am also populat-ing the new website which is live but yet to be launched as I want to ensure its just right. I have also decided that

we will be ‘speaking’ to students using wider college used approaches such as their Pro portal systems

and Blackboard to get messages through.I also hope to lobby the college to start a cross college newsletter be-

cause as a college as a whole I believe we should be better connected because we are a community’!

Students’ Union Core Office Opening Hours

Monday 9am – 5pm Tuesday 9am – 5pm Wednesday 9am – 5pm & 5pm – 6pm Thursday 9 am – 4pm & 5pm – 7pm Friday By appointment Bookable slots available

Telephone: 01384 363412

studentunion@dudleycol.ac.uk

Thanks for reading :)

D of E students raised £283 with bag packing at Tesco

for The White House Cancer Support charity

Heather shows off her

archery skills at we Socialise Too! club

The exec team stepped out in style at

the NUS Zone Conference

Amy wasn’t spooked by the

ghouls at Spooky Spectacular the Safari Park

£500 funding from Tipton community

chest paid for an Archery session

Jerome, Gary and Usman

enjoyed the Ghost Train at Alton Towers