Friday 30-06-2023 - 13:04

That's a wrap for the FTO Team 2022/23!

 

 

In a year that brought us a Cost of Living Crisis, bigger UCU Industrial Action than ever before, and an Away Roses Redwash, we’ve certainly been busy.

 

At the very beginning of our time as officers, we identified four of the biggest issues facing students this academic year and decided to focus on:

• Keeping Money in your Pockets

• Keeping you Safe in Lancaster

• Ensuring your World-Class Education

• Helping you to Find your Fun

 

Since then, we’ve worked tirelessly on campaigns and projects to progress towards those four objectives. Here’s what we got up to…

 

 

Keeping Money in your Pockets

 

Way back in August, we urged the Vice-Chancellor and the Deputy Chief Executive of the University to support students in the cost of living crisis. As a result, the Cost of Living Working Group was set up, through which we managed to secure £2.2million of extra funding for student cost of living support.

 

 

We’ve put a serious shift in – we all served food at Supper Club and Breakfast Club each week of term, and Danny (VP Societies and Media) brought LUSU Pantry to life in time for Summer Term. Through these initiatives, we have handed out thousands of free meals to students.

 

 

Our cost of living work doesn’t stop there. We successfully lobbied for affordable, hot, and nutritious food options, and more student kitchens, to be introduced on campus. Callum (VP Union Development) successfully negotiated free graduation gowns for all who had received the Lancaster Opportunity & Access Fund (LOAF). In Michaelmas Term, the budget for LOAF was doubled thanks to our advocacy work.

 

 

We hope our cost of living work has made it easier for students to stay at Lancaster University and enjoy their time here. In our final weeks, we’re working to secure full funding for Supper Club, Breakfast Club and LUSU Pantry to continue throughout the 2023/24 academic year, as well as new funding for Sports and Society Access schemes.

 

 

 

Keeping you Safe in Lancaster

 

In Welcome Week, the university introduced an online consent training module. We know that online training doesn’t go far enough to prevent sexual abuse, so we passed a motion at Union Assembly which commits LUSU to developing in-person Active Bystander training over the next 3 years. We’ve already got university support on the project and a working group will be set up in August to collaborate on long-term delivery.

 

 

Vic’s been busy updating policies, leaving us with a refreshed Accessibility Policy, Pronouns Policy and Safe Space Policy. She’s also successfully pushed for the launch of reviews of both the deanery system and the LUSU complaints procedure. 

 

 

Megan (VP Sport) has done some fantastic work around inclusion in sport, running Open Forums for Women+ and LGBTQ+ People in Sport. Megan worked with the LGBTQ+ Officers to hand out 400 Rainbow Laces in LGBTQ+ History Month, recently purchasing another 500 for Pride Month. In Women+ History Month, she gathered testimonies from students and created a display in the sports centre to raise awareness of Women+ Experiences in Sport.

 

 

 

Ensuring your World-Class Education

 

We’ve done loads to support students through the UCU Industrial Action this year, from producing a resource pack to help students show their solidarity, to holding information drop-ins through the Marking and Assessment Boycott. On University Council I have consistently advocated for national negotiations on pay and pensions to continue towards a resolution. Noah (VP Education) secured a no-detriment policy for the Marking & Assessment Boycott, and then ensured students received all the information on what this means for them, in the clearest possible terms.

 

 

This year, institutions were reassessed in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and for the first time this included a student submission. Noah led on our response to this, using research from student surveys over the last 5 years to analyse the university’s performance, meaning the student voice at Lancaster University has been sent directly to the Office for Students.

 

 

Noah worked hard to reinvigorate the Academic Rep scheme this year, registering and training almost 400 Reps. They also launched the Student Feedback Committee, which brings together Faculty Reps and various key academic stakeholders at the university.

 

 

 

Helping you to Find your Fun

 

Believe it or not, we’ve also found time to have a lot of fun this year! Way back in October, Callum led us all through Welcome Week, where we trained 500 Welcome Reps, took 2100 students round town on Big Night Out bar crawls, served over 800 students at Breakfast Club, spent 5 nights on the Sugar Welfare Stand, and helped with over 200 JCR events, as well as introducing LUSU’s own “This is just the beginning…” Welcome Week guide including panel discussions and guest speakers.

 

 

Danny introduced Societies Taster Week in Michaelmas Term, which gave students another chance to try out a society after Welcome Week and Freshers Fest. Over 40 societies held free taster sessions and between then and the end of term, 818 new society memberships had been purchased!

 

 

The launch of Turn Up & Play sessions, championed by Megan, has created more opportunities than ever for students to take part in recreational sport at Lancaster. The programme now features more than ten sports and has recorded over 500 unique engagements, as well as providing coaching experience to some of our fab student leaders.

 

 

It goes without saying that Roses was the highlight of all our years. 38 years in the making, we painted York RED and came home with the biggest Away victory ever! The role that Megan played in securing the win cannot be understated, but of course we simply couldn’t have done it without all our students who competed, supported in York or watched on the stream – we made history together.

 

 

It wouldn’t be the end of an era without a party! Extravaganza Week kicks off this weekend with College Rivals, showcasing the hard work that Megan has put in to grow the pre-existing college cups into the biggest weekend of sport in Lancaster (every other year.) And if that’s not enough fun for you, then next week we have the eight college Extravs which Callum has supported the JCR Execs in delivering. We saw see many of you there and it was great to finish this crazy year in proper Lancaster style!

 

 

Before signing off, we would just like to say, Lancaster, thanks for everything you have been AMAZING! 

 

 

All the best, your FTO Team 2022/23