Monkeying around in the Community

Emma Kinsley is the newly appointed Community Officer for SUBU Exec. She has lived in Bournemouth since she was 2 and is already doing extensive work with the council.

Local communities throughout the country have negative perceptions of students and studentification is a national problem.

Last year SUBU launched the I Heart BH campaign to better the relationship between students and the community, which resulted in activities including last year sabbatical officers being wheeled around in bins giving out information, muffin giveaways & listening service in Winton, student recycling projects, lecture talks and awareness days.

So what are we doing now?
I attended a meeting last week with other members of SUBU, the Winton Community Forum, Dorset Police, Bournemouth & Poole Council and Richard Search; the head of BU accommodation. We discussed the current situation and how we can work together to better our relationship. We have had 36 student complaints in Winton during Sept/Oct and 90 in total last year (nothing as bad as Loughborough's 436! They might be high up in the league tables, but they sure are noisy).

Scott is doing a presentation with Charles Elder, the PR manager for BU, at the Winton Community Forum meeting this Wednesday 28th to make residents aware what SUBU and BU are doing to help better the relationship between students and the community.


We need to remember that students aren't always the problem. Students do a lot of great stuff for the community and bring millions to the local economy (£88.9million in 2007 to be precise!)

Just look at the MAD Days we run. This is only a very select few...

Arts and Crafts with Autistic Young Adults

RAG Sleepout overnight to raise money for Salvation Army to help the homeless

Students pledging what they will do!
Painting a School Playground

Some even travelled all the way to Nigeria to teach underpriviledged children IT and paint their centre!

It's the very few students that give all a bad name, so we need to work together to promote the good students do!

I have sent examples of all the good things students did last year and the projects that were run in the community to the NUS as a case study to use in case the Government does decide to introduce legislation as to where students can and cannot live.

Getting back to Emma Kinsley; she used her election budget to adopt a monkey for SUBU! Bixa the chimp, or more precisely the Pan Troglodytes is homed in Windsor Safari Park. She was born in 1977 in Port Lympne Zoo and transferred to the park in 1993. She has no control in the left side of her face, possibly due to a stroke. I'd like to thank Emma for her support of Bixa and her generosity.

Tonight Emma has a meeting with the Council to ask questions on how they are intending on working with students and rid the negative perception of students so we can promote the positive. I wonder what they'll say...?

Well I say...Stay Classy Bournemouth

Hannah x
VP Communications
suvpcomms@bournemouth.ac.uk

Wave to the Surf Champs!

It's great when students succeed at things, especially when it's for something they love. SUBU's Surf Club, captained by Stephanie Seymour competed in the BUCS Surf Championships on the weekend of 16th October.

Gordon Fontain championed the men's title, with Jaydene Kerton coming 2nd in the women's. The men's team made it to the podium for the first time ever, coming 3rd in the overall points!

Congrats to Gordon, Jaydene and the whole team -
Anton Hawkins
Sam Higgs
Pete Dobson
Gordon Fontaine
Greg Rogers


Personally I think successes like this should be celebrated and make Bournemouth University proud as a whole. That's why this year I am concentrating on celebrating student success. Look out in 'Your Word' for success stories and on SUBU News. We have already had stories, such as -

Yeovil Heroes - An awards ceremony for the heroes of our partnership college, the University Centre Yeovil to celebrate a year of acheievment for the BA English and History students.

RAG Conference was held in Bournemouth this year by our hugely enthusiastic RAGGIES! It was mega well organised and raggies from all over the country came down to learn and network!

The Leadership Programme Gold award was achieved by two students in the first year of running! Congrats to Jarunda Richardson and George Ghiuta

SUBU also has a very special celebration in regards to our longest serving member of staff, Irene Coogan! Irene celebrated 20 years on 11th September 2009!

We want more successes! If you have a success of any kind, in or outside of Uni then please let me know as I want to hear about it!

Stay Classy Bournemouth
Hannah

Where's my Money!?...

I can't believe that 175,000 students throughout England still haven't recieved their loans! Student Finance England, run by the Student Loans Company has taken the responsibility of processing the first year applications from Local Authorities around the country.

SFE said that if students have applied on time then they will receive their loan when they register onto their course, but this hasn't been the case. One student I spoke to said they had problems with applying. He sent his application off on time, but they sent it back to him asking for a correction. He sent it back and they sent it back for a 2nd time with something else to correct...why couldn't they have sent all the corrections in one mail? This meant his application was in late and he didn't recieve his loan until 22nd October. He now owes his parent's over a grand.

But what do those students do who can't borrow from their parents and can't afford rent or even food? Well, some have had to quit before they've even started! That's says a lot for the education system in Britain doesn't it!?

I find out what the students of Bournemouth Univeristy think. Take a look at the full report in SUBU News on 23rd October 2009 - http://www.subu.org.uk/content/197615/subu_news/

Staying on the money topic, there is to be a review of tuitions fees coming up; the cap is looking to be lifted. This means that Universities throughout the country are going to be allowed to charge anything up to £7,000 a year and can charge different for each course and each university. So what does this mean? Well it means that students are only going to be able to attend a University they can afford, if at all. There is going to be a prominent divide in the rich and poor and higher education is going to be inaccessible to the less wealthy. Empolyers could end up rating degrees more by where they came from, giving some students less chance in the rat race.

The change will also take its toll on the public and voluntary sector. Graduates will be looking for the highest paid jobs to pay off £32,000 worth of student debt. Some will be suited to the higher paid jobs, but what about those who are driven to pursue a dream in a career they enjoy, may it be in the voluntary, public sectors or the creative industry.

It really is important for students of the future for the votes in the general election to go to the party with tuition fees in their priority. This shouldn't be a subject to be taken lightly.

In SUBU we are working on a campaign against the lifting of the cap. All will be updated in due course.

If you have an opinion on the tuition fee or loan situation please email me at suvpcomms@bournemouth.ac.uk

Keep your money safe and Stay Classy Bournemouth

Hannah x

A lot of BUStle

Wow, where on earth did Freshers' Fortnight go? That went a lot quicker than I expected, with a lot more done than I thought!

In our first bid to gage student opinion and find out what we can do to help you, we have started a petition about the 'A' bus.

'A' Bus

The 'A' bus was run last year by Unilinx through Alumn Chine, The Triangle Westbourne and town, taking students to Uni. On Monday 28th September this service was cancelled leaving students who had chosen these areas to live in due to the good bus links, not knowing how to get to Uni. This angered lecturers also as students were turning up late, if at all, to lectures. It also annoyed the drivers of other unilinx buses as more students had to take the Lansdowne bus route, making them more crowded. Most importantly though, students were riled about this issue and so far over 500 students have signed the petition to get the 'A' bus back.

Scott and I walked around uni to get students' opinions...

Please go to http://www.subu.org.uk/content/197615/subu_news/ and watch the News story from the 2nd October 2009 for what the students think about the busses and more.

El Pres had a meeting on Friday 2nd October with the estates manager about the bus situation. James and Alan (SUBU General Manager) have been invited to a meeting this week with two of the heads of Wilts and Dorset, the estates manager among others, to get an idea of what the next move will be and James is confident that something will be done.

Students are also getting heavily involved in this debate, showing their passion that they want this A bus back! Iain Walshe did an interview with us and set up a facebook group which now has over 400 people signed on. Jonno Clarke has also got the local newspaper involved, the Echo, giving them a press release about the outraging situation.

Sexual Health Clinic

You will also see in the video above that the Sexual Health Clinic in Talbot House is closing down in December due to lack of funding. We are also carrying out a petition on this and will be gaging student opinions. I had an interview on Friday 2nd with Youthnet regarding the effect sof secual helth and alcohol on students around the country and what services both BU and SUBU oprovide for sexual health. They also tried to get an interview with the sexual health clinic in Talbot House, but there were too busy to have time for this. In my opinion if the clinic is busy then this is obviously a service that students will and are using, so funding is needed to be found to keep it open. Funding has stopped from the PCT (Primary Care Trust) due to financial problems.

So what do you think? Do students need a sexual health clinic on campus that is easily accessible or would you be happy to travel 4.5 miles from Talbot Campus to the GUM clinic in Bournemouth Royal Hospital? Sign the petition in SUBU if you don't want the clinic to close!

Sign the petition at - http://subudemocracy.bournemouth.ac.uk/

Freshers' Fair

Freshers' Fair saw the Nerve TV screen and Stage manned by Clarke and the Nerve crew; jason, Emily and Jacqui.

This year has been described as the best in the last few years! What a result. See what went on...

http://www.subu.org.uk/news/index.php?page=article&news_id=95315

SUBU is sad to see two of it's very valued and hard workers leave, Gio (who is coming back!!) and Izzy. We are glad to see the arrival of Zhara though in place of Gio and hope she is going to have an amazing year! The Leadership Prgramme has had massive reaction this year and most of the places for the next two weeks are booked up. If you want to take part in the Leadership Programme and get an accreditated award please book in early to avoid disappointment. Check out the website and the timetable - www.subu.org.uk/leadership

Hannah